Ford is changing cars and PR

So I got this email last week.

Hi, Don

On Wednesday, May 13, Ford will be stopping in Indianapolis to host a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid “open house” starting at 10 a.m. at The Westin Indianapolis, Capital One Room, 50 South Capital Avenue. It’s part of a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid cross-country tour – 33 cities over 60 days.

The all-new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is getting a lot of buzz lately. In recent news, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid achieved an astounding 1,445.7 miles on a single tank of gas driving a total of 69 hours. It is the precursor to Ford’s planned line of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which Ford plans to place on the market in 2012.

Speaking at the open house will be Lisa Drake, chief engineer, Ford Sustainable Mobility Technology, to talk about and demonstrate the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid including Ford’s state-of-the-art SmartGauge technology. During the presentation Lisa will discuss Ford’s goals to have best-in-class MPG ratings for all vehicles in the Ford lineup as well as new Ford technologies like EcoBoost, which will be available in half a million Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles over the next five years. She will also touch on the importance of sustainability and working jointly with environmental stakeholders.

Following the presentation, you will then have the opportunity to take the new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for a test drive.

I really hope you can come out and join us. Please let me know, I would love to have your feedback!

Cheers,

Janine

I thought “Wow, this is pretty cool.” I wonder what I’m doing on Wednesday. Crap, I have too much work to do but maybe I can find some time to go.

But here’s the interesting part. I don’t know Janine – we’ve never spoken before. She found me – like many others in cities across the nation – by researching my blog and Twitter feeds.

It wasn’t hard for her. Just a little homework and a nice email asking me if I would like to come out. Now I’m sure this happens to many prolific bloggers like Chris Brogan (he actually gets to test drive many cars) – but this doesn’t happen to me. I’m just a little known blogger here in Indy but things are changing out there.

She could have done just the normal thing and blast out a press release and hope that the media picks it up. But I wouldn’t have come. Or even considered it. But a personal invitation. Well, that’s different.

Now I’m sure she was just copying and pasting to all the bloggers but when I responded she was right there. Quick to answer my questions.

That’s really what intrigued me. She answered my emails faster than most companies do with their customer service people.

In fact, I was having a rough time with a bank the other day and fired off an email to the CEO (he was asking for my feedback). Guess what? I still haven’t heard from him. I doubt if I ever will.

I think Ford has got a smart thing going here and I would encourage them to keep using social media the way it is supposed to be used. Invitations. Conversations. Participation.

By the way, you should be following Ford’s Social Media Director, Scott Monty. He’s got some great insights and he’s always quick to follow up.

Hey Scott, if you read this I wrote another blog about your company recently. I wasn’t for sure if the owner of the Gould Valves wanted your company’s name to be part of the story but he now says he doesn’t care. You can check it out here.

So how would you use social media to promote your event?