As you can imagine we follow all social media marketing campaigns. We evaluate the successes and the failures. I mean, it’s our job. Old Spice Man YouTube videos? Huge Success. Dr. Pepper/Lean Mean Fighting Machine Facebook Promotion? Huge failure.

Well, we’ve been watching Ford for the past few days after they unveiled the 2011 Ford Explorer on Facebook. It wasn’t the first automotive unveiling on Facebook. Back in December I blogged right here about Infiniti unveiling the 2011 Infiniti M, but Ford seems to be receiving a lot more love from the media. Why?

Ford bypassed the traditional automotive show reveal and opted for a reveal where they didn’t have to compete with every other automotive company for headlines.

Ford created the headlines themselves. For several months Ford has been teasing the public with images of the new Explorer design on Facebook. There was a photo of the headlight redesign, and one of the interior, but never the whole thing.

All of these teases culminated into a YouTube video posted on their Facebook page. By the end of the day the number of Facebook fans had increased by 25% by adding over 10,000 fans.

Along with the Facebook reveal were other public unveilings by Ford executives all over Canada and the U.S. They threw in some TV and radio spots just for good measure. It was an all out marketing blitz with Facebook as the central hub for all things Ford Explorer.

The success of this reveal at creating buzz around the Explorer’s launch is apparent. Add this to the Old Spice Man and social media marketing is looking even better right now.

Matt Mckeon, a developer at the Visual Communication Lab at IBM research, created an impressive infographic that lays out the default privacy settings for Facebook from 2005 to April of this year. In the images the Facebook blue colored areas indicate what information is available and to whom if your settings are set at default.

As you can see in 2005 very little information was shared with anyone outside of your friends or networks:

The information that was shared was innocuous information like your picture and name, but only to other Facebook users. As time flew by, as shown in the graphics, you can see more and more of your personal data being made available to people outside of your friends and networks and onto the web. Then in April of this year, nearly everything became available:

Again, these stats are based on the default Facebook settings. All of this information can be hidden if you go through your privacy settings and make the changes. The new simplified Facebook settings do in fact make it easier to hide your personal information, so they’re worth a look.

You can also check out ReclaimPrivacy.org. Follow their steps to see what information you’re already sharing.

Check out McKeon’s infographic on his site and tell me what you think about Facebook’s privacy history. Did the settings simplification satisfy your concerns?

Allfacebook.com created a modified version of McKeon’s infographic that shows a slightly different take on the information. I included it after the jump.

ComScore’s monthly analysis of U.S. web activity says Auto Manufacturers were the big winners for the month of March.

According to the study, auto manufacturers grew to more than 30 million visitors because incentives and promotional offers from auto brands.

“Auto manufacturers relied on incentives and promotions to boost sales before the end of the quarter, sending more Americans to research their purchases online prior to buying,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “As automakers compete in this challenging market, it is ever more important for consumers to research all of their options online before making these important purchase decisions.”

Here are the top six brands for the month of March, according to the study.

1. General Motors: 7.6 million visitors
2. Hyundai: 5.4 million visitors
3. Toyota: 5.1 million visitors
4. Ford: 5 million visitors
5. Chevrolet: 4.4 million visitors
6. Honda: 3.6 million visitors

A new study has been released that highlights Facebook’s ability to influence consumers. According to the study from Morpace Inc., businesses marketing on Facebook have a clear advantage over competitors that are not utilizing the social networking site.

Over a one week period 1,000 people were surveyed about their Facebook usage. When asked why a particular Facebook user had joined a Fan Page, 41% cited their reason as “to let my friends know what kind of products I use.” 37% percent said they joined the Fan Page for coupons and discount offers.

The study also asked if a positive referral from a Facebook friend would influence a user’s decision on whether or not to purchase a product or service. 68% of people surveyed said that it would.

From the data collected, Morpace Inc. concluded that “Facebook can allow businesses to directly communicate with their target market, whether this is the exchange of product information, the offering of exclusive coupons and discounts, or the viral product buzz from Facebook friends.”

The study clearly indicates the need for retailers to embrace the social networking site. Find the complete study here.

Allan Mulally, CEO of Ford

Ford and Microsoft introduced Sync, the in-car communication system, in 2008. Yesterday at the Consumers Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Ford’s CEO Allan Mulally announced an updated version with a long list of new features for the successful Ford feature.

On top of increased voice recognition capabilities, Internet radio, maps and personal settings is a Twitter feature.

The feature reads Twitter messages to the driver and Mulally said that eventually the voice recognition technology in the Sync will allow drivers to dictate their responses and even their own Twitter updates.

Concerns are being raised about the danger of increased distractions for drivers. Doug VanDagens, Ford’s Global Director of Connected Services responded by saying that driver’s already read their Twitter feeds but because Sync reads the messages, drivers will be able to keep their hands on the wheel.

Ford has been very successful with their ability to recognize the influence of social media in today’s culture. They’ve created successful social media campaigns like Fusion 41 and the Fiesta Movement.

The updated Sync will be included in 2010 Ford models.

According to SheSpeaks Second Annual Media Study the number of U.S. women with at least one profile on a social networking site grew from 58% in 2008 to 86% in 2009. Of the 86% of women on a social networking 72% log in daily. In 2008 only 53% of women logged in daily.

The biggest number is that half of those active in social media say that social networking sites influence their shopping habits and 40% have used a coupon code.

