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Ford Motor Company Social Media Campaign

Lindsey Jara
COM 7210 Final Proposal
Rebecca Harris-Burns
Whitney Drake

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Introduction
There is a strong consumer-audience presence to acquire in the
social atmosphere. In order to be better marketers, better PR
practitioners, and better strategic communicators within the industry,
we must not only accept, but also evolve with and embrace new and
emerging digital media. Harnessing a digital approach to your
consumer market means understanding the need to coordinate
strategic plans to ones that fit within a social media landscape. Why?
Well, perhaps because people representing almost one third of the
entire world population have active social media accounts.

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In the marketing communications field, our job as professionals
and practitioners becomes especially important when it comes to
figuring out whos who inside of this population of usersin other
words, who are the people that are/will be important to your brand and
your marketing success? One thing is constant in the marketing world
there is extensive competition and market share for consumers
time. So, not only is it important to know the kind of audience you are
after, but youll need to understand their behavior, what they want and
need, and how to talk to them. From a social perspective, a key idea
for brands digital marketing strategy is that, you want to be involved
in consumers social media experiences. For example, see What
happens in an internet minute? (Intel, 2014).

(image retrieved from

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/internetminute-infographic.html)
This proposal is an analysis, a social outlook, and a plan for a
social media campaign. The brand that I focus on in my social
campaign research is Ford Motor Company. Ford, as a major global
automotive company, has a large consumer base, which makes for the
need to maintain a strong brand image. To maintain brand awareness,

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social marketers need to be useful and relevant to consumers, which
requires crafted and strategic communications. In Youtility, the author
states, theres no courtship, ramp, or slow build-up with Youtility
youre either sufficiently useful as a given moment, and thus can
connect with the customer, or youre not. Its real-time relationship
building (Baer, 2013, p. 93). So, before cutting to the relationshipbuilding chase, we need to take an inherent look as Ford as a brand
what is there to known about them?
Brand Analysis Ford Motor Company
If a brand can be thought of as the relationship that a company
has with consumers, then that relationship should be filled with good
experiences to keep it strong. Good experiences between a customer
and a product can help a company establish a brand image by
determining what that brand must stand for in order to drive
consumers buying decisions. Ford Motor Company, led by President
and CEO, Mark Field, and the Executive Chairman, William Clay (Bill)
Ford Jr., grasps a brand image of a company that is innovative and
inspiring, being their history and start in the industry, likewise
dependable and sustainable for making quality products while also
meeting consumer demands. Ford Motor Companys mission
statement, found on their corporate website, is At Ford, we go further
to make our cars better, our employees happier, and our planet a
better place to be (retrieved from: www.corporate.ford.com). Fords

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visionary goal can be described as, One Ford: One Team. One plan.
One goal. Four segmented attributes that seek to encompass Fords
mentality as a brand: quality, safe, green, smart.
Found in their 2013-2014 Sustainability Report, Ford breaks down
creative classifications of consumers, mentioning that they have found
a relevance to connect with consumers through old-school trends,
appealing to older generations of consumers by evoking a sense of
nostalgia from simpler times. An example of how chasing this
consumer group leverages Fords media exposure is by the fact that
when Ford revealed the 50th anniversary of the Mustang, they clocked
in at 5 million Facebook fans. Another creative segment of consumers
listed on Fords year review is the relevance to sustain innovation,
technological updates and appeal to micro-moments in todays
emerging media filled, multi-task environment, by providing
technologies to help customers make the most of every moment.
This relates to younger generations and the technology-savy, modern
white-collar workforce. Ford also shares in this year review that they
aim to consistently engage with customers through social media.
Fords consumers behaviors are choosing to buy and drive cars,
or choosing not to buy or drive a car, and the process in-between those
two extremes. Understanding why people decide to buy and drive cars,
and what they want and need from a car, narrows the scope of how to
communicate to the desired audience. People who buy cars want their

