Lutziness

I don't get it. Bob Lutz, Vice-Chairman of GM makes a big splash by starting to blog. Great. Big deal. Many of us commented on it being a big deal.

Then, what happens? People start treating the thing like a blog. They read. They comment. They ask questions.

What happens?

Well, I've posted two questions on this blog in the last week. I've received this email in response to each of them:

I will be out of the office on business until Jan. 26th. If you need assistance in the meantime, please contact Michael McClatchey, michael.mcclatchey@hassmsl.com, or Clayton Closson, clayton.closson@hassmsl.com, or call my mobile phone, 313-702-9539.

thank you,
Laurie

Now, why would you do this? Why would you start "blogging" and then, essentially, have that blog become a broadcast site? Why would you have all comments to that site go to some hack at a PR firm? Why would you have that PR firm be one that would respond to comments on your very hot, popular, big-deal new blog with a boilerplate out-of-office Outlook autoreply?

I swear, I just don't get it.

Comments

[Gary Goldhammer]

Thanks for an excellent and entertaining post! Acutally you "get it" just fine -- it's the PR firm that doesn't get it, and unfortuately, they are not alone.

[Johnnie Moore]

Gary said it for me. And maybe they're on a learning curve. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

[Tom Guarriello]

Thanks, Gary.

I hope you're right about the learning curve, Johnnie. Lutz himself wrote, "As far as the blog goes, I, like many of you, also hope that we 'get it.' I'm sure you'll tell us if we don't!" Yup.

Make mistakes, learn, adapt. Repeat rapidly. That's a pretty simple modern prescription.

[Ron]

I get where you're going with this, but do you really expect a senior executive at the world's largest company to allow direct access to his Inbox?

[Laurie Mayers]

Tom, you're right, we are on a learning curve. Hass MS&L hosts and moderates the FastLane blog for Mr. Lutz, because, as Ron notes, he's pretty busy. I didn't properly configure my out-of-office reply this week, and you and others sending comments to the blog received it. We're sorry for the confusion and we've fixed the problem. Now that you know where to find me, feel free to stay in touch.