Ford Social Media: communicating with customers

Ford is not interested in advertising on social media. " Were interested in getting on there and interacting with people" said Scott Monty on an interview on Fox business on Febuary 16, 2009. Scott Monty is the Social Media spokesman for Ford. Ford's goal in terms of social media is integrating their brand with their customers and learning about their likes and dislikes.

I started following @ScottMonty on twitter a couple weeks ago and have been impressed with the level of respect he commands in the world of Social Media. His twitter posts consist of anything from funny Charlie Sheen jokes to top news stories concerning social media, and the automotive industry. After searching around twitter for a corporate page I found that Ford does not have a general twitter page, but rather specific pages for customer service, ford racing, and flex fuel.

Scott Monty's personal blog/website: http://www.scottmonty.com/ contains Social media insights to what he refers to as a new era in marketing. I found it interesting to browse around on his blog and have been checking it on a daily basis. I have found that he updates it frequently. The page is not static and he posts original material, that i don't find on other blogs that i keep up with. Monty has branded himself as an honest spokesman trying tell the "ford story" on whatever medium he can.

The mindset of the Ford corporation in regards to social media can be defined as a way to increase two way communication between the corporation and its customers. In the era of social networking, each user has a voice to reach other people. So it is that much more important to value the voice of every customer. After a good interaction with a customer they can pass on thier positive experience through facebook, twitter or blogs and have the potential to reach many others. It serves Ford and other corporations well to be available for their customers and that way the customers can better serve them.

A great example of a successful social media campaign is the previous presidential election. In a quick summary: Barack Obama used Facebook groups, flicker, and twitter to organize his following and have his supporters do the advertising and the campaigning for him. Candidate Mccains approach was to get big money corporate donations to fund his advertising. Obama used smaller donations from many people on a web based format that made it easier for his supporters to support him and get to the voting polls.

More next week....