Industry Analyst Weblogs

Every time I hear of a new Industry Analyst blog I get all excited. Wicked smart people with great information flow that should have lots to say. Unfortunately, most Industry Analysts don't get blogging and the result is crap.

A bizzare standard has emerged where major firms simply repurpose abstracts in RSS format and call it a blog. The result is posts like this for Burton. Forrester takes the same approach and since nobody links to propoganda you can't even find it with Google. These don't even qualify as abstracts, they certainly aren't conversations and could be a form of spam.

What really works is letting analysts have their own voices, like Mike Gotta at Meta Group or the Jupiter blogs. Gartner is getting closer and started out with the bizzare.

Three suggestions for Industry Analyst firms:

• Let analysts blog in their own voice with their own identity
  
• Encourage them to blog the process of their research. All those interviews that never make it to print, readings and testable theories that result in good analysis.
  
• If you are providing incentives for being quoted in the press, provide incentives for being linked
  

Of course, aside from firms, you will find the very best from independents like Amy Wohl and Stowe Boyd. Nothing holds them back, they engage as writers and readers and their practice benefits.