SageCircle

77% of industry analysts would read AR blogs, if…

…”they had relevant, useful, timely information.” There is always a catch, eh?

icon-social-media-blue.jpgFrankly, this percentage is significantly higher than we would have guessed before we conducted our survey of thousands of industry analysts. Even though we are ardent proponents of AR using social media, we expected that many in the analyst community might be adopting a “wait and see” attitude at best. However, we were pleasantly surprised that many analysts said they would read AR blogs. Here is the full question and percentage replies:

Question:     I would read vendor AR blogs if they had relevant, useful, timely information (pick one)

  • 20% – Yes, regularly
  • 31% – Yes, occasionally
  • 26% – Yes, episodically related to major news or announcement coverage
  •   5% – No, because I do not read blogs
  •   8% – No, because I do not have time
  •   9% – No, because most vendor blogs are a waste of time
  •   1% – Undecided

This would indicate there is an obvious opportunity for AR teams to leverage blogging as an efficient and effective one-to-many communications tool. Because we have found only five vendor AR blogs (see the blogroll in the right navigation bar on the SageCircle blog), there is also the opportunity to capture mindshare with the analysts and become a regular reading habit before the landscape becomes cluttered.

This is one of the many “Ah, ha!”s we are harvesting as we analyze the data from our survey of the industry analyst community in preparation for the “Introduction to Blogging for AR” webinar (agenda and  registration) to be held this Wednesday, October 8th at 8:30 am US PT and 4 pm US PT. The cost of this 90-minute information-packed session is only $95.

SageCircle Technique:

  • A = Ask your top analysts about their blog reading habits
  • B = Begin to add AR blog(s) to your overall AR plan
  • C = Create AR blogging policy
  • D = Develop a portfolio of contributors that include executives and domain experts
  • E = Educate contributors about blogging policies and best practices
  • F = Forward to Sales and executives the “Ah, ha!”s you harvest from AR blogging, such as analyst comments

Bottom Line: While any particular analyst might not be reading AR blogs, the overall trend is for readership of interesting and useful blogs. AR can improve its efficiency and effectiveness by making blogging a part of the overall AR communications toolbox. The greatest advantage will go to first movers and fast follower adopters of blogging who will gain analyst mindshare before there are many AR blogs cluttering the landscape.

Question: AR – What is stopping you from blogging? Analysts – What are the topics that you think AR should focus on and which topics should be avoided?

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3 comments

  1. I think it’s less about the topics – after all, if it’s just information about a topic email is actually better – it’s about what a blog is for, which is interactivity and less formal communication and conversation. AR pros should use a blog to interact with analysts, not simply to disseminate information that could just as easily be sent out via email. It’s one route to becoming less rigid about what you communicate about yourself as a company – some of the companies we cover are still enormously careful about what they say, which means most of what they say is so sterile as to be almost totally useless.

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