@Dale- I hope to stay #2 forever (hahaha – like poop).

Would it work if everyone did it? No.

I’m calling this a social media experiment because it isn’t a marketing strategy or ploy. I personally think that if this approach is replicated for less than genuine purposes that it could really backfire. Brightkite will take off with or without me, I was just hoping to get as many people as possible attending Web 2.0 using it, so that we could all actually see if the value I’m projecting on the service actually turns out to be true. We shall see I suppose.

As someone who has been a “marketing guy” for a long time, the general rule of: right message, right time, right person, right offer still applies in social media.

There is no reason that crafting a well thought out post that is directed at a particular person or group in order to elicit a specific response or action cant work in Social Media.

Whats really cool about this, was it wasnt from Martin or Brady (the founders), but rather Jenn, who in her words “it’s not my product, just something I’m passionate about” is a user of the product.

And, thats the power of social media.

My first thought was how brilliant it is, and that I will now put your name in several posts to attract your attention, since you still have some attention left (just kidding, I don’t think I could make it work for my readers).

My next thought was, she wrote a post expressing how cool it would be if you were a part of it—does that mean it was purposely trying to “get to” you? Or does she sincerely feel this way? Aren’t we all getting a bit jaded to assume that people who post things are doing it as a ploy and not because they mean it? (I know, she linked to you three. I do that for my readers, too. It’s a wide world. Not everybody knows who Robert Scoble is!)

Having just done a birthday post at my blog where among other things I did mention my fave writers (I don’t do a blogroll, so this is a chance for my readers to see what I read), I would hate for anyone to think I said folks were my favorites just so I’d catch the author’s eye.

Jennifer’s comment took care of that. It sounds to me like there was (little or) no ulterior motive. She thought it would be cool; so it will be.

Thank goodness, because I still would like to be able to trust most people to say what they mean, even under the cloak of the Internet.

Regards,

Kelly

1. You’re not “famous” so ego surfing doesn’t yield too many new results (I fall into this group currently).
2. You’re “famous” enough that people write about you (Chris and Scoble and others fall into this category).
3. You’re so “famous” that you can’t keep up with what people say about you or what they’re saying becomes hurtful (Dooce falls into this category).

I’m just curious about when people move from one stage to another.

Chris, with all due respect, I hope you never move from 2 to 3. I hope that people never start saying negative things about you. I fear my pal Gary Vaynerchuk is currently moving from 2 to 3.

In the article, he poses the question, “Are you trying to be all things to all people – or specific things to specific people?” Her specific outreach to you worked quite well it seems.