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vehicles to have lasting value, be safe and efficient, and appeal to their
lifestyle. Most people who buy cars for the purpose of driving them as
resources for transportation seek out a vehicle that aligns with many of
the same characteristics as communicated in the brand image and
reputation.
Ford has a brand logo and slogan of Go Further. The direct yet vague
wording allows an opportunity for the statement
Go Further to embody several meanings that
span across a variety of people in the automotiveinterested audience. Some ideas of possible implied meanings for Go
further that a consumer audience could perceive: Ford will go further
for you as a company offering quality products and services, Ford
vehicles physically go further than other brand vehicles in terms of
quality and sustainability, Ford will go further to make vehicles better
and avoid being static, go further with your money/make your dollar
stretch because Ford vehicles are of lasting value, go further on your
journey of life with a Ford vehicle because there are differing vehicle
styles to fit different lifestyles and uses.
Target Audience
Fords products are an array of differing automotive vehicles, all
of which cater to a specific type of lifestyle that draw up different types
of buyers and drivers due to their specific design and automotive
purposeso, the brand image and message to consumers may be

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slightly different depending on the vehicle and its corresponding target
audience. However, in place throughout the brand among all vehicles
are several key themes that tie to all customers wants and needs:
Quality, reliability, safety, efficiency, loyalty, trust, value, adventure,
nostalgia, inspiration, excitement, motivation, sustainability. These
messages are what drive consumers towards Fords brand. Specific
target markets include: people in lower-class in that economical
vehicles are offered, people in middle to higher classes considering
luxurious trim-level options for vehicles, generations ranging from
Generation Y (Millennials) to Generation X, to Baby Boomers, males,
females, college students, commuters, green-consumers, consumers
who have or seek an adventurous lifestyle, parents and families,
workers and consumers who seek trucks and heavy-duty vehicles for
transporting goods.
Generations are interesting to consider when determining target
audiences. A reason for this is discussed by Dr. Jill Novak, in her article,
The Six Living Generations in America, a persons birth date may not
always be indicative of their generational characteristics, but as a
common group they have similarities (2013). A breakdown of the
generations that are most relevant to Fords target audience are: Baby
Boomers (born between 1946, and 1964), Generation X (born between
1965 and 1980), Generation Y/Millennials (born between 1981 and
2000), and also, as of late, Generation Z (born after 2001). In an article

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covering the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), author
Sherrice Gilsbach calls out that according to Sheryl Connelly, manager
of Global Consumer Trends and Futuring, the group of people aged 21
or younger, belonging to Generation Z, are currently 2-billion strong
worldwide which means they yield significant purchasing power (as
cited in Gilsbach, 2015).
Promotions that Ford Motor Company runs to reach different
kinds of consumers, create brand awareness, and manifest a social
footprint are: the Ford Drive 4UR school promotion (targeting students
and teens), the Ford College Student Plus Program (targeting college
students), and Warriors in Pink (targeting women of varying
generations supporting breast cancer). Also, Ford has a drive to
harness a green presence in the world, and based on an analysis of
risks and opportunities through a value chain from environment and
social perspectives, Ford announced a water strategy to reduce wateruse per vehicle by 30 percent from 2009 to 2015, which they have
achieved (Year review: 2013-2014 Sustainability report). These efforts
speak volumes to social responsibility and positive consumer
awareness, which places them in position to harness significant public
relations experiences to reinforce interest in their target audiences.
A brand should aim to connect with consumers on the basis of
want and need, and has to utilize available channels to maintain
conversational experiences with audiences. According to Jay Baer

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(2013), a customers relationship with a brand consists of a collection
of micro-experiences, and public attention is moving from how
valuable is the brand? to how valuable are your apps? (p. 94) This
provides insight on the fast-paced and ever changing world of new
media and marketing, importance for brands and companies to
connect with consumer audiences through digital and social media
channels.
Goals of Social Campaign
The goal of my social media campaign for Ford Motor Company is
to mold together a successful social experience between the target
audience and Fords brand is the social space. My goals are to use
research and identified target audiences to enhance Fords relationship
with customers, establish a social media marketing plan to produce
target-specific content and engage with audiences, and use available
tools and channels to ultimately leverage more business and revenue
for Ford Motor Company. For Ford Motor Company, my social campaign
revolves around trying to engage with audiences pertaining to several
communities and demographics. Im paying attention to several groups
of people (age, location, gender, status) that engage with Ford, and
why they chose to engage over a social channel. The goal of my social
campaign is ultimately to attract younger audiences and families to
purchase a Ford vehicle. Generation Y (Millennial) and Generation X are
my specific targeted groups that I would like to see an increase of sales

