Why Toyota Is Missing the Social Media Mark

Tiger Woods. Toyota. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. The list goes on and on, doesn’t it? The list of people (brands, really) and companies (brands for sure) that have lost their reputation.

Last week, I heard a terrific presentation by Peter Morrissey, President and CEO of Morrissey & Company, professor at Boston College and author of the respected Mount Vernon Report, on reputation. He defined reputation with words such as character, integrity and authenticity. He further postulated that reputation is one of the most valuable assets a corporation can have. And while protecting the asset of corporate reputation is the primary goal of public relations, it is not a goal always shared with corporate marketing, which can have shorter term sales objectives depending on revenues, time of year and inventories.

What builds a reputation? Peter says its a combination of people, products, conduct of business and financial performance. Ultimately, he says, it is simple acts that build the content of character over time.

As I read the latest Associated Press story this morning about Toyota’s recall debacle, I was struck by the news that Toyota has beefed up its public relations support. Of course they have. Once again, public relations is brought in to clean up a mess, rather than being at the table prior to a crisis to provide strategy. (I’m guessing that’s the case, because if PR has been legitimately involved all along, they should be fired).

Public relations is continually sidelined by marketing and lawyers who have the ear of the C-suite and usually the bigger budgets. But that formula is wrong. The advent of online news and the 24/7 cycle, combined with the velocity of social media, has created a situation where public relations must be involved in communications planning at the highest levels of decision making.

Toyota’s engagement in social media gets a grade of C+ at best. While the outpouring of support on Facebook has been huge, there has been nominal posting in response. Toyota doesn’t even have a Twitter account, so their engagement there is a big fat zero. Yet the conversation on Twitter about Toyota is endless. Interestingly, Jim Lentz, President and COO of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, is going on a Live Digg Dialogg today to answer the public’s questions. Digg? Really? They are playing it safe by testing the waters on a relatively small social network to see how it plays before going big time on the mainstream sites. When you have a big global problem, playing it safe is not a winning strategy. There should be teams working around the clock, actively engaging on social networks. Toyota’s message should be clear by this point and those teams should be supporting it every day, every hour. It’s going to take a lot of work, in every media and social channel on the planet to rebuild Toyota’s reputation. These are mistakes that cannot be undone and each day the hole gets deeper. Or in Toyota’s case, several million dollars bigger. Tiger, are you listening?