Social media has come a long way from its days of simply linking old friends together and posting up pictures on the Internet.  Now, large companies have been looking to use sites like Facebook and MySpace, among others, to advertise product, and Ford Motor Company can count this among their many other successes.

Ford has seen a particular amount of good success in sales and in public image by putting its own little spin on how to approach these new forms.  Some of their new models in the past couple of years have been subject to new forms of advertising, whether it was through Facebook or through other sites.  The Fiesta, the first of Ford’s media onslaught, received excellent press in Europe, but Ford was unsure of what reaction it would cause in the Americas due to its small size (and Ford’s already-poor reputation in the US for such cars).  The Fiesta Movement asked a few hundred popular YouTube users to have a Euro-spec model and feature it in videos across America.  The program created a lot of buzz about the new car, so much that by the time that the Fiesta hit the market last summer, it became a profitable success for Ford.

The Focus, meanwhile, has been a more traditional format, but the advertising seems to be aimed at a younger audience than the older model.  Ford is using an orange puppet named “Doug” for the promotion, which has seemingly been going very well–in fact, just last month, the Focus outsold the Civic and the Corolla for the first time in quite a while–even with the fact that the Japanese are dealing with production problems, this is a big win for the brand.  The Focus has been marketed aggressively as a younger person’s sort of ride, and the payoff’s been evident.

The Explorer, meanwhile, was a completely different sort of exercise.  The Explorer, already a well-known name in the USA as the father of the SUV craze, was unveiled via a Facebook event.  Although other cars and trucks have used Facebook in their debuts, the Explorer relied on it almost entirely, and the plan ended up being a huge success.  The Explorer’s sales have healthily increased as a result of this.  In any event, while all automakers stand to benefit from social media marketing, Ford has taken some serious initiative here, and set a standard for the rest of the industry to look to.

As social media continues its influence on our buying habits, automakers would be smart to follow the lead Ford has made for them.  Also, print media has been on decline for years–a huge source of advertising for automakers.  Unless another option can be made available, social media provides a fresh way to reach out to tech-savvy customers and younger generation, first-time buyers, who will see a flashy new car when they log into Facebook or Twitter–and possibly think, “I like that, I think I want to know more about it.”

-Al