Being able to update the status of what your dog is doing on Twitter, or rattle off a quick blog posting on how you feel about the latest off-the-wall thing that Rush Limbaugh said is just great. It allows individuals to have a sense of self online, and to blow off steam. I'm not judging...I'm guilty of it myself. But is that really the future of social media? Is that really all these great tools have to add? There must be more to it....
My favorite internet/business book of all time, The Cluetrain Manifesto, told us years before "social media" came into vogue that the web was a giant conversation - and that the conversation was going to rule the marketplace for anything and everything - and if you were a company you'd better figure out how to participate in that conversation along with your customers or you'd perish. Now that's a powerful vision for what would become "social media."
Alas, massive hulking companies are starting to tap into the massive global conversation to get feedback about the products and services they offer. And can you believe that one recent and excellent example of this comes from the recently bankrupt GM!?
Apparently the folks at Buick have heard the public reaction to their latest SUV design loud and clear:
The decision to cancel the Buick was based on all of the input, face-to-face, blogs and tweets, Christopher Barger, GM’s spokesman for social media, said in an interview. No matter how they expressed it “they just didn’t like it.”
I have to say that I'm somewhat amazed that a big, slow, lumbering beast like a division of GM could react this quickly to aggregated feedback. I'm downright proud of them, and it gives me some hope for "the new GM." Plus, with an investment as expensive and time consuming as rolling out a new automobile design - why not kill something that gets resoundingly bad feedback early? GM has probably saved millions in development, inventory build up, and marketing by killing this stinker before it even got rolling.
Boy oh boy, do I wish that Twitter was around when the Pontiac Aztec came out. If ever there was a car designed by a committee. UGH!!!
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