Day: September 19, 2006

tecosystems: A Word on Comments

tecosystems: A Word on Comments

“Make no mistake; comments are a good thing, and to be actively courted whenever possible. But don’t make the mistake of making them out to be something they are not – a pass/fail metric for you efforts.”

Stephen O’Grady of Redmonk, blogging at Tecosystems, takes exception to my assertion that “comments are king.” I agree with his point that comments are not the be-all measure of success, and that too many comments can cause a loss of audience connection, and further, that comment counts are not a measure of one’s own commentary on other blogs. While Stephen gives a nod to metrics tools such as Google Analytics and Feedburner, I still think we’re both looking for a measure of merit that may not exist other than the satisfaction of good old fashioned writing, commentary, and interaction on our own terms. Good post, go read it.

Blogs About Business Travel Begin to Feel the Power

Blogs About Business Travel Begin to Feel the Power – New York Times

Hmm. I’ve missed my calling. Given that most of my life is spent at 30,000 feet or in a strange bed, I should be doing more along the lines of the previous post.

“Some are taking them as seriously as the work of journalists. For example, Marriott International began an ambitious program to reach bloggers this spring. Its efforts included asking bloggers to speak to its corporate communications team, inviting them on press trips and offering them news in advance of print media.

“A lot of business travelers are getting their information from blogs,” said John Wolf, a Marriott spokesman. “We wanted to have a better understanding of blogs.”

To do that, Marriott assigned an employee to monitor the blogosphere and generate daily reports on what bloggers were writing about the company. It also began pitching bloggers on Marriott-themed postings, recently offering bloggers an exclusive about a plan to put airline check-in stations in its lobbies. “The news got out there within minutes,” Mr. Wolf said.”

The only “first class” seat on Southwest

12 F – in the exit row, no seat in front of it, enough room for Manute Bol to stretch out and I snagged it this morning. Such small victories make all the difference. You have to make eye contact with the nice steward and say “yes” when they ask if you are man enough to be the first out of the plane (I never want to be punching out some old lady in the rush to evacuate), but talk about easy living …..