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from, by attracting them to Ford vehicles for their lifestyle diversity and
efficiency through an extensive social media plan. An inspiring fact
from a 2012 Neilson study, listed in the article, Fifty Essential Mobile
Marketing Facts, regarding media use, is that mobile performs four to
fives times better than online ads for key metrics such as brand
favorability, awareness, and purchase intent (as cited in Conner,
2013). Mobile device use is a largely successful channel for advertising
because of the personal, direct experience that consumers have with
marketers, by essentially using their profiles to expose what their
interests are and who they are in the digital society. It is important to
shape and frame content to fit in with mobile applications and social
platforms to reach a larger consumer audience.
For any social media campaign or plan, it is very important to
have an understanding of what marketing means in our digital age. No
longer can marketers rely on branded content to share a singular
message with consumers in a one-way conversation. In todays digital
age, successful marketing is about sharing a message with consumers
to engage with them, and open up a stream for a two-way
conversation, between the brand and the consumer. This can be done
so by harnessing a solid social media presence through channels that
appropriately align with target audiences, and how to best
communicate with them in the social landscape.
Social Media Plan

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My strategic social media plan for Ford Motor Company, spanning
over the course of one month, involves paid initiativesfirst,
promoting Ford through social content and paid advertising, hopefully
developing earned media coverage from my paid efforts, and
specifically appealing to several generations of people to promote
Fords adventurous and modern vehicles. I am mainly interested in
appealing to Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials) who are at a
stage in their life where choosing a vehicle can be heavily influenced
by lifestyle. My next initiative is to produce and promote a 30 second
video with content focusing specifically on financial education. My idea
is to create and produce a video that is lighthearted, slightly humorous
but still maintaining a pedagogical element that will inform viewers
on the basics of buying/leasing a vehicle, and how simple it can be. My
goal is to eliminate a stigma that car buying/leasing is too complicated
and expensive, and bring the perceived process to a level that attracts
audiences to want to purchase a Ford vehicle to buy or lease.
Alongside this goal is another to manifest a positive stigma to replace
the negative that younger people can purchase an adventurous,
modern Ford vehicle that fits with their lifestyle, is affordable, and that
financing a vehicle isnt cumbersome. My plan for this video is to have
it uploaded to our website, Facebook, and our YouTube channel. With
my promotional advertising messaging targeting people ages 18-40, I
think that the two initiative have separate but similar goals, and will

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float hand-in-hand for the month that my content calendar supports.
Digital Marketing Tools
There are many available tools and channels that will help take
digital brand success further by enabling engagement and that can be
used to help a social media plan in efforts to organize, monitor,
measure, engage, or simply listen, to content mentioning your brand,
by whom, and responses youre getting to your own produced content.
Companies should deliver what customers are looking for in a
digital experience by keying in on basic, searchable needs. At the
forefront of searching for content online is the well-known Google
search engine. The importance of branded content showing up on
Google searches is immense, and it is increasingly important for
brands and companies to leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
when posting content into the digital world. Search engine optimization
is an extremely important practice in the world of digital marketing
because not only is it a way to gain new viewers, fans, and consumers,
but also a way to maintain the ones you already have because of your
ability to be relevant in the media. Search engine optimization is the
idea that, well, if you title your content in a strategic enough way it will
be easily searchable, findable, and viewable. The way that one can be
strategic in SEO marketing practices is by considering what people
might search for in order to find information on a topic, company, idea,
product, story, etc., and to incorporate those considerations into the