Here are more of the studies findings:

Site Popularity:

• Facebook saw an increase in popularity from 42% in 2008 to 87% in 2009. With 95% of all those active in social media claiming a profile on Facebook. That’s an increase from 65% in 2008.
• MySpace dropped by 33% to 42% of women active in social networking. However, the site remains popular with women between 18-24.
  Twitter was added to the study just this year with 38% of particpants active on Twitter.
  LinkedIn also saw an increase from 17% in 2008 to 22% in 2009.

Results Based on Age:

• Women under 30 saw an increase of social networking participation from 86% in 2008 to 95% in 2009.
• The largest increase was with women over 50, which saw a 126% increase in usage from 31% in 2008 to 70% in 2009.

Popularity of Online Activities:

• Watching Videos Online
• Commenting on blogs
• Posting product reviews
  

Effectiveness of Social Networking Ads:

The percent of women that click on advertising on social networking pages increased from 2% in 2008 to 9% in 2009 and the percent of women that ignore ads on their pages decreased from 26% to 21%.

Purchasing Influence:

The study found that the leading influence in whether a women buys a product is and email from a friend or family member, however, this method saw a decrease of 7% from 2008. The only two methods to increase from 2008 were:

• “A blog post I read,” which increased from 27% to 53%
• “Information obtained on a social networking site,” which increased from 27% to 43%.

The study was compiled based on responses from 1,500 SheSpeaks members.

Everyone is talking about the monetization of Twitter.  The site boasts millions of unique visits a day and astronomical growth from 2008 to 2009. But are they making any money? The answer is who cares if Twitter makes money.

The question all of us should be asking is how can MY BUSINESS make money with Twitter?

Dell seems to be answering this question very well. It’s being reported that Dell is crediting Twitter for $6.5 million in sales. Dell had reported earlier in the year that Twitter was responsible for only $3 million in sales but in the last 6 months as popularity for the social networking site has grown even more, they have made an additional $3.5 million in sales.

DellOutlet provides a combination of services. Dell employees will Twitter daily deals, customer service responses, and tech support.

Although $6.5 million is less than one percent of Dell’s yearly profits, it’s still a strong indication of Twitter’s potential for sales. Dell has committed 100 employees to their Twitter efforts. It will be interesting to see how they step up their game in light of these profits.

Check out Korenne Richardson’s post on how dealerships can effectively use Twitter.

Yesterday, Infiniti unveiled the new 2011 Infiniti M live on Facebook. This is their second virtual reveal of 2009.

The reveal allowed Facebook users to give their real-time feedback. One of the last comments being: “Infiniti your (sic) a joke.” I’m not entirely sure what the comment was referring to but hopefully not the fact that the reveal happened on Facebook.

Infiniti seems to be ahead of the curve with their “virtual reveals.” The program was 15 minutes long with terrible sound but the picture was just right. The relatively short reveal left enough of the audience wanting more. It was a great tease.

The video was provided through UStream.com which is growing in popularity for live shows and premieres. Rapper 50 Cent premiered his feature film directorial debut on UStream.com with a moderately successful 255,000 viewers, which would be a successful theatrical premiere for any film.

Online video monster YouTube aired a U2 concert that attracted 10 million viewers. Social media sites like Facebook and YouTube are becoming serious competitors in the world of breaking news. Many news channels simulcast news reports on sites like UStream with numbers comparable to traditional TV ratings.

Infiniti is not the only car company to provide virtual reveals. BMW often unveils new products BMW TV.

On Wednesday, Facebook Page’s Notes laid out how to use a new targeted update feature for fan pages. The update is best for pages with fans in multiple locations or who speak multiple languages, not your average Joe, because so far fan admins can only target fans by location and language.

The examples from Facebook:

• Global brands: Starbucks, who has over 5MM Fans across the world, may want to talk about a new drink currently only available in the U.K.
• Musicians & Celebrities: The Foo Fighters may want to announce to fans in California that new tour dates have been added across the state.
• Local: Red Mango may want to let fans in Palo Alto, California know that a new frozen yogurt shop is opening locally.
• Celebrities: Roger Federer may want to separately thank his English-speaking and French-speaking fans in their respective languages.
• Automotive: Car dealers with multiple dealerships. There is a sale on hybrids in the Oklahoma City dealership but not at the Tulsa dealership.

*I added the last one.*

It’s an interesting update that will no doubt become very handy to everyone with a fan page. People have been asking for this feature for a while. It seems Facebook has been listening.

Eyeblaster.com released a study today about the effectiveness of online video advertising. The study found that video advertising outperforms email and editorial content such as news, finance, sports, music.

Eyeblaster.com projects that online video advertising spending will increase from $1.1 billion in 2009 to $4.1 billion in 2013.

Some of the other key findings from the study:

• Video growth has outpaced Rich Media growth by 60% in the last three and a half years
• Weekdays from 9 am to 5pm is the preferred time for In-Banner and Floating video ads
• An increase of video length by 5 seconds reduces Video Fully Played rate by 2.8% on average
• The ROI on video ads is double that of non-video Rich Media ads

The increase in video effectiveness is attributed to the displacement of TV viewing and the increase of time spent online by consumers.

What can be taken away from this report is that a well-rounded campaign has a strong video presence. Internet surfers take the time to watch an online video advertisement 46% of the time, compared to only 30% of TV viewers.

Look here for the entire report.