The analyst relations organization based in the UK, Institute of Industry Analyst Relations, is gearing up to name this year’s most popular industry analysts, analyst blogs, and research companies, as determined by online votes from analyst relations professionals. You can also name the 3 companies that lost the most mojo over the last year. If you believe you perform analyst relations as part of your job, you can vote by filling out the IIAR’s Analyst of the Year survey. You don’t need to join the IIAR to participate, however you must include registration info with your votes — no anonymous cowards.

This is not quite American Idol. Only one vote per person (unlimited people per company, as long as each voter works in AR. Plus, no independent 3rd party is counting/rejecting the votes and validating results — the IIAR is doing this inhouse. Finally, you won’t be voting analysts off the stage. At least, not directly.

Voting closes at the end of April.

The program raises some interesting questions for industry analysts as well as vendors and agencies. For example, is it a good thing for an analyst to be identified as a favorite by vendor/agency analyst relations people? If you are analyst, what do you do about being named an idol, or having your company named a loser? If you are an analyst relations person, do you tell your favorite analysts you’ve voted for them? Do you console those who are not voted as idol? Do you treat this kind of information as competitive intel, or share it with your professional peer group?

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.

The U.S. presidential primaries bring out streams of commentary on market research in America, and this year already promises to uphold the tradition. eMarketer — not one of my own go-to IT research sources — is running an article today showcasing its analysts opinions on why the primary polls are so inaccurate (Lies, Damned Lies and Polls, eMarketer free newsletter). I’ve got to applaud Jon du Pre Gauntt’s comment. It is as applicable to the work of the industry analysts as it is to political polls:

“The inherent problem with polling and statistical sampling of any kind is that the respondent is asked to consider a choice either in isolation (”Do you think X is good or bad?”) or in a very restricted set (”Of X, Y and Z, which do you prefer?”). But, with very few exceptions, real life isn’t like that. Decisions of import usually have three or four or five variables in play.

The rub is that it’s nigh impossible to design a five-minute poll or a 20-minute survey that isn’t, by definition, contrived around the clutch of hypotheses the researcher wants to test. The response can either validate or invalidate the hypothesis. But it does nothing to prove whether the researcher has asked the most important questions.

Case in point: Ask most anyone whether they’d like their favorite digital music on their phone easily accessible and the data would show huge demand. Yet one of the things that bit both the operators and labels in the rear was that they assumed that data point translated smoothly into a willingness to pay.

It’s dead easy to answer a hypothetical question when you’ve got nothing on the line. It’s easy to say that you value this or that when you don’t need to pay right then and there for that statement. Or you support this or that candidate while you still retain the option to vote.

But you work with what you’ve got. To paraphrase Churchill, polls and surveys are terrible ways to try to understand the electorate or a market. But the alternatives are worse.”

In 2008, I hope we see analyst firms provide greater transparency about their credentials in market research — including staff education, professional development, and accuracy track records. It’s also high time we see more information on the research partners, and their credentials, as well.

Analyst surveys often seem to quantify the obvious. That seemed to be the case recently, when Forrester revealed that most of its analysts don’t like using walled-garden AR portals on vendor websites. Not surprising — few people like to register for content. That’s why we have things like BugMeNot and Anonymous Cowards.

Yet, a debate of sorts rose up around this point among some of the AR bloggers. Anonymous AR bloggers at the ARmadgeddon blog took issue with the Forrester thumbs-down on AR portals, and cited agreement from a Hill & Knowlton AR expert. They believe access to privileged vendor content justifies access hassles.

Aren’t AR portals a bit retro? We’re well into the Web 2.0 and UGC window, and it has implications for AR just as it does for everything else. Some AR pro’s — like Catherine Helzerman and Skip MacAskill — are willing to experiment in Second Life while they keep the conventional paradigm running. Many more are turning onto blogging. Meanwhile, fundamental changes are already beginning to appear out in the mainstream — in press rooms, websites, collaboration environments.

So here’s what I would do instead of investing in a legacy walled-garden AR portal. Start-ups, multinationals — doesn’t matter.

First, collaborate with my media relations colleagues. Focus on making sure the online press room is properly designed and always freshly stocked with content. The idea is to create a high-value reference resource with documents, audio, video, photos, contact information, blog links, archives, targeted search, email alerts, and feeds. For help with priorities, check out TEKgroup International’s free annual study on what journalists want in a corporate press room. (Caveat: high tech represents less than 15% of respondents this year.)

Next, collaborate with my corporate web teams to make sure company websites and site maps support the way that analysts perform online research. Embed supplemental content, links, keywords, titles, tags, share widgets, and feed opt-ins right on the very product and services pages where analysts are likely to land. Use SEO techniques to optimize content visibility within the corporate websites and beyond — in search engines, bookmarking sites, aggregation sites. Informal testing with hand-picked analysts can really help.

Last step: start looking at Web 2.0-style collaboration tools for sharing my proprietary content with analysts on the fly. Shared spreadsheets, wikis, chatrooms, videoconferencing - the list of choices is awesome. A good place to start looking is the Office 2.0 Conference website.

Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey this week shines its Tech Editorial spotlight on the Gartner Magic Quadrant. The live teleconference takes place tomorrow at 4:00 pm EST, 1:00 pm PST. I’m on the show, along with Carter Lusher, director of analyst relations at HP, and a Gartner spokesperson TBA, and of course, the outspoken Sam Whitmore and his SWMS clients. As usual, this group has compiled an interesting list of questions and discussion points, including which parts of the MQ get the most readership, how do I get my client onto one, how do I get my client off of one.

