Reading Blogg 1: Using Social Media To Advantage: Toyota's 2010's Recall Crisis

In January of 2010 Toyota, a car company with a reputable background for reliable cars, had a recall for 2.3 million vehicles to correct a issue in the safety of the cars gas pedals. Very quickly toyota was facing a social media nightmare with comment all over the place. Some one on mototrend.com commented the following after reading an article entitled The Toyota Recall Crisis "Who would drive a Toyota after all of this? You are taking your life in your hands every time you get behind the wheel in a Toyota. There are enough other hazards out there. The vehicle that went into the lake with all occupants dieing, there is no excuse for that. Drivers drive drunk, they drive too fast, they don't pay attention and people die. For a company to knowingly put peoples' lives in danger to save a little money is absolutely unforgiveable" another commentator on the same article expressed that "I don't think that they'll be keeping the title of World's Largest Automaker much longer. Its acceptable if it was loose floor mats that were the real culprit, but after learning that it is a pedal defect and it has been affecting people for over a decade, thats absolutely unacceptable. At the sign of the first possible incident years ago there should have been an electronic fail-safe installed on newer models as a precaution. This was their mistake and they will pay dearly". At this point toyota was not looking good at all. 

The Groudswell is "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than traditional institutions like corporations". Although we find the physical products we are looking for on the web through sites like amazon these are not the only things we seek form each other as social being. We also want comments, opinions, ratings, and etc from each other. This is where social media in effect comes into play. Social media gave average people the power to express their opinion about the recall. The problem most people see with the groundswell is that it is often permanent. What occurs on the web will stay on the web and although that might seem like a disadvantage to some if we can come to understand how the web and its new technologies work we as businesses and corporations can use them to our advantage, this idea is also part of the groundswell. These comments about toyota on the web are much like pee in a swimming pool, you can't take them off (groundswell). 

Rather than hurt Toyota these social networks boasting negative comments help them because it allowed them to see how the rest of the world was viewing them; cheap and inconsiderate until more than one life was lost. Knowing this they could not only begin to repair the mechanical problems their vehicle had posed but as well as their image. 

Then on February 8, Toyota presented Jim Lentz, president of Toyota's North American sales operation, to the public in the form of Digg Dialogg. It was set up to be an interview so that the most popular voted questions from the public could be answered, immediately not only was it posted on Digg but on Youtube as well: 

The comments on the bottom of this video seemed as if the general publics view of the company made a complete 360 turn around after seeing it.

This became Toyota's solution:

Thus the groundswell is right to suggest that many of he webs tools/technlogies could be used to a company's advantage. User-generated content affected Toyota mainly because as the groundswell explains it is not regulated making just about anything possible. Such as mixing fact and opinion, reporting rumors, and so on. But as mentioned it allowed Toyota to view what people were saying and then in turn customize their solution to the exact issue at hand.

The solution was not only to to directly answer the publics concerns with the face of sales but a direct and sincere apology to all of the toyota owners of the world from the CEO in Japan.