Social Media Trends – Part 2 of 4
Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO, and elder spokesman for the Marriott Hotel and Resorts – blogs. After hearing him speaking at IABC’s International Conference, this last week, the excuses that “I’m too old to do this social networking stuff,” or this “this company is too conservative to blog” and all the other arguments that my fellow communicators hear from their management are evaporating as quick as the Arctic Ice Cap.
Next time, your boss or client says they don’t have time to blog and do this other stuff. Say “$4 million.” That’s how much revenue can be directly connected to Bill Marriott’s blog in room reservations. He records it into a recorder and his communication team types it up and posts it for a busy guy who has to look after his many, many hotels and more importantly his 300,000 employees worldwide. Bill’s blog advice: “Make it personal, not about marketing.”
Until next time, Tim
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A blog is, at the end of the day, a voice. If you are a skilled, personable writer with a gift for engaging your audience, your blog will be interesting — whether it is about knitting, beet farming or the extramarital antics of elected officials. And if you are not possessed of a strong voice and actual writing talent, don’t blog just to stay “relevant”. The blogosphere has enough mediocre offerings already. A CEO who can not write engagingly is not furthering his company’s brand (or his own!) by blogging. Rather, he is just advertising what he is not.