Keep Your New Year's Resolution and Schedule an Appointment with the doctor
If you're a marketing professional, chances are you just finished polishing off your marketing plan for 2009... but is it really finished? Did you remember blogger relations? More importantly, did you remember to budget for blog sponsorships and thought leadership?
It's wise to become acquainted with your friendly neighborhood blogger, because your market is going to the blogs. And there's one blogger in particular you need to get to know -- the doctor. When a sourcing professional wants to track trends, she goes to the indices; if she wants a high level overview and some self-evident observations, she goes to the trade pubs; but if she wants some hard-hitting advice on how to combat price increases and rake in savings, she goes to one blog in particular -- Sourcing Innovation. No other publication gives you the in-depth analysis and insight on vendor solutions that you will get from the doctor or his friends the Sourcing Maniacs. Ask any one of the thousands (upon thousands) of readers who visit Sourcing Innovation on a regular basis, or choose a few random posts from the dozens and dozens that appear in the Sourcing Innovation vendor post index.
If it's been six months since your solution's last check-up, be sure to schedule some time to check in with the doctor in the near future. If you've never had a check-up, now would be a great time for that first physical. There's no better measure of your solution's health than a private, in-depth review by the doctor; and no advertisement or white paper you publish will be as effective as a content-filled post on Sourcing Innovation. Since the doctor will never publish a solution analysis without an in-depth review, procurement professionals come to Sourcing Innovation first when they want the facts. That's because unlike other technically-naive bloggers and analysts who believe that they can offer an informed decision based on a press release or a PowerPoint deck, the doctor always examines the patient thoroughly, and always prepares a deeply credible report.
So send an e-mail to thedoctor <at> sourcinginnovation <dot> com to schedule your appointment today! Your corporate health may depend on it.
Michael, to be candid, I found this post offensive. You need to get off your high horse and stop criticizing others -- analysts and other bloggers -- unless you have specific examples to cite. I have a lot of respect for what you are doing and I have tried to be supportive, but when I see such disparaging comments like this directed at other bloggers or analysts as an attempt to prop yourself up, it benefits no one -- especially you. If you have a specific anecdote you'd like to share about technically-naiveté pray-tell. If not, focus on establishing your credibility, not trying to bring down others. You and SI are better than that.
Jason:
(1) If you want to throw down, I found your post "How the Heck do You Get This Information?" particularly lame and the implication that anything you want to know about a company is available for the right price to be quite offensive (since you and I are both privy to details on our clients that even the best CI firms would be hard pressed to obtain without using shady PI firms), but I still defended your right to blog it and highly criticized the Somebody that blasted you for it, as your goal obviously was not to hawk CI services or claim knowledge you did not have.
(2) This post was not written a disparaging attack on anyone but as a humourous, allegorical attempt to not only draw attention to the fact that marketers need to be reaching out to bloggers (and considering blog advertising) but that they are free to reach out to me at any time.
A post that says "new year, new opportunity to reach out to me at ..." is boring. One filled with figurative speech and allegory playing on my nom-de-plum is not, so I decided to spice it off. And to be certain that it wouldn't come off the wrong way, I even ran it by an external editor who has given me very good advice in the past on what not to run and timing of potentially controversial posts, and he saw nothing wrong with it.
So if you can't see the humor and the faux-conceit in the post, then maybe it is you that needs to get down off of your high-horse. Especially considering that if you follow the links, I end up promoting your blog as much as I promote mine. If I was that high and mighty, why would I do that?
(3) Yes I said that some bloggers (and pretend analysts) will simply post press releases as a story, and if you search the blog aggregators, you will find dozens of blogs that do so. I don't need to point them out, and it would serve no purpose as my goal was to point out that blogs like Sourcing Innovation would never do that.
(4) If I want to criticize someone, you know for a fact I have no problem coming right out and doing so. There are plenty of comments on your blog that speak to that, as well as a few posts on mine (like "To All the Whiners ..." and "the doctor Does Not Believe In Self-Nomination" where I outright attack a traditional trade pub). So please don't infer intent where none is obvious. It leads down a path neither of us wants to tread.
