Being in an industry that’s reeling off of several years of extremely poor public relations, Ford is rebuilding its image in a big way with social media. Along with its Doug the Hand Puppet campaign, Ford has recently launched The Ford Story, a website that depicts the inner workings of Ford. Through inside looks at unreleased cars and features, happenings within Ford, and the thoughts of other Ford owners, not to mention actual Ford engineers, users are brought into an interactive community filled with interesting, engaging content about Ford. 1) Ford creates a transparent image for itself by letting users into the inner workings of the company and allowing them to ask questions. A recent article, entitled How Ford Did It: Building the Class Leading Power Stroke Diesel, delves deeply into the conceptualization and creation of the engine. It even includes words from the creator, Ford Engineer Joshua Styron, Ph.D., on the rationale behind the engine: “Combustion systems with the best air utilization extract the most heat from the fuel, produce less soot and NOx, and minimize the energy required to pump fresh air into the engine.,” The article has since been commented on and shared throughout the social web dozens of times. 2) It gives customers a place to talk with other enthusiasts about Ford products. The Your Stories section encourages users to talk about their experiences with their Ford cars. The section is broken down into categories based on car model, giving each its own place for owners to connect with others with the same car, and similar experiences. A car is a very personal item, and having owners connect over them can rekindle lost memories of their first Ford and remind them of how much they love the brand. 3) It creates interesting, first-hand content that users can’t find anywhere else. Users can read articles containing the knowledge and opinions straight from Ford engineers as they’re are being formulated, giving readers knowledge far in advance of what Ford will be producing. This creates expectations in the reader’s mind for thefordstory.com as being the place to get their information fix, and brings them back time and again. 4) Users are able to share their opinion about Ford products and talk with real Ford engineers about them. The Your Ideas section allows users to post their ideas about Ford and its products in an open forum where they can be discussed amongst other community members and Ford engineers. This creates great two-way communication between users and the brand. Users can feel like their opinion is being heard, as it actually may be, and feel connected to the brand knowing their thoughts went into the conceptualization process of the next line of Ford vehicles

Bottom Line for Local Business

For local businesses, this website’s features can be replicated with something as simple as a Facebook Page. The best lessons to be learned from this are to be transparent with your customers, give them a place where they can voice their opinion, and foster connections between them, the brand, and other enthusiasts. Connectivity is best done through stories. Share the stories behind the products and the company and encourage customers to share their stories that involve your products. This will lead to a very personal connection between the customers and the brand. Check out www.thefordstory.com for more details.