Follow me.
This is just one of Toyota’s latest requests to its loyal (and not
so loyal) public. In recent days, Toyota has jumped on the social
marketing bandwagon with some gusto. Prior to their much-discussed
recall, Toyota had what I would consider a rather lackluster effort in
the social marketing arena.
Today however, you can go to https://www.toyotaconversations.com
to follow the latest happenings on Toyota, from Toyota and others. This
is a branded channel on TweetMeme that was produced with the help of
Federated Media. When you come here you can read their latest posts
from their Twitter page, http//www.twitter.com/Toyota, as well as video, press releases and some feeds from larger publications.
For instance, just last week I found the latest article from the
Washington Post and USA Today talking about NHTSA’s belief that the
latest runaway Prius incident in New York was due to driver error.
There was also an article on their “loyalty” deals (0% financing on
select models) as well as several others talking about reasons to buy a
Toyota and more.
The tone is, well, decidedly positive. Is that in line with what’s going on elsewhere in the web?
The LA Times covered this story too (March 2, 2010 Toyota, Looking for Positive Spins, turns to Twitter)
and suggested that Toyota may be filtering out some “unwanted”
criticism. But Toyota’s reps at Federated Media replied by saying that
“Negative stories are not filtered out of ToyotaConversations in any
way whatsoever except for offensive content and the like”.
Given the commentary to my last two Toyota blogs on AOL Autos (Toyota’s Female Problem: Women Buyers Considering Other Brands, Some Revolutionary Ideas For Toyota To Right Itself), I would guess that those are the kind of comments that they are filtering, likely falling into the “and the like” category.
We have all talked endlessly that Toyota’s biggest mistake (outside
of some obvious engineering and quality control issues) was their
handling and communication, or lack thereof, of the situation. Rule #1
in any good crisis management campaign is to control your message.
Saying nothing may seem like taking the high road but in this day and
age, particularly for a large, public company, all it serves to do is
to fuel the speculation for what’s REALLY going on.
So, entering into the social marketing fray, particularly Twitter,
is the right thing to do, even if they were a bit late. It has worked
for other brands and it has worked against brands too.
Take the latest high profile Twitter issues that have erupted in the
transportation segment. Filmmaker Kevin Smith was accused of being too
fat for Southwest Airlines seats and promptly Tweeted his case that
resulted in a big black eye for the airline company. But, Southwest
handled it quickly by responding in the same medium. This was made more
successful due in part to the fact that Southwest already had a strong
commitment to the social landscape and has over 1 million Twitter
followers. @Toyota as of today has just over 18,000.
The point is, without a strong understanding and presence in the
Twitter and social landscape, it is very hard to get on top of these
issues and harder yet to seed good will before bad has a chance to root.
To further prove this point, I searched for companies or groups that
have analyzed the Twitter activity of Toyota since the recall debacle
began and found a good analysis on Buzz Study (https://infegy.com/buzzstudy/what-happened-with-toyota/). A few of their slides are transposed here (Dated March 12, 2010).
First you can see that the quantity of posts has almost quadrupled
up to what BuzzStudy says was a highpoint of 120,000 posts in one day.
Then looking at the left side you can see that there has been about a
30% decrease in Toyota sentiment that occurred right after the first
incident.
You will note in this next illustration that this is a downward trend,
not the end of the story, at least not yet. So expect to see a
continued downward slope for a while.
This slide is one I would recommend all Toyota Marketing and PR
executives keep on their dashboards. It is a classification of the buzz
going on about Toyota, by social site. Obviously, Twitter is the place
to start. But Facebook has potential. Unfortunately, while Toyota does
have a Facebook page, they very rarely update it and therefore are
violating Rule #1 again…they have lost control of the message there.
Finally, I think it is pretty clear that in this technological age,
you can run but you cannot hide and while Toyota is starting to
approach the problem in the right way (in fact, the buildout of their
Toyota.com/recall is a good example of a lot of great info refreshed
frequently, but it shouldn’t be the only place), they are lacking that
truth and transparency aspect that people are clamoring for from them.
Like it or not, this is happening more on social media sites rather
than on manufacturer websites.
They have their Twitter pages and Facebook pages but they don’t
appear focused on them. The tone is far different from that of the rest
of the ecosystem, which only helps to solidify the idea that they are
presenting a message out of balance. These social media spaces can
serve them well if they show more of an effort towards personalization
and transparency. Brands do not win over crowds by simply showing up.
Today you have to be a true participant if you want people to “Follow
Me.”