Analysts can go around AR using social media

When Analyst Relations Get Social is a short and interesting post by Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang (bio, Twitter handle) on the fact that analyst relations professionals should not consider themselves gatekeepers, but facilitators. On this, we at SageCircle completely agree. Frankly, the best AR programs have always had the facilitator attitude.

For those AR programs that still want to be gatekeepers, social media is making it harder and harder to maintain control of every interaction with the analysts. As Jeremiah points out:

 “…For example, I can easily tweet out “anyone in the sharepoint team have have a moment for some questions” and I’d suspect they’d quickly respond in seconds, whether or not the AR person was involved. …”

SageCircle Technique

• AR programs that currently look at themselves as gatekeepers should reevaluate this position
• AR needs to embrace social media then experiment and adapt
• Incorporate social media into your AR plan, including modifying interaction policies to include social media
• Educate your company’s staff about best practices for interacting with analysts using Twitter or blogs
• Keep your finger on the pulse of change

Bottom Line: With more and more analysts blogging and tweeting, AR programs that do not systematically add social media to their toolbox will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. AR managers need to make adopting social media, with the appropriate emphasis, a major objective for 2009.

Question: AR managers – What are the reasons, in priority order, why you do not incorporate blogging and tweeting into your mix of interactions? Analysts – Which AR teams or individuals are best at using social media? 

Get up-to-speed quickly and efficiently with SageCircle services

SageCircle has a portfolio of services that can help both individual AR professionals as well as AR teams adopt this fast growing trend in the analyst ecosystem. Our flexible pricing and packaging means there is a service at a price point and time commitment that fits into almost every AR situation. Here is a sampling from our portfolio:

• Launching a Social Media Strategy for AR – Half-day workshop ($495 per ticket). May 13^th 1 pm to 5 pm in Silicon Valley. Dedicate four hours and learn almost everything you need to know
• AR Team Briefings – 90-minute in-house webinars ($495 for unlimited attendees). Topics:
  • The Fog of Influence: Social Media Trends in the Analyst Ecosystem
  • Introduction to Twitter for AR
  • Introduction to Blogging for AR
  • Adding Blogs and Twitter to Your Measurement Program
• Services
  • Analyst Social Media Traffic Analysis ($195 or $395 or $595) AR workload impact analysis – determine the time it will take to track your analysts
  • Analyst Relations Diagnostic^TM (free) Concise assessment of an AR program
• Reference
  • Online SageContent^TM Library ($395 per seat for 12 month subscription) Best practices, downloadable tools
  • Analyst Twitter Directory (free)
  • AR Twitter Directory (free)
  • Blog Directories for Gartner and Forrester (free)
  • Blog, 80+ articles on social media (free)
• Advisory
  • Blocks of Advisory Hours (2 hours $495, 5 hours $995 or custom quote) On-demand phone-based advisory
  • Annual Advisory Service (inquiry for pricing) Bunde: inquiry, Online Library seats, AR briefings, more

To learn more about how we can help you get up-to-speed quickly and efficiently, please contact us at 503-636-1500 or “info [at] sagecircle [do] com”.

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