Ford to GM: You're Just Bad at Facebook

Automaker says Facebook does work, but not like a normal ad platform
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2012 9:20 AM CDT
Ford to GM: You're Just Bad at Facebook
A thumbs up or 'Like' icon at the Facebook main campus in Menlo Park, California, May 15, 2012.   (Getty Images)

GM unfriended Facebook this week, saying that advertising there didn't work. But rival Ford says there's another explanation: GM must be doing it wrong. "It's all about execution," Ford said in a Tweet spotted by the Huffington Post. "Our Facebook ads are effective when strategically combined with engaging content & innovation." In an interview with Forbes, a Ford VP said the company was actually increasing its Facebook advertising, calling it a "growing and critical part of our media mix."

"You won't make the right choices if you view Facebook as an advertising network," he explained. "You can’t just pick up advertising that would run somewhere else and put it on Facebook as an ad banner." Another Ford marketing source said GM's decision was "odd" given how young and potentially powerful Facebook is. "Wouldn't you just say to Facebook, 'We're not going to spend as much … in order to earn our business, can we come up with something more clever?'" (More General Motors stories.)

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