Social Media Job Experiment

Disclaimer: I am the proud owner of a leased 2010 RAV4 and am not writing this in a bid to salvage resale value.

Recent News for Toyota has not been good. Their upscale brand Lexus had an issue with the gas pedal being constrained and leading to the deaths of a family in California. It was a tragedy with the 911 call of a terrified family broadcast for us to hear as they sped down the highway in absolute terror.

After a series of announced recalls, Toyota finally suspended the sales of selected models on January 21, 2010.

Suddenly, there is conversation everywhere and the Toyota brand is taking hits on all forms of social media. For those of you that remember the problem (or alleged problem) that Audi had with their gas pedals, it brings back some interesting memories. Local newscasts showed elderly drivers with the look of frustration at their cars that had suddenly sped forward when the car was started thinking they had their foot on the brake. This led to a design change that required the brake to be depressed in order to actually start the car. It was a very difficult time for Audi from a PR perspective in which gaining customer trust was paramount. Audi was lucky, they just had to limit TV exposure and print and hope that a more pressing story or time pushed the focus from the public.

The problems are multiple for Toyota. Word of mouth, Blogs, Tweets bulletin boards, Facebook and comments to these various platform comments are building a vast trend of anger, disdain and concern. Even mother in law told me to take my 4 week old car back to Toyota under the lemon law.

But rather than return my car, I still love my Rav4.

TOYOTA NEEDS TO GET MOVING

This will be a mission of communication and Toyota needs to reach out to their respective audiences immediately and with leadership. These would include existing Toyota owners, potential customers as well as fleet owners/purchasers. Today I received an email from my salesperson which was slightly comforting and genuine in that he made himself available for any questions I may have and he mentioned that an official letter would be coming out with more information in the next week or so. I spoke with him and while he did not have specifics he was adamant that Toyota was working on resolving the issues.

I appreciated the email but Toyota needs to get moving.

Toyota’s Agency of record is potentially working through corporate hurdles that many in public relations have dealt with when communicating for a brand via Social Media.

What is the liability and risk to the brand?

How do you control or trend the conversation?

How do you remain transparent and honest?

How do you win back brand ambassadors?

How do you restore faith in the brand?

How do you communicate effectively to your target audiences?

How do you measure your efforts?

Will it be blogger outreach? Will they host a blog summit discussing vehicle safety? Maybe the creation of safety videos and tagged on YouTube or a Twitter account for streaming Toyota brand information from the Vice President of Product Safety.

Regardless of what campaigns are conceived and approved, Toyota needs to act quickly and with a clear digital strategy. They must also show leniency and give their PR or crisis Public Relations firm the power to implement solutions that can best position it in the eyes of the buying public.

In the not too distant future, we will look back and see just how effective Toyota was at implementing their social media response. In the meantime, I will drive my RAV4, listen carefully to my radio for updates and wait for any sign of social media response.

For those of you who have not noticed, the recession has had an impact on the restaurant industry. Filling those seats with paying customers is the mission of every small, medium and large eatery hoping to survive through this economic downturn. What some restaurants, and many other small businesses are noticing,  is that people are turning to Yelp for advice on what is good and what is not. Hence, my call out to Yelp and some guidance for all  restaurateurs.

YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE TALKING ABOUT YOUR ESTABLISHMENT! (On Yelp)

That being said, what a great opportunity to reach out to potential brand ambassadors or connect with someone who may have had a less than stellar visit.

 The Yelp community is comprised of individuals who comment and rate on a array of services/offerings in dozens of categories.  If someone has experienced it then they offer a viable and potentially honest opinion of what they encountered. I can honestly say that I have turned my car away from several service repair shops having read the horror stories. 

THE OPPORTUNITY
Back to the Food opportunity. Find your restaurant on Yelp. If it is not there, then create a profile for it. If it is there, take note of the comments. Are they mostly positive? Did some people have a bad experience? Gleam the information and check for trends. Are people waiting too long without being addressed? Is the same menu item leaving a bad taste with more than one person? These are your customers and they are posting valuable information.

Out of 5 stars, your restaurant will have a rating from 1 to 5. If you are a one then I would suggest calling chef Gorden Ramsey. If you are a 5 then you are definitely doing something right. If you are in-between we have an opportunity.

Reach out to the reviewers that have been to your restaurant and ask them to come back. If they had a great experience then offer them a reward as thanks for sharing their experience. If they had a horrible visit, then invite them back for a second try. Hopefully their second visit and some TLC will create an adjustment to the review. If not, consider it goodwill.

The bottom line is that Yelp offers you the chance to engage individuals who are actively sharing their review online and through word of mouth. It seems like a far better investment then shooting blanks in some of the traditional one dimensional marketing activities.

Making a pretty strong case for paying attention to user uptake among Facebook, Twiiter, blogs, iPhone applications, and other user applications, Gary Hayes has created a flash application that displays some pretty compelling data as well as some interesting lack of usage as well. Facebook “Cause” giving had many non-profit organizations licking their chops over what could have been a major opportunity to tie into the 300 million Facebook users and their wallets. Instead of Facebook users embracing a new opportunity to give money, they have instead held fast and many examples of failed revenue generation.

Why?

While Facebook offers a very easy method for requesting “Cause” donations, it does not offer the kind of recognition that I think comes from making a contribuiton to an organization through their stand alone website. So why don’t individuals take the next step and just contribute through the organization website after the Facebook prompt ? Good question.

