Marriott CEO, J.W. Marriott told many stories at the opening session of IABC International conference in New York. He gave the significantly large audience anecdotes about his parents, his golden retriever, his family and his blog.

In the latter case, the hotel chain magnate's blog was the reason why he was named IABC’s 2008 Excel Award winner, an honour bestowed on an executive who is using innovative, open communications to propel his/her organisation forward.

"Blogs are a cool way to tell stories,” Marriott said. And while 2 years ago the hotel owner had no idea what the social media  tool was, he soon got the hang of it after his Executive VP Communications demonstrated the effective ways blogs could be used to communicate with employees and customers in over 68 countries.

Beside being cool, Marriot was specific about the metrics generated from blogging.

Since his foray into blogspehre, Marriott on the Move  has received over 500,000 visitors and over 4,000,000 hits which the CEO said has translated into thousand of dollars in sales.

"I want people t know there is a guy called Marriot, and our employees are encouraged to use my blog to speak up."

In a world where CEOs are grappling about the complexities of blogging and how open they should be with employees, Marriott offered the following advice to his peers

• Make your blog personal
• Stay away from promoting your business
• Tell stories about what you love

Despite blogging on a range of  business issues, Marriott’s favourite postings still remain  those about his beloved golden retriever and his family. The reader's favourite has remained the one about tipping.