I used to spend more time than I care to think about getting through people whose job it was to make influential people people hard to reach. An amazing tool was introduced a few years ago that makes it easy to get around these roadblocks and get invited in the back door.
That amazing tool is Google Alerts, which allows each of us to get our own private alert whenever Google discovers a new page that contains a keyword or phrase we find of interest. It turns out that there is nothing I find more interesting than reading about me. It happens that many busy and accomplished people share this weakness.
Instead of beating your head against the corporate firewall, do a little social engineering. Post a blog (or even a blog comment) with someone’s name and people will read what you say about them. Does it work? Let me show you with a shout out to some of our friends. I won’t email/text/poke any of them, just to make this a valid demonstration.
Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, Kevin Ryan, Aaron Wall, Rand Fishkin, Gord Hotchkiss, Jeremy ShoeMoney, Doug Klein, Bill Gates and Stephen Colbert, let me start by saying hello.
I really appreciate you stopping by and I hope you are doing well. I know you are all really busy and I am really sorry that I called you under what you might consider false pretenses. Since you are here and you have responded to my honey trap…please take a minute and say hello to some of our other friends.
Thanks… and I guess I owe you a beer or something.
Though I wouldn’t say I find myself the most interesting person to read about, I do absolutely believe in the power of Google Alerts for news about my clients – what they’re up to, how they’re faring, which companies they’ve moved to, which conferences they’ll be at so I can buy them a beer… Though these days I’m partial to Londer Estates Pinot Noir. Can we up your drink budget by 5 bucks Jonah?
Doug
Londer estates Pinot Noir, no problem.
Jonah
A Google Alert for “Matt Cutts” brought me here 🙂
So, yes, it does work.