In this, our fifth issue of The Influencer, we have a great new contributor. Barbara French, the much-respected West-Coast industry analyst watcher, started working with Influencer50 a few months back and writes here on how a few companies, notably SAP and HP, are now morphing their traditional analyst relations staff into broader-based influencer relations specialists. It's a seismic change and a sure-bet that many other firms will follow.

Read Scott Pearson's account of how several European companies are now using influencer marketing techniques to replace their traditional lead generation practices, and how the effectiveness of the two compare.

Duncan Brown explains why only now is Twitter worth taking seriously as an influential medium for corporate vendors. He writes about how BT has taken a surprising lead in using social media to encourage new business.

And finally I highlight further signs across corporate America that the days of the Corporate Communications Dept. are fast disappearing. Every time i explain to CMOs and other Marketing Heads how the writing is on the wall for the traditional CorpComms function i get nodding approval. And ever fewer arguments against it.

So, surely there's something in those four columns that should be worth ten minutes of your time.

If not, we'd love to hear from you on why you think we've got it wrong.

Nick Hayes

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Barbara French: Why AR heads are morphing themselves into Heads of Influence

Scott Pearson: Lead generation is the inevitable end-goal of Influencer Marketing

Duncan Brown: Why even corporates are beginning to take Twitter seriously

Nick Hayes: So how long has the CorpComms dept. got left?