“The media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to paint an ugly portrait of General Motors… ” writes General Motor’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz in his FastLane Blog on March 30th 2005.

Lutz is clearly frustrated with what the traditional media is saying about his company. But his Blog lets him put his message out directly without the aid (or interference) of journalists.

Lutz goes on to squash a rumour:

“Many of you probably read something to the effect that “GM is considering shedding a brand.” Let me say it now, for the world to hear: No, we have no plans to shed a brand. Period.”

A blog entry is signed by an individual and is written in punchy, informal language. It’s much harder to think that he is fibbing because its so direct and personal that his own integrity is on the line. A stiff denial in a corporate press release wreaks of insincerity and few people, least of all journalists, believe it.

But GM isn’t afraid of its critics. A blog is a conversation with your readers. They can post comments on your entries, and they can also ‘track-back’ with links to their own blog. The difference here is that GM is talking directly to its customers and dealers, not to the press. There are lively discussions taking place on the FastLane blog. The underlying message is that the customer really cares about the GM product and GM really cares about listening to the customer.

The FastLane blog gets between 15,000 and 20,000 unique visitors a month. You can see from the comments that its readers include key groups including GM dealers and yes, journalists too.