New Year, new blog—at least over at General Motors, which launched its GMnext site and blog last week.
   Since Bob Lutz’s arrival, GM does seem more invigorated. GM FastLane, which has become a very popular corporate blog, paved the way. While that blog will continue, GMnext is about engaging consumers in a dialogue about the future of motoring and greater industry issues.
   And it really seems like GM is beginning to understand branding. Ten years ago, it thought branding was selling cars as though they were supermarket products. Now it is beginning to understand that engaging consumers and creating experiences are part of its task.
   Christopher Garber, Director, GM Global Communications Technology, wrote in the launch post, ‘If you haven’t been able to tell over the last few years, GM is really, really trying to do things differently, and not just in the way we’re designing and engineering our products.
   ‘This means telling our story, and spurring conversations both with and among the driving public, in a more honest and open kind of way.’
   To show even more that they know what they are doing, GM has had staff blog for a period before the launch, to get content on there and to have a tag cloud going. This obeys the usual rule that any venture must be launched internally before it goes to an external audience.
   Sales may be down for 2007, but I think blogging—and following through on consumer inputs—could well help GM regain its strength, despite forecasts of a depressed auto market in the US in 2008. Posted by Jack Yan, 12:24  permalink

comments

Post a Comment  Links to this post