General Motors is taking significant steps to improve its image with customers and investors – which now consists of American taxpayers.

The company launched GM Reinvention, a customer-focused and social media-driven Web site, hours after filing for bankruptcy protection. Regardless of whether your business is booming or in a similar situation as the national automaker, GM’s new marketing practices are worthy accolades.

Rather than staying quiet and licking their wounds, the company is using popular social media tools like Twitter and Flickr to give customers access to speak with company engineers, developers and executives about new products and steps GM is taking toward reinvention. Users can post questions about the filing and read picture-heavy profiles to find out more on executive contributors.

Even their Google AdWords campaign acknowledges the company’s financial situation, saying “Yes, We’ve Filed. See Official GM Site & Learn How We will Emerge!”

As every American technically now owns stock in the company, this is also a smart way to speak directly to “investors” via a medium that costs much less than radio or television ad spots.

GM’s efforts have paid off. More than 6,500 people are following the company on Twitter and they have more than 10,000 fans on their Facebook page. Both networks show users actively commenting on ways to improve the company and its products.

This level of transparency could help GM through a sticky situation ripe with public mistrust. If and when GM emerges from this recession, the company stands to gain from the relationships it forges now in an environment of perceived mismanagement and poor business decisions.

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