While tech providers have had formal analyst relations programs for 30-odd years, only Gartner and Forrester Research have reciprocated with influencer programs dedicated to vendor AR teams.  GigaOM Pro, the industry research arm of GigaOM, is about to shake up the status quo with today’s formal debut of their Analyst Relations program. The GigaOM Pro Analyst Relations program shares some expected similarities … Read More
Identifying influencers by apparent importance vs. real trust
Solid research is the only way to cut through the chatter about identifying and prioritizing influencers for word-of-mouth marketing and other forms of influencer marketing. Mike Gotta (Burton Group / Gartner ) points out a just such a study, from the pharma industry. I like this study because it focuses on finding the hidden opinion leaders who drive the first … Read More
Top analyst blogs – two views
Influence is in the eye of the beholder, and that certainly holds true with the industry analyst bloggers. I wanted to know how the blogs I highlighted at Tekrati during 2009 ranked in Jonny Bentwood’s (Edelman analyst relations specialist) “top analyst blogs” table. I’ve posted the cross-reference below. It’s a good reminder that there’s no single correct list of top … Read More
Reaching CIOs: 2010 dates for CIO Summit of America
One of my activities for 2010 is helping get the word out on the CIO Summit of America in New York and the full 2010 CIO Leadership series. I’m supporting this event series because I believe it offers compelling value as part of a tech company’s influencer relations agenda. Peer-to-peer events are growing more important. Research keeps telling us that … Read More
Housekeeping
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Chris O’Brien’s Influencers of Silicon Valley
Chris O’Brien over at the Merc published The Influencers of Silicon Valley, a list of 10 important influencers in Silicon Valley. I’m on record as one who likes lists, and I’m recommending you read this one. These are people you may want to get to know. Plus, Chris revealed a bit about how he compiled the list, and you’ll find … Read More
SAP Influencer Summit: an example of real time influencer relations
The SAP Influencer Summit dominated tech media and Twitter backchannel conversations about SAP all week. The event offers a good example of real time influencer relations management. If you’re planning an influencer summit for 2010, consider these 3 points: 1. Open discourse. Several tech providers nixed live blogging and live micro-blogging (Twitter) during their influencer events this year. SAP set … Read More
Strategic relations tools shift from monitoring to engaging influencers
Influencer marketing tools are getting a new gear and it’s a good one. Up until recently, influencer relationship management (IRM) tools offered 3 speeds: identifying, monitoring and measuring influencers. That’s good, but not good enough. Corporate marketing teams focused on social media need to find ways to scale their influencer programs without sacrificing micro-segmentation and personalization. That kind of scalability … Read More
Supernova 2009 – recaps, photos
The Supernova 2009 forum was a worthwhile and compelling event on many levels: the mix of conversations, research, debates, and passionate and intelligent people — all from so many different facets of business, academia, R&D, media, law, government, finance. Thanks so much to Kevin Werbach and Jeanne Logozzo of Supernova, the Wharton School, and the sponsors for organizing and hosting … Read More
Gartner-AMR Research: where to put your attention and trust
Gartner’s planned acquisition* of AMR Research sparked some vibrant conversation this week. Alex Williams posting on it at ReadWriteWeb Enterprise asked my perspective. With his OK, I’m sharing our offline exchange, which focused on enterprise supply chain decision makers. Enterprises have been putting up with quite a bit of churn and staffing reductions among their analyst firms during this recession, … Read More