Video: Why Social Media scares the Analyst Industry (3 min with Carter Lusher)

Jeremiah, I think you're dancing on Occam's razor when you say,

"I’ve not heard of any analysts that directly get paid to blog..."

Blogging is a publishing platform. Hopefully, analysts get paid to analyze and advise -- and do not get paid just to publish for the sake of publishing!

Are you envisioning "whiteblogs" replacing "whitepapers"?

Seriously. Many new and smaller analyst firms are delivering their websites, newsletters and webinars/telebriefings as blogs, wikis, podcasts, online videos, RSS feeds, networked resources, and blog-integrated CMS systems.

If you are interested, I'll give you a list of firms who have standardized on the new communications tools as their publishing platforms -- if you consider companies in this situation as analysts who directly get paid to blog?

I agree with Carter that social media is a potentially disruptive force for the traditional analyst model. Another potentially disruptive force is the fact that computing models themselves are changing. Cloud computing is could be another disruptive trend that rocks the analyst world.
Where I disagree is the fundamental assumption that social media will somehow replace personal relationships and face to face contact. I think social media can enhance outreach, but personal relationships and human interaction still matter. The rhetoric reminds me of the .com days when pundits were predicting the demise of brick and mortar retail. The sock puppet was a fun diversion, but PetsMart is still around.

Jeremiah, your comment is a good round up of how AR and analysts could be using social media.

Well done. Good insight from a well-respected voice in that world. The one thing that struck me the most was that he indicated the analysts were scared because they weren't using social media. That applies to so many different fields that touch what we're doing. Because I work at an advertising agency, I can offer that perspective. Creatives, account managers and the like don't know what to think about social media because they aren't using it. How are we then (the industry as a whole ... I'm working on my agency) going to make smart decisions for our clients when the thinkers in the building don't know much about the mechanisms we're using? I'm sure the same perplexity faces the analysts out there as well.

Thanks for the perspective!

Oh yeah, I'd also like to add some additional thoughts on the impacts that social media is having to the this (and every) industry.


What are the different angles of impact of social media to the analyst industry?

-Although most are not, Analyst Relations professionals could use social media to influence the market, bypassing the influencers.
-Analyst Relations professionals could use social media to listen into the interest areas of analysts that blog
-Analyst Relations professionals could use social media to network, and build relationships even stronger.
-Analysts can use social media to increase their influence. Not only are they influencing clients and media, they can directly have a voice --much like media.
-Analysts can listen in to the marketplace and learn about what's hot
-Analysis can use these tools to collaborate with others, making research more efficient and accurate.
-Analysts can use these tools to build better relationships with media, analyst relations pros, and clients
-The most challenging one do digest? Analysts will give away some of their knowledge using these tools, which is somewhat contrary to what most understand as becoming a client to glean the analyst insight. An analyst who does this increases their influence, business opportunities, and learns a heck of a lot more, than not being in the conversation.