Via: MinePress.com

Here they are via text:

1. Get their email. And make sure you give them a reason to sign up.
2. Ask for reviews. Over 20% of reviews have local intent.
3. Give back. Find a local cause that you can get behind.
4. Change it up. Rotate your message or your creative.
5. Learn from your customers. They're smarter than you are about what they want.

I've been fortunate to be part of some amazing vehicle reveals and launches that involve social media during the four years that I've been at Ford. Each of them has involved a number of teams of very talented and smart people working on cutting edge ideas, as we've collectively pushed the boundaries for how it's done. Or, as MediaPost recently observed, Ford "could probably publish a textbook on social-media launch strategies for cars and crossovers."

Well, we're about to do it again for the launch of the 2013 Ford Fusion, which we revealed at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, where we debuted it to 2,500 media, including 150 bloggers we hosted from around the world who produced some amazing content. Now, I'd like to share the next steps in Ford's unique approach with you.

But before I do, a quick word. While I'm often associated with much of the success of these big programs, the credit really goes to our Brand and Content Alliance team, led by my colleague Crystal Worthem and her very capable agency at WPP's Team Detroit. They are so full of energy and ideas and are the sparking plugs and engine behind the groundbreaking programs like Fiesta Movement, Focus Rally, Escape Routes and now, Random Acts of Fusion.

Ford's Principles of Social Media

Working for a company that is considered by many to be a leader in social media means that one of the greatest challenges is not only remaining ahead of the competition, but constantly besting ourselves. Our teams are always trying to find the next big thing, while keeping an eye on where the masses are and remembering to stay true to our core beliefs of social media at Ford:

• Humanize the company (through employees', fans' and customers' stories and connections)
• Create value (by offering information, humorous content, first-to-know status, access and more)

Further, we recognize that human nature involves some fundamental traits that drive our activities:

• People want to be heard
• Everyone wants what's in it for them (or WIIFM)
• We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves, whether it's through altruism, community activism, or a big program that can give us the spotlight for a moment.

With this in mind, we have constantly developed programs that express those beliefs, whether they were part of the BCA efforts mentioned above, or being the first automaker to reveal a vehicle on Facebook, as we did with the Explorer in 2010.

Random Acts of Fusion is a first of a kind for us. It's a transmedia campaign - one that uses a variety of platforms to tell a story across all of them. It's a style of marketing that you'll probably hear quite a bit more about in the near future, as many brands are in the midst of exploring or executing transmedia campaigns.

Why Transmedia for the 2013 Ford Fusion?

The 2013 Fusion is a transformative vehicle for Ford: it is clearly an exciting and well-designed mid-size car, which has traditionally been a fairly bland segment in which "just enough" has sufficed. The Fusion's design has been widely praised, and three engine styles - gas, hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric - will give consumers an unprecedented choice of great fuel economy. And the technology interwoven throughout the car is mind-numbing for any category, let alone the mid-size. It is the most significant vehicle Ford will launch in 2012.

For that reason, we needed to ensure that we took our launch strategy to another level. Random Acts of Fusion will (dare I say it?) go further than our previous efforts and will contain a series of immersive entertainment experiences combining a variety of broadcast, social media and digital platforms. Each will build anticipation and will require the participation of everyone in order to get to the next level.

In order to help us gain a little more attention and attraction, we've partnered with none other than Ryan Seacrest, who'll be working with a couple of other personalities to develop this story. Along the way, you'll see some Big Acts that involve a limited number of participants who'll be chosen after they submit some key user-generated content; Pop-Up Acts that will, uh, pop up around the country this summer (you never know where we might show up!); and some very special and select Fusion Moments that will surprise and delight our fans with Ryan's help.

But until then, the content and website are all locked up, requiring participation in order to unlock them. All of the content and experiences are designed to take people to unexpected places in big and small ways and the story arc will play out over time, beginning now and running through the early fall.

We've kicked it off with this video on the Fusion Facebook Page:



Once we've gotten to 1,000 likes on this Facebook post (click through to like it), the next phase of the program will be released.

What's Next?

I'd love to tell you the specifics, but this is one of those cases in which everyone needs to participate in order for everyone to make the journey together. Without your help, we can't unlock the stories. But trust me, what we've got in store is going to be fun, consistent with the high quality content and human interaction people have come to expect from Ford, and above all, completely unique.


