Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz have released their fifth weekly PR podcast. This week’s installment covers the New Communications Forum and GM’s FastLane blog amongst other items. They also recently released two interviews from the New Communications Forum with Jeremy Wright and Fergus Burns. Loads of PR related listening there.
Bacon’s have released the latest issue of their Expert PR newsletter.
The Knowledge Capital Group have built a very successful business focussing on helping vendors to work more effectively with industry analysts. Their latest newsletter tackles the Gartner-META merger and they have some sensible advice for companies working with recently married couple:
“We reiterate our recommendation to not enter into any new, nor renew any 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. I know, it sounds harsh, but here is why we think this is just smart business…”
Speaking of industry analysts, Forrester deserves a lot of credit for their approach to client relations.
Unlike many of their peers, who often treat vendors’ analyst relations people like something they have found at the bottom of their show following a walk in some long grass, Forrester have put together an “Analyst Relations and Marketing Council”.
The council provides (amongst other things) PR and analyst relations staff in client firms, with an opportunity to meet each other (online and in-person) to discuss relevant issues. The most recent call covered dealing with negative analyst reports. It was an excellent Webex session with contributions from a wide array of professionals on their personal experiences, issues and potential resolutions of analyst-related problems. It was an excellent session.
Kudos to Forrester – I realise it’s a sales tool for them, but it doesn’t negate its value.
Amy Bellinger was in touch. She describes herself as a former Public Relations practitioner, who now has a blog that deals with effective online communication customer care professionals… sounds like PR to me!
Murphy's Law 