Bogus blog alert

Hey now. Bill Marriott is blogging. Bravo, Bill, and welcome to the blogosphere. Bill begins by telling us….

I’m venturing into uncharted territory as I launch this blog. A year ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was — until my Communications team began telling me about all the blog traffic on travel and tourism. Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly — and hear back from them. Soon we’ll add an audio version of the blog. That’s how I’m most comfortable: telling stories and listening.

I’ve checked out Jonathan Schwartz’s blog at Sun Microsystems and “Randy’s Journal” at Boeing. I’ve listened to Senator Barack Obama’s blog podcasts. I know blogs will be a hot communications tool in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Truth be told, I’m not very good with computers, although I couldn’t do business in today’s fast-paced economy without my cell phone, and my grandchildren have gotten me hooked on my iPod. I know our guests expect the very latest technology when they check-in to our hotel rooms and we’re moving quickly to provide that. I’ve also hired the most talented and innovative team of leaders in the lodging business, and they’re helping me move into this brave new world of communications technology. Ten years ago when my people first started talking about selling room reservations over the internet, I was a skeptic. Today Marriott.com is not only the biggest website in the hotel industry, it’s also our fastest growing reservations channel. I’m a convert!

Permit me to offer a suggestion. Read The Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s free, sort of like a Gideon Bible in one of your hotel rooms. The first paragraph reads:

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Your blog is not authentic. For shame. The comments to your first posting are ludicrous. It’s odd that your comments are writiten in fully formed, grammatically correct sentences. And they all appear to come from Americans. And that they throw only soft punches.

The timing of comment submissions more or less prove they are fake. You first posting is dated 12:01 am, January 16. Comments are dated:

16/01/2007 6:31:14 AM
16/01/2007 7:30:50 AM
16/01/2007 8:21:00 AM
16/01/2007 9:53:15 AM
16/01/2007 10:25:51 AM
16/01/2007 10:32:09 AM
16/01/2007 10:36:45 AM
16/01/2007 10:50:21 AM
16/01/2007 10:52:20 AM
16/01/2007 11:00:02 AM
16/01/2007 11:37:38 AM
16/01/2007 12:06:04 PM
16/01/2007 12:29:08 PM
16/01/2007 12:42:43 PM
16/01/2007 12:59:47 PM

No, Bill, the world doesn’t work this way. As Steve Jobs has famously said, “Life is random.”

You can fool all of the people some of the time. You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Was your first comment really made by someone named Abraham Lincoln?