In the modern world where everyone is faceless and you can use services without ever knowing anything about them other that how to use it I was very surprised to get an email from Barney who is an evangelist for Lijit. It was a very friendly note thanking me for trying the service and asking for any feedback. Nothing unusual here you may think, after all anyone with an email account has had automated emails. The differences here was that it was clearly not automated, he had been over to the site and passed comment on an article. I know this could all be done with ‘clever’ bots but the note went further. He wished me well for my start back at school and told me a personal anecdote about a family teacher. I just thought that this was a good thing to do to help build a user base for a new service, and on top of that it has had the additional effect of another blog entry on it’s behalf!
Mr. Jackson,
Thank you for this posting about how we operate at Lijit. I am lucky to work for Lijit and to be allowed to take the time to read blogs before I email. I think it’s why Todd Vernon has had success with Start up companies before, but it takes patience and guts to give co workers this kind of quality time at work.
In the 1970’s at Suffern Junior High, I had “Mr. Jackson” for what was called Social Studies, a conglomeration of everything NOT Math and NOT Science: It was the whole afternoon, and we always called him “Mr. Jackson” and he did not put up with any bull, especially the kind Jim Wikes and I tried to pull. I think his first name was “Ed” , but I only learned this after getting my Suffern Jr. High School Yearbook. So, um, unless I find out your first name or ever see your pic, you are kind of my own “Mr.Jackson” in my head, you know?