You can follow the Fusion Twitter account (@FordFusion), like the Facebook Page (facebook.com/fordfusion), sign up for updates via Ford Social (social.ford.com) and, once we reach 1,000 likes on that post, unlock the special registration site so perhaps you can be part of Random Acts of Fusion this summer.


I hope you'll join us on this fun trip. If all goes well, this will be another case study for the books and something that we'll all be able to learn from. If you find this compelling or have questions, I'd appreciate your comments. And by all means, share away!


Photo credit: Thomas Hawk (Flickr)

Editor's note: the following is a guest post by Charles Harrow, on behalf of Screenmail.

A Sharing Economy
The early part of the 21st century might be called the age of social media--though perhaps the era of sharing might be an even more appropriate description. Whatever we choose to call it though, there's little question that we've entered into a "sharing economy," creating an economic landscape wherein both for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations leverage the power of content sharing, to the greatest extent possible, to get the word out about their products, services, programs, and promotions.

While young people have grown up in this environment and therefore know no other, many in the older generation are embracing it, as well. For young and old, however, it's a matter of keeping up with technology and the increasingly complex capacities it confers on the average person--a reality that has totally changed the status quo. Those who are willing to accept the new business paradigm are rewarded with greater success. Those who aren't are simply left behind. From advertising to customer service and from human resources to corporate giving, news travels at the speed of now--and the conduit through which it travels is the group that used to be quaintly referred to as "the common people."

The Power of Collaborative Consumption
The personal arena is by no means exempt from this modern paradigm shift, however. Consumerism has changed drastically during this age of social sharing, with the balance of power shifting noticeably from big business to the person on the street. We've become collaborative consumers, sharing with one another, across a multitude of networks, the best and worst product deals, the most competent and incompetent services, the good, the bad, and the ugly treatment we've received from the companies with which we've dealt, and a whole array of other critical factors that shape the consumer experience--and dictate the profits of large corporations. To say that the modern consumer has a voice would be a gross understatement.

Technological Shift
As other subtle and not-so-subtle shifts take place in both technology and attitude, still another move appears to be occurring. The collaborative mindset is gradually beginning to be applied to production and not simply to consumption. And technological tools like ScreenMail are helping fuel the change. For those who may not know it already, ScreenMail is a new SaaS (software as a service) platform that allows users to send each other ScreenMails: videos that capture what's happening on their computer screens. It's a way of visually recording their desktops and adding a voice recording via microphone to explain to recipients whatever additional information may be needed to complete the picture.

Some current and potential uses for ScreenMail technology:

• Demonstrating a problem a user is having with a piece of software to a remote troubleshooter
• Explaining a bug to a software developer
• Testing a job applicant for a specific skill before setting up an interview
• Carrying out remote usability testing

Based on the above uses and capabilities of the technology behind ScreenMail, it seems obvious that other, more comprehensive uses are on the horizon. For example, what's to prevent the entire development phase of a piece of software from being carried out collaboratively via this remote technology, with developers sending ScreenMails of each iteration of the product's development to one another for feedback and creative input as they view the software in action via video on their computer screens?

A Move toward Collaborative Production?
Tools such as these can potentially make it possible for the greatest minds within a field to collaborate in ways they've never been able to before--regardless of physical distance and regardless of scheduling conflicts that would normally present obstacles to the collaboration--creating a potential reality wherein we can reach previously unimaginable heights of advancement. This would, of course, mean that whereas our current technological era leans more toward individual discovery and implementation, emerging technologies might soon eclipse this individualistic operational style, foreshadowing a move into a more interdependent age and mode of creation--one that's more in line with the atmosphere of collaborative consumption in which we've grown so accustomed to operating in recent years.

Is this a foreshadowing of what's to come in our rapidly advancing technological age? It doesn't appear to be outside the realm of possibility and, in fact, thanks to the technology that appears able to accomplish it, which seems to be slipping right into place, it seems likely that this new collaborative production method will soon become a normal part of the product development process.

The increased ability to collaborate through technology, bringing together the most brilliant minds to pool their knowledge and work cooperatively to solve problems and create new realities, looks from this vantage point as if it will soon begin expanding our horizons and opening brand new vistas of discovery that will take us boldly into the future.

