Friday, May 30, 2008

Relations with Analysts...the second

All:

Second Q posed to the Forrester AR Council panel on how to relate to the blogosphere, followed by my A:
  • Q: Does the manner in which the AR professional deals with blogging change with the size of the organization, e.g., is it harder for AR at larger firms to anticipate and address the myriad of issues coming at them from blogging pundits? Are smaller, more agile firms at an advantage?
  • A: Hard to say. If you’re a bigger, more diversified, more dynamic vendor you’re likely to elicit more commentary from more external parties through more channels on more issues more of the time. But you’re also likely to have more of your own people reading--and anticipating--all of this, and preparing/spinning suitable responses. But you’re also more likely, if you’re big, to have more trouble coordinating internally among all stakeholders in order to prepare a concerted response. But, conversely, if you empower more of your people to post replies/counter-attacks through their own blogs, or through your company’s blogs, you can defuse the issues more rapidly. Or, if you’re not careful, light more fuses. And give the appearance that your right hand doesn’t know what your left hand is doing. Gee I wish there were easy answers.
Jim