I was pleased to see Bill Marriott of the Marriott hotel group had started a blog. It's a smart move to get closer to his customer base and get direct feedback on what they do and don't want. His blog on making all of the hotels in the group smoke-free (http://bill-marriott.blogs.marriott.com/default.asp?item=482866) demonstrated the company's values and elicited a lot of comments.
However I was disappointed to see that he gave a 'guest spot' to one of his employees to extol the virtues of the company's 'Pathways' programme - http://www.blogs.marriott.com/default.asp?item=509040. Marriott's organisation runs a great programme to help people get off welfare and become employed. In the blog a remarkable lady called Valerie McSwain describes her career at the company.
Her story is compelling but a blog, in my opinion, should be written by the person who owns it. If Bill Marriott had written himself about the remarkable people that work for him it would resonate a lot better. Unfortunately this came across as a blatant piece of promotion for the company.
It looks like the Marriott blog is a work in progress. To have someone as a guest blogger so early on in the blog's life will dent its brand, after all a blog is a personal product. More than that though, blogs shouldn't be used for promotional or commercial purposes - if they are they will soon sink.
Bill Marriott must travel a lot, I'd like to see him blog about the people he meets, why they're traveling and why they stay at a Marriott (or don't). His blog should be like a virtual hotel bar - a place where real conversation happens with real customers. The information contained in these conversations is gold dust. Bill should look to GM and Bob Lutz for a little inspiration.
Posted by: Carl | March 01, 2007 at 02:51 PM