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Comments (4)
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Save/ShareBill Marriott, I'm disappointed in you. In this week's Travel Weekly, the chairman and CEO of Marriott International admits that he doesn't write all of the entries on his blog, Marriott on the Move; his public relations team contributes, too. That'd be fine, I suppose, if such posts were identified as being not by Marriott. But if you look at the handful of comments posted on the blog, you'll see that people think Marriott is doing the writing.
Why am I so annoyed by this? I'm not stupid (I hope), and I have a sense of how the world works; I know by now that a non-journalistic blog shouldn't be trusted more than a press release. I guess it's that I liked that Marriott was blogging; I thought that maybe he was really trying to communicate with his guests. And as someone who labors to blog interestingly and honestly whenever possible--sometimes to a fault--it irks me when I see PR types co-opt what could be a useful tool.
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Since there is never any negativity on the blog it makes sense. It really doesn't leave much room for guest feedback unless your comments are praise for Marriott, the man & the hotel.
Posted By gail klewicki on June 12, 2008, 8:21 AM
Oh, get over it! What makes you think a CEO/Chairman would even have the time to write all these blogs? You should already know that people with high end positions come in two ways: either they are really a good CEO/Chairman and am always working and in meetings or you have the lazy kind who just dumps everything on their secretary. So either way it goes, you shouldn't have expected so much from him in the first place.
Posted By Lor on June 13, 2008, 3:46 PM
Ok Lor, let's look at what is to Get Over. Let's take the Marriott posts from June 13 and June 10.
On June 13 Bill writes "We're all aware that there was a terrible earthquake in China on the 12th of May. My heart goes out to the victims and the families"
On June 10 Bill writes "I want to tell you what I learned when I visited our Salt Lake City Downtown Marriott Hotel. You know, I just love to hear stories like this. But I'm so proud of how our hotels responded."
1) If this is Bill's blog reflecting his feelings, then on June 13 post, whether is actually wrote it or not is in fact, not the issue, but are these his sentiments. Further, if asked, "Hey Bill tell me about how the hotels responded?" We would expect an accurate answer. The post would then reflect his feelings, and his knowledge about the topic being attributed to him. If he could not converse about these topics, then he is an uncaring, out-to-lunch CEO.
2) June 10, this post actually puts Bill at a place, the downtown Salt Lake City Marriott. Excellent, he is engaged with his employees and customers, what better place for a CEO to be! Unless of course he was at his villa in Naples, Italy on June 10 and this then becomes a bogus post. I am not suggesting that at all. I suspect that this post reflects both his location and sentiments as interpreted by a writer, and, hopefully approved by him. If so, then bravo for Bill and his PR team, if not, shame on the PR folks it is their responsibility to get it right or don't do it at all.
Posted By Albert Maruggi on June 15, 2008, 7:54 AM
I think you're being a little hard on Bill Marriott. You say you thought he was trying to reach out to his customers, and although he doesn't write every posting, by having other people do it too, he is consistently reaching out. If he was responsible for all the blog postings himself, there would be far fewer postings. Also, how many CEOs at his level do you know that even keep a continuous blog going? Most simply have their PR staff issue company approved postings on the corporation's website, and you have to navigate through their advertisements before viewing those postings.
Give him some credit. He's a very busy man, who still wants his customer base to feel connected to him, and I think that's really admirable.
Posted By Devon on July 18, 2008, 1:09 PM