CT Biz Blogs

Here’s the story of what not to do when you blog. What a mess! This has resulted in dragging quite a few people and companies through the mud — Wal-Mart (ok, lots of mud there already), the blogger and photographer involved, Edelman, and even the Washington Post.

I won’t reiterate the whole sad saga here (Business Week has a good article about the Wal-Mart blog debacle) but here’s the gist of it:

The “blog” Wal-Marting Across America appeared, chronicling the travels of Laura and Jim, as they took an RV across the country. They stayed in Wal-Mart parking lots overnight (RVs can park for free there) and interviewed Wal-Mart employees across the land. The stories were all upbeat and pro-Wal-Mart. No one knew who these bloggers were and comments weren’t allowed, so Business Week and bloggers started investigating, and it all came out. Laura’s brother works for Edelman, Jim is a professional photographer for the Washington Post. They apparently are a couple, and actually on a vacation, which they managed to have Wal-Mart pay for.

And the repercussions go on and on. The Washington Post has a policy of not allowing outside work, so Jim’s in trouble. Edelman’s involvement was hidden, so they’ve got a black eye. No one’s looking good in this. Except maybe Business Week.

Some people are claiming that this was a setup from the start, and don’t believe Laura’s claim (told in the last post) that:

I started thinking about all the other amazing things there are to see in this vast country of ours. And then I started thinking about how Wal-Mart - one in every town, practically - lets you park overnight for free. The idea just sort of came together. We would take vacation from our full-time jobs and drive across the country in a rented RV, from city to city, spending the night in a different Wal-Mart parking lot every night.

Actually, the blog idea wasn’t bad. But here’s what they didn’t do:

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