Rather than give a public report card of each vendor’s response, I chose to share a broad impression of the panel. And you are correct to assert that it is unfair to “infer that the content of a brief conference panel fully relates to a company’s entire understanding of the market.” So I ask readers to limit the scope of my commentary to the panel session itself – and as a general assessment of the overall experience of that one hour, not as a critique of any one vendor (I’ve already done enough of that this week). The best way to evaluate a company’s understanding of the market is to look at the market. Sales and [real] case studies are a great measure of that. So this blog post should pose no specific concern for you.

The challenge here was not to sell but to empower the devoted e2.0 attendee with the information they needed to be your advocate. I think that “the vendors” (in general terms) could have shared more clear, differetiated, actionable messages for the participants take home and use. Moreover I wanted to hear the vendors truly demonstrate that they understand their clients. Why? Because I think that they could have done so. That’s my general feedback. I’ll address specific feedback that I think could help each vendor — offline. As I know that I have an open channel with you and the other vendors.

I have to disagree, respectfully, with some of the statements you made in this post. You made some broad generalizations about several vendors, and I don’t think that it’s accurate to infer that the content of a brief conference panel fully relates to a company’s entire understanding of the market. While I cannot speak for any other vendor, I can tell you that Socialcast is acutely aware of what our competition is doing, and that we have a razor-sharp strategy when it comes to helping clients understand how to connect microblogging with their business needs.

However, examining vendor differentiation and specific use cases during a short conference panel is a challenging feat. Our goal was to avoid giving what could have been construed as a sales pitch. With five vendors on the panel, it’s not simple to highlight how we compare to others in the space with more than a brief overview. We’ve all been to conference sessions that seem like infomercials; none of them result in anything positive for speakers or attendees.

The case for using any type of Enterprise 2.0 tool differs with every company. Some clients look for email replacement methods; others look to connect virtual teams. Each company has different needs, and thus we listen first, and speak second so as to provide the right case to each customer. These in-depth customer discussions are where we can effectively point out how Socialcast differs from other solutions on the market. We have not “fallen short of providing a clear path” to success. You just haven’t had the chance to be in one of our customer meetings where we work on a customized approach and plan based on their specific needs. There is no one-size-fits-all method.

There are many vendors in this space, so please don’t ever hesitate to contact us (and I’m sure this goes for the other panelists as well) if you need more data on what we provide specifically. We appreciate your recent in-depth article about Socialcast and we are always happy to explain the unique features and methods of integration into a company’s particular needs.