journal of digital research & publishing - The Sydney eScholarship ...

1 P M J O U R N A L O F D I G I T A L R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING
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trained public relations practitioners who is versed in two­way symmetrical communication
skills, and is knowledgeable of the organization and its publics and who values transparency.
Ford began to integrate social media into their Communications business model in 2007
by engaging an agency to help develop a social media strategy (Fox & Scott 2008). As an
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social media, was hired in July 2008 (Kiley 2009).
Part of Ford’s new social media strategy was to set content free (Fox & Scott 2008). In
the past, like many companies, Ford had treated images, video and even press releases
as valuable assets that needed to be carefully controlled for the exclusive use of select
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register to get access to a password­protected media site.
Under the new strategy, Ford began publishing Social Media Press Releases (SMPR),
with all photo and video content on Flickr and Youtube respectively, leveraging their
native sharing properties and making all content digitally available to everyone under the
Creative Commons license (ford.digitalsnippets.com 2010).
Ford’s social media strategy involves actively engaging in the social web in order to join
the conversation consumers are having. However, Ford acknowledges its responsibility
to be open and transparent about their engagement by abiding to the Word of Mouth
Marketing Association’s Code of Ethics (Ford 2009).
Ford’s efforts in engaging in the social web can be illustrated and further examined
through analyzing the aforementioned Ranger Station case study under the theory­based,
strategic framework for dialogic relationships described earlier in this chapter. Scott Monty
is actively using Twitter to establish a dialog with Ford’s stakeholders and implement the
above­mentioned features developed by Taylor & Kent (2002).
The following messages were sent by Scott Monty from his Twitter account and document
his participation in the Ranger Station case study.
Feature One: Mutuality
As mutuality is described as maintaining relationships of equality and collaboration, it was
important for Scott Monty to let the enraged Twitter community know that he was working
to solve the issue and that he too, did not agree on the actions of Ford’s legal department.
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