Toyota uses social media monitoring to analyze the social media data across social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. to keep a track of what customers are thinking about their cars, specific models, customer feedback, and quality issues and use this data to improve the sales of cars.

1. Analysis & Outlook
Toyota uses social media monitoring to analyze the social media data across social networking
sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. to keep a track of what customers are thinking about their cars,
specific models, customer feedback, and quality issues and use this data to improve the sales of
cars. Social media monitoring and sentiment analysis have become a key element of social media
strategy for companies as the customers actively engage on various social networking sites and
voice their opinions and often criticisms about the company’s products and services. In a
CIO.com article by Zack Hicks is CIO at Toyota operations in North America and group vice
president for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A, “Today, we use social media data analysis across many
areas--sales, service, quality, marketing and product development. For example, if a customer
expresses interest in a car, we can determine engagement by analyzing the frequency of
dealership visits via their Foursquare check-ins, understand their dealership experiences, and
even understand what features may have sparked their interest in a competitor's product. This
allows us to stratify leads based on their readiness to buy, moving stronger leads to the top of the
list.” One of the best methods of analyzing the social media data is the keyword correlation and
linkages that will help the company analyze what all options the customer looking at before
buying the Toyota cars and what keywords customers are using for the search and whether the
key words reflect the company’s brand image and reputation.
Social media monitoring also helps in competitive intelligence by using the sentiment analysis
the company will study how customers are talking about Toyota’s car models and is that talk is
materializing into final purchase of the car by the customer and accordingly use the information
in predictive analysis of future sales. Toyota also uses the social media data to understand more
about their existing and potential customers like their hobbies, interests, what movies and TV
shows they like, what sports they like and what all other social networking platforms they
actively use which will help Toyota to do brand collaborations, place ads, promote such events
and use their marketing and advertising budgets efficiently. Toyota is also immediately
responding to the quality, product and service issues faced by Toyota customers and resolve
them as soon as possible to avoid backlash. Toyota is also using social media platforms to
identify the prospective customers, analyze their needs and requirements, understand what other
brands of cars the customers are looking at and also target the customer with specific offers like
discount coupons, providing customers the necessary information and clarifications so that they
can make easy and fast decisions. Toyota also uses the data to study the effectiveness and
performance of their dealerships and how dealers are pushing the sales as dealers are critical link
in the car sales. Social media has become a critical platform for the automobile industry
particularly car industry, as the car makers are aggressively using social media for product
development and reduce lead times by testing the concepts on social networking sites. Social
media monitoring has become a big competitive advantage for the auto industry and Toyota is
using the social media monitoring strategy effectively. Social Media Monitoring is proactive
strategy that helps companies to understand their customers and develop products accordingly.
Social Media Monitoring Case Study @ Toyota analyzes social media data for sales
improvement, quality improvement & marketing