Everyday Influence

Announcing the Launch of “The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks” – A Research Study by SNCR

I am pleased to announce the launch of a research study by the Society of New Communication Research (SNCR) called ‘The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks.’

Vanessa DiMauro, CEO, Leader Networks and I are leading this research as part of our 2009 Fellowship with SNCR.

This seminal research study will look at the impact of social media on professional networks with the intent to understand how business leaders use online communities and peer networks to support their decisions.

A great deal of attention and research has been devoted to evangelizing social media as a new form of customer-centric relationship building.  Build a network or use social media to deepen customer intimacy has become the mantra of today.  However, what is often overlooked is the impact of social media to change behaviors, and the potential to leverage social media to impact professional’s decision-making processes. While everyone is endeavoring to capture the mindshare of the buyer, few understand what success truly looks like.

This study will examine the role that social media has on decision-making among enterprise users.  Specifically this study will explore the following questions:

• Is social media typically regarded as a trustworthy source of information for professionals?
• Does social media offer effective tools to access information, advice and engage in professional collaboration? How do they compare to traditional off-line networking?
• What are the tools and sources of social media that professionals rely on to make decisions?
• Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level operations?

The results of this study will offer a set of best practice models for effective social media programs to support enterprise decision-making activities, identify opportunities for social media programs to deepen their effectiveness and for professionals to leverage social media efforts to support their practice.

The methodology for this study will be a two-pronged approach.  We will gather quantitative data about professionals perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making using an online survey. Following the survey, select interviews will be conducted using a semi-structured interview guide among a set of survey respondents who are willing to participate in the second phase of the study.  The final study report will blend the survey research findings and the interview results to offer a well-rounded examination of the social media for decision-making process and opportunities.

The survey is open to all users and members of professional networks. We will promote the survey extensively through the use of social media and communities.  You can access the survey through our research site at http://www.newsymbiosis.com/.

All participants who participate in the survey will receive a copy of the study results in late summer.

The Dynamics of Social Influence: A New Perspective and Agenda

While on vacation last week in Kauai I sat beachside relaxed and entranced by the awesome power of the ocean.  

I was entertained watching wave after wave hit the beach, toppling kids and adults as they played in the water.  As I sat there, I became curious about how waves are formed.  So I turned on my smart phone  and went to the Internet in search of an answer. In a matter of minutes, I learned that waves are formed (in part) by the force of wind and in some cases (such as tsunamis) by the affects of massive earthquakes that occur in the ocean.

I then went to YouTube (from my smart phone) to find videos of the most powerful waves recorded. Many of the videos found were associated with the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 that killed over 300,000 people including 168,000 in Indonesia alone. The videos told a power story about the tsunami straight from the people affected by it. It was a very powerful education. I then searched for blogs to find stories about this tsunami. Many blog posts that I found were written by people from around the world who were traveling in/around or lived in Indonesia at the time.

Within an hour, I learned how waves are created including the power and devastation of tsunamis - through the experiences (words and video) of people who were affected by one of history's most powerful and destructive, on record.

That same afternoon our beach was met by a couple of visitors from the ocean - Hawaiian Monk Seals.  This stirred great excitement among the people on the beach. Within minutes, a crowed formed around the seals and local environmentalists arrived to place a rope barrier around the seals.

I wanted to learn more!

Again, using my smart phone I went to the Internet and found a number of educational videos on YouTube and blogs about these endangered mammals. Through Twitter I was even able to see where other seals (35 known to the island) had been spotted over the past few days.

My search also led me to the website of a local organization that supports the protection of monk seals. As I explored the website I was motivated to make a donation to help protect and educate the public about these beautiful and endangered mammals.

At the end of the day, I was amazed at the speed and accessibility that I had to a vast amount of information regarding these two 'curiosities' while sitting on the beach in Kauai.

Through my smart phone I was seamlessly connected to a wealth of information on the Internet and the social web (blogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) that in the case of seals, motivated me to take action and give.  Just amazing.

This impressed upon me the power of Web 2.0 technology and social media’s increasing importance to society.

