Comments on: Why Mazda Shouldn’t Hire a Social Media Marketing Manager

By: David Josephs

David Josephs — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:21:37 +0000

Not sure whether Mazda should be embracing social media when it can’t even arrange a test drive for me. I own an RX8, and want to test drive a Mazda 5. After two weeks of unreturned phone calls, cancelled visits, and generally poor customer service, still no sign of arranging that test drive. Perhaps Mazda doesn’t need people buying its products? To repeat, we will be purchasing a car within the next few weeks, and the company is doing all it can to push us into the arms of another vendor. I’m based just north of London in the UK by the way. I wanted to try and arouse their interest on twitter, but couldn’t find anything relevant.

Truly epic levels of customer service failure.

By: David Harris

David Harris — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:40:31 +0000

Mark,

Wow… and Touché… I could blame spell check in Word however I don’t want Bill Gates to comment too…

It still doesn’t excuse the mistake.

Facebook…. not face book.

Thank you.

David Harris

By: Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:15:37 +0000

Mazda’s first step should be to learn how to spell “Facebook”. One word, not two.

Deuces!

- Mark

By: Mark Brown

Mark Brown — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:45:49 +0000

JD,

You skimmed the facts a bit on Mazda’s presence on Facebook as well. Mazda3 has a size-able fan base there, with over 11,000 fans. A corporate Fan page is the only route to your fans, some feel a greater affinity with the model they drive than with the manufacturer.

As an agency parter that works with Mazda on their social marketing strategy, I agree with Ralph and David that Mazda does “get it” and is making the right move by staffing up to do even more n the Social space. There’s already an incredibly loyal and active organic Mazda fan base that will only grow stronger with the right strategy in place and the right resources to support it.

By: David Harris

David Harris — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:12:46 +0000

Mike,

Thank you for the congratulations. I was also stunned by the standing in that publication and dug into the data a little. The number that they used was for “Mazda Racing”, a site that we appreciate but it is not a singular representation of our brand on Face book. While we launched our corporate Fan page in December, it had over 1000 fans at the end of that month. What I found interesting was that when I search Mazda on Face book, there are over 540 pages associated with Mazda — that’s more than VW or Porsche. Mazda has organically grown its fan base over the years; now we want to listen and learn from our customers and hopefully help all of us celebrate the Zoom-Zoom.

By: Mike Hastings

Mike Hastings — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:31:48 +0000

Congratulations to Mazda for investing in social media. With a comparatively young audience I was stunned by Mazda’s standing in a recent publication you can see here: http://automarketingblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/automotive-facebook-fans-by-brand.html

By: Ralph Paglia

Ralph Paglia — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:49:25 +0000

This is an interesting article in that it showcases the difference of opinion that we can have in the car business, while still respecting the skills and experiences of those expressing a different perspective… My perception of the Mazda “help wanted” advertisement was completely the opposite of the view JD expressed. To me, I saw a car company reaching out beyond the insularity of looking within their own walls to select someone who Social Media Marketing strategy would become just another project. Instead, Mazda North America did the right thing, while showing some courage in revealing themselves as seeking new leadership in what will become a mission critical area for them and all car companies. Personally, I applaud Mazda for having the good sense to acquire leadership before establishing strategy… To establish strategy before identifying and/or hiring their internal thought leaders would have been foolish.

In the book “Good to Great” one of the key concepts was the idea around getting the right people “on the bus” before the bus starts heading in a particular direction. What JD seems to be suggesting is that Mazda should have rented a bus and then tried to figure out who to put in it after it heads out on the highway. In many ways dealers can learn from what Mazda is doing… Identify your Social Media Marketing leaders, or bring the right person on board… THEN, start mapping out details and reviewing what suppliers and agencies have to offer. Leadership first, strategy second and THEN deploy tactics to support strategy and leadership objectives.

By: Tom Humbarger

Tom Humbarger — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:43:35 +0000

JD – you make a number of valid points, but social media ownership is not limited to just Mazda corporate. Granted, Mazda corporate needs to set a better direction and course — and after meeting David Harris several weeks ago, I know that they will get there sooner than later. Social media does not happen overnight especially in a culture where the concept is not natural.

With that, there are already many Mazda dealers on Twitter who are engaging in conversations in their local markets – not counting the hundreds of Mazda owners and enthusiasts who are tweeting about their Mazdas. And there are a number of quite active Mazda forums and communities where there are thousands and thousands of user-generated questions, answers, pictures and videos.

To see how much is actually happening in social media for Mazda, I started pulling together an inventory of their social media and user-generated sites at http://www.squidoo.com/mazdasocialmedia. This is a work in progress and a worthwhile project for any major brand who is starting to dip their toe in the social media waters.

Tom Humbarger
http://twitter.com/tomhumbarger

By: TechKive » Blog Archive » Why Mazda Shouldn’t Hire a Social Media Marketing Manager

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:00:20 +0000

[...] rest is here: Why Mazda Shouldn’t Hire a Social Media Marketing Manager Share and [...]

By: Richard Valenta

Richard Valenta — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:59:02 +0000

Mazda produces a great product but they have not done well connecting with their customers as indicated by the number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans. It’s great to see they are changing things. Can’t wait to see how things progress.