What exciting new realities do you think the next stage in collaborative production holds in store?

Image source: Kalexanderson (Flickr)

Today marks 100 years since the R.M.S. Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, taking the lives of over 1,500 souls  with her in those icy waters. And over the last year or so, the commercial side of the enterprise has been heating up at an amazing pace.

The Titanic has always had an allure about it - an amazing feat of engineering that was brought down on its maiden voyage, tales of heroism and chivalry (women and children first), class struggles and unforeseen safety needs. Indeed, it now stands as one of the greatest lessons of all time of man's hubris in the face of nature, and will forever remind us that we need to plan for the worst possible contingencies despite our confidence in our own technological advances.

Naturally, the 100th anniversary brings about its own special observance from longtime admirers as well as those who may have just discovered the story. The Wall Street Journal tallied some of those events and products ("Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Titanic Business 100 Years Later"), such as viewings of A Night to Remember, memorial celebrations in significant locations like Belfast, Southampton and Cherbourg, a Titanic fragrance from salvaged samples of essences carried by a perfume maker who traveled on the ship, recreations of the meals, and much more.

But one of the more creative acknowledgments of the anniversary has to be from The History Press, a British publishing company that started the @TitanicRealTime Twitter account to chronicle the progress of the ship as if sent from aboard the ship itself. The tweets began exactly a month before and have picked up pace on the last day of the ship's voyage on April 14-15.

Each of the tweets is hashtagged with the appropriate person or category of people aboard from which it would have come. For example, crew members, officers, engineers, the captain, first class passengers, Thomas Andrew (the ship's builder), the bandleader, passengers in the lifeboats, the Carpathia (the ship that rescued the survivors) and more all have their own hashtags. And as the events unfold, we're able to witness the observations firsthand - sometimes very eerily.

Here are some representative tweets from the account (which has over 400 in total):























A chilling and haunting reminder of what happened that fateful night. It's amazing to think of all of the engineering advances that went into what was then the largest moving object in the world. There are a number of things that went wrong on that voyage that led to the death of so many - the way the instructions to port round the iceberg, the reversal of the engines, the safety regulations that didn't keep up with the advances in the ship's size, the speed with which the ship sank, etc. But just in terms of the advance of communication, the Marconi wireless that they had on board seems so primitive compared to what we have at our fingertips with smartphones every day now. Think of how different the outcome might have been with better communication tools!

May we be thankful for what we have at our disposal today and forever remember the passengers, crew and officers of the Titanic.

I leave you with this short playlist of songs that were said to have been the last played by the band as the passengers assembled for lifeboats: "Song d'Automne" and two different versions of "Nearer, My God To Thee" from the 1958 film A Night to Remember and of course the 1997 film Titanic.




In addition to those heartfelt notes and tragic images, I also like to listen to Gavin Bryar's very odd and mesmerizing album The Sinking of the Titanic, with its haunting sounds of creaking metal, muffled voices and wistful strings. Disclosure: this and the links below are affiliate links, so you help me earn money if you purchase them.

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To learn more, check out the Titanic Historical Society or the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, TN and Branson, MO . And don't forget to visit The Henry Ford for their Titanic exhibit running this year.

           

You've probably heard that Pinterest is here and in a big way. If you're not already familiar with it, take a look and see if you can understand what the fuss is all about. The site has been around for a couple of years but only recently took off.

I've been wanting to write something about Pinterest for the last 2-3 weeks, but haven't been able to because of a grueling work schedule, and rather than simply provide you an introduction to the site, I thought I would take a sampling of articles that have been written about it and see if we can explore some topics related to Pinterest instead.

Why It Works
And really, this approach is parallel to the way I think Pinterest is different. Simply stated, the site is a visual bookmarking tool. There are a number of sites and platforms that serve as social bookmarking tools: Delicious is probably the best known one; StumbleUpon, Reddit and Digg are variations on the concept of the merging of discovery, serendipity and search, with tagging as the common thread that runs through each.

But Pinterest has taken to to another level that appeals to some more basic human needs: the ability to browse content in a minimalist, visual way (see "How Pinterest Is Changing Web Design Forever"); and the notion that when we encounter strangers (either online or offline), we make a connection through a common interest and the sharing of that interest.