During my day job I spend a lot of time designing and executing marketing and communication programs that combine the power of the 'social web' with traditional ‘offline’ practices to engage customers and other external stakeholders (analysts, academia, bloggers, thought leaders, etc.) to help accelerate sales and the adoption of SAP products and solutions.  

My ‘social media’ experience while on vacation gave me a new perspective as a marketing and communications professional working to adapt and lead change against a new set of rules of engagement in the industry.

For instance, a great deal has been written about how social media has forever challenged the traditional business and syndication models of mainstream media (newspapers, publications, broadcast media).

There are also many famous examples of how social media has helped to bring new meaning to words like 'transparency,' 'trust,' and 'accountability' that has forced the evolution of traditional business models and beliefs of marketing and communications (as professions), sales and relationship management (personal, citizen and customer), politics, philanthropy and general business management.

Web 2.0 technologies and social media has transformed society in many ways.  It has provided a platform for everyday people to participate in the creation and syndication of educational and business content and 'news' that is accessible to the world – instantaneously.  We are also seeing the proliferation of online social networks and communities designed to connect people in powerful and influential ways.  This connection of people has changed the dynamics and the process of influence in our society  - how people source information and make and influence decisions of others. It has strengthened the rules and social contract of 'trust' by forcing accountability (of individuals, businesses, governments, etc) to words and actions.

As I think about this I am inspired to look more deeply at how social media has affected the dynamics and rules of 'social influence' across a number of areas of society (business, politics, philanthropy/giving, personal productivity/advancement, etc.). To understand how the phenomena has affected the behaviors and motivations of people for greater benefit and activism.

Over the course of the next few months I will focus on this (through my blog) with an eye toward identifying best practices of successful use of social media and the real impact (as much as I can identify) across each of the below segments. 

Politics: The 2008 U.S. Presidential election legitimized the use of social media in U.S. politics that will have a lasting impact. Through the masterful use of social media tools like blogs, twitter, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, President Barack Obama strengthened the ideological and emotional connections with voters and the general public (U.S. and Global) – in ways that traditional media would not have allowed.

Key Questions: How are other governments and politicians successfully using or abusing social media for policy and political advancement?  What are the implications of social media on politics in the future (2020 and 2030)?  How has social media challenged governments and politicians through new rules of open/public scrutiny toward trust, transparency and accountability?

Social Causes: Non-profits and philanthropists have used social media to raise awareness and advocate change to support very important social, economic, and environmental issues.  As an example, organizations like DonnorsChoose.org have redefined approaches to charitable giving and fundraising. DonnorsChoose.org is an online charity that connects people and business to classrooms in need.  It has famously used social media to organize people and fundraise millions of dollars for a good cause.

Key Questions: What are the social media tools and techniques that successful non-profit organizations/institutions use to advance awareness and motivate people, governments and businesses to take action and affect positive change (giving of time and money), creation of policy, etc.?  How has social media impacted the nature of philanthropic design and social responsibility (local and global)?

Individuals: Social media has empowered individuals by giving them a platform to amplify their voices in ways that have forced accountability on corporations and governments regarding important issues around policy, products (quality and design) and services.

Individuals have also used social media to expand their personal and professional networks that have helped to secure new jobs and business opportunities; develop new friendships (romantic, social and professional); and accelerated education and productivity as a great complement to their ‘offline’ networks and activities.

Key Questions: How do people use social media and social networks to address personal concerns and support better decision making?  How has social media affected trust and relationships between people and organizations?  What are the implications to future generations of individuals (who today share everything about themselves) on politics and business? What are the most effective tools used by people to influence change in business and government?

Mainstream Media: Smart media organizations (newspapers, broadcast media, etc.) have embraced the social web by incorporating tools such as Twitter, blogs, social networks, and podcasts into their portfolio of news and information dissemination and exchange to build community/readership and citizen journalists.  CNN, Wall Street Journal and New York Times are shining examples of mainstream U.S. media that have adapted successfully.  There are also many examples of mainstream media that have not adapted fast enough or at all – that have gone or are going out of business.

