Scott Monty’s take on the Ford Explorer Facebook Reveal

In an outstanding conversation on the FIR Live podcast over the weekend, Ford’s head of social media, Scott Monty, shared several interesting nuggets about the brand’s approach to marketing and customer engagement on Facebook, including some impressive results from the Ford Explorer Facebook “Reveal” back on July 26.

Here are the highlights:

Why Facebook for the Reveal?

Ford traditionally launches new vehicles in front of the mainstream media/business press at its auto shows. This time, Monty said, “we needed to reveal it in a completely different way … We wanted to bring the consumer directly into the conversation.”

And so throughout the day on July 26, Ford used a custom Facebook tab (see screenshot above) to take fans through the highlights of the new 2011 Explorer, including the exclusive first reveal at 7:40am ET and live chats with the workers behind the new vehicle (program managers, designers, etc.)

It wasn’t just Facebook …

Monty emphasized that Facebook was just one facet of a wide-reaching, integrated marketing campaign. Ford also held in-person reveal events in nine strategic cities across the U.S., was aggressive in digital ad buys across the web, reached out to heavy social media hitters like Mashable, and conducted interviews with traditional broadcast media throughout the day.

The goal? ”We needed to own the media for the day,” Monty said. “We needed, no matter where you turned on July 26th, to be confronted with some kind of coverage of the Ford Explorer.”

… but Facebook did make a difference

Ford’s online advertisements (see screenshot; click to enlarge) included two links: a “Like” button to the Explorer Facebook Page, and a “Learn More” button for FordVehicles.com. Each site then included content cross-linking to the other.

According to Monty, visitors moving from the ad > Facebook > FordVehicles.com converted at a 30% higher rate than those going directly from the ad > FordVehicles.com,

The marketing takeaway: “When people go to the Facebook and actually get good information and engage with somebody on the Page, and then go on to the official site, they’re more likely to take action and do the things [a brand is] looking for them to do.”

Displaying all posts to the Wall

Unlike many brands, the default Wall setting on the Ford Explorer Facebook Page mixes in posts from the brand and its fans. Ultimately, Monty said, Ford views its role on Facebook as joining “a mixed conversation.”

Partnering with agencies

Ford is staffed internally to handle much of the direct Facebook engagement with fans, but outsources some of the listening, creative content creation, monitoring, and comment escalation to its agency partners and customer-service team.

Transparent moderation

Facebook moderation is in place on the Ford Facebook Pages, Monty said. Ford uses “Page Guidelines” (see screenshot) to let its fans know what kind of content is acceptable.  Negative comments stay, but posts with hate speech, obscenities, and personal attacks are removed.

To meet regulatory requirements, the company also redirects vehicle complaints away from Facebook and into its oficial customer-service systems.

Fans who continue to run afoul of moderation guidelines will be warned that they’re at risk of being banned, Monty said.

Preventing ‘brand-jacking’

Monty acknowledged that brands always face some risk of online attacks, but that the chances of a Nestle-type Facebook ”brand-jacking” are far less likely when a company has put in the time and effort to build up goodwill online.

“Because we’re in there [on Facebook] every day, engaging with our fans, talking with them rather than at them, we’re more likely to get support from them should something like [an attempted brand-jacking] happen. And that’s something that can’t be underestimated,” Monty said.

Listen to the full podcast

Monty’s remarks on FIR were part of an hour-long panel discussion co-hosted by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson on the merits of businesses driving people to Facebook Pages over traditional websites. Monty was joined on the panel by Jennifer Cohen, Steve Rubel, and Dominic Sparkes.

The full podcast can be streamed or downloaded below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

(RSS and e-mail readers: Click through to the original post if you don’t see the embedded audio player.)