One of the greatest social media campaigns of all time occurred in 1923 when Albert Sloan created a brand for General Motors. What made this campaign incredible is that Mr. Sloan took Ford Motor Company’s greatest stronghold and used it to take Ford down. He also took his biggest weakness in GM and turned it into his biggest strength. I think this is an important point to emphasize in today’s age of social media. By creating a social media strategy, an opponent’s greatest strength can become the means by which you can defeat that opponent. When competing against an opponent, your greatest weaknesses can become your greatest strength. To be successful on social media, a marketer must be humble and must be flexible. In the end, Albert Sloan won a resounding victory because he was flexible, but humble. On the contrary, Henry Ford was defeated because he was not humble and he was not flexible.

The Ford Model T hit the market in 1908. By 1923, the Ford brand had produced 90% of the cars then on American roads. The Ford brand seemed like an insurmountable brand to beat. Ford’s strength was the lower end of the market. They had a 60% market share for this segment, compared to 6% for GM. General Motors’ strength was high-end with its Cadillac brand, but few people could afford this car. The great strength of General Motors did not seem to be that strong.

The great strength of General Motor was social networks. Thanks to social media, Albert Sloan knew that the General Motors brand was well positioned to become the pre-imminent brand of automobiles. Mr. Sloan’s social media also explained to him that Ford was actually very vulnerable.

Social media is when the brand and the customer engage with each other on a personal level. In social networks, the brand acquires a human dimension. The brand becomes “a friend”. When a person is a friend, you communicate with him. Find out where they come from. This is what General Motors did, in the person of Albert Sloan in 1923. In 1923, General Motors was, so to speak, “a modern social media brand.”

When Mr. Sloan came to General Motors in 1920, he toured the country. He talked to people. He talked to customers; he talked to GM salespeople. He came to know the American public. He understood that the American public had changed. He had switched in favor of General Motors.

There was now a middle class in America with disposable income. These people wanted a car that was priced at a level they could afford, but they also wanted a car that was comfortable and enjoyable to drive. They wanted a car that looked good. People wanted to drive a cool car, and now they were willing to pay for it. Mr. Sloan began to realize that brand image was becoming an important issue in buying a car.

Brand image has become a strength for General Motors. Not that many people could afford to buy Cadillacs, but they WANTED TO. Suddenly, this huge weakness at the top end became a strength. General Motors was now considered the “cool” brand, and people began to want General Motor cars.

Social media told Mr. Sloan that he could now compete on the low end. He created a Chevrolet that had automatic starters, car heaters, and windshield wipers. It cost a little more than a Model T, but the extras seemed like a bargain. The strength that the Model T had on the low end has now become a weakness. A car that seemed “practical” was now “old,” while a Chevy was “cool.” Through his use of social media, Mr. Sloan outperformed the Ford brand. He made weaknesses strengths and strengths weaknesses.

Dean Hambleton

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