You talkin' to me?

Courtney Liebenrood Ellett

Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, emailed me the other day. Yep, that’s right. And today, just 30 minutes ago, I got a message from him on my cell phone.

The above statements are absolutely true, but they might not mean exactly what you think they mean. No, Tim and I aren’t friends, and Pandora isn’t one of our clients. But I am a loyal Pandora listener. And that is why Tim contacted me.

Tim sent me (and most likely the other 52 million Pandora listeners) an email about an important piece of legislation that has just been introduced in Congress that could end long-standing discrimination against Internet radio. He asked me to contact my senator to urge him to support the Internet Radio Fairness Act. And guess what? Tim then provided Sen. Bob Corker’s contact info right there within the email. Sure, that info is easy to find, but to me, it was more than a convenience factor. I now KNEW that Tim was talkin’ to me. 

So, did I email Sen. Corker right away yesterday? I did not, but I did pay a lot of attention to the email and put it on my to-do list. Besides, and I hate to admit it, I’ve never contacted a politician before in my life – about anything! Then came the message on my phone. I was on my daily walk (listening to Pandora, of course), and between songs, Tim took the opportunity to follow up with me. It took maybe 10 or 15 seconds to reinforce the message of the email, and my next song started playing.

I came home from my walk, got on my laptop and emailed Sen. Corker right away. Within minutes, I received a “Thank you for contacting my office” email in response.

So yeah, Tim from Pandora was talkin’ to me. And better yet, I was listening.