GM Gets Social Media
Maybe it was from reading too many Facebook style articles but I admit I was a little skeptical when I saw the headline that GM Europe was launching a groundbreaking “Social Media Newsroom“. But when I read the article and visited the new GM Europe web site I have to admit I like their approach, although I would not call it groundbreaking.
It appears that someone from GM has been paying attention to social media, but instead of building a social network like Wal-Mart, GM has decided to test the waters using existing resources.
GM said each press release on its new Web site has “links for easy sharing and tagging with popular social media sites such as Technorati, Digg, del.icio.us and Facebook, and each includes a comments area to encourage commentary and opinion from readers.”
The comprehensive Web site includes photography for reuse online that can be downloaded from Flickr — and a link to GM Europe’s video collection on YouTube.
The social media landscape is littered with companies like Dell, DuPont, GMC and Virgin whose attempt at social media marketing went up in flames.
Instead I have to compliment GM on this approach. By beginning with existing assets (press releases, pictures and videos of their cars) they can test the social media water. The tactics they are using have little chance of blowing up in their face, so the organization will be able to gain confidence in this new marketing approach. As Julie Hamp, GM Europe’s vice president of communications puts it:
“Everyone is learning about the value of the social media environments which allow open dialogue, sharing select information with other users and posting photos or information to share with friends of select users. Today, there is much more of an opportunity to create a dialogue with the consumer, and we are providing our news in a form that makes it easy to republish, comment on and pass along.”
Look for other automotive companies to launch similar “news” sites in the coming months. While not innovative, this GM approach would be a good introduction to social media marketing for many companies.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (2) : Sep 6th, 2007
September 6th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
[…] GM Gets Social Media David Wilson @ Social Media Optimization […]
September 6th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
David, it’s still a good movement for the overall industry and understanding of the new media.
Basically, they are doing social press releases something that Chris Heuer, Todd Defren and others have been supporting in the PR sphere.
Cisco recently release their own Social Press Release here:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/prod_090407c.html