Blogs as corporate tools

The first time people get in touch with Blogs, may think that they are just another entertainment tool created to show our friends funny stuff as some platforms we already have as Fotolog, Facebook, Clickr...Although we can also use blogs to that purpose, the global trend is not that one. Blogs are being a successful way to connect profesional people all over the world to talk about serious and relevant topics. We can see this now in milliards of blogs over the Web; however, in today's post I want to talk about a blog created by the vice chairman of General Motors as a new way to communicate with the customers.

Two years ago, Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors, when trying to find a way to have closer communication with customers, decided to rely on a new blog as an effective corporate tool. The corporate blog, called Fastlane (http://fastlane.gmblogs.com) enables Bob to start conversations with prospect customers about products, services or even the future of the company. Nowadays, this blog is not only one of Bob's passion, but also a trusted site in the Net. So, why did Bob Lutz decided to start this new adventure alone, without delegating the work to the communication department or any other worker? Some years ago, as we discused in class, corporate webpages were an effective and comonly used method to transmit the customer all the demanded information about the company. However, nowadays they are no more an appreciated communication channel by customers. While some companies trust in keeping track of the purchase data of their customers, others as Starbucks or Disney have realised that this may not be a definitive factor. The agility and precision that a Blog has to transmit the real needs of the customers made it one of the definitive channels for some multinationals to complement the other existing e-tools. In addition, it's necessary to point out that this is a powerful weapon to build product loyalty and generate product advocates, people who really feel the brand and have the willingness to spread a positive word-of-mouth.