My modest blog gets 200-300 unique visitors a week. Last week, I got more than 1,000 hits in less than an hour.

The reason: David Pogue, über-tech-columnist for The New York Times, retweeted a note that I sent to him about teaching adults how to sneeze (you can piece the exchange together above).

I didn’t send Pogue the note to increase my exposure. (And perhaps he knew that, too.)

But the lesson is clear: Marketers need to focus a whole lot more time and creativity targeting “influencers” to reach their target audiences more cost effectively. (Thanks, David!)