I found a refreshing take on analyst influence and analyst relations in the book Influencer Marketing - Who Really Influences Your Customers, by Nick Hayes and Duncan Brown of Influencer50. The book proposes a focused, cohesive and research-driven approach to identifying external influencers and getting them to participate in appropriate ways in marketing.

The book is not about buying influence or licensing analyst content/speakers for demand gen tools. It’s about designing an influencer relations initiative that accurately targets the rich spectrum of influencers involved in purchase decisions within specific market sectors.

In the Influencer Marketing approach, organizations create a cross-discipline marketing initiative. They leverage the cream of the crop from traditional influencer silos like PR, AR, etc. They also add some new influencers to the mix — new names or new types of influencers, such as competitors, academia, government.

The first result is a “dream team” of top influencers from the many discrete spheres of influence — analysts, press, consultants, channels, customers, competitors, academia, government, and so on. All identified influencers — and the assigned relationship managers — are placed on equal footing. Refreshing.

The second result is a goal-oriented plan for participative marketing. Participative marketing puts the impetus on managing influencer relationships based on their specific role during the purchase decision. AR activities are driven by customer decision processes, rather than by vendor product/service lifecycles. Refreshing.

Organizations with analyst relations functions already in place could use this book as a springboard for creating a cross-company influencer marketing initiative. Stage it as a pilot program. Or, run it as a special executive buddy program. Make it complement the influencer strategies and programs already in place.

Such an initiative will take some AR professionals out of their comfort zone. Equal footing among all identified influencer means ranking analyst priority relative to the other kinds of voices whispering in the customer’s ear. Instead of comparing a Gartner analyst with a Burton Group analyst, for example, you would compare both to a different kind of influencer — perhaps an association thought leader like AIIM’s Dan Keldsen or an author/consultant/blogger like James Taylor.

Old boundaries are breaking down all over the place — who’s an analyst (and who’s not), who controls the brand reputation, who drives the innovation, who’s the trusted advisor. It’s going to take some trial and error to figure out how best to deal with all these changes. Influencer Marketing suggests one way to move on.

Next week’s book review: Groundswell.

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Only one IT industry analyst company could usurp rumors of a 3G iPhone with the hottest Apple story-of-the-hour among business, tech and consumer press and bloggers worldwide. That would be Forrester Research. They have proven once again that issuing a well-timed (and well promoted) vision will score more market attention than a rigorous reckoning of the here-and-now.

The viral news coverage centers on the report, “The Future Of Apple Inc. - By 2013, Apple’s Product Mix Will Make It A Credible Hub Of The Digital Home”, by J.P. Gownder and James McQuivey.

The swarm of press and blog coverage in the last 48 hours ranges from /. and CrunchGear, to the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. A few of my favorites:

Wall Street Journal: Apple Daydreaming: Report Predicts Move Toward Home Devices (tch, Mossberg was out of the office)

Computerworld: “Apple will rule the living room by 2013, Forrester says”

IT News: “Apple to ‘rule the home’ by 2013″ (hat tip to Slashdot)

Some reporters — such as iTWire’s Alex Zaharov-Reutt — have concluded that no one will buy the report. After all, the contents have been dissected thoroughly in the freely available press.

My take is that Forrester was much more interested in leveraging this analysis for publicity and branding, than for sales of a $249 report. The combination of topic, timing, and media relations is flawless. All in all, another impressive bit of marketing savvy from Forrester.

I look closely at ICT industry research marketing tactics. Sometimes, I’m not sure how to react to what I see. For instance, one ICT research company says it offers superior content because it produces “forecasts,” not “predictions.” The clear implication is that its competitors issue hollow predictions pretty much plucked out of thin air.

I’m not sure what to think about that claim or the research organization using it.

The only way this claim works is if the audience knows of a competitive research company producing nothing but predictions. Hmmm. What firms produce no analysis, no scenarios, no what-ifs, no range of possible outcomes — nothing but predictions? And how do you spot them? By their one-line research reports and one-sentence webcasts?

Research buyers don’t want to watch you split hairs between forecasts and predictions. They want compelling marketing materials. They want to see proof points about the quality of your research — expertise, methods, accuracy, objectivity, consistency. Increasingly, they also want some insight into your business culture and values.

The days of getting away with obscure, unsubstantiated marketing claims are drawing to a close. That’s not a forecast or a prediction… merely an observation.

