So today I had a great discussion with a Vice President of a Software Sales company. He was very interested in a group of companies and what he could do to get into there office. I get a lot of cold calls from sales folks each day, but this was interesting. He did not want to sell me anything, in fact what we was hung up on was the fact that a person that was working as a SharePoint Administrator at one company had worked at all three over the past 2 years.
He was perplexed with how to address this, and figured I might be a good first contact. Being a visible SharePoint person in the Portland Metro area, he played a card and called to see if I knew the person or had any thoughts one way or the other.
So the challenge:
Many professionals in any industry walk a thin line when writing articles, blogs, or even tweets. Do you promote a product, or say one product is better than another. That is a tuff point, and once you cross the bridge in a document, or public way you can never go back.
That was the challenge in this case, the SharePoint Administrator, who I do know, and have worked with a few times, had been quoted in articles, blog posts, and tweets singing the praises of a particular product and company. Now that is not his current feelings, he has a more balanced view after that product did fail him on a project, but there is nothing on his blog saying that, and no articles have been published since……so the last word stands.
The Rub:
The Rub as I call it is now companies and even those in the industry would see it as he prefers the product, so why call him if you have a project using a different tool. See the challenge. Now this could all be superficial, and not valid, BUT do people really do that extra research, do that make that extra call…>>NOT USUALLY. Right, why take the time, just go to the next guy on the list.
Conclusion:
Putting yourself out there, like this in a BLOG is scary. You have a bad day, tweet the wrong thing, quote someone with out reference and bang…IT LIVES FOREVER ON THE INTERNET. Make sure you check you work, sanity check your thoughts before you publish.
Remember, if you are going to sing the praises of a product, be very specific of why, when, what, and who…that is fine, but make sure people know you are not aligned or working for that company. If you are going to align with a company just be ready to support that decision long term.
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