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headline of your content.
Google is an extremely valuable tool in the social world. The fact
that so many people use Google makes it even more relevant to digital
marketing, because of Googles features that support this, such as
Google Suggest, which is the feature that guesses your search,
based on matching searches that consist of similar wording. If you type
in your brand on Google, you wouldnt want Google Suggest to pair
your brands name with is terrible to the search term, would you?
Digital marketers must pay attention to this type of thing for ultimate
brand success.
On Google, I typed in Ford and Google Suggest showed: Ford
advertising, Ford Credit, Ford careers, Ford Explorer, Ford Escape, Ford
Field, Ford stock price, as the top searches. This information shows me
that the most popular searches of which include the word Ford show
a mix of interest in Fords actual products (explorer and escape), Fords
media distribution and creativity, the brand association with venues,
and interest in finding a career at Ford. These are all very positive
search suggestions that show diversity of brand awareness. When you
search for Ford on Google, the first link that comes up is Fords
Twitter. This information shows me that Twitter is a popular social
media account for Ford and highly searchable. Following my time spent
on Google, I immediately clicked on Fords Twitter pageFord has a
following of 790K. Ford currently has the largest Twitter following

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compared to their direct automotive-industry competitors in the social
atmosphere. That leads me to think that Ford is working towards
leveraging a relationship with younger consumers, and targeting those
who heavily participate in social media.
Considering the size of Fords following on twitter social tool that
I plan on using in my campaign is Twitter, which to many is better
known as just a social networking channel. Twitter is an amazing tool
for connecting with your audience, but whats more is that you are also
able to visually monitor your engagement with them. Twitter Analytics
allows you to track impressions, engagements, and reach. Manually
monitoring activity on Twitter, especially mentions, comments, and
conversations happening about your brand can be time consuming, but
still effective. As Guy Kawasaki mentions in his book, The Art to Social
Media, Twitter provides advanced search capabilities to make finding
comments more efficient (p. 74). Ford actually has the largest Twitter
following among some of its direct competitors in the social
atmosphere.
For taking a step outside of Twitter, and looking inside Twitter, I
used a tool called Follower Wonk to see the type of reach and
engagement that Ford has with consumers. From this report, I was able
to see that the hefty amount of accounts that Ford follows on Twitter
are categorized influencers, with an average Twitter following of
15,315.6K followers. Influencers in the social space are those who are

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considered to be well connected and influential in persuading,
inspiring, or motivating audiences. The information on Fords influencer
following from Follower Wonk speaks to me as the idea that Ford
follows influential accounts in hopes that they will help them leveraged
earned media coverage.
Another tool I plan to use in this campaign, which can be used for
social media search and analysis, is Social Mention. Social Mention
allows you to type in a Brand name, or any account name, and it shows
mentions of that account or name across various channels and
platforms. I went ahead and typed in Ford onto Social Mention, and
was amazed at how quickly this information can be generated at such
volumes. Social mention shows the strength of the likelihood that the
brand is being discussed across social media channels, and this is
generated by a calculation which consists of dividing the brand
mentions within the last 24 hours by the number of total possible
mentions, Fords strength is at 47%. Social Mention also shows the
sentiment of the mentions in the discussion of the brand or name
whether positive, neutral, or negative, Fords showing was a 33:1 ratio.
This tool also measures the reach, or the range of influence that a
brand name has, in terms of awareness and this percentage is
calculated by dividing the number of unique authors that referenced
the brand by the total number of mentions, Fords reach is 14%. This
tool also shows the level of passion from audiences, which basically is

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the measure of the likelihood that individual people who are already
talking about your brand will do so again, and repeatedly. Social
Mentions also shows when the last mention of the brand was, which
when I generated this report for Ford, their last mention was 33
seconds ago. This tool also shows that Ford has an 11 seconds average
per mention.
Measurement
Ive discussed how I plan to develop the success of our social
media campaign. Now this section will portray how I plan to measure
the success of our campaign. The best place to start is by defining
what success means for Fords social campaign, and what the brand
is trying to achieve through social efforts. Success for Ford Motor
Company looks like an increase of sales and revenue, an increase of
the hand-raiser targeted consumer base generated through clicks to
Fords website, an increase of awareness measured through Facebook
and Twitter page likes and Twitter/Instagram followers, and an
increase of audience engagement measured through likes on posts,
comments, Re-tweets, replies and mentions.
One of my goals of engagement is to measure the ages of people
that interact with Ford social channels, and balance that number over
the statistic of people in that age group that have social accounts in
general. Im interested in the average number of people within an age
group that own a FB/Twitter/Instagram account (X), compared to the

