Archive for January, 2005

Jeff Nolan has some interesting thoughts following a panel with PR pros. Jeff is right in that communicators are just starting to fully get with the social networking revolution. More need to read blogs, write blogs, turn-up those RSS feeds and readers and get behind the social networking revolution. Thanks to hyper-blogger Steve for the pointer.

Couple of Jeff’s comments are worth further discussion. Having seen and tracked the data on release click throughs and readership from the newswires and also company news sites people do, in mass, read news releases. They also are a ‘technical’ communications tool (for the media and disclosure purposes). Where he is right is that mediums like the blog are steadily increasing as a news desimination and triangulation vehicle. And at some point in the future they might just replace the need for a press release in order to satisfy fair disclosure. Jeff says:

My advice to professional marketing communication people is to get engaged with blogs now by reading and observing. Learn the etiquette and patterns before deciding to tackle strategy for dealing with blogs.

The creed of the professional communications executive over the years has been to control the message. Get over it because there is no chance you can do that in today’s world. At best you can shape a message by guiding and honestly responding to blog content where appropriate.

At the NewComm Forum Stowe made some really interesting points that expand on this. Network effects advantage the early adopters. As the network multiplies outward those who established the early advantage of linking, commentating, and engaging in the conversations are advantaged. The Blogosphere will favor the early movers. Tip for Communicators – Stowe gave you this one… If for some reason you don’t have the confidence to jump into the blogsphere, start sticking your toe into the water by commenting on other blogs. Before you know it, you’ll be up to your neck in the blogosphere.

Another thought that Jeff had that kept coming up at NewComm was the need for Communicators to focus on search engine optimization. I made the comment that you need to search, but you also need to hire people to do search. Tip for Communicators – hire search optimization specialists for every campaign, program and brand you manage.

One of the free eZines I like is the AR Insider from KCG. Subscribe here. One of their writers has some tough commentary on the Gartner/META acquisition. Here are some of the highlights. First, they make the fair point that:

“…vendors that tend to get creamed by the analysts in M&A are the ones who make the announcement, but don’t seem to have any real plan for migrating customers, honoring contracts and articulating a go-forward plan and vision.”

On that basis they go on to recommend that companies don’t renew old Meta subscription based services until both Meta and Gartner management can tell you why you should.

Given what has been communicated so far, we feel that the chances of you getting what you want from the transaction and not having at least some of the value of the subscription vanish are very slim.

They go on to give a couple of reasons:

“…Many of Meta’s top analysts will leave as part of the acquisition.

…Lack of Communication or Plan. As of yet, Gartner nor Meta executive leadership has not stepped forward to offer anybody, not even their best clients (nor many of their senior analysts and managers) any indication as to what the new combined entity will look like and most importantly, how current Meta clients will be accommodated.

…Lack of Management Direction Leads to Stupid Sales Rep Tricks. This is where it gets almost unbelievable. The behavior right now of Meta’s sales force is pathetic. I don’t mean evil or even hyper aggressive, I mean pathetic in its dictionary definition – dismal, sad, pitiable, weak or feeble… we have seen the evidence and it isn’t pretty. We have seen over a dozen emails over the last three weeks from Meta sales reps to our clients, where they have tried, in vain to conduct business. We have seen denial “There is a good chance the acquisition won‚t go through”, we have seen obvious misstatement “Meta will not be merged into Gartner anytime in the foreseeable future (let‚s see Gartner management sell that one to Wall Street) and we have seen obvious desperation.” “Just sign now and we’ll figure out the details later”.

…The Bottom Line. So, you have a 50:50 chance that your key analyst (which, of course, for vendors is more important than the firm) will still work there, you have no guidance as to how any business you do with Meta now will translate into similar services with Gartner as the deal consummates and you have rudderless Meta sales reps trying to tell you that business is usual and nothing has changed.”

KCG deserves a huge amount of credit for flagging what is, isn’t or might be going on here. Sign-up for the newsletter.