Brian Clark, who writes Copyblogger, put together a great post on The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging. It’s good advice. It reminds us that there’s more to an influential blog than a famous author or a Technorati ranking.

Brian also touches on a point about persuasion that deserves attention: whether the style of writing prompts action.

By tradition, analysts who address best practices write copy intended to prompt action. Analysts focused on market and technology analysis are less likely to do so. Instead, these analysts write copy designed to educate readers or persuade readers to agree with their opinion, be it positive, negative, or neutral. Both types can be influential. The difference is the outcome.

Blogs eliminate many traditions, including analyst writing styles. Like everyone else, analysts can exercise greater personal choice in how they express themselves in their blogs. Their blogging voice is not determined by their employer or their other publication channels. There’s only one way to figure out what kind of persuasion — if any — is at work in an analyst blog: you read it.

For more on persuasive writing techniques, check out Clark’s other post, Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques. It summarizes techniques associated with personality as much as style.

What do you think? I’d like to develop this idea further. I’ll come back from the New Communications Forum (April 22-25 in Sonoma) with more on this idea. Catch up with me there (contact me for special Tekrati discounts), or link/share your thoughts here.

I’m a fan of analyst firms that market their data through interactive tools. Examples include interactive calculators and animated trending charts embedded into websites. These kinds of web apps can make research data relevant and easy to understand.

Plus, adding an interactive research tool to a web page is about as close to “sticky” and “viral” marketing as most industry analysts can get, short of donning a chicken suit.

Interactive technologies are already finding their way into the research products. You’ve seen them as weighted vendor short listing tables and other decision support tools. By comparison, adding simple interactive web apps to websites and blogs is easy. So, why isn’t everybody all over this as a marketing tactic?

Analysts I’ve spoken with generally share the same 3 challenges:
1. What to aim for (concept)
2. How to build it (design, program, test)
3. Finding time for #1 and #2

A quick way to start tackling the first challenge — concept — is to spend a few minutes reading UIE expert Jared Spool’s post, “Playgrounds for Data: Inspiration from NYTimes.com”. Spool highlights what he likes best about the New York Times’ recent use of web apps. An excerpt:

… represented as a table, this data would have hundreds of rows and dozens of columns. It wouldn’t be interesting and it would be hard to discern interesting patterns.

Yet, as an interactive map, it becomes a different story … Using color, shape, location, and a clever fly-over display, the team has taken a ton of variables and presented them in a more useful format.

It seems likely that interactive web apps also deliver benefits beyond the data presentation itself. What about attracting more inbound links, reader comments, and reader ratings? Improving visitor conversion rates? Or, giving RSS readers a compelling reason to click through to the mothership.

I was on hand Tuesday evening when the Churchill Club served up drinks, dinner, and a panel on “trends in trust and influence” among business leaders. The panel, much like the apricot chicken on skewer, was interesting because of its notable contrasts, sitting side by side:

Richard Edelman (Edelman) spoke about the dramatic shifts in public trust revealed by the 9th annual study, “Edelman Trust Barometer 2008.” He touched on several findings. To paraphrase a few: We trust social peers (”people like me”) the most, followed by NGOs and businesses. People have far less trust in their governments than a year ago, except in Asia. The most trusted media channels are the ones used the most: newspapers, television news, and business magazines. A digital divide exists in trust, tied to differences in emerging and mature industrial economies. He also shared his personal views about how these trends in trust affect advertising, the news business, corporate spokespeople and corporate reputation.

Dr. Robert Cialdini (ASU, Influence At Work) emphasized that trust is a participative sport. Do something about it. Learn how trust works, when it works, how to build it through listening and language. His research indicates that trust is based on a personal history of repeated contact. (This reinforces Edelman’s findings on the most trusted media sources being the most frequently used). Yet, in many situations, we have only moments to establish initial credibility. Learn to master the opportunities.

Chris Kelly (Facebook) and Katie Hafner, (New York Times) each mined their employer’s high profile experiences in breaking faith with loyal audiences for kernels of truth about trust. Both were candid enough to acknowledge that the way forward at their company entails as much trial-and-error as grand design. Mistakes will be made. Both agreed that a rapid, genuine response from the top helps speed the repair work. Hafner was put off by some of Edelman’s advertising and Cialdini’s influence tactics, on the grounds of manipulating trust. She was politely rebuffed, either unable or unwilling to deliver a knock-out punch.

