When Jeremiah announced that he's joining Forrester, it got me thinking about how few analyst firms are writing about social media. You can't turn around with bumping into Forrester, and Jupiter is doing some work, but the other big firms are nearly invisible in this space. So I asked around to see who else might be doing something interesting.
So far, the impression that Forrester and Jupiter are most interested in social media is holding up. They certainly have the most analysts who not only cover the space but also participate in it.
| Company | Analysts |
| 451 Group | Kathleen Reidy |
| Aberdeen Group | Jeff Zabin |
| AIIM | Dan Keldsen |
| ABI Research | Mike Wolf |
| AMR Research | Jon Yarmis |
| Burton Group | Mike Gotta |
| Forrester Research | Josh Bernoff, Brian Haven, Peter Kim, Rob Koplowitz, Charlene Li, Jeremiah Owyang |
| Gartner | Nikos Drakos, Rita Knox |
| GT&A Strategic Marketing | Graeme Thickins |
| IDC | Rachel Happe, Karsten Weide |
| Jupiter Research | David Card, Nate Elliott, Barry Parr, Emily Riley |
| Nemertes Research | Irwin Lazar |
| RedMonk | Michael Coté, James Governor, Stephen O'Grady |
| Yankee Group | Jonathan Edwards, Anette Schaefer |
And, of course, you're already reading the blog from Social Target. I don't have the throw weight of a publicly-traded company, but interesting things are in the works.
For a broader view of analyst bloggers, see Technobabble's Top 100 analyst blogs.
Comments (16)
This is very useful, I subscribed to all of these analysts blogs, except one doesn't have RSS!
You're right, participation is key, it helps one to understand the tools.
Posted by Jeremiah Owyang | September 11, 2007 6:29 PM
This is exactly how my feed reader got out of hand...
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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September 11, 2007 9:22 PM
Nathan
Take a look at the RedMonk group, they may apply too.
Posted by Jeremiah Owyang | September 12, 2007 11:04 AM
Thanks for putting this together - list making is an all-too under appreciated act. Nice also to discover your blog via Jeremiah's tweet.
Posted by Marshall Kirkpatrick | September 12, 2007 11:07 AM
Hey Nathan, thanks for this. It was the same way during the late 90s when the Internet services firms got started. The big research houses were way late to the party.
Realistically, it may be they are more a reflection of their clients who are not asking about social media (yet).
Posted by Susan Scrupski | September 12, 2007 11:09 AM
Tell me, what makes someone an "analyst"?
Posted by Allen Stern | September 12, 2007 1:00 PM
Jeremiah, I thought of RedMonk, but I wasn't sure about their coverage of social media topics. They're certainly a group who understand and use them, though. OK, on the list.
Marshall, welcome. I hope you find more useful material here.
Susan, that's a good point, which is supported by Peter Kim's announcement of the delay in updating the brand monitoring Wave. When I tell people what I'm working on, though, I usually get pretty excited reactions. I don't think clients will be waiting much longer.
Allen: Yes, that's the question, isn't it? There was a discussion last month, but I doubt there can be a definitive answer.
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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September 12, 2007 6:09 PM
Nathan - Honored to make the list, thanks for the mention! Interest is definitely continuing to bubble and boil - definitely curious that Gartner doesn't have more through behind this, but there are also far more strange activities to ponder in this world, eh? Some of us are looking forward, others are looking in the rear-view mirror, and some of us are going cross-eyed doing both! ;)
Keep an eye on us at AIIM, we have a good handful of things brewing on the social media and social networking front - should be quite a bit of fun!
Cheers,
Dan
Posted by Dan Keldsen | September 12, 2007 9:03 PM
Watching, Dan, thanks.
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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September 12, 2007 10:50 PM
Check out Peter Kim of Forrester too
http://www.beingpeterkim.com/
Posted by Jeremiah Owyang | September 13, 2007 5:04 PM
Hi Nathan, thanks for the mention. Just keep in mind the tip of the iceberg vs. what's behind the firewall...
Posted by Peter Kim | September 13, 2007 5:06 PM
Jeremiah, I wouldn't miss Peter. He's just hard to pick out of that long list.
Peter, that's a fair point, and it's one component of that throw-weight thing. The external blogs do seem to be a useful indicator, though, and one that particularly benefits your firm in comparison to other major players.
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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September 13, 2007 5:11 PM
Thanks, Susan, for asking the question that had to be asked!
Posted by Mark | September 14, 2007 9:27 AM
Nice list ;)
While we may not write about social media and friends all the time (though we certainly do plenty), it's certainly one of the top 3 topics we talk about with people "off-blog" if you will.
Posted by Cote' | September 14, 2007 9:07 PM
http://www.amrresearch.com/AboutUs/Analysts.asp?EmpId=385
Jon Yarmis joined AMR Research in November to cover social media.
BTW, you might want to check out SageCircle's blog as one of our topics is the analysts, AR and social media.
Posted by Carter Lusher | January 21, 2008 12:20 PM
Thanks, Carter. I added Jon to the list. I subscribed to your blog recently, too.
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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January 21, 2008 6:26 PM