I was just finishing up a draft f the second half of my interview report on Charlene Li, my favorite analyst, when James Governor published this thoughtful piece about where analyst and influencer relationships belong in a modern organization. He links to an article whose headline asks who should run these areas.
I had to stop for a second. Charlene's key point, when I publish in a day or two is that control is moving from institutions to communities and the power in communities belong to the people who reside in them. Because of blogging, we are all influencers. The stories of unknown bloggers posting something that gets world notice in a few days or even moments are occurring so often that it is less newsworthy than it was just a few months ago.
A company who tries to run relationships will fail very likely in a painful way. It would find more success in shoveling water than in running relationships with all the new influencers.
If you are a company and you see me as an influencer or analyst, do not try to control your relationship with me. Do not sit in committee and decide how and when you will inform me of something. Just start a conversation. Do it on a blog. Let me subscribe to your feed. Let me decide what you have that I like or do not like. Let me decide when or if I'll use my influence or analytical abilities to discuss you.
Control the relationship? Don't. Inform people. Let them decide what they will do with whatever influence they have.
