Ford is bravely entering the world of social media at full speed. To build buzz about their new compact car, the Fiesta, Ford is giving their branding and promotion responsibilities to 100 young web savvy people.

The best part of this plan is that none of these individuals has any advertising experience. They were chosen for their “social vibrancy” rating. Essentially, they were judged by their web presence and popularity – number of online followers and accounts on different social media platforms. They were also judged according to their creativity, film-making skills and ability to retain audience’ attention.

So here’s the deal, Ford is giving each of the 100 people chosen a Ford Fiesta to drive around for six months. They will be asked to document their experience with the car through Youtube videos, blog posts and other social media updates.

We always talk about the key to good and honest marketing is being transparent. Ford is taking this a step farther by not having any censorship over what is said and posted about the Fiesta. This is definitely a make-or-break situation for Ford. They must have thought of this, so Ford must be confident enough in their product to publicize this trial period. And if it goes horribly wrong, Ford still has about a year to redeem themselves before the Fiesta hits U.S. dealers.

Ford, we commend you for the unique grass roots campaign. It’s a great idea and will definitely build buzz and awareness about the Fiesta. For Ford’s sake, hopefully it’s positive buzz.

I am sure everyone and their mother has heard about the Motrin drama. Motrin launched an online ad campaign targeting “babywearing” moms that was supposed to empathize with the pain associated with carrying your baby in a sling.

The reaction was less than positive. Moms were mad, real mad. Tweets, blogs, and youtube videos were popping up like crazy about the offense taken from the ad.

For those of you who thought that ad was pulled quickly enough that a spoof couldn’t be made, I am about to put your minds at ease. This is our favorite response video

Obviously, J&J should have tested the ad before the launch. That was their big mistake. Although they are still getting a ton of negative fallout from it they handled the reaction well. They immediately apologized and pulled the ad; it was launched on Friday and by Monday, the ad had been pulled. The buzz about the ad continued throughout the week and mostly fizzled by Friday.

The Motrin story is becoming an instant case study for how influential social media is on brands today. It also proves that there are huge opportunities to use social media to improve your brand image.

Even though there was negative buzz about Motrin, the good thing is that the fact that people were tweeting and blogging about it proves that there is some level of passion for the brand. Now Motrin’s challenge is to take that passion and make it positive.

So you might ask “what would buzz.io have done differently?” Well as you have heard us preach so many times from this pulpit it is about the conversations with your customers.  Don’t wait until a crisis to start talking.  Have you seen Motrin contact the offended mothers and apologize? they probably lost some moms forever because of this but by having a conversation they might have turned some anger into excitement because they are a brand that cares.

It isn’t too late for your brand – get out to the conversations and start talking!