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average number of people within the same age group that interact
with Ford over social channels (Y). These numbers are important to my
campaign efforts because I want to see who is
viewing/reacting/responding to my content, and where they belong in
my targeted audience spectrum. I plan to measure engagement with
audiences based mostly on activity from Facebook and Twitter, but I
am also interested in Instagram. I want my audience to read my
content, Click it (to get through to Fords website or a relevant
promotional page), Like it, Comment on it/Reply to it, Re-tweet it,
and/or Share it with others to spread awareness of their interest in
Ford. When viewers comment on or reply to content, it would be ideal
that their comments contain questions or inquiries, so Im able to
respond via Fords account in real-time, and show Fords active
presence and customer-care response. Fords customers typically care
about vehicle safety, quality/efficiency, reliability, and cost/economics
of vehicle. My posts will consistently contain content that speaks to my
audiences interests, and I plan to measure the level of interest
audiences show per post, and if one topic seems to spark interest over
another, and adjust my content plan accordingly. I will measure
engagement interest by how many Likes a post receives, and will
balance this measurement against content theme. If a particular
vehicle is shown in a post, and that post gets more likes versus a post
showing a different vehicle within the content, this will be important to

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me, but I will not get lost in itI will always consider outside variables,
like difference in time of day of posts, and the chance of
people/audiences just not being as active on social accounts and they
were the day before due to personal reasons, etc. I also plan to
measure the success of content themes based on the social channel(s)
they were posted on and how that affected engagementDid a post
showing a particular vehicle do better on Twitter than Facebook (by
measuring the number of Likes and replies)? I will be interested in this
data, and this will teach me even more about my audience and the
ways they use their social accounts, and how they engage with Fords
brand, and how I can further improve content/engagement efforts.
Because my main goal is not only to increase awareness and
engagement, but to increase sales and generate revenue, a strong
goal of mine is to drive traffic to Fords website, where direct
information is supplied to those interested in purchasing a vehicle. I
will track the amount and rate of click-throughs from social accounts,
and measure clicks based on how the click occurredwhether or not
audiences click on Fords original posted content, or if it was a shared
post, and which social channel led the person to click-through to the
website. I will track URL shares and measure the level of influence that
the users who shared the URL carry based on how many people
interacted with their shared content. By tracking influencers, this may
lead me to a stronger measurement of advocates and fans of Fords

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brand, and prospective fans. I will measure clicks to Fords website by
targeting those users as hand-raisers who are interested in a Ford
vehicle, and then will aim to measure what they do on Fords website
once they get there.
The research I will do within my social campaign efforts will
extend outside of quantitative measurements as needed, and I will
form qualitative research measurements based on observing content,
types of mentions from influencers, and the range of social behavior
from audiences. To track the success of my social campaign for Ford, it
will be beneficial to not only look at hard, numerical data generated
from marketing tools and data collection, but also to observe, analyze,
and interpret social interactions between audiences and my brand, to
determine campaign success. Reading the comments, replies, tweets,
and reviews from audiences will be important to harnessing ways of
determining not only how many people Im reaching, or how many
people are viewing my content, but what people are thinking, saying,
posting about my content. This will be a measurement for critique
within my own campaign and a realization of what is actually being
said about Fords brand. Of course, the sentiment of posts is something
that can be tracked quantitatively, but taking samples of posts for a
qualitative benefit will be important in determining relevant success.
Qualitative measurement will also help me determine why it is that
certain posts are being Re-tweeted, Re-shared, etc. I will not only want

