Executive blogs and 'social media'

The development of social media has removed the distinction between journalist and audience. The internet has become the vast equivalent to a magazine's letters pages, with an audience potential beyond virtually any media that has come before it. This has created a "react or die" situation for organisations in terms of their communications strategies.

In the world before this one, accusations, criticisms or praise would make their way into the hands of concerned media, where, pending a hierarchy of editorial approvals, they would make their way onto pages or screens or airwaves for the public to receive. Now we live in a world where information or opinion goes directly to a global, open-access publication.

What this means for corporate communications is that praise or criticism, secret or damaging information can appear virtually out of nowhere and be common knowledge in a matter of hours. The stark reality of this is that there is virtually nothing that can be done about it. And that's not the only side of it: the public is now just a few keystrokes away, and companies are ignoring this access at their peril.

So how do corporations or other organisations protect themselves in a world where everyone has access to the media? How do companies benefit from this vast resource of public interaction? Well, the full answer to that is still being acted out online, but one of the key actions that has appeared is an immersive approach: the savviest corporations are out blogging themselves.

One of the more talked-about examples of this came from General Motors. GM introduced its FastLane blog at the beginning of 2005, written by vice-chairman Bob Lutz. The blog had three communications objectives:

- To develop two-way communication between GM and its customers, including unfiltered feedback from customers.

- To increase web traffic.

- Help GM overcome its image of being an out-of-touch, older company.

As well, way back in 2005, blogs were just beginning to be used by corporations, so creating the auto industry's first executive blog positioned GM as a technology leader.

While there was a strong drive to use the blog to promote new products - on the blog Mr Lutz and other executives challenged readers to test-drive GM's new lineup of cars and trucks - this wasn't the whole story. The blog was supported with posts and podcasts from many GM executives.

Mr Lutz still contributed at least half of the posts. And it was though his postings, most notably discussing how the company could rescue its boring vehicle interiors, that the blog really progressed and set a precedent for this new, open form of communication.

The response to the blog, and to the fact that the world's largest automaker had opened this public dialogue, was very strong and largely positive. The blog has attracted millions of visitors and thousands of posts from the public. At one point, more than 500 other blogs had referenced FastLane.

Off-line media were quick to take notice as well. Positive coverage came through in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and USA Today, among others. This was largely due to the fact that while GM was leading the way in this type of communication, the company's more marketing-oriented key messages made it through nonetheless.

More importantly, this active development of an online presence undoubtedly helped to stem the flow of criticism or negative online publicity. By getting involved in social media actively, GM was able not only to reach the public directly, it became a source of information in the world of social media, as evidenced by the large number of other blogs making reference to FastLane.