A Twitter Guide for Car Junkies and Automakers

Twitter has become the new big thing in the social networking space. Much like Facebook, Myspace, and countless others, Twitter merges the concept of micro-blogging into a feed form so that you can keep up with friends and things that interest you...including cars.

The premise of Twitter is simple - by sending short messages of 140 characters or less, it allows for the rapid sharing of information as well as short conversations similar to that of text messaging. On top of that, it has gained a great following, not just by the general public, but by companies as well. For the purpose of this post though, I am going to assume you know how Twitter works. If you don't, then head over to The Lost Art Of Blogging's Guide to Twitter.

Auto manufacturers, journalists, bloggers, enthusiasts, and even fake Formula 1 drivers have been getting on Twitter. Whether for entertainment, conversation, information, or anything else that can be shared through text and links, Twitter is now on the scene to give you that fix of high-octane goodness.

One of the best things on Twitter for us auto addicts is #carchat, hosted weekly by vLane's Michael Banovsky (@michaelbanovsky). Every Wednesday, a few topics are chosen and discussed over a 2 hour session that starts at 8PM EST and it is usually guested by any number of people who work in the industry.

"You take the functionality of short, 140-character messages, and just condense a week's worth of car talk into two hours," explains Banovsky, "#carchat works, or has been working, because people don't have to use a complicated system or do anything out of the ordinary to participate. It's a little hectic — #carchat averages about seven or eight tweets per minute — but works."

vLane even provides a short description on how to be a part of #carchat on their site.

But, that is just half of it. There are other car stars on Twitter as well, namely those involved in public relations with the automakers and other employees who take customer complaints.

Auto manufacturers are getting on Twitter in a big way, with most companies having an official Twitter account and some with a whole team of tweeple (twitter people, get it?) providing information and answering questions about their respective companies and products. All you have to do is send them a message and they will usually give you a shout back in short order.

Whether it is working in their favour though is something that is still open to debate. "The rule with social media is to own your reputation. Which is doubly hard for automakers who both have to own their brand reputation, but also their models," says Banovsky, "If I was an automaker, I'd have a feed set up on Twitter of every press release. Then another feed, hand-selected, of cool articles, blog posts, forum posts, etc. about the brand. I'd have a customer/dealer complaint account set up (as well)."

Over my short time on Twitter, there are a couple of companies that are really shining in the social media space, and for different reasons. Nissan's Hypercube campaign and Ford's Fiesta Movement have both been huge wins for both of their respective companies. But, one shines above them both - the interaction of the employees at General Motors on both sides of the border.

George Saratlic in Canada and Christopher Barger in the USA have been great at not only providing information about GM, but also engaging people in open discussion. That is what social media is all about - conversing and being social. Not just talking, but listening as well.

When I asked Mr. Barger why GM has put such a push on social media, he enlightened me a bit. "The best thing about Twitter, for us, isn't the ability to provide information to a broad community, though we certainly use it for that at times. The real benefit of Twitter for us is that it allows us to find out what the "audience" wants to know about, and to answer people one on one. Really, I think it makes us more effective as communicators -- because instead of packaging information or a message that we want, we get to know right away what people want to know about. It helps us be more relevant to people." And this is just what they have done...at least in the social media space.

If you would like to ask a question, receive news updates, or just talk about cars, here are some Twitter contacts to feed your hunger for information. And remember, you can always find me at @sandbarmark or get the latest stories on the site from @autonorth.

Better Place
@bpcommunity

Chrysler
@chrysler
@chryslercom

Daimler
@daimler (in German)
@mb_museum (in German)

Fisker
@fiskerauto

Ford
@ford
@scottmonty
@fordcustservice
@forddrivegreen
@fordnews
@fordmustang
@fordtrucks
@fordlatino
@fordfiesta

General Motors
@gmcanada
@gmblogs
@cbarger
@george_s
@travis_parman
@kamkam
@lesleyhettinger
@wendyrclark
@gmtexas
@gmnewsus
@gmnewssocal
@tomehenderson
@adamdenison
@philcolley
@calabrisellamia
@chevybg

Honda
@Alicia_at_Honda
@acura_insider

Hyundai
@hyundainews

Mitsubishi
@mitsunation (Canada)
@mitsubishina (North America)

Nissan
@infinitiusa

Toyota
@toyotacanada
@toyotanewsroom
@scion
@amykt
@scottdeyager
@sonamoon
@gregthorne

As I discover more manufacturers using Twitter, I will update this list.