The Changing Landscape Of The Influence Game

James Governorwrites, bloggers and emerging non-traditional analyst firms are increasingly influencing technology and product strategies. In order to make money, many of the new blog influencers will try and make their way as paid trusted advisors. Some will do implementation work as well. They are the new influencers. He further points out that this is both a threat and an opportunity for "traditional AR". He further points to Duncan Chapple’s writing,"Analysts follow their own research agenda, and their findings are largely independent from the interests of the vendors they follow. Advisory consultants are often tied to commercial relationships. Blog influencers however, are likely to meld both approaches. Consultants and industry analysts are traditionally somewhat of a different breed, its important to note that the separation seems to be changing under the weight of the blogosphere. New variants are emerging, with new influence characteristics".
I do see that some tend to dismiss blogging as just another set of bored players/ ego boosting activities and most bloggers may not have a defined agenda. Vinnie Mirchandani holds the belief that few bloggers are beginning to be counted as significantly influential in the tech world. I wrote recently(after the famous Forbes article on blogging) that I have long felt the Forbes.com can never be even counted as a candidate for the regular best of the web picks that Forbes regularly publishes – that does not mean that we do not visit forbes.com site. Similarly in occasions when someone finds blogs to be a bugbear, the best thing is find out ways and means to launch a counteroffensive available within the system to neutralize - this can not be achieved by painting red with a broad brush. Big business needs to be innovative and forward looking in embracing and leveraging new movements like blogs. In this contribution economy powered by significant user involvement in corporate initiatives, undoubtedly blogs play a unique role. Every media of expression has its own purpose and objectives that it longs to fulfill – so why complain and moreover if the new media such as blogs are powered by technology, it is futile to raise a voice against. The power of the blogosphere is being increasingly felt – but this is not to say that the analyst community would go away – after all they are very important constituents of the ecosystem, but the quality and accountability of analyst firms would come into sharper focus.