Mazda Australia social media Zoom Zoom

Last year, I was in Melbourne, Australia delivering a Social Media Masterclass and participating in a few Tweetups. I met James Duthie and we got to talking about Automaker websites around the world and how most of them are just big TV-like advertising sites.

James contacted me to say that Mazda Australia has re-vamped their approach.

We like what we see!

Right on the homepage is a big community section. Live tweets appear – on the homepage! – and there are links to community forums and blogs.

What's fascinating is that many of the links go outside of Mazda to owners club sites, commercial reviews, information from places like Hemmings, and independent blogs.

In my experience, very few companies have the guts to Lose Control of their Marketing. Marketers are trained to keep everything close and to only deliver the company line.

Good on you, Mazda Australia. Let me know the reaction to your exciting initiative.

Comments

[Sherry Lowry]

Glad you're drawing attention to Mazda, David. I've a (beloved!) Mazda Miata MX-5.

Incredible #'s of us are active WOM evangelists for this car, brand - and in some cases, EVEN the company. (leave the dealers out of this, tho...I've not yet met one I can do biz with...so here in Central Tx tons of us support FORMER dealer service mgr's who went on their own - together.)

All that aside, their Zoom Zoom approach deserves all the accolades it gets.

I've had a Corvette, a Nissan 300 ZX - both of which I drove the ___ off of before finally selling each.

Thanks for the tip around Mazda's new approach to the marketplace. Will definitely follow that.

NOW...if they will just hire YOU for their dealer-relationships - all will be ultra fine.

Hopefully. At least, they'll be trying. Right now that's not obvious if they are - beyond training - fear-based up-selling like crazy in the dealer service wait-rooms. Revolting!

[David Meerman Scott]

Sherry

Thanks so much for commenting. People like you are obviously huge fans of the brand. Good for Mazda Australia to cultivate relationships. I agree -- dealers usually stink at this. They are too focused on SELLING to pay any attention to communicating like humans.

David

[Rick Henderson]

Mazda definitely has its share of sleazy car dealers (see http://jalopnik.com/5533462/dealership-charges-mentally-disabled-woman-63000-for-used-mazda). However they’re not all bad. The dealership I bought my Mazda 3 from actually took the time to teach me how to drive a manual (a process that requires quite a bit of patience), and this was before I had even signed off on buying the car. I’m glad Mazda is engaging the community, the site looks great.

[Richard K Bloom]

You mention how companies hate to lose control of their marketing. True. Yet, the online community and fan base thrives on the spontaneous comments and engagement of their customers. It's up to the companies to get involved in the discussion, but trying to infuse the "company line" makes the dialogue stilted and self-serving, and therefore,ultimately unsuccessful.