I wrote earlier this month about the ongoing promotion by a Southeast US regional bank running a check card promotion through June 30th. By 9 AM on the morning of the post Howie received a tweet from said bank (in my Twitter account) thanking us for mentioning their promotion on the blog. That’s kind of spooky to me on several levels.
1. I don’t know how to receive those notifications on Twitter (techno incompetent)
2. My little blog is being watched by a regional bank?
I understand the airlines and hotel programs checking in on the Frugal Travel Guy blog every now and then to see what were saying. (I wish IHG Group would so I can get my free anniversary nights). It is quite helpful at times. The gang at American Airlines dispelled a rumor quickly several weeks ago and I appreciate them doing that for a reader. And I’ve got words of thanks from Hyatt as well for mentioning a new promo of theirs.
When I originally wrote the post, I did not include the FlyerTalk thread reference and link to that discussion. In that discussion it was mentioned that phone applications for accounts were being accepted from states outside of the bank “footprint” I added that to my post. Not one hour later the bank in question tweeted again indicating that the applicant must be in the _______ Bank “footprint”.
“Big Brother” is Watching Every Word.
I’ve had disagreements in principle with other bloggers at times about laying things out too clearly in blog posts. I think it does kill deals. In fact, Daraius from MillionMileSecrets and I talked about it two weeks ago and he suggested my point may be right. We may need to be more cryptic to prolong deals.
The problem for us is, we just don’t know how much, how often, or by whom we are being monitored. Did this regional bank have me on their radar for personal scrutiny or is there some sort of technology that allows these big corporations to see whenever there company is mentioned? I do know that anytime the press does a piece on the Frugal Travel Guy, I get a “Google Alert”. Maybe they get a “________ Bank Alert”
I don’t know if there is a right answer here. We want you all to have the best deal, latest promo, and provide you with as much detail as possible, but don’t want to be the cause of a deal going south on us. Are we all destined to belong to private groups sharing info offline?
In light of my recent “follow” by a regional bank, I guess I’ll continue with not laying out every single detail with intricate written precision. Maybe those details are best left for private conversations.
Readers, please chime in. When you do , try to come up with a constructive suggestion on how to spread the word to all that may benefit from the bargain and yet not kill the goose that laid the Golden Egg.