Key Questions: What new syndication and business models have emerged for mainstream media today – to adapt to the phenomena of the social web?  How has the influence of mainstream media changed as a result of social media?

Business: Businesses are using social media to redefine service and customer support; improve and in some cases accelerate innovations of products and services; build new sales and marketing channels as part of a shift to Business-to-Person relationship management.

Key Questions:  How has social media and social networks affected professional/business decision-making?  What approaches and tools are business using to ‘listen,’ ‘interact’ and ‘engage’ more with their core audiences to improve the way they do business? How as social media affected and transformed traditional marketing and communication beliefs and strategies?

There are certainly more questions and ideas to explore regarding how social media has affected change across society (business, social, and political).

In my mind, the common factor is the importance on ‘the individual’ (person, employee, citizen, customer, etc.) at the center of engagement.  The empowerment of the individual has given social media amazing credibility forcing disruption and disintermediation of long-standing business and cultural beliefs.

Social media is without a doubt fluctuating through the hype cycle on its way to maturity.  Privacy issues are at the core of many debates taking place right now - helping to shape the policy of social networks such as Facebook. As social media tools become more mature and more actively used by people, we will undoubtedly see new levels of misuse, corruption and deceit – that will challenge the social contract of trust with this evolving medium (although the people who misuse will be weeded out).

It is also my belief that the ‘generational’ affect of social media will not be realized for another decade or two.  As millennials and Gen Y’ers share more information about themselves – posting pictures/videos, creating detailed personal profiles on social networks, and using blogs as an open diary of their lives that will live forever on the social web.  All of this makes anonymity and privacy very hard to control.  What will be the affect on the next generation in business and politics?

I will tap into the expert minds of colleagues and Fellows at The Society for New Communication Research (SNCR) and others in the industry who follow these issues more closely - to support future posts. If you have expertise, or questions that should be explored, links to information/research, or would like to collaborate on any of these topics/issues - please leave a comment or send me an email at don_bulmer@yahoo.com.

My Personal Branding Interview with Dan Schawbel

I had the great pleasure to be interviewed this week by Dan Schawbel. 

Dan is a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He is the author of the bestselling career book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 2009).  The interview was for his blog which is syndicated by Reuters, Forbes, Hoovers, Fox Business and The Chicago Sun-Times, among others. 

Dan has interviewed over 160 success individuals such as Marcus Buckingham, Tony Hsieh, John C. Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Phil Town, Don Tapscott, Marshall Goldsmith, David Allen, Larry Winget, John Kotter, Robert B. Cialdini, Keith Ferrazzi, Carmine Gallo, Matt Mullenweg, Steven Baker, David Meerman Scott, Mark Sanborn, Tucker Max, and many others.  To be among this impressive group of renowned industry experts interviewed by Dan is a great honor!

Through the interview we discussed the following topics:

• The best way to build ones personal brand with social media
• The most important aspect of my personal brand
• How social media has impacted the landscape of business and marketing communications - with the emergence of business-to-person (B2P) marketing
• The pitfalls and best practices in managing the demanding set of ‘crowed rules’ inherent in social media and the Web 2.0 environment.

The full interview can be found on Dan’s Blog.  I want to thank Dan for the great exchange, and opportunity to be profiled!

Factors of Influence

Duncan Brown at Influencer 50 posted a blog today where he discusses the effectiveness of sponsored conversations (paid media) as a credible form of influence.

In a comment, I offered that at SAP we have found that there are generally three factors that combine to have a very powerful form of influence on most any decision. The three factors are: Awarness, Reputation and Experience. I detail this more in a blog post from last year.

Paid media (through advertising or sponsored conversations) and unpaid media (through traditional media and blogger relations) are great for generating broad awareness for companies and important industry issues.  However, awareness alone (regardless of the channel) will not entirely influence or motivate one to take action (e.g. purchase or engage).

This is where experience comes in. We have found that ‘experience’ is perhaps the single most important and credible factor that influences any individual or community to take action.  This this is very hard to ‘buy.’

