"If you're not blogging, you're an idiot," management uber-guru Tom Peters told hundreds of attendees at the Inc. 5000 conference. "No single thing in the last 15 years has been more important to me professionally than blogging... It's changed my thinking, it’s changed my outlook… it’s the best damn marketing tool and it’s free." In response to a question from moderator Susan Sobbott, president of AmEx OPEN ("True or False? You have control over your brand"), Tom said his perception of "brand" has changed since he started blogging in July 2004. "The brand is now…

It's not about your number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends, Seth Godin told me yesterday at the Inc. 5000 conference in Washington DC. Seth kindly agreed to a one-minute interview yesterday after his mainstage appearance with Tom Peters, moderated by AmEx OPEN president Susan Sinnott.

Busy day "liveblogging" the Inc. 5000 conference here in D.C. Here's what's I posted today:

Three Things on Jim Collins' 'Stop Doing' List

Dell VP Bob Pearson Listens to 10,000 Online Conversations Everyday

Dell also announced its new Facebook community today: Social Media for Small Business.

Contrarian Effect Co-author Elizabeth Marshall on Listening Instead of Selling

More TK including video Q & As with Seth Godin, Tom Peters and Ari Weinzweig, CEO of coolest small company Zingerman's.

While Michael Port was busy on stage this afternoon at the annual Inc. 5000 conference in Washington DC, his co-author Elizabeth Marshall took a few minutes to do a Q & A with me. Michael and Liz have just published The Contrarian Effect.

Q: Is it true that you and Michael considered titling the book The Costanza Effect? I'm a huge Seinfeld fan so that might have worked for me.

A: Yes, that's right. Michael initially thought of The Constanza Effect after seeing a Seinfeld rerun called "The Opposite." George Costanza (Jason Alexander) laments being…

"We’ve finished chapter 1 and we’re just starting," Dell’s VP Bob Pearson told me, noting that 1.46 billion people are online today but only 1.6 million of them visit Dell’s site daily. VP BP, as he’s called, is in charge of listening to the 10,000 conversations about Dell that take place every day online. With his team of 42, Dell enters about 100 of those conversations a day, Bob said. They do it via blogs as well as the newly-popular Twitter. Dell has 65 official Twitterers, including digital media team member@RichardatDELL, who has 1,779 followers. I’m sitting in…

Good to Great guru Jim Collins asks "Does everyone here have a To Do list?" Hundreds of Inc. 5000 entrepreneurs are assembled for his main stage presentation. All hands go up. Then he asks: "How many people in this room have a Stop Doing list?" Appreciative murmurs, but few hands.

He says he won't pose the existential question. "I will leave it up to you whether to put a Stop Doing on your To Do list."

An attendee then asks what's on his Stop Doing list. He thinks briefly and responds: His major Stop Doing this year is to…