Anyone living in the US, who has not been living in a deprivation chamber for the past few weeks, is likely aware that Toyota has had its problems the past few weeks. Toyota, a company known for fanatical customers, and ultra reliable automobiles has had to deal with issues related to several models that still seem not to be completely resolved. And this following on the heels of the floor mat debacle….
Looks nice sitting in your driveway...
So how does a modern day company defend their actions and reputation against an unrelenting news media, the US Congress, and late night talk show hosts? Toyota apparently thinks the answer is Twitter.
Well, I certainly give them points for trying.
Use of the venue, in conjunction with TweetMeme has social media apostles all over the world drooling with joy. I’m not so sure. First off on TweetMeme. Toyota is tracking comments related to Toyota on Twitter: Good! It has also been alleged (TechCrunch and others) that Toyota has sanitized the postings and/or is only tuning into the more favorable comments: Bad! This is not the time to place your head in the sand and tune out the negative.
My second concern with this media is that Twitter, until you have a tremendous following, can only be largely reactive. You just can’t tweet to people who don’t follow you, and Toyota only has 17,753 followers as of this writing. Not nearly enough to launch a retaliatory response to overwhelming negativity.
In fairness, Toyota also has a Facebook page, with 80,000 plus fans (I wonder if this has grown recently) where they post videos (from their YouTube page) about Toyota safety issues, and link to their recall site (Toyota Recall ), and provide a toll free number. They have posts from fans, that are both positive and negative on the FB site, but don’t host a discussion page.
The time has come for Toyota to wade in to these waters and weigh in a little more prominently.
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