Kudos to the TSA — the airport security folks — for opening up a lively blog.

As the first poster, Kip Hawley, says (and you can read about all the bloggers here):

One of my major goals of 2008 is to get TSA and passengers back on the same side, working together. We need your help to get the checkpoint to be a better environment for us to do our security job and for you to get through quickly and onto your flight. Seems like the way to get that going is for us to open up and hear your feedback…

And if there’s any evidence required that the public wants to engage, that very first post — a mere welcome message — has gotten over 300 comments so far.

[Tags: tsa blogging security airports ]

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One of my cousins sent this photo around to the family mailing list. It must be as old as the Internet — old enough to have lost its attribution — but what the heck.

The title of the photo is “Winner of this year’s ‘Not My Job Contest’“:

[Tags: humor photos white_lines roads ]

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The subject line of a message from Infoworld interested me: “Social Networking: A Challenge for the Business World.” The message turned out to be spam from an advertiser to whom InfoWorld had given my email address. (I must have neglected to uncheck and opt-out box somewhere. Foolish me.) Inside was an offer:

While social networking sites create new opportunities for users to communicate in real time, this technology can lead to negative consequences. MessageLabs can help your business take advantage of the benefits and protect itself against the risks.

I bit. I clicked on the link, thinking it would be interesting to see which fears the Vendors With Solutions are stirring up.

But, the link leads to a registration form with 14 required fields to fill.

Message received, MessageLabs! Sayonara!

(BTW, if you’re from MessageLabs and want to comment on this post, you must first click on this link. Thanks.

Ok, but seriously, these registration forms are usually a bad idea. 1. Most of the leads you gather will be useless, and useless leads cost money to cull and chase down. 2. The information you’re offering is probably available elsewhere more easily (the hard lesson of abundance), so even low hurdles are too high. 3. Gathering info from your users is not a neutral act; it positions you as stingy with information, lacking confidence, and ready to exploit your customers.

[Tags: marketing cluetrain ]

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The Harvard Business Review blog ConversationStarter asked a bunch of people what they think the issues for managers will be in 2008. Sean Silverthorne has compiled a list.

I wrote about the need to deal with a world in which customers, information and relationships have all scaled.

(Note to self: In 2008, try to use the phrase “got big” rather than “scale.”) [Tags: hbr 2008 business management ]

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Alitalia lost my luggage. It happens. It’s been two days and they still haven’t delivered it. It happens.

But here’s what shouldn’t happen. When you’re at the airport registering the lostness of your luggage, the last step before they send you home to live in the clothes you arrived in is the Bestowing of the Toiletries. The little bag contains the cheapest possible bathroom utensils the airline can find: A toothbrush as rigorous as a cotton swab, a chunk of deodorant floating loose in its container, a razor blade fashioned from the sharp edge of a tuna can. But the last straw was the one piece of clothing included: A white undershirt on to which they’ve printed their logo. Not only does this render it useless if you happen to be wearing a shirt of any translucency, why do they think I want to advertise their business for them? What part of “I’m pissed off” don’t they understand?

Likewise, when you’re put on hold by a business, why would they think you’re in a mood to listen to their ads…especially if you’re put on hold while trying to get technical help? What are they thinking?

If you have an emotional IQ above than that of your average rattlesnake, you can figure out that marketing to customers when they’re pissed off at you requires apologies, extra care, patience, and humility, not happy jingles and cheery logos.

Grrrr…

[Tags: marketing business pissed_off ]

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I’m glad Facebook decided to reverse its most egregious defaults so that not clicking “yes” will now mean “no.” Good.

But in this matter Facebok overall is showing itself not to be on its users side. There is no reason not to give users a big red opt out button — making the whole thing opt in would be even better — except that FB knows we would use it. FB is choosing its own interests over its users’.

And, no, not every company does that. Sure, there’s self-interest in all that we do and all that our organizations do. But companies choose sides. Almost all companies use their customers. A few are truly on their customers’ side. Now we know where FB stands. [Tags: facebook ]

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I’m watching the tivo’ed version of episode #9 of Heroes. And because so many of us have the audacity to watch programs when we want to and not when the network says we should, the network has posted in-place ads over the episode as if it were a Nascar race car.

Wow. How customer-hostile can you get? [Tags: advertising marketing cluetrain heroes ]

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