General Motors Case Study

I focused on a General Motors case study that consisted of GM hiring a blog set-up company, MS&L Blogworks, in order to set up a corporate blog for General Motors. This is the first automotive giant to incorporate a blog into their business strategy.

The blog launched in January 2005. It allowed GM’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and other GM executives to voice their opinions and challenge readers to take a new look at GM cars and trucks.

The blog has since received numerous hits and much attention from PR practitioners and press. The blog was made in order to increase communications with General Motors and its customers.

You might be wondering, how did the blog draw so many people in? Well, GM sent six e-mails to high-profile bloggers and from there word spread fast. Since then, the blog has constantly been updated with posts and even some podcasts. The blog also showcases new vehicles that the public has not seen.

So far, the blog has been a great success, but has not significantly increased the sales of their automobiles. However, GM hopes that this blog will bring back lost customers in the long run.

General Motors, still, is the only carmaker to have a public blog. Their media hits have been impressive and GM has received much press from: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, The Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and PRWeek. This truly goes to show that blogging in the corporate world is a hot topic in the press world.

Due to the success of GM’s blog, I believe that more automakers will jump on the bandwagon and create their own blogsites.

Check out GM’s blog, “FastLane”

Spring Break

Currently in Los Angeles for Spring Break! Check back soon for a new posting!

Blog for Heal Magazine

One of the main objectives for the “Heal Magazine Blog” is to provide a forum that all cancer survivors can benefit from to improve the quality of their lives after diagnosis. The blog should have a reoccurring theme of healing faster, better and stronger.

The blog should have discussions and categories that talk about nutrition and exercise, setting goals for healing, prioritizing, stress relief, spirituality, their emotions, moods and how they are fighting fatigue. The blog should be extremely positive. It is a blog that should provide survivors with more than hope through a community of support, compassion and love.

The blog itself should be warm and inviting, pictures are always good as well as vibrant colors. Dark colors should not be used because this is not seen as a somber time since this is a positive blog.

On the http://blog.healthtalk.com/breast-cancer/life-with-breast-cancer/ they have a link called Ask the Doctor and I really like this aspect because it is comforting for many people to know that there is a doctor that is there 24 hours to answer your questions related to cancer.

Creating a community requires frequent reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. The Heal blog should be focused on making connections, supporting each other and celebrating cancer victories. Battling cancer is a whirlwind of emotions, it is something that does not disappear overnight. People inflicted with cancer go through a long, arduous, and sometimes unsuccessful treatment process. No one should be reminded of the struggles they went through to become a survivor, but this blog should be a blog appreciating a fresh start to their long life.

It would be nice if the blog could also attract well-known cancer survivors to blog on our Heal blog. Many celebrities such as actress Fran Drescher (uterine cancer), TV reporter Sam Donaldson (melanoma), and comedian Tom Green (testicular cancer) have been blogging on Yahoo! Health. Check out the link at http://health.yahoo.com/blog-for-hope/

On another note, http://www.blogforacure.com/ is a really nice site. It is a free blogging service for all cancer survivors. It allows cancer survivors a way to document their battle with cancer and give thanks to life. It provides pictures of the survivors that you can click on and read their blogs. Although this is not a community, it is still a unique idea.

Another good cancer community blog is: http://www.thecancerblog.com/

Vegas Project Show

Currently I am at Project Show in Las Vegas selling premium denim for the line Fortune Denim. We have been getting much press lately in publications such as California Apparel News, OK! Magazine, Allure and Vogue. I am about to attend a meeting with Women's Wear Daily because they will be doing a write up on the jeans in their upcoming issue. Sales generated at the show have been impressive and we hope to reach $90,000 in sales by tomorrow. Right now we are headed that direction. I would love to write more but I must go to meetings now! Check back soon for more updates!

GETTING INK FOR YOUR CLIENT...NOT AS EASY AS YOU THINK

Watch this interview! The actual interviewer is not adequately prepared but the communication specialist is quite knowledgable on media relations!



Research is extremely crucial these days to insure getting ink for your client. You must know who the main writer is for the topic you are trying to pitch for your client. Another technique is presenting your story in a creative way, not just offering up another lame press release. Nowadays, a press release is ancient and people are now using case histories, pictures and anything else that might make the story stronger and more enticing for the writer/journalist to report on.

Well-written press releases, creative media kits and strong relationships with the media used to be enough to get great exposure for clients. However, now you must incorporate all the above along with other innovative ways such as blogs to grab the attention of the media.

The media is surged with phone calls daily from people trying to get a story published about their product or company. People in PR are beginning to realize the easiest way to stand out from the competition starts with having a creative idea for a campaign or product launch, not with mastering the art of standard forms of communication, which seems to not get your very far these days.
www.prdomain.com

Often times, you feel obliged to take reporters out to lunch to increase your chances of having your story published. This a good technique but you need to do your research. Print and broadcast reporters should be treated differently because print reporters often have ethics policies that say what reporters can and cannot accept. However, broadcast reporters do not really have these rules and most of them are expecting free lunches and gifts. People good at PR can think of creative ways to tie story pitches to a good gift according to www.101publicrelations.com/sr43.html

Follow this link to find out more innovative ways to get ink for your client:
www.gettingink.typepad.com