Ongoing Lessons

[Posted by Christine Overby]

Last week, Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst on the Interactive Marketing team that I manage, caught flak for comments that he made on his personal blog about the community vendor Mzinga. As you might expect, we both have been communicating with Mzinga's Chairman Barry Libert and other members of his team. At the same time, Jeremiah has been reflecting on the conversation begun by the post. So have I.

 

All of us at Forrester have learned from this. We have a blogging policy. I’m using this as an opportunity to reinforce these guidelines with bloggers on my team. So are other Research Directors. Forrester will continue to update these guidelines regularly as we gain new insights. Treat your social media policy as a living, breathing thing – I think these are good words for analyst firms and clients alike.

 

I am thinking too about the relationship between our research – which is, well, highly-researched and planned – and our social media contributions which are more informal. Should an analyst refrain from stating opinions in social media because it’s more organic? I don’t think so. But can we modify our tone and conclusions to reflect the more spontaneous nature of social tools? Absolutely.

 

Analysts will continue to participate in the Groundswell. At the same time, we’re still learning like everyone else here. As such, I welcome the dialogue and your comments.

Enough about you — let's talk about me

[Posted by Steven Noble]

What a ride! Since joining Forrester's interactive marketing team about six weeks ago, I've been trained, tested, supported and toasted.

And I feel like this amazing introduction has worked. I now feel ready to produce challenging, accurate, insightful research that helps interactive marketers to be successful... and that's probably the last I'll say about it on this blog.

For me, this blog will be the place where I kick around ideas in formation — as opposed to our research, where we present analysis that has been tested to within an inch of its life. This is where I will talk about absolutely anything of interest to the interactive marketing community — as opposed to our research, which we focus on business outcomes. And, this is where I will let you see a little about the person behind the product, perhaps forming a relationship with me if that is of interest. I'll probably mention the research, but on this blog I will create something different.

So, who is this Steven Noble person who is making all these promises?

Well, I joined Forrester's interactive marketing team in May, following a career that has stretched from journalism to public relations — especially the emerging area of digital PR. I work from Forrester's Sydney, Australia, office, and collaborate with analysts across the world. Bits of my life are scattered across the internet, but if you'd like to know more then three great places to start would be my Twitter page, my LinkedIn account and my personal blog about my neighbourhood in Sydney.

But that's enough about me. Starting with my next post, I'll return to talking about us, and the fascinating, challenging, interactive universe we inhabit.