Ford Ups The Ante on Social Media

From the backseat of a Ford Taurus of Elaine Ellis…

Ford held a meetup with bloggers to introduce the new Ford Taurus hosted by some of my favorite bloggers – Andrew Hyde, Aimee Greeblemonkey and Amber Johnson – and I got to go as a blogger. I don’t think my blog is what they were really targeting, but hey, free appetizers! Thanks Ford.

My grandfather drove a Ford Taurus, so my association with it is old people. The car was surprisingly more sleek than I would have guessed, but still had room for mobsters to hold at least three bodies. At least. The car inside was gorgeous and had great features. It seems to be a huge lead in style compared to previous models. Yet, I can’t see myself purchasing one as I prefer smaller sedans like my Civic.

The best part to my ears was the Ford PR person talked about their CEO’s focus on quality. My parents believed in buying cars and driving them into the ground. They bought American – a Ford Sable and GM station wagon – but the problems continually stacked up. Their next set of cars were a Honda Accord and Toyota Corolla.  And thus, my first two cars have been Civics.

Yet the quality of Ford’s social media approach is dead on. They were triumphant with their Ford Fiesta agent program, in which my friend Jeremy Tanner is taking part. Letting small groups of bloggers make their own decisions while test driving the Ford Taurus will help play a crucial role in helping people believe that Ford is about quality. Yet to me, the true test for quality when the new drivers of Ford Taurus talk about the quality of the 2009 Taurus in 2019. That’s the true litmus test.

Photo taken without permission from Andrew Hyde

As we were leaving the meetup, I told Ef that I was going to write about it for Soci@lByte, and then he told me he was going to write about it for the HuffPo. Hello one-upmanship. But in his article, he has a great point – 16 to 19 miles per gallon isn’t acceptable in 2009. Somehow, I missed that point, but maybe because I was worried about Andrew driving down the wrong way on one ways.

Get Ignited

From the desk of Elaine Ellis…

This past Tuesday, Ignite Boulder 6 played to a crowd of 600 plus. If you’ve never attended an Ignite, presenters are tasked with sharing knowledge about a passion in 5 minutes with 20 slides and slides advance every 15 seconds whether you’re ready or not. Both Ef and I have presented and if you’ve ever wanted to be pushed shoved out of your comfort zone, presenting at Boulder Theatre to a crowd of hundreds that expects you to entertain and educate will do it for you.

This past Ignite contained a brilliant presentation by Jen Yu made me salivate with her presentation on food porn. Dave Burdick of the Daily Camera compared Ghostbusters to journalism, which was hilarious even though I’ve never seen Ghostbusters. Jen Newell (semi-rhymes with Yu) taught us how to speak Swedish or rather Bork, Bork, Bork.

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis and have spread across the country and even in Europe. Ignite Boulder is one of the largest in the country, and this article from the Daily Camera sums it up nicely. The next Ignite Boulder should be in December and the next Ignite Denver is Oct. 16. Go and attend both. Or even better, sign up to present.

This presentation by Vikas Reddy on Awkward Rules at Ignite Boulder 3 was one of my favorite presentations.

Julie Penner at Ignite Boulder Six on Dijbouti is Just the Beginning.