Thanks for the email tip… until now, I had email pegged as just an easy way to mail Mom…

Yes, none of the alli audience reads your blog.

Transparent would be posting the same request publicly on the alli blog. "Please, shy fatties, respond! Glaxo is feeling lonely!"

Transparent would be letting us know who are the "folks I know" who got the e-mail, and why you chose us.

I agree, Debbie; it's not that big a deal. It's not a wholesale fake blog, as happened with Wal-Mart.

But it's dumb nonetheless, and unseemly and tone deaf to the blog culture about which you profess to be a leading expert, and I'm just about 100% sure you won't do it again.

Two things occur to me. Firstly, the warning light should have flashed for Debbie when she added "No need to say that you know me, of course."

Secondly, she is either trawling her email contacts list for people who happen to be fat and therefore interested in the product (and as most bloggers show their faces not their stomachs you can see her problem) or she is inviting PR bloggers to comment on a commercial pitch. If you are trying to build dialogue with real people there are probably better ways of doing this than soliciting comments from PRs with an interest in CEO blogs.

Personally, I would rather cycle up mountains than take some horrible potion that provoke 'oops moments' – that's what wine (and, unfortunately in Debbie's case) blogging are for.

In Debbie's follow up comments, she never addresses that second sentence. To me it's the one sentence I take issue with. It's the one that calls the rest of the email into question. Were it not in the email, it would not be a big deal.

Paull Young sent me a note today as part of a mass send about a project he's working on. He handled it transparently and I have no issue with his note.

What's your source for, "alliconnect blog has attracted almost no readers"?

Apologies if I'm missing the obvious somewhere, but I feel like I haven't specifically picked that up from what I've been reading on the subject.

Thanks,
Michael Sebastian

2) Because of her plaintive appeal. If readers where streaming to the blog, Weil wouldn't be gambling her reputation on pimping comments. When a consultant goes desperate, times are real bad on the engagement.

3) 27 years experience listening to and watching corporate jargon, bullshit, CYA moves, bad excuses, appeals…

So. "Almost no readers" = "far below what GSK was told they could expect."

You really are a j–k. You don't know me (and I've never heard of your blog til yesterday). Traffic to the alli blog is just fine. The GSK folks I'm working with do want a two-way conversation. Read the blog for goodness sake… Or send me an email with questions. I'll be sure to keep it private (heh heh).