New Media World: All About Transparency

General Motors is trying to patch up whatever reputation it had as an environmentally aware corporation. The company is holding a series of online chats with environmental critics after GM’s blog was slammed with comments that were critical of the company’s environmental efforts. The environmental activist group Rainforest Action Network said some things that GM didn’t like, and the big car company pulled the plug on the comments function of the blog, defying all the rules for openness and transparency in a New Media world.

In today’s world of communications, corporations or organizations must behave with openness and transparency. When engaging audiences - even critics - in conversations using the communications tools of Web 2.0, companies need to accept the risk that not everyone loves them.

Now, GM has backed itself into a defensive, duck-and-cover position and has been responsible for creating adverse media coverage about itself. Not smart.