Walter Adamson

Toyota's lost touch a social media opportunity

Toyota Lost Touch, Executive Says, says WSJ on July 22, 2009.

Toyota Motor Corp. got "a little bit lost" in its North American strategy and fell out of touch with customers and the market, its new North American chief, Yoshimi Inaba, said Monday...

"Our sense has been always that we listen to the market, we listen to customers, we listen to the dealer. That element is a little bit lost," Mr. Inaba told a group of reporters.

So here presents a most valuable social media opportunity for Toyota to listen and learn from its customers, lovers, haters, and indifferents. 

After all, as @gennyabouttown said recently: 

From my years in business not directly correlating with marketing of any sort, I have learned that I would pay almost anything to be able to find out what my customers are actually saying about me to their peers, beyond what they said to my face. I don't believe that it would be predominately negative. If a consumer has a bad experience they are 10 times more likely to tell people about it, but if they have a good one, they are 5 times more likely to tell people about it. But the good feedback holds more weight in the consumer mind than the bad feedback, which can be influenced by a lot of factors. You might have to sift through some irrelevant comments, but you would eventually be able to pick up on trends and progressions and get a better sense of the public's overall view of your company or product. Isn't that invaluable in itself?

Well said and how much would Toyota pay to know what their customers and potential customers are actually saying, and who is leading the influence in buying decisions, in hating influence, and in influencing decisions towards their competitors?

In other words a business-oriented, process-driven Social Media Assessment.

So not a market survey, not market research, not focus groups, but real live personal opinions being aired between real people in real conversation, and taking place now. Wow, that's gold alright.

Is Toyota and it's North American CMO too staid for social media, or unaware? No I don't think so in the least. I expect that they are fully aware:

1. They have a social media communications team led by Social Media Supervisor Scott Deyager who shares his experience in the transition from traditional media relations here;
2. Toyota has "clear communications objectives" for Twitter, which seem open and transparent;
3. They have extensive social web presence, as analysed in-depth in the Mindshare Report from the Social Media Academy.

However, what the Mindshare Report itself identified, points to the potential trend of loss of customer touch despite this social media presence, for example in relation to Twitter:

This risk (backlash against foreign auto makers) is exacerbated by the fact that “neutral” sentiment, measured at 34% towards Toyota is much higher than that of Ford, which is 28%. 

Unfavorable buzz could therefore shift that neutral sentiment in the other direction and negatively impact Toyota’s reputation and financial performance. 

Increased vigilance and more comprehensive, proactive, open engagement across a broader array of social media platforms like Twitter could help to mitigate this threat. Additionally, Toyota lags behind two of its key competitors, Ford and Honda, in terms of the requency & depth of customer contribution and participation as measured by number of posts and comment count.

It was also unclear how or if Toyota was monitoring feedback from MySpace, with 739,000 results for Toyota and its brands - some brands having 50,000 friends - or say Yahoo Groups with 1786 related groups with more than 95,000 members.

It is not clear if and how Toyota is monitoring or leveraging the feedback provided by some very passionate advocates.

So all in all the trend of disengagement seemed to be there, and despite the widespread presence in the social media the company was not effectively contributing and participating.

This was effectively detected, in advance, through proper process in a Social Media Assessment.

While this lack of contribution and participation in social media would not be the whole cause of Mr Inaba's problem of "losing touch" it certainly contributed to it, and it may reflect broader cultural issues affecting other customer-related activies within Toyota in North America.

The good news is that social media can play a very positive role in rebuilding the connection with customers for Toyota - with the right Assessment and planning and execution.

The Mindshare Report also gives some suggestions about how this can be done. But better for Toyota to take this on from the inside and with their vast knowledge of the business to craft a new plan for engagement.

Moving beyond Twitter 1.0 into Being Human 2.0

Years ago when I joined Linkedin I set down an objective for how I would build my connections, including qualifying criteria for accepting invitations. This meant, for example, that I turned down most invitations from old colleagues and work friends unless they were relevant to my new objective.

I was happy with that plan, and followed for these 5 or so years, and am happy with the resulting network.

However this kind of planned "objective driven" approach for a social network has become outmoded in the new more open and more human and more eclectic "followers" and "friends" world of Twitter and Facebook.

At least this is what I now believe and practice, although many of my colleagues remain unconvinced. 

Just today in Linkedin Toma Bonciu started a discussion in which his opening theme was this:

What I’m saying here is for those that are using Twitter as a way to leverage their business or their brands or them as authority persons in some niche market or they just have a defined-goal, because for this people Twitter is a tool that is used to increase awareness and web exposure. Having a plan helps, but it’s not enough. You also have to implement it (stick with it), track results and then make adjustments. This is my advice for you: think about what you’re tweeting, especially if you plan to achieve some goals by using Twitter.

Several others then came in and agreed, however my answer was this:

Toma, sorry to say this but your advice is what I would have said 6 months ago but I would now brand it "Twitter 1.0" coming from Web1.0 thinking.

I've been "re-educated" by the Social Media Academy and the precise advice that I now follow myself is, ironically, your first 4 words - "you, as a human" should be human and twitter and interact as a human on all your social networks, business or personal. People who may want to have a business relationship with you will decide as they always have decided - on the product, the company and you. And the more they see you as human the better.

If you are displaying things that they don't like about you as a human then you are either better off without that relationship, or you were not going to ever get a business outcome anyway.

That is how my thinking has evolved recently, thanks to Axel Schultze at the Social Media Academy. It felt uncomfortable at first, but now I do see and feel it is the best way to go.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

A few tips to improve your social profiles

From the latest Newsletter of the Social Media Academy.

Social media profiles are a delicate thing. You may prefer to be rather low key, but you also want to be open and approachable.

So consider those few tips:

1. Have a consistent photo across all profiles - it's your "personal logo"
2. Don't make your photo be "special" - you are unique 100% guaranteed
3. Cross reference other profiles i.e. from Twitter you may point to your LinkedIn profile
4. Always state your real name - nick names are like avatars - so 1990
5. Write your bio as a combination of your business profile and personal focus
6. If you can provide links to your other social networks and blogs
7. Consider all activities on a site as part of your profile, your identity
8. Provide it in a way that it works for both your best friends and your customers
9. Even so you may separate business from personal life - the viewer may not
10. Point to your profiles whenever you have the opportunity

The Academy is expanding internationally. Even though all classes are online, we decided to be more local, adjust classes to local and cultural differences as well as better accommodate regional time zones.

We started the Social Media Academy Australia and already started our first Leadership Class this week (first week of June).

The Social Media Academy UK will be next. The first UK class will be our new class: "Social Competition". The first Leadership Class for UK will start September 3.

	| | | | | | | | | | | | News - Social Media Wikipedia Social Media
A selection of my comments in the social media.
SkypeIn: call +1-650-488-8090
Shared from my Google Reader, with notes.
Interested in Software as a Service? Listen to my colleague Michael Dunham - Haut Tech Conversations | Blog Talk Radio Feed