Enter Pinterest's solution: Boards. Users can create their own boards around anything that they're passionate about, and Pinterest gives a limited number of categories into which your boards can fit: Art, Architecture, Cars & Motorcycles, Design, DIY & Crafts, Education, Film, Music & Books, Food & Drink, Gardening, Geek, Hair & Beauty, History, Holidays, Home Decor, Humor, Kids, My Life, Women's Apparel, Men's Apparel, Outdoors, People, Pets, Photography, Print & Posters, Products, Science & Nature, Sports, Technology, Travel & Places, Wedding & Events, and Other.

But what's more sticky here than with many of the other sites out there is that in addition to being simple to use and visual in nature, users have the ability to follow individual boards rather than the entire stream of users. This is not to be underestimated, as user experience across the web is changing to accommodate custom content delivery - busy people what only what's relevant to them. And at the same time, they want serendipitous discovery so they can still find new and different things that inspire them. Jay Baer looks at some of these reasons on Convince and Convert. I've seen it at work personally, as one of my pins has been "repinned" some 11,500 times.

And it must be working more widely, for one analyst recently observed that he has seen "some of the strongest user engagement, retention, and virality metrics" there and Bessemer Ventures is bullish on Pinterest.

He Said / She Said
"But wait," I hear you saying, "isn't Pinterest for women?" Shame on you. While it's true that women make up the majority of users (some 70-80%  as of the end of January 2012), as I wrote above, it's about universal human nature and how we connect with each other. For a healthy dose of reality and a digital dope slap on this topic, see Kristy Sammis' article on the Clever Girls Collective, "How to Stop Being a Pinterest Sexist." Even Lance Ulanoff, the editor of Mashable, admits his addiction, noting that when he went beyond the people he was following and looked deeper by categories that appealed to him, a new world opened up to him.

And yet, we're beginning to see a rise in competitors to Pinterest, some specifically with a male slant. Gentlemint is probably the most well known; another is Dartitup. You can even check out "The Bro's Guide to Pinterest," with suggestions as to how to understand and leverage Pinterest if you're looking for a male demographic on there.

Whether or not these other sites are able to match the momentum of Pinterest, the reason we're seeing the competitors is again because the need to share and to bond around common interests is something that humans - both men and women - have baked into our DNA. Did you ever participate in "Show and Tell" in a classroom when you were a child? It's the same thing, only it's happening online. As Clay Shirky recently said during a TED Talk: "We are in a world where most American citizens over the age of 12 share things with each other online."

Now, that's not to say that there aren't differences between how men and women shop online - particularly with smartphones. A recent Comscore study has shown that women are more likely to take a photo of an image and share it, while men are more likely to use their smartphones to find information, either by scanning a barcode or researching product features.

From Show and Tell to Show and Sell
There are a couple of underlying questions in all of this excitement. The first is about Pinterest's business model - how will they make money? They've backed off on the affiliate linking practice that became controversial (or not, depending on who you ask) earlier in month, and according to Bessemer, there are a number of ways for them to make money.

The other question that's being answered daily by brands jumping into the fray is, "how can I use Pinterest for my business?" Of course it depends on the type of business you have and what you wish to give as an experience. Thomas Hawk has an excellent perspective on Pinterest for photographers and artists, focusing on the need to share rather than hoard content.

There are some good resources out there with a number of great examples for businesses. Some of them include:

• How to Use Pinterest for Business (Spiral16)
• 30 Resources, Tips and Tricks for Marketing Your Business on Pinterest (Jeff Bullas)
• 10 Tips on Using Pinterest for Your Business (The Next Web)
• How Brands Are Using Pinterest - And What They Can Do Better (Read Write Web)

To me, the brands that will be successful here are the ones that go beyond just using Pinterest as a storefront and use it to unite people around passion points. And of course, you'll want to use Pinterest to drive sales - particularly if you're in the e-commerce business. But think creatively about how you construct boards: rather than just listing products, center around a theme. Neiman Marcus and Whole Foods do this particularly well:


Pinterest is bound to become a powerful engine for e-commerce, more so than the promise of "F-commerce" from Facebook, I think. The challenge with the Facebook model (for the most part) is that it required users to have the storefront experience in a custom tab on each company's Facebook page - not necessarily something that translates when you're using a mobile version of Facebook on your smartphone (remember the above statistic about shopping and smartphone use?). And just this week according to Bloomberg, there's been a noted shuttering of storefronts on Facebook, largely due to lack of use.

With Pinterest, because the mobile versions are just as simple as the web version - and because they're based on image sharing (again, see above), it's more likely that we'll see more retail driven activity.


So that's my current view on some of the things happening with Pinterest. What do you think? Are you there yet? Do you see the value or would you care to debate it? Drop a comment in below. And if you'd like to connect on Pinterest, you can follow me here:

If you need an invitation (as it's still in beta), let me know.

Image credit: Annie Mole (Flickr)

If you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.

The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel - at least with regard to infrastructure.

The Airlines
To my knowledge, Southwest was the first airline (or at least the most prominent early on) to get involved with social media. Their blog, Nuts About Southwest, has been a perennial leader in the corporate blogging space. They've made great use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more and have always led with a very human and very customer-centric approach.

JetBlue made a name for itself in the social media space after a difficult travel situation thanks to severe winter weather in 2007. Their CEO David Neeleman was direct and honest in his approach, the video of him was sincere and emotional, and JetBlue made it clear that it put customers first. And to think that my colleague Morgan Johnston at JetBlue had started his job on that very day...

Delta got a late start in social media (and was the subject of its fair share of complaints, including a dramatic rant ), but now has @Delta and @DeltaAssist looking after its customers on Twitter. Not to mention some personal interaction from a certain member of the crew from their famous safety video.




The other airline that's going above and beyond in social media is Virgin America. Based out of Silicon Valley, they're in the thick of the action from a technology standpoint. And their use of Groupon, Loopt, Foursquare and more prove it. But their always-on monitoring is essential when it comes to catching consumer complaints, especially after their switch to a new reservation system last year.

Overall, customers want interaction - they want to be heard, certainly, but they also want action - when they take to Twitter to voice a concern. According to an eMarketer article, the expectation that a company will respond increases by age cohort from 38% of 18-24 year-olds all the way up to 65% of those in the 55+ age category. And it clearly matters in terms of satisfaction:


If you'd like to see a comprehensive roster of airlines on Twitter, check out @Kayak's list of some 160 or so.

Staying Powered - and Connected
I've been in the unfortunate circumstance of leaving for a trip without power cord for a device. There are two points of good news: many times, you can charge your phone directly from your laptop using a USB port; and quite often, the hotel will have a power cord for your phone that you can borrow from their lost and found collection (I was once told by a concierge that phone cords are like currency at most hotels).

There are a few gadgets that I'd recommend as well. If you're travelling internationally, it's essential to have an all-in-one adapter that has attachments for every major country's electrical sockets. And because the hotel where you're staying or the airport may not have many readily available sockets to charge your laptop, phone, tablet, etc., it's handy to have a cord with 4 outlets, an all-in-one charging station, or even a PowerSquid that will allow up to 5 others to connect. You'll be the most popular person at the airport! (Note on all of the links in this paragraph: http://cmp.ly/5).

Then again, a number of airports have recognized that passengers travel with gadgets and need places to charge.

Thanks, Delta!

If you happen to have a non-3G iPad or a laptop without an air card, you depend on local wi-fi networks for connectivity. I've been in my share of airports that have had plenty of network access, but I didn't want to spring for a Boingo account to get connected. For that reason, it's helpful to know which airports have free wi-fi. Here's a quick list for your reference:

Airports with free wi-fi:
Boston (BOS)
Charlotte (CLT)
Cincinnati (CVG)
Denver (DEN)
Fort Myers (RSW)
Honolulu (HNL)
Indianapolis (IND)
Kansas City (MCI)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Oakland (OAK)
Orange County (SNA)
Orlando (MCO)
Palm Beach (PBI)
Phoenix (PHX)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PDX)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San José (SJC)
Tampa (TPA)
Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Reagan (DCA)


But it goes farther than wi-fi and charging stations. FareCompare has developed a list of the top 12 airports for social media power users, with a list of the top airports that are also known to take good care of their customers. I've reproduced the table here.

