Ford Uses Social Media to Put Out PR Fire: A Case Study

This is an awesome case study on just how fast messages can spread through social media channels. We’ve all read about the horror stories (hello, Comcast Must Die, et. al.), but how often do you see a company, let along a HUGE company, respond correctly?

Ron Ploof, a B-to-B social media consultant, has a fantastic case study of what happened when Ford Motor Company’s Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager Scott Monty decided to fight a PR fire using the same channels in which it spread (posted on Monty's blog for all to read and share).

The short story is that Ford legal sent a cease and desist letter, along with a demand for the url and $5,000 just for their trouble, to a fan site, The Ranger Station. The site owner freaked out and posted the details to his user forum. You might guess what happens next with nasty blog posts and Tweets bashing Ford for attacking the very enthusiasts they should be courting like the last girl in a mining town right now.

The details of how Monty responded are well worth your time for a read but some key points are:

• Notice how fast bad publicity can spread
• Monty fought the fire in the same channels and with the same methods as those that spread it
• He kept it personal and timely. This is key since social networking is…well…social
• Monty tapped his own network for help in getting Ford’s side of the story out. His initial request to 5600 followers resulted in retweets to an additional 13,400 people…in seconds!
• Monty was able to leverage his understanding of fan sites and social networks’ ability to influence to convince Ford legal to back off a bit and separate their real concern (The Ranger Station was selling counterfeit Ford decals) from their demands for payment and ownership of the url, which they didn’t really want anyway
• Monty then called the site owner directly. Turns out, like most communication problems, this was a case of misunderstanding of intentions and overreaction on both sides. Once clarified, this allowed the site owner to help put out the fire he created
• Monty, knowing how messages travel and take on a life of their own, continued to monitor and respond to negative posts
• Almost 23 hours and 138 tweets later, the fire was out

So, in fewer than 24 hours Scott Monty was able to contain the very real possibility of a PR nightmare when it’s the last thing an American auto maker needs right now. Brilliant.