Good Model For a Leadership Blog

The GM FastLane Blog is attracting quite a lot of commentary and opinion, with varying views being expressed on how effective it is as a means of engaging with GM's customers. I've posted commentary, too, most recently on the insights on how it started and how commenting is managed. My view is that, for its first executive step into the blogosphere, GM is doing a lot of right things with this positioning statement when the blog launched in early January what we can expect to see - commentary from GM leaders and an exchange of viewpoints. Just the type of thing you'd now expect from any business blog. And as with any blog, when you post commentary, you might get comments from visitors who have an opinion to share related to what you've said. In the case of this GM blog, with commentary being posted by the Number 2 man in the company (Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, now joined by another senior executive), it's no surprise that most posts attract plenty of comments. Does this mean that GM should respond to every comment? No, of course not. The audience may well be in control of the message now (as Intuitive Systems blog, first post by the new additional GM exec blogger (Tom Stephens, Group Vice President, GM Powertrain), and he says: [...] I want to highlight how when you begin to communicate with your customers in a venue that offers some level of equality for corporate and customer, the discourse itself proves to be of the greatest value. Go back to the GM article and start reading through the comments. In three days it's already acquired over 85 comments, mostly from customers who are quite likely car fanatics and a key customer segment for General Motors. Impressive. Customers are listening, and, more importantly, talking. And now, using your blog, you can hear them, raw, unadulterated, unfiltered by your Marcom teams. Well put. This gets to the heart of the point on developing meaningful conversations - what visitors say in their comments. In my most I said in my previous post that I like the way GM's blog is developing as a channel to stimulate dialog and provide a dynamic means of engaging with customers and others who have an opinion. It looks to be a good model for a leadership blog. Neville Hobson is the author of the popular Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: