All the attention from the quote on blogging in the Detroit News yesterday must have gotten to Mike Wiley, GM's Director of New Media — word is, he's departing the General, mommy-blogging wifey and kids in tow, and leaving the wilds of Toledo, Ohio to work for big-time PR firm Edelman in Chicago. So that's interesting — where does that leave the General's two misbegotten blog step-children, the FYI and FastLane blogs?
Well, we've heard that...
...Troy and Ann Arbor-based PR firm Hass MS&L staff, who've already been doing the majority of the work on the two sites will be continuing in that capacity — but as for who they'll be reporting to, we hear for the time being it's Bill Betts, the General's communications web services manager. Long-term, we've no clue — and we're guessing the General doesn't know either. But we're hoping it'll be someone who can beat the rather anemic performance of the Fastlane so far — "daily readership of 4,000 to 5,000 per day" - please...in GM's wet dreams!
Secondly, we've always kind of been concerned about the General's strategy in the blogosphere — starting with the creation of the FastLane and then a blog all about Chevy small-block heritage (what?), then the cancellation of the small-block blog and most recently the creation of the FYI blog. WTF! Can we get some kind of an explanation of what the strategy is here? We're starting to feel like GM can't get their shit together in the new media space because they're all too busy arguing with each other in the back rooms of the RenCen.
Which is why whoever next has Wiley's job has to not only talk adventurous about the interwebs, as we hear Wiley was all about, but be adventurous on the interwebs (to snag the traffic, baby). And that means content and it means speed (as one of the area's top PR pros said earlier today, "they succeed or fail based on their ability to get information faster than the big guys"). But that's not the only thing. While they're doing all that, at the same time they've got to be working out some kind of long-term strategy that doesn't involve creating a new site every other day and saying to hell with posting for weeks on end because one guy takes a vacation.
Blogger nation [Detroit News]
Related:
GM's FastLane Blog, We Knew You Well?; FYI: GM's Expansive Blog Empire [internal]