Category: Analyst

Categories: Analyst Posted on

Research Status: The Future of the Social Web, Social Media In A Recession

I’ve been laboring over the last few weeks on my latest report, the future of the social web. It’s been very difficult to boil down interviews with the world’s top minds on the social web. I’ve interviewed folks from: Google, MySpace, OpendID Foundation, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lotus, RWW, Federated Media, Plaxo, Dell, Cisco EOS, Flock, Meebo, Gigya, Intel, Razorfish, Six Apart and others. I’ve over 25 pages of raw notes, all representing their different corporate strategy and a mixture of opinions. I’ll admit, it wasn’t easy to find the pattern. When I need to do heavy problem solving, and find those patterns, I disconnect. So I did. I went offline on Monday, I drove to one of my favorite remote … Continue readingResearch Status: The Future of the Social Web, Social Media In A Recession

Categories: Analyst Posted on

How to Translate Vendor Talk into Plain English

My job as an industry analyst is listen to pitches from different vendors, from small startups, to the web giants. I get paid (yes I’m a professional BS filter) to listen to their pitches –and then translate it into reality for reports and for our clients, the buyers. Here’s a few things I’ve learned to translate, and I’m going to share with you here now –so you, as a buyer, will know the danger zones when you’re buying from a vendor. In most cases, you can skip the first 5 slides of any presentation, a great time to fiddle with blackberry, smack talk on twitter using your iphone, start a game of bullshit bingo, or figure out a way to … Continue readingHow to Translate Vendor Talk into Plain English

Categories: Analyst, Community Marketing, Forrester Posted on

Body of Work: Community and Social Network Research

Ill be up front, writing research is one of the hardest parts of the job for me, it’s an area I end up putting extra time in. Despite the extra effort I have to put in, looking back I’m very proud of my body of work. You’ll notice that there’s a strong body of work on community and social networks, all designed to help a brand with their community strategy from soup-to-nuts. Here’s some highlights of what I’ve been working on in the last 16 months: Body of Work: Community and Social Network Research Strategy: Online Communities: Build Or Join? (Hint: the answer is ‘when’) Resources: How to Staff for Social Computing (Like any business program, key people are needed, … Continue readingBody of Work: Community and Social Network Research

Categories: Analyst, Forrester Posted on

How we filtered 9 vendors out of 100 for the Community Platform Wave

Research is always challenging, I’m required to stay objective, follow a consistent methodology, and inform the market who is strong and who’s not. Believe me, I’ve gotten my share of angry calls, emails, blogposts, comments, and conversations with brands and vendors as a result of my reports. I’ve found that one thing that really helps everyone to understand is to be open and transparent about the process. In every Wave, like the Community Platform Wave I recently published, there are vendors that are elated and those that are disappointed, this is a normal outcome of reports that make the tough decisions to help brands make decisions. I’m empathetic to some of the vendors who were not in the Wave and … Continue readingHow we filtered 9 vendors out of 100 for the Community Platform Wave

Categories: Analyst, Forrester, Social Media Posted on

Looking back on our 2008 Predictions

By Jeremiah Owyang and Josh Bernoff and cross posted on Forrester’s Interactive Marketing Blog At Forrester we tend to look forward, not back. In fact, right now we are preparing our predictions for what 2009 will bring in the social application space. But the end of the year is also a time to reflect. So we looked back at our 2008 predictions to see how we did. Overall, we had one big mistake (vendor relationship management went nowhere) and we were too optimistic on several other predictions. Optimism, it seems, comes along with this space. But we were pleased that the entrance of corporations into the social world seems to be coming along fine, despite the recent Motrin kerfuffle, to … Continue readingLooking back on our 2008 Predictions

Categories: Analyst, Events, Forrester, Social Media Posted on

Event Summary: The Future of the Social Web

Nothing like ringing in the new year with a look at where the industry is headed. My job as an industry analyst is to assess where the industry is going, and how vendors and brands should respond to changes. My upcoming research on the topic of the future of the social web will do just that, and perhaps the most effective way for me to learn from the best and brightest in the industry is to bring them all to one room. A few months ago, I held an event to bring the industry top leaders together to discuss the future of social networks for my upcoming research report on the topic. I brought forth community platforms, widget companies, social … Continue readingEvent Summary: The Future of the Social Web

Categories: Analyst, Ruminations Posted on

Thank you 2008

This has been the busiest year of my career by far, I’ve traveled (and held blogger dinners) in great cities like Tampa, NY, Virginia, Hawaii, Colorado, Austin, Dallas, So Cal, Barcelona, and Tokyo; I’ve accrued many-a-frequent flyer mile. I published several research reports, (won an award), did more public speaking than ever before, delivered above my average of client engagements, was quoted a few times in the press, and grew this blog and twitter account, even though I’ll still get paid if I stop blogging. Of course, not everything went well. There’s always room for improvement, I need to be better prepared for client engagements (I didn’t do hot on at least two client engagements), I was criticized a few … Continue readingThank you 2008

Categories: Analyst, Forrester, Social Media Posted on

A Day In the Life of an Industry Analyst: Advisory Projects

I made a promise to be transparent with the mysterious industry analyst job, in fact, I didn’t completely understand all aspects of what the job entailed until being here for a few months. I realize that the public usually doesn’t understand the research industry business model, or how we help our clients make decisions. So in an attempt to explain what I do (read other posts tagged analyst to learn of other aspects) to understand one important part of my job: advisory. Make Leaders Successful Last week, I wrapped up another project with a technology client where we helped them develop a social media strategy based on actual research –a powerful way to ensure your efforts will be successful. Although … Continue readingA Day In the Life of an Industry Analyst: Advisory Projects

Categories: Analyst, Forrester Posted on

An Update on my Research Agenda

I’ve been receiving questions about the much anticipated Community Platform Wave report, and wanted to provide an update. I’ve completed a majority of the report and it’s currently with the editing team getting the t’s crossed and i’s dotted. We’re expecting an early January publication date, and I’ve been making an effort to be upfront and transparent with updates. Also, there’s a teleconference that many of you may have signed up for in this Dec, however we’ll be pushing it back in order to coincide with the publication date. Update: The report will publish in early Jan and the teleconference is now on Feb 3rd. If you’re a client of Forrester, you can schedule an inquiry call with me to … Continue readingAn Update on my Research Agenda