Going Viral

Yesterday was probably one of the most surreal days I’ve had in almost 15 years online, by far. I’d been talking to Louis Gray about doing some guest posting on his blog, and had a cute little story that I didn’t feel fit in anywhere else, so I wrote it up for his blog as my first guest appearance. It was a cute little story about how I used Seesmic to get my toddler to bed the night before, the type of thing I call a throw-away post that requires zero effort other than writing it up. Louis’s blog generally has happy posts and baby stories so I thought it would be a nice way to dip my toe into his audience pool.

By the end of the day, I’d seen at least three other blog posts linking it, been interviewed by one of the technology writers for the Los Angeles Times, and Pete had gotten replies from Loic Lemeur himself, a point lost on a two-year-old that the CEO was telling her that he liked her contribution to his site.

As I told Jessica Guynn when we spoke, I’m insanely protective of my kids online. I’ve never used their real names in any forum, referring to them only as nicknames. I don’t post pictures. I supervise their online time like a hawk. I let Pete, the baby, on Seesmic only because they are nearly unrecognizable at two. She looks different every single day. And, well, because when you are the youngest of four, you tend to get your way a lot more than older siblings do.

Pete’s Seesmic video the other night was nothing more than me using one of her favorite things to calm her down. That another user responded with an idea to work through Pete’s fear was cool, but not the point of doing the video. That it worked for her was even better, and of course we had to reply with a thanks. We just thought it was a cute story to share the next day.

Pete has absolutely no idea who Loic is. She just likes his name and was excited that he spoke to her. She’s growing up online, in a world that’s so transparent that a CEO responds to her little video postings and it’s no big deal. In my childhood, the CEO was the man (and it was always a man) who sat in an office at the top of the building and no one ever saw him except on the news. In college I babysat for the corporate pilot for a CEO and you would have thought I was talking to royalty.

I can’t begin to imagine what the world will be like when Pete is my age. I do know that with all the concerns about privacy and silos of information and A-lists and backdoor meetings, one tiny (and I do mean tiny… at nearly three she is 23.5 pounds/10.7 kilos soaking wet) little girl got the attention of the blogosphere and a CEO for 15 minutes. That has to count for something, right?