Often Facebook requests for donations come from 2nd tier friends and this takes some of the legitmacy of the request away. Or maybe we don’t want to help those 2nd tier friends look like the next pillar of good. Either way, the great expectations of Facebook giving have fallen short.

What does this mean for social media fundraising opportunities? Lots, in that while individuals may not cough it up on Facebook, we can still communicate organization needs via social media and leverage opportunities to raise awareness and activate brand ambassadors in a coordiante fundraising campaign. In fact donating is a personal experience and how we present it to givers is extremely important. Thus while Facebook has not opened the flood gates it offers us the guidance to target our non-profit campaigns and keep it very personal.

It’s True. While Facebook has over 300 million active users and growing and trends indicating that the world is migrating to this online social media metropolis, there may be change in the air. Facebook is really popular with an average user having 130 friends and their lives injected into the daily routine of reading, writing, posting, uploading, commenting and promoting, I just didn’t think my digital circle of friends and family would produce an Orwell rebellion. Who doesn’t love Facebook?

I know someone.

Several weeks ago my wife pulled the plug on her Facebook life. I didn’t notice at first, but when I updated my status with a quote worthy of a maternal comment, there was  just silence. No witty comment, no sly humor, just silence. Was she hacked? Was there a misunderstanding? Had she done something by mistake? Nope, she had just quietly disabled herself from the viewable Facebook universe and left behind dust.

Was this the beginning of a larger movement? Had Facebook “jumped the shark” and is Jennifer the start of a trend towards privacy, traditional networking and a “back to basics” methodology?

It turns out no.

After a one week hiatus, she returned. Just like Brokeback Mountain, “I can’t quit you” applies to Facebook, and that “dust” she left behind was actually her account information stored just in case she relapsed from “social networking  rehab.”  I didn’t ask her why she left Facebook, even if it was brief, but I think she may have just wanted a moment to herself.

But now, like magic, she is back in all her glory, nothing lost and up to her old chirpy self.

Can anyone escape? Sure, there is a deactivate button for those that need to step away for a bit. But when you delete your Facebook account its for real. I can understand the overload that one can have with the posts, tweets, pings and updates but know that staying in touch never hurt anyone.

We may just see Dr. Drew host an episode of SM Rehab with Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Parez Hilton and the Shaq, I don’t expect to see it anytime soon. Maybe if they throw in sex addiction as a two-fer with SM then we could drum up a crowd. In the meantime, take it with a grain of salt and when someone tags you in a picture from the 80’s dancing on a bar with blond hair that you had forgotten long ago, chalk it up to your creative side in a world without social media

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When I pulled into the Ford dealer this morning, Gerald McCray stood tall as I parked in front of the double door entrance to the showroom. At 6 feet 7 (or so) inches and a wide stance, he towered over our car and made an imposing shadow. He pleasantly asked if we needed assistance, “no, just looking today” I said,  as he held the door for me and my 10 year old son and followed us inside. Gerald trailed behind as Tyler scampered into the cab of what looked like a Super Tonka but in fact was SVT Raptor off-road vehicle.

Tyler and I both decided that this was truck was for us…. at least for 10 or so seconds.

GW Parkway would never be the same as I drove over the cars in front of me monster truck style.

Back to reality.

I had come to check out the Ford Escape as I continued to try to convince myself that I didn’t need another Mercedes or BMW to boost my inner esteem. It has been a long journey with my German automaker friends, but I now feel I can cut the cord that connected my luxury vehicles to their service departments.  Yes, one service manager told me I needed new brakes, questioning my knowledge of rotor width. “Did you take a micrometer to the rotor?” Only to be told by his replacement 6 months later that I didn’t need new brakes and had no idea why my old rep would have said this. This literally sealed my Mercedes relationship fate and I knew at that moment it was time to move on. That and the $1,700 repair bill for an air conditioner I had been complaining about since before the warranty wore out. When the economy hits the skids, count on service departments to drive additional revenue when cars are not moving off the showroom.

Back to the Ford showroom.

I moved from one car to another, and Gerald was there, far enough to let me breath but available to answer the questions that came to mind. Never pushy and always pleasant, he was the intangible that I had not expected from Ford today. He never asked me if I was looking to buy or when I might be wanting to purchase. He had this confidence that the product would sell itself. So for the next hour and a half, Gerald let Tyler climb in and out of cars, honk horns, turn buttons, speak into the Sync interface, jump up and down on the pickup truck beds and opening convertibles while answering all of my questions on just about every car they had. And still, he let the cars do the selling.

While I came for the Escape, I found the Fusion Hybrid.  I had never spent any time thinking about it until I saw the mileage it got (41 mpg) and sat inside. It was comfortable and actually fun to drive. Pickup was fine and I didn’t notice any lag. The car just fit right. I asked Gerald to join us for the test drive which he kindly enough be agreed to and described feature and functionality as I drove. Having this gentle giant slide into the front seat made me feel a little guilty since he would have to put up with my driving and introduction to hybrid handling but the drive went perfect (from a test drive point of view).

I didn’t buy the car today, but I left with a feeling that if Gerald is so confident about Ford vehicles that he doesn’t have to push me into one, then that is the car that I should have. Ford is “back” because in part, of employees like Gerald who are confident and qualified and don’t sell us on something other than what it is.

The reccession will really be over when Gerald’s attitude finds its way into businesses large and small and they too find confidence in what they do. Instead of worry and caution, confidence and strength will be the norm.