I characterize the Magic Quadrant as the most reviled form of industry analyst research being published anywhere on the planet today. One of the main reasons it is so deeply hated is that it is so deeply loved. Much of the intense loathing that the MQ evokes is a direct response to its popularity with IT vendors. Check it out:

• The term “magic quadrant” was included in more than 400 press releases distributed through Business Wire during the last 12 months
• Google finds about 757,000 web pages including the words Gartner and “magic quadrant”, and that’s limiting results to web pages first seen within the last 12 months and excluding all results from the gartner.com domain

Everyone’s got an opinion on what to do about Magic Quadrants, especially the analyst relations consultants and those who believe they are AR experts whether or not they have ever actually executed on analyst relations themselves. Gartner analysts are a good case in point. Many Gartner analysts make buckets of cash from the Magic Quadrant long after they leave Gartner employment, by providing MQ training, consulting, project management, insider tips, whitepapers, and related expertise ad nauseum.

We’ll see what opinions pop up tomorrow.

What is a blog? How would you define an industry analyst blog? What separates blogs from the other online destinations and channels published by the ICT analyst community? Is a blog still a blog without an RSS feed? comments? Is an analyst blog tied to his or her expertise? Yesterday, I asked ten or so analysts and consultants in the US and UK to share their thoughts on what is a blog. They responded with free-range thinking on that and beyond: what is an analyst blog, why do analysts blog, and why does anyone care. Good stuff. Here’s a rough cut of my notes.

Background

My intent is to overhaul the criteria for the Tekrati analyst blogs directory. Already, the conversation offers a rich perspective on grounds for deciding which blogs are listed and why they might be tossed out down the road.

I queried analysts and consultants that are successful bloggers: each has a track record as an individual blogger, and has earned credibility as a thought leader within a professional community of practice.

The analysts are: Carl Howe of Blackfriars Communications, Mike Gotta of Burton Group, Alan Pelz-Sharpe of CMS Watch, Charlene Li or Josh Bernoff (Josh responded) of Forrester Research, Dale Vile of Freeform Dynamics, James Governor of RedMonk, John Blossom of Shore Communications, and Stowe Boyd of The Brannan Street Irregulars.

The consultants are: Jen McClure of the Society for New Communications Research, Jonny Bentwood of Edelman, and Erik SR of Tech for PR.

Again, what follows is a rough cut of the discussion threads. I’m pulling excerpts out of the conversational flow, to make for faster reading. More, and perhaps a little more polished, next week.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tekrati directory of analyst blogs is easier to use, offers more information and is better integrated with its sister directories, on analysts and analyst firms. What’s more, we migrated the OPML to the latest rev and did an extensive housecleaning on the listings. Richard handled the programming effortlessly, as always. I, on the other hand, am still wrestling with a content issue: new rules for separating a blog from any other form of online journal or commentary. I’m asking for help.

You might be thinking that I’m a little slow on the draw, given that I’m just now pondering the universal truths of Blog, some two and half years into publishing a directory of blogs.

Since the 2005 directory debut, my rule has been this: there must be evidence of blog publishing software and/or blog coding and format standards. That’s what split the blogwashers — my term for analysts using web pages that mimic a blog in a cosmetic way — from the bloggers. Only the bloggers that passed this test made it into the directory.

Fast forward to 2007. I’m feeling increasingly self-conscious about this technology-only premise, and that’s not a good thing. More web content seems to be a hybrid, a blend of blog and other content publishing applications. This results in too much dithering on my part. And, I don’t like to guess. Whether a blog is in or out of the directory should be a simple decision. It should not be subjective. (Other elements are subjective, as it is, like who is and who is not an analyst. That’s another conversation.)

What to do? I don’t think that adding more technology to my filtering criteria is the right approach. After all, any kind of page can be turned into an RSS feed, lots of publishing systems allow reader comments, lots of blog templates perform like traditional websites, and lots of analyst blogs don’t accept comments or have feeds that don’t validate.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tech for PR blog offers an insightful tip for leveraging Tekrati Industry Analyst Reporter for storylines — particularly for PR professionals with tech industry clients. This is a solid “how to” on using research findings as a launchpad, whether as a hook in pitching a story idea or the basis for an entire article. While freelance writers and editors visit Tekrati on a regular basis with this in mind, I suspect that many public relations professionals feel that they don’t have time to explore these avenues. Erik shows the process can be fast and easy.

In fact, he illustrates that creative pitching can leverage a single Gartner press release or whitepaper for several different articles. This is much more mileage than citing a statistic in a press release.

Naturally, it’s imperative to follow the citation policies of each research company when preparing the final submission.

Check out the complete post, “Use Tekrati to come up with ideas for bylines”, and browse more tips while you’re there.

By David Rossiter, guest columnist. Summary: The IIAR has launched a new website, offering members access to an AR job shop, discussion forums, a calendar of training courses and events, as well as a library. In addition, Gartner’s Peter Sondergaard and Aaron Yaverski will address the March IIAR meeting.

“Update on the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations”

There’s been a lot going on at the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations recently so it seemed an appropriate time for a quick update.

As you may have seen, we now have a website (www.analystrelations. org). This contains information and news on the Institute as well as various sections for members. These include an AR job shop, discussion forums, a calendar of training courses and events, as well as a library that contains (among other things) ‘best practice’ whitepapers and analyst firm research agendas and team directories. (Hat tip to Tekrati for providing the newsfeed we use on our homepage).

Read the rest of this entry »

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.
Read the rest of this entry »