CRA Inc

10 Nov 05 @ 7:13 am

SlowLane Blog?

This morning in the Wall Street Journal[1]  I read that GM is going to restate results for 2001, and possibly, subsequent years. I then clicked over to the FastLane blog to read GM’s take on the issue and found … nothing. Nothing yet, at least, and I’ll be interested to see if Lutz or others offer an account on the site.

What’s more, I notice there’s not much at all happening at FastLane these days. There are only three posts on the front page, and only five over the past six weeks or so. (compared to eight in May and 11 in June).

When FastLane debuted most new media observers credited the site with being the "right" way for a big company to publish an external blog: posts by senior leaders, not highly spun by the PR group, and a mix of marketing flogs and candid takes on the company.

Now, though, I wonder if the site’s losing its steam. We lose steam at CommLog from time to time, but we also don’t widely promote CommLog as a portal into our firm. If anything it’s a mix of hobby for us and service for clients, with any branding benefits a plus.

Is FastLane becoming SlowLane? We’ll see, but the announcement of earnings restatement is exactly what a company using blogs in the "right" way would use a blog for: to offer an authentic, not-press-release take on the issue to supplement their other communication efforts.

We’ll see if they do.

1. Subscription only; here’s a link to Reuters’ story.

posted in category(s): Emerging Case Studies