Have a look at the video from Febuary:

Starting with Scott Monty who is the “face” of Fords team on line they have developed their profile in social media to cover a multitude of niches and not advertise their wares, rather they have decided to do the right thing and LISTEN to the input from their customers rather than forcing them to be subjected to more “special offers” and “new products”.

The even covered customer service on twitter, for complaints and feedback handling.

By integrating themselves carefully and making sure they understood the medium appropriately this approach cumulated in the launch of a new car where they successfully increased brand awareness about the product rather than selling it directly.  Heres some points about the campaign from the Ford Website:

Original Article: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31117

• The Fiesta Movement and test drive program has resulted in more than 50,000 hand-raisers; 97 percent of whom currently do not drive a Ford
• Ford’s Fiesta Movement has driven brand awareness for the small car to levels equivalent to models that have been in the market for two to three years
• Social media sites also are buzzing with Fiesta Movement-generated content, with more than 4.3 million YouTube views, 540,000 Flickr views and 3 million Twitter impressions

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 1, 2009 – More than nine months before the 2011 Ford Fiesta goes on sale in North America, the new small car can claim more than 50,000 potential customers, and 97 percent of them would be new to Ford, thanks to Ford’s groundbreaking Fiesta Movement.

Ford took a nontraditional approach with the Fiesta Movement initiative, using a fraction of a typical marketing and advertising budget and relying on social media to drive the buzz. This means huge dividends for the brand – Fiesta awareness is running at the same level of a nameplate that has been on the market for two to three years.

“We didn’t break the bank. We didn’t use traditional media. We tried something different, and it is working” said Connie Fontaine, Ford Brand and Content Alliances manager. “We’re delighted with how Fiesta is gaining traction with consumers. It’s a whole new way of introducing a car to market.”

The Fiesta Movement promotes Ford’s new small car through 100 socially vibrant “agents” who have been driving Euro-spec Fiestas and taking part in monthly themed “missions” such as volunteerism, adventure, and style and design. After each mission wraps, the agents relate their experiences through the realm of social media.

Social networking sites allow Ford to meet consumers it might not connect with through traditional advertising, making it easier to open dialogue with a whole new set of consumers. The Fiesta Movement also realizes that people trust people like themselves and that everyone has a car story, and has successfully leveraged this as a platform from which to promote a new car.

Fiesta Movement drives the discussion
Agents are taking advantage of their time in Ford Fiestas, accumulating more than 1 million miles total. And their Fiesta Movement-related content is gaining huge traction on the Internet, with:

• More than 4.3 million YouTube views
• More than 540,000 Flickr views
• More than 3 million Twitter impressions

Through the accompanying nationwide test drive program, more than 162,000 customers have interacted with the Fiesta through walk-arounds and social interactions and 35,000 have taken a test drive.

Fiesta Movement agents are also providing key product insights with Ford. Exterior styling, driving dynamics and unique color offerings top the list of their favorite attributes.

Follow the Fiesta Movement:
YouTube: www.youtube.com/fiestamovement
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/fiestamovement
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fiestamovement
Twitter: www.twitter.com/fordfiesta

###

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 201,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

Amazing what can happen when you know what your doing, what tools you can use, and most importantly, how you can do it RIGHT.

Now take a second and look at your own business, your marketing, your networking opportunities and your out reach plans, what are you doing to get it right?

So lets start at the definitions already out there via a quick search on Google:

Wikipedia on Social Media

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

SearchEngine Watch on Social Media

http://searchenginewatch.com/define

social media: A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.

Anvilmediainc on Social Media:

http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-glossary.html

An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Now look closely at these definitions.  None of them are exactly alike.  Sure, they touch on the same ideas when it comes to user-generated content, social interaction and social dialogues but they give a very different feeling to the whole concept by the statements (and some are short statements) they have made.

So let me sum it up in my own unique and even shorter (I think Im on twitter to much) way.

Social media is about people using technology to pass information to each other and share.

Yep, thats how I see it.  Dead simple.  Forget all the hocus pocus, and jargon, magical words and scientific crap.  Its about using the tools in available to connect, engage and share with each other.

Now , if thats social media, what difference is social media marketing?

Wikipedia on Social Media Marketing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing

Social media marketing is a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).

Social media marketing has three important aspects:

(1) Creating buzz or news worthy events, videos, tweets, or even blog entries that attract attention, and become viral in nature. Buzz is the piece that makes social media marketing work, it replicates a message not through purchase of an ad, but thorough user to user contact.

(2) Building ways that fans of a brand or company can promote it themselves in multiple online social media venues. Fan pages in Twitter, MySpace of Facebook are exactly this.

(3) It is conversational. Social media marketing is not fully controlled by the organization, it allows for user participation and dialogue. Potentially a badly designed social media marketing campaign can backfire on the organization that created it. That is the reason that SMM campaigns must fully engage and respect the users.

According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council “Social media isn’t just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it’s about brands having conversations.”^[1].

The parameters surrounding social media marketing are arguably elusive today; however a growing consensus suggests social media marketing and Social Media are here to stay. Nielsen published a report ^[2] suggesting that blogs and social networks make up the emerging social web. The social web includes social media sites and it is a location within which social media marketing takes place.

So here we have it. I’m not going to quote any more because this definition is, for me, as accurate as it gets.

Now the important part to note here, and this is aimed directly at companies in Europe (who in general are not as accustomed to this medium as their counterparts in the USA) who want to get involved in social media and of course, social media marketing.

Businesses take note

Here’s where you need to take note.People will react to you directly on social media.  This is not a one way advertisement like you will be familiar with which transmits via a newspaper, radio or TV.  Once its out, you can expect a reaction and comment, from anywhere. Absolutely anywhere and it wont always be positive, then again it wont always be negative.

That’s where the fear of social media comes into the situation for business, and its something I never understood.  Ignoring it wont make it go away.  Dealing with it will.  So if business decide to enter into social media they have to be prepared to stay involved, not just hit send and walk away and if business do not want to be involved, well, guess what, it wont stop other people talking about you in conversation and in groups.

So what would you prefer to do as a business.  Get involved in the conversations about you or let the social media realm talk about you, in whatever way they want? Food for thought.