Toyota staying ahead of the curve with new Twitter account

Since 2006, Twitter has become a way of life, and is one of the most popular social websites in the world.  Everyone from normal people, to celebrities, to important executives have a twitter account that allows them to “tweet” what is currently happening in their life.  Even businesses have their own Twitter accounts, and the popular car manufacturer Toyota, is staying ahead of the game by creating their own Twitter account.

According to the LA Times, this move is to help get some positive publicity back in light of the recent recall disaster.  Several of the latest posts include, “5 Reasons to Buy a Toyota” and “Toyota rolls out 0% financing incentive plan.”  Toyota is hoping that drivers will respond, especially those looking for new cars at Newark Toyota Dealers.

I for one, believe this to be a brilliant tactical move for Toyota.  Firstly, as the LA Times said, Toyota is in need of a shot in the arm in publicity to help boost public opinion of the company.  In a recent interview with the LA Times, web strategist Jeremiah Owyang said: “In the social sphere, it’s often best to be proactive during a crisis, to let the market know you’re listening, and centralize the discussion around your brand, giving the brand more opportunity to guide the conversation…Yet don’t be fooled, on the social sphere the illusion of power is quickly dispelled, as everyone can have a say.”

Secondly, Twitter is an invaluable promotional tool that gets over four billion Tweets per quarter.  To put that in ball park terms, if one person goes to Twitter every time they Tweet, then Twitter gets four billion visits per quarter, which translates roughly into 43,835,616 visits per day.  If Toyota can gain any kind of percentage of that amount of traffic in sales, then they can hope to increase their business dramatically.

The timing of this move is also perfect, as used cars from New Jersey will be a popular item,  as well as new cars from Newark Toyota Dealers, because with the spring will come a need to by new cars to cruise around in the great weather, and with their new Twitter account, Toyota is sure to take advantage of the situation.