Detroit Joins The Web 2.0 World
General Motors has launched a new blog, GMnext, which is built on my favorite blogging platform, WordPress. They’ve also mentioned a Wiki is on the way as well. But the most interesting fact about the announcement is that the GM executives are the ones who will be doing the blogging.
This is kind of a “duh” in my mind. As Detroit continues to stumble from its past years of arrogance and closed mindedness, it’s nice to see things coming around. If you’ve hung around me long enough, then you know what I think about outbound messages. These are the words used when a company advertises, markets or brands on the notion of what they think you need.
Whenever that happens, it’s always going to spell bad news. It’s too easy for a company or institution to start navel-gazing at their own achievements and lose sight of their customers or users. At some point the two begin disconnecting and things go horribly south.
I’ve tried to have conversations with people about this and for some people it’s a bit hard to grasp. In fact I believe someone recently asked, “You’re not going to have any outbound messages?”
I nodded in agreement “That’s right,” but then I thought about it. That’s probably not entirely accurate. Someone has to say something at some point, but - when is that the natural thing to do?
Take me for example? How many times do I mention Superstarch on the CitizenWausau blog? Somebody once asked me, “Why wouldn’t you want to market the projects you’re doing?” I answered, “Because nobody wants to read about my stuff.” And that’s true, this site is about Wausau, not me. Besides, it’s not community building anyway, that’d just be “blah blah” navel gazing, right?
The point is that I use the Superstarch site to talk about what I’m doing for other clients and stuff that interests me (hopefully win new clients along the way). My ‘marketing’ comes into play by how I design websites or products for others. If the potential new client ‘digs it,’ then I’m golden. If not, no soup for you! But at some point, I have to take the first step and say, “hey, go look at my work.” That’s about all the outbound messaging I should ever have to do.
Eleven months ago, I went to San Francisco to help a start-up get their software service online. The team of talented programmers & engineers had an amazing vision, but not so much on how to design User Interface (UI) for people. The best thing I knew how to do was to get involved with the direction of design. I took feedback from my surroundings of friends & professionals who were excited about the idea - we explored Web 2.0 concepts & tools that were out there and brought them back to the team.
I talked to them about simplicity:
- why should it be simple?
- how would simplicity make the tool great?
- who’s going to use it & why?
We tested a heap of similar web apps with intuitive ideas for solving complex use cases with a simplified UI. We watched to see what other pe0ple were picking up on. We spent time in the community of the people who build, use and enjoy these apps daily. We lived our life online.
Personally, I started collaborating. Got involved with user groups, Barcamp, Netsquared, Creative Commons, co-working spaces, and many other off-line communities. Not because I wanted to sell this new Start-Up to anyone. Nope. I wanted to explore. Learn. Absorb. Collaborate ideas. Build relationships. Care. Be passionate.
It’s about bringing the voice of the community to the forefront. Sometimes it ends up as just my voice as an individual with personal needs. Sometimes I’m speaking at the request of a wider audience. Sometimes I ask others to speak for themselves. Sometimes I’m completely off the mark and horribly wrong, but it’s important that we always keep trying to learn — & listen.
Right now, I feel I’m working with people who ‘get it’. In fact, people actually pay me to be passionate about this stuff, because they understand that whatever it is I’m doing (actually, Dino pretends to understand, but mostly he has heaps of faith), it’s going to eventually pay off in the long run.
So… Getting back to GM. One of the best things an American car company (or any consumer-based entity) can do right now is to shut up and listen. The Executives having intimate involvement is extremely important. They can, and should do all of their own blogging, but more importantly - listen. What are your customers telling you?
Stop doing the “stuff.” Really, just stop it. If you think of a good car design, a marketing plan or campaign, do whatever the opposite it is that you feel inclined to do. Instead, focus on meeting the expectations of your users. Answer their concerns, cater to their needs. Become the company your customers want you to be and not the company your shareholders want you to be.
Maybe then you can recapture their imaginations, and sell not just a car - but fulfill a need.
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Comments
I’d say this looks like an “Executive Effort” this time around, but perhaps the two will coexist to some degree or another.
I guess I just feel that GM deserves more credit than “duh, you should’ve been doing this already” because they have been doing this already. Looking more closely at GMnext reveals that the blog is only a small component of the whole effort, and in fact seems to be the next step after Fastlane, which was just a blog.
I took a look, and man is this a wide ranging sort of effort. Across the lines.
Way to go GM.
Thanks Andy for pointing that stuff out.
GM’s execs have actually been doing this for years. I wonder if they’re phasing out the old in favor of the new, or if the two will coexist somehow.