GM FastLane Blog
Case Study for Business Blogging; Winner of Best Use of Internet/New Media and PR Innovation of the Year PRWeek Awards
General Motors’ FastLane blog features the candid thoughts of General Motors Vice Chairman and consummate car guy, Bob Lutz, as well as other GM executives. MS&L designed and manages the blog, consults with GM weekly on editorial planning, reviews and summarizes comments weekly, analyzes monthly web traffic patterns, and looks at what other blogs are saying about the FastLane blog. The biggest evolution in GM’s blog strategy occurred when it launched the FYI blog. Its mission is to tell the stories of ordinary GM employees and to celebrate the car culture. This helped the FastLane blog sharpen its mission: it is about GM executives talking about cars and trucks.
The FastLane blog has earned GM phenomenal attention from bloggers, PR practitioners and the technology and automotive press. It has attracted thousands of frank comments from readers, engaging GM in an unprecedented dialogue with its customers and would-be customers. GM FastLane has become the de facto case study for the business blogging industry, with in-depth discussion and analysis at a dozen blogger conventions. GM and MS&L won two major PRWeek awards for the FastLane blog in 2006 and an award from the Holmes Report in 2007.