In the last few months I've noticed an increase in an interesting communication style. I'm on the receiving end of what has become a near-daily volley of "could you consider blogging this" kinds of requests. That in and of itself isn't new....it's been happening for a year or two. The requests are quite varied -- some are mass-mailed press releases, some are business partners or other vendors asking for mentions, some are customers looking for advice or help with issues, and some are IBM colleagues or others looking for visibility for their projects.
First, let me make this clear -- I like to hear from you. I wouldn't post a "contact me" link on the blog, or feature my e-mail address in a zillion other places, if I was trying to cut down or off these external communications. The e-mails, IMs, and other communications I get are what really help me stay in touch with the pulse of the market.
However, it's a little frustrating to deal with multiple attempts for attention. I'm not sure there is a way to manage it, but sometimes I get the same communication three or four times -- work e-mail, personal e-mail, txt, twitter, cell phone call, etc.
The more difficult challenge these days is the "double down". I've seen it for years in e-mail, when someone sends out a request for help. When they don't get a response in ten minutes, they try someone else, not alerting the first person that they're now trying a second person, nor letting the second know that they've already tried the first. Or, in an attempt to make their request more personalized, they take essentially the same communication and send it to more than one person simultaneously (or nearly so). My colleague Jack calls this a "spray-and-pray"...in the blog world, perhaps it's like a "poke-and-hope".
The problem with these is that it almost always comes out that they've done a mass-customized e-mail. If I see another IBMer blog about a topic that someone contacted me about, the feeling is not very positive. I realize that I was just another port in the storm, a possible avenue for the message. Or, sometimes, they've e-mailed the same message to a close friend of mine, and we compare notes and find that the same request came both ways.
In the end, the tactic isn't all that different than a PR agency pitching reporters (and as we all know, bloggers have in some ways become additions to the PR beat). Still, when a story is being pitched, it is usually made clear that it is a general market pitch, or offered as an exclusive, or there is a part of the message that is hoped to be unique from the perspective of the person being pitched. I'd like to think I add a personal and/or unique perspective to everything I post here. Frankly, when I don't, y'all usually smell the stinker, and I get very few comments. Thus, I'd like to find a way to continue to be approachable, useful, and interesting, without being redundant or another voice in the echo chamber.
As readers, how are you dealing with multiple similar inputs or content?
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David Gursky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine | 5/4/2008 7:23:12 PM
FWIW, I was on the software side of Eagle...
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Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 5/4/2008 8:33:20 PM
I like when people email you and I (and presumably others) the exact same thing.
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Gregg Eldred http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf | 5/4/2008 9:17:09 PM
I posted on a tool that may help with topics:
{ Link }
but it may not help with your issues. :-)
The blog requests I get are usually outside of the Lotus Notes/Domino space which wouldn't put me in the echo chamber. And when I do come across something in Notes/Domino space, I usually check Planet Lotus to see if anyone else has picked up on it.
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Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 5/5/2008 5:47:49 AM
It's very rare that anyone asks me to participate in such things, Ed, but on the occasions that it happens, unless I know that I have a genuinely unique take on the matter, I ignore the request. I think a blog is intended to be a personal reflection, and something has to be super-special for me to throw my voice into a crowd.
edbrill.com is valuable for it's individual perspective on things. There's no need to dilute that by posting also-ran PR blogs.
I say go with your gut. If it's something you want to talk about, talk about it. If it's something sent to you, ask yourself whether you would blog about it if you'd found it yourself. Whether it's a request to be a PR channel or not, would you have blogged about (thinking of what has to be a recent example here) the ILUG conference schedule being out? (You were, like, 8th out of 12 on that or something.)
All of this, of course, doesn't apply to me. When I email you something to blog, you should drop everything and blog it right then. That's just sound communication practice. :-D
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Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/5/2008 7:29:33 AM
Interestingly, I chose to blog the ilug agenda on my own...no request from anyone. What I really wanted to do was draw attention to the fact that there are still open seats at the event.
Otherwise, gut instinct is a reasonable measure. But my gut is a little bigger these days than it should be....need to change that :-)
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Gary Rowan | 5/5/2008 8:21:40 AM
Ed,
Knowing that our communication has brought about possible and actual blog topics, I can only say that when we are discussing topics, I am looking for your take on the issue at hand. Should a blog come about from it, so be it. For others, it may be natural for their first thoughts to be "this may be a topic worth blogging". However, anything more than that initial 'possibility' should be questioned. Again my opinion only, but contacting you multiple times seems a bit much, so I agree with Nathan. Go with your gut.
....and of course, my insight should be held with the same level of importance as Nathan's :)
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Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 5/5/2008 8:43:04 AM
I'm pretty isolated from anything like this. I'm not in contact with people very much other than through the blogs. A few people on IRC or bleedyellow's Sametime have suggested blog topics to me but it's not a common occurrence.
I think you're in a delicate position. You want -- some might even say need -- to be accessible and responsive with your blog topics, but at the same time it would be easy to get in the situation of being one of a dozen or so fairly visible Loti that gets hit with the same requests. That seems to be the case, and hopefully this post gets the message out to people that you don't want to be part of the echo chamber, and you have ways of knowing when they're basically playing you.
I never pass anything on to you with the idea you might blog about it. The stuff I send your way is purely informational. If I really wanted it blogged I'd do it myself. :-)
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Bob Heiny http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.com | 5/5/2008 8:57:33 AM
I usually ignore them, but do find some interesting information that I may use as a stimulator for a future post. Perhaps I have a smaller gut than some.
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Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 5/5/2008 10:11:35 AM
Interestingly, I chose to blog the ilug agenda on my own...no request from anyone.
Sorry for making an assumption. But that makes it a great litmus test, doesn't it? You weren't prompted by the ILUG team, and elected to blog it on your own, even though many highly visible blogs already had. So that's your future criteria, even when prompted. "Would I blog this on my own, even if others already have, like happened with ILUG?"
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Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 5/5/2008 11:11:09 AM
Nobody ever suggests topics for my blog - maybe they're afraid I'll actually write about them! In which case, good call on their part. *snicker*
I've been known to send you a link or two, if I think you may not have seen them, but only to you. And in the infinitely-connected world, my assumption increasingly tends to be that you have seen everything. The various news filters available make it likely that everyone has seen all the news about "Lotus Domino" or "Lotus Notes" or whatever your search query of choice.
This sort of thing happens to so-called A-List bloggers around the world, I'm sure. Has there been a meme on how to handle it? Seems likely?
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Steffen Pelz | 5/6/2008 8:44:34 AM
Usually I ignore information that is given twice in different blogs... if it's too often I quit reading.
Reading blogs is my way to find different thoughts on stuff, not personalized ads. ;)
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Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 5/7/2008 9:02:25 AM
I have a new blog about electricity consumption in household gadgets...could you write about it?
:-D
My solution is to move to Vermont and only deal with events measured in seasons...