Rules for Ford Social Media Engagement are Simple and Clear
While visiting The Ford Story in preparation for an upcoming project I came across their Rules for Ford Social Media Engagement. (Found at the bottom of their general rules of conduct) To my surprise they are simple and straightforward — common sense. As we know in many big companies common sense is uncommon. The lesson here is keep it simple and trust the people you have hired for their expertise, insight and knowledge.
Here’s the Ford Social Media Policy:
Rules for Ford Social Media Engagement
At Ford Motor Company, our social media strategy involves connecting our consumers with our employees in the digital space whenever possible, and providing value to them in the process. As a result, we have specific rules for online engagement, which, amongst other variables, involves abiding by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s Code of Ethics.
Ford will:
- Always request that our social media influencers be transparent and disclose their relationship, as well as anything they’ve received as a result of that relationship with Ford
- Insist on honesty of opinion. We want both positive and negative reviews of our vehicles
- Offer influencers engaging experiences that are worth talking about. We won’t be cutting and pasting press releases into e-mails in hopes someone will post them
- Always carefully target our outreach to ensure that we aren’t “spamming” anyone with unwanted messages
- Listen carefully to suggestions and concerns
- Compensate influencers for consulting or other duties they do for Ford. This compensation will solely be for their time as an advisor and will not include an expectation that they will write about the project – favorably or unfavorably
- Apologize quickly for any mistakes we make. No one is perfect and we are sure that we will make a misstep in our efforts to engage with the social web, but we will be sure to learn from our mistakes
- Share this policy with all influencers we work with
The more straight forward and easy to understand a social media policy is, the easier it is to follow and abide by. Do you have a social media policy for your own social media and social networking activities? What do you think of Ford’s?
