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
Indirect influencers and decision-maker purchase criteria
Influencers often have a say in the purchase critieria used by decision-makers. Often their influence is direct, such as inputing to a request for bid. Indirect influence is an important factor as well. While the most widely known (or perhaps infamous) example in the tech market is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, most indirect influences are far from obvious. Influencer relations programs … Read More
Nick speaking at the IABC 2009 World Conference
Don’t miss Nick’s session at the upcoming IABC 2009 World Conference. This year, the IABC expects to host 1,600 communication practitioners from 40 countries for this event. Four days of learning, camaraderie and inspiration right here in San Francisco. Details on Nick’s session: T3 / Influencer marketing and the rise of decision maker ecosystems Date: Tuesday, 9 June Time: 11:15 … Read More
Coping with influencer attrition in 2009
It’s going to be a tough year to stay current with influencers. Under normal circumstances, Influencer50 research puts the attrition among a company’s top 50 influencers at about 20 percent per year. That means that in a 12-month period, 10 of the 50 will have changed jobs. It doesn’t look as though 2009 will offer normal circumstances. I would expect … Read More
New podcasts: decision-maker ecosystems
One of the new features on the Influencer50 website is a library of resources for building effective influencer programs. We’ve recently posted a pair of podcasts on decision-maker ecosystems. In part 1, Nick fleshes out the concept; in part 2, he digs a little deeper into how DMEs work. You can download the complete podcasts from the online library (register … Read More
Social media driving competition for purchase influence
Tom Smith’s guest post at Mashable makes the point that we now trust the opinions of strangers as much as we trust our close friends, thanks to social media. He’s highlighting findings from the Universal McCann study, “When did we start trusting strangers”. Don’t let yourself get lulled into thinking this phenomenon is taking place only in consumer markets. Social … Read More