Business Blogging When the News Ain't Good

I'm not one one of those guys that really gets into cars, so you're not going to find me hanging around blogs that cover the automotive industry. I was, however, fully aware of yesterday's news out of General Motors of plant closings and 30,000 layoffs. It seems the only reason the automobile business isn't the worst sector in the United States is because there's an airline business.

We've touched on corporate blogging in this forum before, and like many well-known brands, GM has blogs. One GM blog in particular has been the center of discussion today. It's called FastLane and it has always focused squarely on GM's vehicles.

So what's a corporate blogger to do? Can one realistically expect not to mention the news of tens of thousands of layoffs that made headlines everywhere and captured even my interest?

Dave Taylor addresses the issue on his Intuitive Life Business Blog:

The basic dilemma that faces Bob Lutz and the rest of the blogging team at General Motors: is their target audience investors and business people interested in General Motors the company, or is their audience car afficionados, enthusiasts who want to talk about torque, engine block design and tire traction?

I'm not sure that a company, GM in this case, can blog about its products and ignore the ongoing chaos within the company. Listening to the radio yesterday on my way home I heard a sound bite from an automotive industry analyst. He said that GM's biggest problem is that its cars got boring (or at least were perceived as such by consumers, not that there's a big difference).

GM was doing fine selling trucks and SUVs, but then gas prices went up and suddenly those weren't so popular. If FastLane is about the vehicles, then how they are going to improve the vehicles, and why they have to do it, should be fair game.

The big takeaway is that before you launch a corporate blog you need a plan for dealing with bad news.

Thanks to Shel Holtz for shedding light on this.