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to know that audiences are re-tweeting Fords content, but why they
are doing so. For example, if there is a particular moment that my
content has been re-tweeted, I will want to know the significance.
Tools that I plan to use for measuring Fords social media
campaign success are: Google Analytics, Google Analytics Premium,
Adobe Marketing Suite, Twitter Analytics (free), Facebook Insights
(free), Social Mention (free), Bitly, Tweetdeck (free), Klout (free), and
Keyhole. The tool Keyhole will provide real-time tracking of
conversations relating to my brand across three important social
platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Keyhole generates
historical data reports across branded channels to capture campaign
data, so I can compare campaign data from last week, last month, or
even last year. I will purchase and use Keyhole at the Agency level,
which will cost $599 a month. To track influence, I will use the free tool
Klout, which will monitor and measure Fords influence across
channels. Adobe Marketing Suite will be used to generate marketing
reports, and will cost around $5,000.00 a month. Google Analytics as a
free tool will be helpful to my campaign, however, with Fords
corporate budget, I will upgrade social analytic efforts by affording
Google Analytics Premium, at a cost of $150,000.00 per year. Costs
associated for each tool will need to be applied to production costs for
creating and producing content, as well as paying to boost and
promote posts across social media channels. I will pay for strategic SEO

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to optimize posts, build targeted traffic, make content more searchable
and identifiable, and increase brand awareness. Because the market
that I am aiming to dominate has heavy competition, I will invest in
SEO that may cost upwards of $50,000.00 a month.
Budget Breakdown
How much does it take to fund and support a social campaign?
Well, a lot of thingsso Ive learned. It takes time to strategize about
the concept of the social campaign, and what you are trying to
achieve, it takes time to come up with a timeline and plan out, launch
the campaign, and many parts of the campaign-building process
involve using tools, hiring people to implement and monitor ideas, and
paying for resourcesall of which include working on a budget, and
estimating the expenses of the campaign efforts. Budgeting is a
principle part of a social campaign plan, because you need to be able
to fund ideas. Below is a walk-through of budget for one month of
social campaign work for Ford Motor Company. My content calendar is
the scope of the work I am accounting for in my budget. This budget
assumes that Fords website is already built, corporate social media
channels and accounts exist, and costs have already been accounted
for, so those costs are not included in my estimate.
Specifics that need to be accounted for in the budget:
Staff:
Social Media Strategist
- 10 hours a week @ $100.00 an hour for 4 weeks =
$4,000.00

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Social Content Writer
- Contract for 2 weeks = $2,000.00
- 17 posts worth of content writing
Art director
- 30 hours a week @ $30.00 an hour for 2 weeks =
$1,800.00
Freelance Photographer
- Contract for $200 a day for 2 weeks of shooting =
$4,000.00
Data Analyst
- 30 hours a week @ $40.00 an hour for 4 weeks =
$4,800.00
Community Manager
- 40 hours a week @ $60.00 an hour for 4 weeks =
$7,200.00
Customer Care Specialist
- 40 hours a week @ $20.00 an hour for 4 weeks =
$3,200.00
Legal Consultant
- 20 hours a week @ $40.00 an hour for 4 weeks =
$3,200.00
Product Information Specialist
- 10 hours a week @ $25.000 an hour for 1 week =
$1,775.00
- 1 week of work needed to review vehicle images
before content is posted.
SEO/SEM Specialist
- Monthly contract @ $5,000 for 4 weeks
Public Relations Manager
- $100 an hour @ 10 hours a week for 4 weeks = $4,000.00
Video Production (30 second video) = $15,000.00
Photographs
- $200.00 an image @ 17 images = $3,400.00
(Number of images taken from content calendar)
Paid media:
Google advertising, cost-per-click = $30,000.00
Twitter advertising = $2,000.00
Facebook advertising = $1,500.00
YouTube advertising, cost-per-view = $10,000.00
Tools:
Keyhole @ 1 month, Agency Level =$599.00
Adobe Marketing Suite @ 1 month= $5,000.00
Google Analytics Premium @ 1 year = 150,000.00
Klout (free)
Social Mention (free)

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Tweetdeck (free)
Facebook insights (free)
Twitter analytics (free)
Total Social Campaign costs for one month: $251,474.00
Budget Rationale
For monitoring Ford Motor Company social media channels I will
rely on my Community Manager, who will be working 40 hours a week
to manage our social engagement efforts, monitor activity, and lead
our social presence as a brand. According to an article on Social Fresh,
a Community Manager is described as, the face of a company,
managing communications in both directions. This digital-savvy
employee is responsible for all communications, PR, social media,
events, and content creation, among other things (Bury, 2011). For
handling and responding to customer inquiries, comments, concerns,
and social conversation situations that require Ford as a brand to take
special attention, I designate this role to my Customer Care Specialist. I
realize that depending on the amount of channels a brand has,
including sub-brands within the over-aching companys brand (In Fords
case: Ford Drive Green, Warriors in Pink, Ford Trucks, Ford Mustang,
Ford Drives U, etc.) more than one Customer Care Specialist and one
Community Manager may (probably) be needed. I am willing to
increase measures and readjust the budget to fund additional help to
our team in the case that it is needed for this social campaign.
Using Facebook to advertise will raise brand awareness for Ford,

