Insights on GM executive blog

If you've been wondering who was behind The GM Fastlane Blog, General Motors' step into the public blogosphere by executive blogger Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, Susannah Gardner at Buzz Marketing with Blogs has the details:

The blog was result of an ongoing conversation between [PR agency] Hass [MS&L] and GM about blogs. It is run on Movable Type, and Bob Lutz sometimes moblogs using his Blackberry. The company has been pretty happy with all the attention the launch has gotten so far. [...] The blog was a follow to the GM Smallblock Blog, which Hass and GM created as a kind of trial foray into the blogosphere.

The PR agency being deeply involved in planning such a blog should be no surprise to anyone. I would also expect PR to be involved in the live blog as counsellor and guide to Lutz as part of PR's strategic role. Note this is not the same as saying PR is writing or producing the content, which I am not saying at all (and which I do not believe is the case, ie, Vice Chairman Lutz, not PR, is the blogger).

The GM Fastlane Blog enables comments by visitors, and there are lots of comments to most posts. What's the approach to how comments are dealt with? Susannah says:

Laurie [Mayers, of the PR firm] says the response via comments so far has been great. She moderates the comments in order to prevent spam, and has had a little fun from bloggers who accidentally got an out-of-office reply because of a comment moderation email.

All of this is a good guide to thinking for any company planning an executive-type blog. Useful insights.