Car companies are increasingly using the seemingly ubiquitous Twitter to inform and engage potential and existing customers. But will the bold new experiment in social media work? Is the Twitter audience particularly receptive to overtures from auto companies? And what does it mean for the future of digital marketing?
Just recently Volvo used Twitter as part of a coordinated media strategy to launch its XC60 crossover while Land Rover tweeted about its product line at the New York Auto Show earlier this year. General Motors and Ford, meanwhile, are longtime Twitter users in areas including customer service and product launches.
Ford says the company has been using Twitter since July of last year and now has about 30,000 followers across 12 subject areas. "We're using it in day-to-day communications in terms of interacting with people, solving vehicle-related problems, sharing corporate news and live tweeting from events and auto shows." He says the company's more popular feeds include information on its Drive Green program and its Mustang model, and the company recently launched a bilingual feed in English and Spanish.
Christopher Barger, director of social media at General Motors, says: "We have a lot of answering to do in general with what's going on with the company. We did a whole lot of tweeting during the Chapter 11. People have questions, they want to know what's going on. We're their ears. "Twitter allows us to get back to one-to-one sales, winning people's trust back one by one. It's a way to give individual attention, and we need these one-to-one interactions."
Volvo, meanwhile, first experimented with Twitter by posting a feed from its president, Doug Speck, which put a little extra pressure on its communications team, says Geno Effler, Volvo's vice president of public affairs. "We helped condense his sentences down to 140 characters. It helped him connect with consumers. We found it to be very worthwhile to talk about the XC60 as it was coming to market, to answer basic questions about the car or about safety, and convey the information in very short spurts. "Our first foray into it got a lot of attention, a lot of people came on. Volvo is still a neophyte in this area, but a curios neophyte. It's all about getting connected and keeping connected with our owners. As a customer, the more you feel about being part of the team, the more loyal you become to that company or that brand."
Alexandre Acey, national communications manager at Land Rover, says the company used Twitter as part of a coordinated media strategy that included posting tweets on Captivate -- those little information screens you sometimes see in elevators -- and on similar screens in taxi cabs in metropolitan areas in an attempt to spread the word about launches of models including its Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and the new LR4, a replacement for the LR3.
Acey says the Twitter strategy cost the company less than $1,000 -- most of it in agency fees -- compared to a national TV media campaign, which can run into millions of dollars. "We encouraged our audience to contribute to the conversation. It's a great medium to get the word out. Going forward we'll evaluate it, perhaps when a new product comes down the line. The younger demographic is more likely to be into social networking."
Sernovitz says he's seen a surge in the number of major companies using Twitter to market their products but says that a company should be wary of breaching several important Web protocols and must send out a frequent stream of information or its audience might lose interest. Also at issue is choosing whom in the company will be on Twitter. "Always be honest about who you are. Never pay for it; if you do, you'll always be caught and embarrassed. And use common sense -- if something seems at all pushy or intrusive, then you've gone too far."
Daniel Honigman, a digital-media strategist at Weber Shandwick, adds: "Generally, if these companies feel they have an audience on a social network, by all means they should be producing content, but Twitterers are a finicky bunch. It's OK to market to them as long as they don't feel they're being marketed to.
"It's about conversation: If there's a lack of conversation about a brand, you want to create that conversation, and if that conversation exists, you want to be part of it."
An article written by Craig Howey for LA Times.
If Twitter works for Automotive Industry, it would also work with yours. Don't you think?
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