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by promoting targeting ads to audiences based on location,
demographics, interests, behaviors, and connections. Using Facebook
for business, I will create a lifetime budget and a start and end date for
each ad. According to a blog post on Buffer Social, Kevin Lee figures
how much spending just $5 a day will get you in terms of Facebook
advertising results. Lee figures that page likes can average out to be
around $0.57 per like, clicks to a site page can cost around $4.01 per
click, and a boosted post costs $6.35 per additional 1,000 people
reached This means that if you spend $5 a day on Facebook
advertising, you an expect to receive 9 likes per day, 1 click to a site
page per day, and 787 people reached. Fortunately, with Fords big
corporate budgetwe have wiggle room that far exceeds $5 per day.
For Facebook advertising, I plan to spend $50 per day for ads. This
means that with $50 a day spent on ads, Ford could hopefully receive
around 90 pages likes, 10 clicks to the site page, and reach around
7,870 people, all per day. This campaign will last for a full month
about 30 days. 30 x 50 = $1,500 for a month spend on Facebook
advertising.
YouTube advertising is priced out at cost-per-view. Advertisers
can target viewers on YouTube by age, gender, location, or by what
types of videos they like to watch on YouTube. Generally, advertisers
pay incrementally more for focused target audiences (Alleger, 2015). I
want to reach at least 5,000 people from paid advertising, considering

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this is an educational video, I will spend $5,000 on cost-per-view
advertising.
For the 30-second video on financing education, I plan to spend
up to 15,000 on production costs. I came up with this estimate by
looking into Fords already existing video/web production costs, and I
based my costs off a short video that Team Detroit made for Ford,
costing around $15,000. I will be paying my Art Director and my Writer
to come up with the content for the 30-second financial education
video. I will be paying my Social Media Strategist to run the decisionmaking process for content channel-distribution and how to organize
the content accordingly.
The financial education video will be posted on Fords YouTube
Channel, as well as on Fords Facebook and Twitter channels, and the
video will be boosted to reach a larger audience. Costs for boosting this
video are incorporated into my Facebook advertising budget, which Ive
come up with to be around $1,500 from referencing Facebook
guidelines for advertising purchasing. I will also pay for this video to be
a Promoted Tweet on Twitter. Promoted Tweets are priced on a cost-perengagement (CPE) basis, meaning Ford will only pay when someone
Retweets, favorites (now likes), expands, clicks on, replies to, or
follows Ford from their Tweet. I plan to spend about $2,000 on
Promotional Tweets for one month. Twitter is a powerful resource for
campaigning information and reaching large audiences. I already know

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that Ford Motor Company has one of the largest Twitter followings in
the automotive game. For Google advertising, I budget based on a
cost-per-click model. The formula for this is: Cost-per-click x Clicks per
day = Daily budget (Adwords)
Spending $1,500 on Facebook advertising, $2,000 on Twitter
promotions, $10,000 for Youtube advertising, $3,000 for Google
advertising, and $5,000 for SEO costs puts me at around $21,500.000
of alone in just paid media and advertising for one month supporting
these initiatives. To align a positive public opinion with the intention of
my campaign, I will be paying a Public Relations Manager to be
responsible for managing media relations and serve as the active
manager of crisis-communications.
Crisis Communications Plan
Ford is a big player in the automotive world. Being a big player
means needing to maintain an ethical, social responsibility. The media
can be quite cutthroat, with audiences, consumers, and competitors
alike watching brands scramble to recover a loss, or celebrate a win.
With a global audience and content flowing from several media
channels, it is necessary to be prepared for any negative incidents that
can occur during the longevity of a social campaign.
In an article by Tony Jacques on crisis and issue management,
Jacques breaks
down differences between the two into 8 categories: choice, certainty,