Experience (good or bad) is authentic and extremely credible. This is were Duncan makes an excellent point that companies should focus on generating advocacy by creating remarkable products and services.

The more that companies can generate advocacy/endorsement based on the positive ‘experience’ of their products and/or services through their key stakeholder groups (e.g. customers, partners, employees, etc.) the better situated they are to establish a movement that will increase competitive advantage and/or other desirable results.

SAP University Alliances – A Standard for Experience-Based Community Design

Today SAP announced the launch of the SAP University Alliances community.  I am honored to have responsibility for the University Alliances program as part of the larger Industry and Influencer Relations organization, at SAP.

 

The newly launched SAP University Alliances community is an advanced portal (hosted on the SAP community network) designed for the academic population worldwide (faculty and students) to access the latest academic resources that bring real-life SAP knowledge and skills into university classrooms. It provides a forum for SAP to deliver higher education content supplied by SAP and community participants, including interactive academic resources, such as course lectures, case studies, exercises, demonstrations and videos; thought leadership forums; and community blogs. The community is designed to facilitate faculty and student collaboration and contribution, job posting and search, as well as networking with SAP customers and partners. Skills development and career opportunities for university students, professors and other community participants are the central focus of the site.

 

Through this effort, SAP University Alliances member faculty and students now have the ability to collaborate and interact with an active group of 1.5 million SAP customers, partners and employees that make up the larger SAP community network.

 

The new community is a central component of the long-standing SAP University Alliances program that today works with nearly 900 member campuses in more than 40 countries supported by 3,500+ professors and university faculty who provide 185,000+ students first-hand experience with SAP software each year.  Our goal with this community is to dramatically increase the number of universities that participate in the University Alliances program to bring 1,000,000+ students into the greater SAP ecosystem over the next three years.

 

The announcement today represents a great milestone not only for SAP University Alliances but also for SAP’s Industry and Influencer Relations program, as a whole.  As I discussed in a blog post last year (The Evolution of Industry and Influencer Relations at SAP – Part Two), universities play a unique and important role in the global economy and represent perhaps the most strategic component of the larger Industry and Influencer program design.

 

Today’s announcement is the result of tremendous effort and milestone that will benefit not only SAP but also our larger and very much valued ecosystem of customers and partners!

The Society for New Communications Research Recognizes SAP’s Industry and Influencer Relations Program with an Award of Excellence!

I just returned from a quick trip to Botson where I attended the 3rd Annual Society for New Communications Research Symposium & Awards Gala to receive an award of excellence, recognizing the success of the Industry and Influencer Relations program at SAP!

The Society for New Communications Research or SNCR (www.sncr.org) is a leading global nonprofit think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new media and communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional communications, business, culture and society.  The membership of SNCR includes the industry’s top practitioners (corporate and nonprofit) and thought leaders in communication research, design and execution.

On behalf of each and every valued member of the Industry and Influencer organization at SAP that I have the opportunity to lead, I want to thank SNCR for the great recognition and for the opportunity to showcase our program and share our experiences with peers and colleagues in the industry.

I encourage all communication professionals to visit SNCR’s website at www.sncr.org to access and contribute to their research and thought leadership. They are contributing greatly to advance the education, design and best practices associated with new communication in the industry.  Membership is affordable and the access is priceless!

In preparation for the awards ceremony I was asked to share a few insights or lessons learned about how communications programs need to change given emerging new channels and blurred boundaries betweens the many roles influencers play today.

Two insights that I identified to be most relevant are as follows:

1. The first is to design your communication and influence programs with a business purpose in mind.

Given the current conditions in the marketplace it is more important than ever before to understand the objectives and business challenges that your company is facing.  How has the competitive landscape changed? What are the opportunities or adjustments that your company is making to become more competitive (e.g. delivery of new products/services; entrance into new markets; etc.)? What issues or trends are affecting the industry and how can your company advance or influence them in an effort to support larger business objectives?

With an understanding of these fundamental issues you can more cleanly identify the right influencers (thought leaders, industry experts, or communities) to engage to collaboratively advance a larger market agenda to support your business and external stakeholder groups.

