Gee, heard any news on the blogosphere this weekend? No? Really? Well, here's the two-cent summary....


Uber-blogger Robert Scoble was offered, and accepted, a VP position at start-up PodTech, leaving Microsoft after about three years.

Here's the thing that you, as a marketer, need to learn from this. The rumours started Saturday night. Like at 8-9 PM Pacific time. And the blogosphere went nuts. I was up until after midnight that night tracking the news. Scoble himself posted at 11:15 and there were links back to his post in minutes.

Let's call this the Scoble effect and consider what it can mean for a marketer. When something happens that catches the blogosphere's fancy, the words "spread like wildfire" don't even begin to describe the speed at which information spreads.

As a marketer, you must be ready for this. You must know how to watch what is going on and most of all react.

Even Scoble was caught a bit off-guard. This was a leak and the news wasn't due to break until yesterday (Monday). Here are Scoble's own words from a post Monday (he didn't post much between Saturday night and then).

I am learning a lot about how media storms happen and what can be done about them when they happen (there are some things you can do, for instance by being available to answer rumors – that's one reason my cell phone is on my blog. Another one? Post fast, post often, and answer the most common questions. But, the biggest one? Learn how to hang out with, and talk with, and make friends with bloggers, podcasters, videobloggers, and virtual worlds' influentials).

For marketers without a blog, have one waiting in the wings all set up, ready to go (Steve Rubel talks about this). If you have a blog ... keep an eye on the space, and don't think that bloggers take the weekend off ... 'cause we don't.

Idea kernels for this post: Blog Business Summit, Rob Hyndman

Tags: Scoble effect, Robert Scoble, blog marketing, business blogging