VW - Another venerable and well-known consumer brand, VW.com has a clean, highly usable design reminiscent of Apple’s—perfect for showcasing products that have become all but iconic. I also like how the search for dealers call to action is front and center; together with clear and accessible shopping tools, it speaks directly to the user’s agenda and shows an interest in truly engaging the market. 

I am curious to get your view on the car configurator tool  that VW offers. The tool enables a user to e-mail a link to the configurator to others. But I am curious if there are a couple of missed opportunities here:

• should the link enable recipients to view the car configuration the original sender designed?
• perhaps a  “gallery” of designed automobiles would encourage car aficionados to visit and revisit with the aim of viewing other people’s designs and comparing notes…maybe? maybe not?

Volkswagon clearly has its audience’s interests in mind, but I think we’ll see it refine its approach to make sure the social media elements of its site really add value to the browsing—and the buying—experience.

Does Social Media add value?

We have reached a point where social sharing via interactive methods is commonplace; any offerings in this space now have to work hard to offer value to users. This value could present itself in a few forms:

• Offering valuable content that enhances a user’s or customer’s understanding of the brand or product
• Providing valuable offers that facilitate purchasing
• Providing current news, reviews, and events so that a user or customer may feel part of the brand or product
• Tools allowing for individual creativity to be expressed more robustly

The sites I’m watching in 2010 all have different audiences with different needs, and they’re trying to engage those audiences in a variety of compelling ways. Of the five sites reviewed in the past four months which of these sites do you think makes the most successful use of social media?

• Disney – http://disney.com
• CDW – http://www.cdw.com
• SAP – http://www.sap.com
• Apple – http://www.apple.com
• VW  - http://www.vw.com

Are there sites I should add to my must-watch list? I’m curious to hear from you!

…or cell phones … or land lines … or television.

It’s true! Santa Cruz is officially back to basics, just like it was when the Mission of Santa Cruz was founded, September 25, 1791 by Father Fermin Lasuen.

The facts according to KSBW.com :

– An outage knocked out a Verizon land line, cell phone and 911 emergency services to thousands at about 2 a.m. last night.
– Fiber optic lines were cut at Monterey Highway and N. Blossom Hill Road.
– The event is being treated as a criminal investigation.
– 50,000 Verizon phone and cell service customers are without service.
– 36 Verizoncellsites went down, causing the biggest outage to date.
– My BB was non-functional during my Santa Cruz to Sunnyvale commute.

Question? Did I miss being connected…hmmm, no, I enjoyed my eclectic mix of iTune downloads via my rockin’ car stereo system.

Okay, not exactly like 1791.

Anyone else affected?

The most used quote of the day at Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco: “If you love something, set it free.” Of course, “it” means content. Certainly the phrase is a bit hokey, but both Scott Monty, Social Media man of Ford, and Bob Buch, Digg executive, thought it relevent enough to share in their 50 minute sessions yesterday.

This isn’t a revolutionary thought, but still seems to be a big stumbling block for many corporate communication and legal departments. Sage advice to consider about the company brand from Maggie of the Social Media Group: “You are what your customers say you are.” … And as we all now know, they will say it whether your company engages or not.

check out thefordstory.com … Another noteworthy fact: Ford is the only big three automotive makers that DIDN’T take bailout money. That’s pretty cool.

Last night I attended an invitation-only gathering for business and Marketing executives to here about social media and marketing-sales alignment bests practices. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about whether the content would “really” be useful. I was extremely impressed. The event was hosted by MTS, Inc., and the business and marketing executives on the panels where truly first class.

Panel participants came from top tier B2B technology companies, as well as insightful marketing vendors and consumer-focused organization including: Oracle, Polycom, Spark Media Solutions, Mountain Travel, Nortel, Knight Vision Marketing, Sybase, Heidrick & Struggles, Tiny Prints, Logical Marketing, and moderated by Stanford Professor and business owner Sheryl Root.

MTS plans to make these meetings a quarterly tradition, and I hope to be invited to the the next one!

Below is a social media minute with one of the attendees.