2. The second deals with managing the sense of ‘loss of control’ when communicating in a Web 2.0 world.

The reality is, if you want to control your message these days, you should advertise.  What is unnerving for many marketing and communication professionals about managing influence in a Web 2.0 world is that social media forces you to play by what I call ‘crowd rules.’ And crowd rules dictate a fair level of transparency, authenticity, agility, honesty [you can continue to fill in the blank] but most important crowd rules require you to LISTEN.  No longer are the ‘house rules’ of marketing and communications effective where you can create a message or position and expect it to automatically resonate or stick in the market.

If we look at Word of Mouth (WoM) as an example.  In the old model of WoM, if a customer has a good or bad experience with your company’s product or service, they might share the experience with a neighbor, friend or colleague at work. In this old model of WoM the collective community experience with your brand would eventually create a community reality in a viral fashion over a ‘period’ of time.

The affects of this in a Web 2.0 world are much different.

In a Web 2.0 world if ‘a’ customer has a bad experience with your company’s product or service and they share that experience in a blog or other form of social media (like Twitter) this experience can reach hundreds, thousands or millions of people overnight – around the world.  This can cause great brand destruction and turmoil if you are not prepared to address it.

Now, even in ‘crowd rules’ not everyone expects a company to be infallible.  You just have to listen.

If you have good sensory awareness and respond to negative issues quickly - if for nothing else than to show corporate humility - and engage with a negative blogger or disgruntled customer/community to understand the issues, you can quickly turn an adverse situation into great opportunity by 1. Fixing the product and service issues that can help to advance greater business opportunities and 2. You have the opportunity to turn a negative blogger or customer into a net promoter – which is the greatest form of advocacy/influence you can hope for.

Social media changes the rules of the game in an era of new marketing and new communications, by forcing companies to be more accountable.  I personally think that this is a great thing.

If you understand and learn to work within the crowd rules of Web 2.0 in an authentic and agile way, you will increase your company’s brand value and overall experience in the industry.

I would like to thank SNCR again for the great recognition!

Marketing and Communication Opportunities – in a Period of Recession

I have received several emails from colleagues and peers in the industry wondering ‘why I have been dark’ on my blog for the past two months.

 

Like many marketing and communications professionals I have been heads down in business - making adjustments to programs and activities for the remainder of 2008 and planning for 2009.

 

To say the least, the affects of the financial crises and daunting uncertainty across global markets has put significant pressure on companies to aggressively manage both the bottom line (expenses and operational budgets) and top line growth (sales and revenue generation).  This intensive thrust to ‘back to basics’ management impacts all departments and organizations.  Managers are required to make adjustments to their operations to become laser focused and efficient AND deliver more value and results (and some cases - much more) with less resources (and in some cases - much less).

 

These circumstances pose a number of challenges for many marketing and communications professionals to adapt to.

 

I personally have an optimistic view of the situation.  Looking back at history, the market goes through a correction once every 10-15 years (e.g. recession in the late 80s; and the dot.com bubble bust in 2001).  Our current situation is definitely the worst ‘correction’ in several decades, but nonetheless a correction it is.

 

Although tough and challenging to go through, what history shows is that numerous product, service and technology innovations tend to emerge out of each market correction or crisis.  All of which fuel new business models and market and career opportunities.  These innovations come (in part) through a flushing of inefficiencies, consolidation of ‘players/companies,’ and a refocus on creating and providing more value. The companies that plan and adapt appropriately will be the big winners (both old and new companies).

 

As a communications executive, I see this as a great opportunity.  The power of thought leadership, relationships and collaborative industry influence that largely extends from programs driven by communications departments is a great ‘currency’ that gains tremendous value in any economic recession or down turn.  As communication practitioners, our role in helping to guide the market renewal process is critical.

 

What do I mean?

 

The results delivered through well structured communication and influence programs do not require huge budgets or mega teams to drive.

