Twitter: Inane Chatter or Powerful Conversation Channel?
Twitter: Inane Chatter or Powerful Conversation Channel? Our Ford Story in 140 Characters
by Anne Deeter Gallaher
The power of social conversation and social networks in creating fresh marketing approaches is illustrated by a Deeter Gallaher Group case study that follows a car dealership’s foray into the stream of social media.
With the support of our innovation-game clientele, we are honing the two imperatives for anyone wishing to pursue successful social media campaigns: significant investment of time and dedicated people and financial resources.
To be effective in social media you must — engage people in two-way conversations, share ideas and information, measure results and opinions—there is no way to circumvent the huge investment of time and resources on the public timeline. These media platforms might be free for now—Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook—but the man hours and agency hours to create strategies, engage customers, and measure feedback is far from free. Tempering our insatiable desire to learn and absorb all this information with the economic realities of billable time is a Herculean struggle. I know we are not the only firm working to achieve this balance and trying to define the elusive ROI.
Do a quick search of the #marketing, #IABC, or #likeminds hashtags on Twitter, and you’ll find lively debate on social media’s ROI. Whether it’s Return on Investment for the CFOs, Return on Influence for the CMOs, or Return on Information for the CIOs, every client wants and deserves a measurable return.
Business owners and agencies alike wonder, What’s the best social media engagement for us to follow? Should we begin with a 10-page strategy or a one-page blog decision tree like the US Air Force? The good news is that there is no one prescribed methodology for social media success. Listening is not scientific, and it doesn’t take a degree in marketing to glean results from your efforts.
For us, we have created a blend of traditional and social media that is producing impressive returns for our clients. Our latest case study involves Pennsylvania Ford dealer LB Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury, Ford Motor Company, and social media marketing. This is our version of The Ford Story:
1. Engage in social media first by listening to people of influence. Ford’s Global Digital Communications Director, @ScottMonty, tops our list of communicators who provide highly informed, highly valued tweets. His Social Media Marketing Blog is a perfect place for businesses to learn the art and influence of social media.
We engaged with Scott on Twitter and have learned an MBA’s worth of strategy and networking just from listening to him. Soon our listening turned to talking (that’s happened on several occasions with our Twitter friends like @HowellMarketing, @TrendTracker, @CMEGroup).
More important, On June 24, 2009, we brought him to Harrisburg for a professional development seminar on Social Media and Business co-sponsored by Deeter Gallaher Group, LB Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury, and the Harrisburg Chapter of IABC.
Ford’s success in the social media realm has attracted international industry attention and a branding award by the Society for New Communications Research, as well as a recent surprise $1 billion profit announced in the WSJ.
2. Communicate to all your audiences. The printed word is not dead, declares Tyler Cowen in his opening sentence of Three Tweets for the Web. But how can you garner the greatest media mileage from an article that’s in print? A perfect meld of traditional and social media can begin with the op-ed or an 800-word column “opposite the editorial” in a publication.
More over, On May 29, our client Richard E. Jordan II (@RichardEJordan2) wrote an 800-word op-ed that was printed in the Central Penn Business Journal’s transportation issue. Rick Jordan is CEO of LB Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury, in Lemoyne, PA, the number 1 dealer in the Philadelphia region. As part of a campaign that includes full-color ads, targeted event sponsorships, and public relations, Rick’s op-ed offered timely C-level insight in his own words. Teamed with social media, the op-ed packs a strong communications punch.
3. Take it into the social web. As soon as the Central Penn Business Journal ran the article and posted it to their Web site on Friday, May 29, we began tweeting it (which drives traffic to the business journal’s site as well) and linked it to Rick Jordan’s two company Web sites: www.LBSmithFord.com and www.SmithLandUSA.com.
It’s wise to tweet articles using a measurement tool like bit.ly so clients and agencies have an accurate analytic of the force of social mentions. Within a few hours, ““Is Ford at a Competitive Disadvantage? PA Ford Dealer Responds” was tweeted and retweeted across the public timeline.
It caught the attention of @ScottMonty and @Ford. The quality and value of the conversation on Twitter is what propels retweets, so in blog postings or guest columns be careful not to minimize the credibility of powerful language and clear writing. The influence from retweets is vast and deep, forming simultaneous media channels. In addition to Ford dealers on Twitter who retweeted Rick’s op-ed, the article was retweeted by @riGMBlog, @DrivenMediaComm, @nadaguides, @dtdbob3 and throughout central Pennsylvania.
4. Capture the serious attention of C-levels. Knowing how authentic and innovation-focused Mr. Mulally Ford’s CEO is, I felt he would appreciate reading what Rick Jordan had written as “a Ford foot soldier on the front lines of American car manufacturing.”
The day the op-ed ran, I sent an email to Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally with the article link in it. Was this a long shot? Perhaps. Do CEOs really care what people say about their brand? The great ones do. Rick Jordan had quoted Scott Monty, Alan Mulally, and Bill Ford in his fresh perspective on the automotive industry from the dealer’s viewpoint.
5. Never underestimate the power of conversation. The following Monday morning, Mr. Mulally sent a personal email with genuine remarks and appreciation for the “PA Ford dealer” viewpoint. He sent Rick Jordan a personal email as well. Astonishingly, our email exchanges were in the midst of GM declaring bankruptcy on June 1. As a Fortune 10 executive, Mr. Mulally certainly has global concerns that demand his attention, but his willingness to listen and respond to a Ford dealer’s first-person perspective defines his leadership style and successes.
The lesson is that social media conversations are extremely important to a company’s marketing and branding strategy. It’s also an opportunity to carry timely, unfiltered business information straight to the corner suite.
Is Ford listening? Absolutely. Are your customers listening? Yes. Are you telling your story? Social media demands a top-down mandate. If the CEO of Ford Global deems it valuable to sit with his Social Media director Scott Monty and engage consumers in two-way conversations, then certainly it’s a wholesale embrace of new media channels by Ford. Mr. Mulally has invited the “empowered consumer” into Ford’s product decision-making through blogs, the Fiesta movement, and The Ford Story video collection. Clearly the public has responded with renewed brand enthusiasm.
What did the LB Smith Ford CEO Rick Jordan think of our traditional and social media marriage? “I am a social media believer, and although I’m not in my 30s, you’ll find me on Twitter (@RichardEJordan2) and below on YouTube.
“I understand my role as the CEO involves communicating with our customers and the community in many different channels.”
Beginning on Twitter, Rick’s conversations with @ScottMonty evolved into a conversation with Alan Mulally, and he has now achieved a social media Grand Slam. Mr. Alan Mulally will be the first honoree at The Second Mile’s “Celebration of Leadership 2010” event in Hershey, PA, sponsored by LB Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury.
“We are thrilled to invite and honor Mr. Mulally to tell the Ford story of turning the Ford ship around to 1,200 people in our business community,” says Rick.
“Our social media investment and commitment to a conversation has yielded more Return on Investment, Influence, and Information than we have ever imagined.”
The Deeter Gallaher Group, a Harrisburg-based marketing firm, has always taken pride in its tagline: “Powerful language. Smart marketing.SM” The advent of social media, however, has caused us to internally recognize a new ethos: “Powerful conversation. Smart marketing.”
Anne Deeter Gallaher is owner and CEO of the Deeter Gallaher Group LLC, a marketing/ad/PR firm in Mechanicsburg, PA, delivering Powerful language. Smart marketing?.
She can be reached at ADG [AT] DeeterGallaherGroup.com and @AnneDGallaher on Twitter.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.socialnetdaily.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-big4.png){kind=icon}
Comments
Trackbacks