Register for the Bay Area Executives Meetup: Super Panel on Influence

Barbarainfluence, Influencer engagement, Influencer identification, Influencer marketing, social media

Influencer marketing is progressing from too much hype and trial-by-fire programs to sensible strategies and accepted best practices. There’s no better time than today to re-fresh your thinking about influence — what it is, who has it, what roles it can play in business. I’ll be discussing these topics at next week’s Bay Area Executives Meetup in Mountain View, CA, … Read More

CRM/SFA guru Ginger Cooper shifts to mobile tech

BarbaraB2B, influencer relations, Sourcing advisors

One of the original CRM/SFA industry journalists-turned-advocates, Ginger Cooper recently took on a new role as Director of Business Development for Green Mobile Tech.  The company specializes in matching client companies with the best mobile solutions for their needs. In her words, “For end-user companies needing to purchase mobile hardware, we help them define their requirements and present them with the top options … Read More

Klout CEO: don’t confuse Twitter count with influence

Barbarainfluence, Measurement, social media

How do you measure an influencer’s influence on Twitter? Social media guru Rich Baker (@richard_baker) offers up a great tip from Joe Fernandez (@joefernandez), CEO and cofounder of Klout.com: “The biggest mistake we see people make is confusing influence with follower count. Having a large number of followers is worthless if those followers are not engaged and paying attention to … Read More

Chris O’Brien’s Influencers of Silicon Valley

BarbaraUncategorized

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

B2B decision-maker influencers: 24 categories involved in purchase decisions

BarbaraInfluencer identification, Influencer marketing, influencer relations

Lots of people play a part in a typical B2B purchase decision and naturally, identifying them is an important activity for any influencer relations program. You need to know who they are, including their name, job and location. First, you have to figure out who they are. That’s no so easy. The big temptation is to start by asking the … Read More

Shifting gears from analyst relations to influencer relations

BarbaraInfluencer identification

I’ve been knee-deep in influencer identification projects this month. It’s my first foray beyond custom industry analyst & consultant lists since my vendor marketing days. The work has been fun and interesting and much more demanding (i.e. harder) than I expected. Frankly, I just didn’t realize how much work goes into finding the top 50 to 100 influencers in a … Read More

Social media tracking offers lessons for influencer programs

BarbaraInfluencer identification, influencer program

Companies providing social media monitoring tools and services provide many ways to find and monitor influential voices out on the web. One of the latest proclamations is from Visible Technologies, now promoting a social marketing ROI study: Leading companies ‘use multiple approaches to identify the individuals who wield the greatest amount of influence in any given topic area and to … Read More

HBR: 3 degrees of influence

Barbarainfluence, Influencer identification, Research

Influence made The Harvard Business Review 2009 List of breakthrough business ideas. As you know, I’m a fan of the idea that social media may expand traditional spheres of influence by eroding reliance on physical “nearness” (propinquity), to decision-makers. The HBR study by James Fowler and Nicholas A. Christakis tightens the noose the other way: “New research shows that personal … Read More

LinkedIn for the influencer program backoffice

BarbaraAnalyst relations, Influencer engagement, Influencer identification, influencer program

You probably think of LinkedIn as a recruiting and job hunting network. It also serves as a valuable backoffice tool for analyst relations, consultant relations, and fully integrated B2B influencer programs. The price is certainly right: basic services are free, and business upgrades are economical. Plus, the number of profiles keeps growing. As of last week, LinkedIn claimed more than … Read More

More analyst layoffs add to analyst relations challenges

BarbaraAnalyst relations, Influencer identification, influencer program

Following on the heels of layoffs at Gartner and AMR Research, comes word that Yankee Group and iSuppli also reduced headcount. Yankee Group CEO Emily Nagel discussed the reduction in the company blog. Meanwhile, there is word of a reduction at iSuppli, a firm that just recently acquired Telematics Research Group (TRG). This much consolidation in the tech industry analyst … Read More