Nov
23
2005
More on whether GM’s Fastlane blog should talk about the company’s massive lay-offs, declining marke
Posted in the Category of Fortune 500 Blogs and In the News and Stuff and Writing Tips
More on this intriguing topic: should GM's Fastlane blog, osensibly focused on products (i.e. cars), be talking about or making direct reference to the recent news that the #3 company on the Fortune 500 is planning another round of massive layoffs, etc.
From Shel Holtz: GM isn't censoring Fastlane
From Stephen Davies: Should the GM blog address layoffs?
From Dave Taylor: Further discussion about the GM Fastlane blog
Call me a corporate stoodge... but I still agree with my earlier position that the Fastlane bloggers don't need to say much about GM's financial woes, at least not directly.
However, as I said in March 2005 about Corporate tell-it-not blogs, the GM bloggers do need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. (A number of executives contribute to the blog in addition to Bob Lutz.)
And I do wish Fastlane would tone down the cheeriness a tad... it does strike a truly discordant note with what's in the news these days about GM (declining market share, declining stock price, you name it).
It will be interesting to see how they handle the bad news on the blog going forward.
From the how-to-say-it without saying it department
Michael Wiley, GM's Director of New Media and a member of the Fastlane blog team, left this comment on Dave Taylor's Intuitive Life blog [scroll down to the third comment]:
"You're right that blogging at GM is a balancing act of many different stories, stakeholders and approaches that constantly demands focus. We decided early on that the blog's primary focus is on product, product development, vehicle design and quality. A vehicle company's reason for existence is to sell cars, so the selling piece gets some attention, too. Corporate issues such as staffing levels [my edit: layoffs] and facility usage [er, factory shut-downs] are not the blog's focus."
Michael, I know you well. It's OK to use the word layoffs, really.
On the other hand... I just thought of this.
Michael is savvy enough to know that someone doing a fine-tooth combed search for "GM" and "lay-offs" on Google just might unearth the comment he left on Dave Taylor's blog. And I suspect he'd rather his words not come up in that search result. No dumb bunny, he.
Weird and woolly...
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Comments
Kare Anderson said on November 29, 2005 at 02:27 PM
I got a chuckle out of his “We decided early on that the blog’s primary focus is on...” because the very nature of a blog is that you cannot control where it will go… because people may respond to comments, discussing, say lay-offs, even if the blog “owner” belieives it “should” be aabout the product, etc....
Ah, the Power of Us can be a tw-edged sword in this Age of Engagement as we are all feeling our way (I’m a newbie blogger at sausaalitobythebay.com_) and looking forward to seeing the book in 2006… for my clients in my “real” job… another fan of blogwriteforceos…
Mridula said on November 30, 2005 at 08:05 AM
Came to your blog from HBS article
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5111&t=technology
Really liked yoour take on GM blog and GM situation. I am quoting it with proper reference in one of my posts. Please let me know if you have any problems.
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