Intelligence about what an analyst is researching is a huge value of monitoring social media (e.g., Twitter, blogs, or social networking sites like LinkedIn). Here are two examples of analysts announcing projects that showed up in my RSS feed this week:
Debbie Wilson, Gartner, in her blog post Call for Strategic Sourcing Suite Vendors. “Today I am kicking off the Magic Quadrant for Sourcing Application Suites update process – and calling for vendors that should be considered for inclusion. (I have not decided on inclusion criteria yet – but definitely plan to cover a wider set of vendors than last year’s report … Anyone I left out?” Debbie also discusses why she is broadening her definition of the market and then lists 37 vendors she has already identified.
Greg Young (Twitter), Gartner, in his post New Magic Quadrant Upcoming: Web Application Firewalls. “The Gartner Senior Research Board gave me approval to research a Magic Quadrant on Web Application Firewalls (WAF). The publishing target is Q4.” Greg then goes on to discuss the evolution of the marketplace that justifies the need for a Magic Quadrant.
There are a number of calls to action for analyst relations (AR) professionals whose markets are covered in these posts. These include:
- Set up client inquiries with the analysts to learn more about the research projects
- Make the decision about whether your company should be included in the research report
- Add a new strategic project to the AR plan if appropriate
- Launch an effort to influence the criteria of the research
- Chart out other more detailed steps
The vendors who noticed these blog posts early and then acted would have the competitive advantage over laggards.
SageCircle Technique:
- Determine which of your most relevant analysts are using some form of social media
- Set up a monitoring program that utilizes tools like RSS and Tweetdeck for efficiency
- Get in the habit of checking daily – it only takes a few minutes – for recent analyst comments
SageCircle’s Analyst Social Media Traffic Analysis service can eliminate the work of establishing whether your top analysts are tweeting and blogging. Starting at $195, the service is a bargain. Click here for more information.
The June AR Coffee Talk is on “AR’s Social Media Monitoring.” Click on June 2nd at 9 am PT or June 10th at 12 pm PT to register.
Bottom Line: AR teams can harvest valuable insights into what their analysts are researching by tracking the analysts’ blog posts, tweets, and other forms of social media. Investing a modest amount of effort in setting up a monitoring program can reap big benefits by giving AR early warning about critical opportunities.
Question: AR – Do you have a social media monitoring program in place? If yes, what actionable insights have you gathered from the analysts’ social media usage? If no, why not?
Get up-to-speed on social media quickly and efficiently with SageCircle’s “Launching an AR Social Media Strategy” Workshop
In this SageCircle AR Workshop, we provide AR professionals with information, tools and insights to make sense of the fast evolving social media scene. The goal is to help you get up-to-speed on the implications of social media for AR so that you can make the important decision whether and how to add social media to your mix of interactions.
The next session of the “Launching an AR Social Media Strategy” Workshop will be held on Wednesday, June 17th from 1 pm to 5 pm US Pacific Time in the Silicon Valley. The cost is only $495. Click here to learn more about the workshop and register. You can also contact us at 503-636-1500 or “info [at] sagecircle dot com” to talk with us about the workshop and the full range of SageCircle social media offerings.
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