Anastasia Goodstein (Ypulse) spoke to the nature of trust among online youth. Her research finds them less cynical, less fearful, more open, more creative, and more experimental than any other generation online today. They trust popular online environments. For example, they don’t question whether social networking sites, gaming sites, branded content sites, etc. are protecting their personal privacy and the content they post — unless they’ve been burned. She pointed out the need for companies to acknowledge this unique window of trust and act responsibly.

I came away with several conclusions.
1. Each generation judges online reputation differently. What is horrific to one generation may be anecdotal to another.
2. While the specifics about who we trust are constantly evolving, the underlying mechanics of why we trust are fairly constant.
3. Stock and industry analyst reports still have very strong credibility overall as information sources. By contrast, blogs — and most new communications channels — still have very weak credibility overall, except in certain countries.
4. “But” can be a powerful word.

You can order a CD or video of the event from the Churchill Club. Also, check out the Edelman web site, for a free podcast of Richard Edelman and Laurence Evans discussing the report, Edelman Trust Barometer 2008.

During November, 19 blogs written by analysts were added to Tekrati’s Directory of Analyst Blogs, a freely available directory. Those with valid feeds are included in the OPML. Some are “new” blogs, some are well established and only recently came to my attention.

The November additions are:

Company: Common Sense Advisory
Localization Industry 411
Global Watchtower

Company: Enderle Group
The Real Truth about Technology and IT

Company: Forrester Research
Annoying Design (I’m having problems validating the feed)
Forrester Applications and Program Management Council (Forrester restricted access after this blog was listed)
Forrester Infrastructure and Operations Council (Forrester restricted access after this blog was listed)

Company: Freeform Dynamics
Open Reasoning

Company: GT&A Strategic Marketing
NewMediaWise

Company: Illuminata
The Pervasive Datacenter

Company: iLocus Research
iLocus

Company: Info-Tech Research Group
Attic Dust (I know, need to give Michael his own listing.)

Company: JupiterResearch
Zia Daniell Wigder
John Lovett

Company: Longhaus
The Naked Chief Blog (I’m having problems validating the feed)

Company: Security Incites
Security Mike’s Blog
The Mike Rothman Security Report

Company: TEC
The TEC Blog
Foro Empresarial

Company: Wikibon
Storage Takeaways

Heads up: In 2008, “stealth” deletions from the Tekrati Analyst Blogs Directory come to an end. Instead, inactive and disappeared blogs will roll over to an archive (purgatory?) of sorts.

Several industry analysts leverage their blogs for building business and reputation. When you think about it, blogs are a natural communications tool for achieving many influencer business goals. Assuming that you are already doing what it takes to create a blog worth reading, why not go the extra step to get the most bang — the most marketplace exposure — from the blogging effort?

One tactic that I often recommend to analysts is to syndicate (republish) blogs on 3rd party sites, with appropriate demographics and an appropriate roster of contributors. It’s a good way to ensure that a wider audience encounters the blog.

Here’s the starter list of my personal recommendations. Your comments on the experience of re-publishing on these media sites — plus additions to this list — would be great.

Bloor’s IT-Analysis
eBizIQ
IT Business Edge
ITtoolbox
Knowledgestorm
ZDNet

Some analysts/consultants have banded together for self-syndication. Two examples:
Enterprise Irregulars
Technology Pundits

The one caveat I’d put on this is that syndicating blogs on 3rd party sites complements — but does not replace — fundamental blog presence tactics. I wouldn’t neglect links and feeds at the analyst company website, Tekrati and other directories, Technorati. Plus, no skimping on tagging, blogrolls, participating in blog conversations, trackbacks, and the like.

Here’s an interesting survey for PR and marketing pro’s at analyst firms and other management/IT professional services providers. Marketing consultancy Bloom Group produced a survey and report on marketing effectiveness among U.S. professional services firms. Turns out strong intellectual capital (IC) is the most important ingredient of effective marketing. The participating services firms rated IC as more important than having a compelling brand, big marketing budget, a sound marketing strategy or capable sales force. Take the 20-minute online survey for a free copy of the full report. (Hat tip to Kennedy Information’s ConsultingWire.)

Bloom Group believes this is common sense. Professional services firms are in the business of providing expertise, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they feel the key to generating marketplace interest in their services is capturing and marketing strong intellectual capital.

Bloom Group report authors Robert S. Buday, Bernie Thiel, and Susan Buddenbaum note that the survey results do not suggest abandoning other forms and components of marketing. The survey simply indicates that marketing the ideas of a professional services firm through educational, rather than promotional, marketing channels is much more important.
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