28
urgency, cost,
continuity, time, impact, and outcome. For each, he outlines how
management and
steps for action for organizational issues and crises will be considered
differently.
The ones that stand out to me the most are first, certainty. Jacques
says that with an
issue, you have time to research the problem and gain all the facts, but
for crises,
you often do not have enough time and must make decision without
knowing all the
facts. You have to go with what you do know (Jacques, 2014). This
category
connects to the urgency factor, and how again, with issues you have
more time to
act, but with a crisis, youre under pressure and every minute counts.
For continuity,
Jacques says that dealing with issues can be a normal executive
activity, but dealing
with a crisis is outside normal experiences and becomes a priority that
needs careful
handling. Lastly, for impact, an issue is something that could be an
event or trend

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that may have a short-term impact on a company or brand image, but
a crisis may
have a long-term, detrimental effect on a companys brand image if
not controlled or
taken care of properly. A crisis can threaten the capacity of an
organization to carry
on business or achieve its strategic objectives (Jacques, 2014).
Within the scope of my budget, I plan to hire Public Relations
managers to leverage every opportunity for Fords campaign success,
and keeping a positive image in-line. If in the case of the unexpected,
Ford will be prepared to immediately address any statements that have
been said about the brand, whether positive or negative, and will
maintain transparency in media messages.
Reflection and Recommendation
A social media campaign is made up of more than a good pitch
and creative contentit relies on good research, a digital/social
marketing plan, accurate analytics, extensive strategy, budget support,
and decisions to be made that positively represent the brand as a
whole.
Ford Motor Company already has social media accounts on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagrambut a social media application that I
recommend for Ford to leverage is the application Snapchat. It is
beneficial for brands to consider all social channels and weigh in where

30
each stands in their social future, to determine which channels will be
important to be active upon. My social media campaign for Ford
revolves around mainly targeting Generation X and Y, however, an
even younger audience belonging to Generation Z may also be an
important target to consider. According to Sherrice Gilsbach in her
article on changing consumer markets, she references the words of
Emily White, CEO of Snapchat, that the best way to meet digital
media needs of Gen Z is by continuing to offer new and exciting ways
for this group to share their stories

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Knowing that Snapchat is an application for mobile devices only,
this seems like an opportunity for Ford to jump in on the social
conversation with a powerful market of digital consumers. Snapchat
users vary in age with the most common generation being Millennials.
Statistics shown in an infographic within the article How Snapchat is
Selling itself to Marketers show
that 50 percent of users are ages
13-17, 31 percent of users are
ages 18-24, leaving 19 percent of
users to be age 25 or older
(VanHoven, 2014). This
information allows me to know that the legal age to drive falls within
the larger percentage of Snapchat users, and although sixteen year-old
drivers dont exactly have a big stake in buying power, they may have
stake in influencing their parental guardians on their car purchasing
decisions.
Ford Motor Company could take advantage of Snapchat by
posting pictures and videos of Ford vehicles in motion, driving along a
road. They could post vehicles while driving in destination locations
(much like how advertisements show vehicles) with relatable people
driving them. I think that with a younger crowd being the majority of
Snapchats users, there is an opportunity to push for more adventure
in Fords advertising Snapchats of people on trips, exploring,

32
vacationing, having fun, being adventurous, all stemming from the
vehicle that got them to that place their Ford. Snapchat could be a
way to optimize engagement with consumer audiences, creating more
of a conversational experience between the brand and customers. Ford
could move to sponsor a Geo-filter in select areas, mainly Detroit being
the motor city where Fords history carries weight in the industry. The
brand could offer a creative Geo-filter to place surrounding users photo
with the caption My Ford Adventure Detroit. caption could play out
and be used in cities across the country, or even globally.
Snapchats social environment allows for creativity and spontaneity,
and it
will be important to keep Fords branded image in mind at all times
when posting
stories. In the Gartner article titled, Agenda Overview for Emerging
Marketing Technology and Trends, the authors mention that, the
emerging trends and techniques you act on need to align with your
brands vision for the future (Sarner, Fouts, 2013).

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