Michael,
Over the years, you have taken many shots at Spend Matters, not by name, but by implication. Part of this is an attempt to define SI by what it is not vs. what it is (e.g. “gossip free”, in the header). I think anyone reading this post in particular could imply some of the potshots in it. Honestly, I do not understand it.
Believe me, if I wanted to see SI self-destruct (at least commercially), I'd stay quiet, because I don't think you realize how potential revenue sources look at you when you lash out and create an enemy (as an aside, I think there's a difference between being critical versus taking pot-shots). I pride myself on being a humorous individual, and I did not see it in this.
Michael, I want to see you succeed and build a successful business because there is room for multiple bloggers -- especially those with different strengths. We are in this together. You can take this criticism and respond by launching back at me or you can take it to heart.
Either way, I'll still be here. I just hope that you will as well because from a commercial standpoint, I have a good sense of what you need to do to make this an amazing success. Be true to yourself and your readers. If you come off as an unpleasant, resentful provocateur you might as well fold your cards because it’s a waste of time if you want to make this a commercial success.
Before I close on this, the reason I’ve spent a good 30 minutes thinking through and writing a response to your original post is because I care. I want to see SI thrive. Maybe it’s hard to see this. But I hope you do. You might ask why I’ve taken the time. I have no need to take what you say personally, but I do feel the need to respond. As of this week, I have never been busier on the consulting front (nor has our pipeline been stronger). Spend Matters is also on track to double over last year (or more) from a revenue perspective. Given the state of the economy, I could not be more thankful. But I want you to succeed as well as we can -- and hopefully will -- both benefit from each other and our mutual strengths and differences, both professionally and commercially. Above all, I want you to be here 12 months from now, justifying your time investment in SI with an excellent return.
Jason:
Now I'm starting to think you're paranoid.
Although you might be the only other independent blog in the space with a regular publication schedule, and the easiest target if I want one, you're certainly not the only blog out there. Have you checked out my blog list lately? (http://www.sourcinginnovation.com/resources/BlogListing.php) But more importantly:
(1) Although I may take the occasional pot-shot, this wasn't a pot-shot, and certainly not one at your blog (as it wasn't one at any blog in particular). When I do, it's a lot more obvious, and the foundation of a humor post. If anything, this was a pot-shot at me as I played up "the doctor" persona to match the ego someone would expect of anyone willing to call themselves "the doctor".
(2) I don't always get your humor either, but I've learned to recognize it most of the time.
(3) A definition of what something is not is sometimes just that -- a definition of what it is not. If you just try to define something by what it is, not everyone will get it. If you just try to define something by what it is not, not everyone will get it. Take a dual tack, and you have a better chance of getting your point across. Some of the definitions are in response to direct critique, including the tag-line. I don't know what you've heard trying to sell your blog sponsorships, but I've heard some amazing inaccuracies -- some so many times, that I feel I have to combat them in every way I can. One example is "blogs are nothing but gossip" and, the one that really got-my-goat, "our customers think blogs contain nothing but gossip". They're not, and they don't. So, while initial references to "gossip-free" in early posts may have been a bit of a generic pot-shot once upon a time, the tag-line emerged as a response to the ignorance I have encountered and the fact that I want to distinguish my blog from tabloid blogs that are more concerned with "breaking stories" than "getting the facts".
I can't stop you or anyone else from reading in implications that aren't there, but I don't know if I want to worry too much about it either. This is the web, and no matter what I write, there's always going to be someone out there who wants to read more in it than there actually is. I can tone down the humor, and please some, but the dry writing that will result will cause others to trail off. It's always a no win from that perspective.
All I can do is keep going, keep my humor posts down to an average of one a week, and do my best to make sure the content posts are as deep, accurate, and heavy hitting as possible. If it works, great. If not, I can always fall back on Enterprise IT.