At the Speed of Blogosphere

Not too long ago, I was working with a well-respected high-tech blogger who opened my eyes a bit wider to the world in which he works. Those of us who have been in PR for a while remember the momentous shift from print to online media. The recurring and fixed daily/weekly deadlines seemed to fade away. Or better yet, they turned into "any given moment" deadlines depending on what was going on in the world. And that's what brings me to my eye-opening wider experience.

I knew the blogosphere was a real-time environment, but I didn't how real-time. I pitched a blogger on an online event to take place within the next seven days or so to allow ample time for him to decide if he was interested, ask questions of my client and write something up. He got back to me within hours of my email saying he was writing something up as we spoke and if I could answer a few questions via email that would help him out. I suggested that he get a few quotes from my client during a quick phone call, but he said he needed to get something posted within an hour or so. He said they do things "day-of," so he couldn't put it off any longer. The eye-opener was that he considered day-of to be the day I pitched him - not the day of the event. But everything worked out great. He wrote up a very nice and thorough blog, and very promptly, I might add.

More recently, I was working with a different, well-known blogger, who provided another peek into the real-time, competitive blogosphere. As soon as he was finished posting a blog that included my client, he emailed me with the link and asked me to share it widely. He was obviously wanting to take more control and help influence the traffic driven to his blog. And why not? I'd do it too if it were my blog.

It seems as if working in that world is faster and more competitive than I originally thought. Or maybe it's that it is still getting faster and more competitive every day. Whatever the case, I hope I was able to help those two bloggers, and any other media people for that matter, do their jobs a little better and a little faster. If any of you have anecdotes to share about a day in the life of a high-tech blogger today, please share. It can help us help you.