WebProNews

General Motors launched a new blog Wenesday, the FYI Blog. In an introductory post, GM's director of new media, Michael Wiley...

...outlined how GM intends this new blog to complement the current FastLane Blog (written by senior executives led by chief blogger, vice chairman Bob Lutz), and what the new blog will focus on:

• Cool Stuff - Stories about innovations; product, technology, facilities and manufacturing
• Our People - Profiles of GM employees and their unique jobs, careers, etc
• News - Good News stories, including items that you may otherwise never hear about
• Opinions - GM op/ed pieces intended to shed light on issues in the news
• Guest Voices - Blog entries written by third parties who are not GM employees

Wiley said that the FYI Blog "provides an opportunity for all GM employees to contribute in one way or another."

While the new blog will no doubt attract critical comment by GM observers who seem to see underhand PR practice behind corporate blogs, I think GM has earned significant credibility with how they use social media (blogs and podcasts) as a means for genuine engagement with people.

So there's good reason to view the FYI Blog as an extension of a communication strategy intended to further the objectives demonstrated by FastLane - develop another unfiltered voice that's in engagement with a broad audience - including employees - to spread the conversation about GM and its products and services.

And I'd say it's a good tactical move among other communication activity to help change people's perceptions about GM, as Bob Lutz noted in a FastLane post early last month.

A bold move, one that I think deserves success. Time will tell.

Related post:

FIR interview with Michael Wiley, 22 February 2005

Add to DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web

Technorati:

Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology. Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: NevilleHobson.com.