I’ve had a variety of Alpha bloggers at Hitachi Data Systems, but today was even MORE special as I hosted a blogger from the data storage industry. I had the privledge of taking to lunch Anil Gupta, a Data Storage blogger that’s very active (and quite vocal) in the Data Storage Blogosphere. My role as a ‘Community Manager’ is usually online, however I’m starting to meet folks in our industry in person now, it’s a natural evolution. My CTO, Hu Yoshida really wanted to meet Anil, I’m far from being as interesting, but we had fun anyways.

We had a variety of conversations:

• Heh, he doesn’t like it that I treat him like an analyst. Paid or unpaid, Anil, you do make analysis and decisions, folks read them and you influence them. Remember markets are conversations!
• He told me that his impression of HDS has been changed due to the blogs and forums, to me, that’s an amazing, amazing compliment!!!
• Anil was surprised when I told him that the HDS bloggers are not edited or screened, they all have access to their blog accounts and publish at will.
• I think I convinced him that his opinion is indeed important, influential, and I take him very seriously regardless of if he has 1 or 1000 readers, every voice matters.
• I know what it’s like to be pitched, as web companies pitch me all the time
• Surprising, he didn’t like my approach on ‘building a relationship’ vs just a pitch. Sorry Anil, I’m not going to change, more on that to come in the future (edit: I still stand by my thoughts on ‘How to pitch to a blogger‘)
• Anil called me a ‘Blog Manager’, which is funny because that’s just one part of my job.
• Lastly, your employers should feel lucky to have you, A few weeks ago, I recommended to our recruiters to hire from this list that I put together of passionate folks in our industry.

Anil, you and other Data Storage bloggers are always welcome at Hitachi Data Systems, please let me know next time you’re in town, next time I’ll take you to San Jose Japantown at Hu’s favorite sushi joints.