 

The effects of positive ‘unpaid media,’ external thought leadership and word-of-mouth and advocacy programs delivered through successful press, analyst, blogger, customer, employee, community and other influencer relations programs costs very little to execute AND generates very high returns for your company.  The benefits can be realized through the advancement of your company’s competitive position; positive reputation management; validation of new market/business opportunities; and 3rd party education, thought leadership and best practices that increase visibility and confidence that your business is a valuable and smart investment (for shareholders, customers, partners and employees).

 

Further to this, the use of existing technologies and social media strategies (among other things) offer marketing and communication professionals a tremendous and low cost way to disseminate messages with great scale and build awareness and maintain relationships with influencers (internal and external) in an increasingly global and dynamic business environment.

 

I believe that 2009 will bring a number of significant and positive changes to the marketing and communication profession.  I predict that we will see greater adoption and more innovative use of social media; new designs of communication and marketing organizations that adapt to a new influence ecosystem; more focus on customer and ‘community’ engagement; new metrics and measurement designs; and increased ‘insight’ programs to support corporate decision making.  These changes will contribute to a much needed renewal of marketing and communications that will help to evolve our profession to become more strategic, vibrant and valued across all industry sectors and geographies.

 

I encourage all of my industry peers and colleagues to take advantage of this opportunity with an optimistic outlook.  Challenge yourselves to better understand your business and industry environment. 

 

Look for new opportunities to provide value. Understand how to better use the ‘process’ of communications and the power of relationships to advance your company’s position in the industry and drive positive awareness, thought leadership and confidence back into the market!  And lastly - be bold, be proactive, and be proud!!!

Analyst and Influencer Engagement Cycle

When I assumed responsibility for running the analyst relations program at SAP in 2004 I spent a lot of time with the team to define a framework to design and position the use of analyst and IT influencer engagement in corporate strategy and go-to-market activities. One outcome of this exercise was a simple AR engagement cycle that we used to 'plot' and 'plan' analyst engagements relative to corporate and product initiatives.

The framework is based on an engagement cycle that spans from strategic to tactical execution. We found it extremely helpful in educating senior executives and business and product stake holders on how and at what point in our product development and go-to-market activities to engage with analysts and other industry influencers.

I would like to share this with you as a best practice that helped us greatly to position analyst relations (now IT Influencer Relations) at SAP as a strategic component of planning and execution.  I am certain that there are more sophisticated frameworks out there.  Perhaps readers will share their experiences and models of engagement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phase I: Early Internal Alignment and Planning (3-6 months before market rollout)

•       What is it? (Identify specific product and corporate strategy/initiative)

•        Market opportunity

•        Competitive position

•        Implications to existing corporate and product strategies

•        Critical success factors

Phase II: Analyst and Influencer Strategy Development (3-6 months before market rollout

•        Strategic and tactical AR planning (engagement strategy)

•       Analyst and influencer identification (firm and individual)

•       Perception audit

•       Influencer ranking and engagement strategy/plan development

•       Internal stakeholder alignment on influencer program goals (define key performance indicators)

•       Secure executive sponsor and buy-in (commitment of time and budget)

Phase III: Strategic Analyst and Influencer Engagements (2-4 months before market rollout)

•        Influencer validation and alignment (with shortlist of key influencers)

•       Market opportunity and challenges

•       Strategy validation

•       Message and competitive positioning

•       Success factors

•       Key outcome: Influence opinions, research agendas and influencer metrics for success

Phase IV: Broad Analyst and Influencer Education (at time of market roll-out)

•       Syndication of Message

•       Additional analyst and influencer outreach and education (2^nd and n-tier influencers)

•       Sales and Marketing support (promote pre-aligned influencers as 3^rd party experts and supporters – from Phase III)

•       Showcase company of product proof points (promote reference customers and partners, and product execution)

Phase V: Program Maintenance (1-9 months after market roll-out)

•        Continued delivery of proof points (customer, product and partner) 

•        Ongoing briefings (less need for strategic alignment)

•        Continued market education

Stanford Entrepreneurial Series

 Over the last year, I have amassed a great source of business, marketing and leadership podcasts that 
 I listen to on a regular basis which I have found to be extremely helpful in stimulating ideas, provoking 
 thought and grounding me on core principles of marketing and business management. I would like to share 
 one podcast that I have found to be among the best. It is produced by Stanford University and is called 
 the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series.

