If you are a business owner and you are still not convinced your company should have a presence in social media, then you need to think again. The Ford Motor Company, the world’s fifth largest automaker and an American company dating back to 1903 has launched a campaign called the “Fiesta Movement”. With the auto consumer trend starting to shift towards more gas efficient models, it makes sense that Ford is bringing back their infamous mini subcompact, the Fiesta. To market the Fiesta, Ford is using a newer form of internet marketing that uses social media as the platform for mass promotion.
The demographic for this particular Ford model is young adults who are more gas and environmentally conscious and are in the market for an economical car. Ford has enlisted 100 people in their 20’s that regularly engage in using social media, to talk about their experiences with the new car on social media sites. The drivers are expected to chat, blog, and use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and digital media sharing sites, YouTube and Flickr. For compensation, Ford has arranged to provide free use of the car, pay for gas expenses, and insurance costs for six months.
Here is why this is a great marketing approach; although one important factor of the success on social media sites has to do with the daily steady increase of new users, social media is a great platform for businesses to communicate with their consumers. The internet has become a reliable source to research anything you want to learn about and when users are in a social community, they are in a comfortable setting where even this kind of guerilla marketing appears without a commercial trigger. Twitter obviously and clearly measures what people are talking about. Twitter’s “Trending Topics” change constantly based on the stats and can be used as a gauge to see what people are tweeting about the most. It’s listed prominently on the home page when you log in to Twitter. If plenty of people began talking about the Ford Fiesta on Twitter, this can spread and eventually become a trending topic. Becoming a Trending Topic on Twitter’s home page is a coveted space as it furthers the visibility of the topic and continues the “trend.”
The “Fiesta Movement” is just one example of using social media for marketing. There are many other strategies to use within each site. More importantly, Ford has embraced this kind of marketing which shows they are thinking at least somewhat outside the box. As traditional marketing continues to lose relative share to online marketing, the social media only serves to support and accelerate this clear trend of the early 21st century.
One Comment
This social media strategy used by Ford is a clever way to market and promote their economical Fiesta vehicle to young adults. I think this same strategy can be reapplied to promote most products and services by following the same or similar steps that Ford used. This makes me think and actually causes one to become more creative without spending a fortune on marketing.