City	Airport Code	Twitter Hits	Outlets per Gate	Other Amenities
Atlanta	ATL	14.7 million	8.1	Charging stations, work desks
Baltimore	BWI	7.92 million	7.3	Charging stations
Dallas	DFW	2.7 million	7.2	Charging stations, work desks
Detroit	DTW	3.4 million	6.7	Charging stations, Boingo data ports
Fort Lauderdale*	FLL	120,000	2.65	Fast, free Wi-Fi
Los Angeles	LAX	153 million	5.3	Charging stations, internet kiosks
Minneapolis	MSP	2.11 million	Varies by terminal	Charging stations, iPad kiosks coming 2012-13
New York City	JFK	8.45 million	Varies; Terminals 2, 3, and 5 have the most	Charging stations, work desks, iPad kiosks
New York LaGuardia	LGA	1.05 million	7.2	Charging stations, iPad kiosks
Salt Lake City*	SLC	8.97 million	5.4	Charging stations, work desks
San Francisco*	SFO	110 million	13.6	Charging Stations, lounge areas, work desks
Seattle	SEA	6.68 million	2.7	Charging Stations, fast Wi-Fi

* Airport has free Wi-Fi

The Airports
I've had experience with some airports that are downright personal. For example, I traveled to Kansas City last year and was pleasantly surprised at the greeting and send-off that I got from the Kansas City International Airport (@KCIAirport) on Twitter:
Followed by a warm greeting waiting for me at home (@DTWeetin):
When you're travel-worn and checking in on Foursquare or commenting on a queue, sometimes it's heartening to realize that there are teams of people looking out for you. For example, Logan International Airport (BOS) in Boston has a team of five people handling their social media; @LAX_Official gives travelers in Los Angeles tips, newsletter and other helpful information. For a roster of over 130 airports on Twitter, see @Kayak's list.


What's your experience with regard to social media and travel? Do you have any other examples of airlines, airports or other entities who get it right, campaigns that resonated with you, or personal touches that made the difference in an otherwise difficult circumstance? Please leave a comment with your input.

Image credit: ~Oryctes~ (Flickr)

Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.

Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an opportunity to again reinvent how we give our fans a chance to engage in shared experiences around our brand.

The all-new Ford Fusion will be making its debut at NAIAS in January, but starting today, consumers have an opportunity to go behind the scenes at Ford to hear about how we've remade this mid-size car and see the car revealed gradually over the course of the next few weeks - including a chance to drive the car in slot-like environment. If you go to FordFusionApp.com, you can download an iOS or Android version of the app to experience it for yourself.

Each weekday between now and January 9, you’ll be able to launch the experience by finding and capturing a Ford logo using the mobile device’s camera. It works on any Ford logo - the one on your car, online, in print - this is one of the coolest features. The Ford logo will then appear on the screen as a button that starts the program. Operating like a video game, the app then allows consumers to drive a digitally camouflaged new Fusion on a track toward video clips that feature insights on technology and design from key Fusion team members.



You'll have a chance to unlock more vehicles and more worlds as the days progress, but it's only through completing the driving experience that you'll be rewarded with more content. Original music, the ability to change the view around the car and sharing functionality via Facebook and Twitter are all part of the experience. Over the course of the 19 weekdays from now until the reveal of the vehicle, more of the digital camouflage will be removed and additional videos will cover the design, technology, engineering, safety features and more of the 2013 Ford Fusion.

The video below will help you get a sense as to how it works. Be sure to pop over to FordFusionApp.com to get a copy for your iPad2, iPhone or Android device. And let us know what you think!


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This infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.

We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.

And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as well.

• Dell is presented as a master in the art and science of listening. 
• Morton's made headlines with its surprise-and-delight effort with influencer Peter Shankman recently, but goes beyond that with helpful information regularly.
• Unisys uses social media internally for effective collaboration and a boost to company productivity.
• KLM is using Twitter and Facebook for real-time customer service and encouraging customers to submit ideas.
• ABC is having fun with the way viewers can engage with their new show Pan Am by providing some goodies on Facebook.

Are there other companies that are doing some interesting things with social media that are worth talking about? Drop a comment in below.

Please feel free to share this post or embed the image on your own site. The code is provided below.

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