 On a weekly basis during the spring, fall, winter and summer semesters, Stanford brings in some of 
 their most famous alumni and successful business men and women across a variety of industry segments
 (technology, media,banking/finance, venture capital, bio tech, etc.) to speak to students in entrepreneurial
 studies on their experiences in building and leading companies, in some cases from 'idea' to muti million 
 and billion dollar companies. Yahoo, Google, HP are a few of the highlighted companies. 

 
 The podcast is about an hour long and consists of a 30-45 min presentation by the guest speaker (extremely
 easy to follow via audio) and ends with open Q&A with the live audience. 

 
 Some of my best ideas (influence relations, leadership, and business development) have been stimulated 
 by the stories and experiences of the sage business leaders. I highly recommend to anyone with interest in
 business and entrepreneurship to subscribe to this podcast. You can find information about it at 
 Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series.

 

Voice of the Decision Maker: Influencer Ranking

During the design phase of the Industry and Influencer Relations (IIR) program at SAP (in 2006) we conducted extensive research to understand who the decision makers are in our market when it comes to purchasing business software and more importantly who influences these decision makers.  It was a six month project that returned some very interesting results that supported the decisions made in designing the IIR program and team structure.

I would like to share a nugget of information gathered from our research - based on results for the U.S. market.

The charts below illustrate a ranking of the most important influence channels in four distinct views.  The first column outlines an aggregate ranking (based on 500+ responses) of the most important sources of influence - in priority order. The other three columns provide rankings relative to importance by company size (small, medium, large). In the survey, we asked the respondents (qualified decision makers) the following question: “How influential are the following outside sources of information on your business software decisions / recommendations?”

In comparing the rankings by company size, there are a number of very interesting observations to be made.  To no surprise, the experience, counsel and word-of-mouth of one’s industry peers/colleagues rank among the highest source of influence – across company size. The interesting conclusions come when you analyze the separations in the rakings between the groups of 5-10 and 10-15. Below are high-level observations:

• Small and mid market decision makers rank industry analysts and analyst executive programs much lower level than the large market.
  • Observation: No real surprise here as the business and engagement models of most analyst firms do not cater to the needs and budget constraints of small and most mid-sized companies.
• Mid market decision makers rank press (Tech, Job Function, Gen’l Bus.), business software vendor partners & board of directors, higher in influence.
  • Observation:  One conclusion could be that most mid market companies have ‘just enough’ experience and sophistication with business software that the quality of information and insight reported by the media about industry trends, vendor reputation and best practice provide decision makers enough information to form opinions that require less dependency on 1:1 interaction with 3^rd party experts – such as industry analysts.
• Small companies rank most forms of publications (tech/business press, books, etc.) as low on influence, indicating a much higher level of trust to consultants, peers, and software vendors.
  • Observation: Small business owners either don’t have the time to read or the issues relevant to them (related to business software) are not adequately being represented by media (maybe too high-level or not representative of core issues) so they rely more on peers, consultants and other trusted advisors for insights.
• Blogs were ranked lowest for all decision makers (at the time of the research)
  • Observation: I suspect that this may have changed in the last 18 months as more consultants and industry experts have adopted the use of blogs to syndicate their research and insights to fuel their consulting business models.

You can draw additional conclusions from these rankings.  We plan to update the research later this year to track and analyze trends and changes. I suspect that most of the changes will be in the lower half of the rankings, however.

The comparison of the U.S. findings against emerging/growth markets such as China, India, Brazil, Japan, and Russia are very interesting.  Each of the above mentioned countries have very distinct ‘influence ecosystems’ affected by the importance of relationships, culture and politics.  For global or multinational companies doing business in these countries, it is critical not to over or underestimate the cultural and sociopolitical factors when establishing influencer strategies and programs.