Duncan Brown raises some good points about the evolution of blogs and microblogs (i.e. Twitter). Blogging is becoming the online publishing platform of choice in many industries, from politics to pharma. This has a couple of implications for influencer programs in 2009.

Top of my list, is that 2009 should see the end of consternation over classifying influencers as “bloggers” or in terms of their other roles in a market or community, be it their job title, employer, profession or expertise.

The crossover point started to become clear in mainstream tech media relations when you could no longer distinguish between columnists and bloggers at ZDNet and other top-10 media networks.

In analyst relations, Gartner brought the point home a few months ago with the launch of the Gartner Blog Network.Trust me, no one is dithering over whether to reclassify Gartner employees from analysts to bloggers.

Sure, some people will be best classified as “bloggers”, just as we still have syndicated columnists from the hardcopy print days. In general though, the confusion over doctor-lawyer-blogger man-thief should die down.Republished from my Influencer50 blog, Sway.

Cisco was one of the first vendors to experiment with blogging as an analyst relations tool. This month, the Cisco Analyst Relations Blog is showing signs of life again, thanks to the efforts of Terry Anderson, vice president of corporate communications at Cisco.

The Cisco AR blog was launched in mid-2007 by Skip MacAskill, then director of industry analyst relations, and Blair Christie, then vice president of corporate communications and investor relations. Skip seems to have returned to Nortel Networks, as Director of Global Analyst Relations.

Best wishes all around.

Jen McClure issued a friendly challenge at the New Comm Forum: turn to the person nearest you who hasn’t used Twitter, and show them the ropes. (Twitter launched at the 2007 New Comm Forum.)

One thing led to another, and here I am, setting myself up on Twitter this afternoon. I couldn’t be doing this with any kind of immediate work benefit at all, were it not for Carter Lusher’s and Dave Eckert’s Analyst Twitter Directory.

With their directory, I was able to start following some favorite analysts in a matter of minutes. Interesting trivia: most of the analysts listed there also blog. Don’t see any other obvious common denominators, except that Charlene Li is the only female so far.

Also found in their directory 3 firms new to me: Accendor, Bathwick Group and SiriusDecisions.

Very cool. Carter and Dave are developing a specialty around new comms tools and analyst relations. This Twitter directory is a great example of their community spirit.

It’s the perfect solution for me for two reasons. First, I wouldn’t take the time to send emails to a bunch of people asking for their Twitter name. Let alone cause the interruption.

Second, I’m interested in following, versus being followed. That makes this ready-to-use list of Twitter names a comfortable, low key approach to adding analysts to follow.

Twitter seems like an interesting way to incubate many of the new professional relationships I started this week at New Comm Forum. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Twitter is another reason to spend more time using my newest shiny thing, a Nokia N95.

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.

451 Group security guru Nick Selby has packed in his personal blog, in light of the additional expectations of his recent promotion and the launch of a new company blog on security.

It’s funny how you get attached to some blogs. I was partial to that one. Nick, I’ll miss your waggish wit. I trust we’ll see hints of it surface in your posts at the new blog.

Meawhile, I’m dutifully adding two 451 blogs to the directory: one on security and one on information management.

I’ll summarize all the blog directory adds and deletes in the normal monthly update post, right around April Fool’s day.

Jonny Bentwood, an Edelman employee who blogs at Technobabble 2.0, has issued his quarterly ranking of the “Top 100 analyst blogs”. The ranking is based on his own system of points, applied to the Tekrati analyst blogs directory plus additional blogs that he identifies.

This time around, the top honors went to Jeremiah Owyang’s blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah. This is the first ranking published since Jeremiah joined Forrester Research.

In browsing the rankings, I’ve spotted 3 blogs not listed in the Tekrati directories:

The Net-Savvy Executive by Nathan Gilliatt, of Social Target (ranked 31)

Greenmonk, an open source / cleantech community founded by James Governor, Redmonk (ranked 65)

Holway’s HotViews by Richard Holway, until recently an active icon in the industry analyst community (not ranked)

The Top 100 also includes some blogs no longer appearing in the Tekrati directory.

Props to Jonny Bentwood for outstanding work! Props to every blogging analyst, on the list or not!

During December, two blogs written by analysts were added to Tekrati’s Directory of Analyst Blogs, a freely available directory and OPML.

The December additions are:

Company: Hurwitz & Associates
Fern Halper’s data makes the world go round
Robin Bloor’s Blog: have Mac will blog

On December 31st, the directory contained 260 blog listings. Blogs with validated feeds are included in the directory OPML.

I appreciate your help in letting me know of any blogs I’ve missed.

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.

Carter Lusher announced he is departing HP. Adding to HP’s loss of voice in the AR community, no one will be taking the reigns of the HP Corp AR blog. Instead, it will be discontinued.

The AR community also saw the departure of Jonathan Yarmis from his high profile AR position at Hill & Knowlton, earlier this year.

On the PR/AR blogging front, Jonny Bentwood lamented earlier today about the recent loss of high profile PR bloggers.

I’ll be interested to see who steps up to take the places of these AR statesmen.

Meanwhile, enjoy your time off, gentlemen. And, stay in touch.

Update Nov 12: AMR Research has brought Jonathan onboard as a vp (Tekrati story).

Four high-profile bloggers have recently become vCard-carrying members of the ICT industry analyst community. First, it was Daniel Taylor returning to the analyst ranks at Yankee Group. Next, David Tebbut joined Freeform Dynamics. Yesterday, Jeremiah Owyang joined Forrester Research and Matthew Aslett joined The 451 Group. And just in time for Oktoberfest, too.

I’ve always believed that the collective reputation of “the analysts” depends on the quality of the people filling the jobs. If so, prospects for the analysts are looking pretty good.