Toyota Owners Get a Private Social Network Click here http://bit.ly/mzmgu1 for full article

Toyota Owners Get a Private Social Network Click here http://bit.ly/mzmgu1 for full article

On May 23rd 2011, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced a partnership with Salesforce.com to create a private social network for automobile owners entitled “Toyota Friend.” The network will use Salesforce.com’s Chatter and TMC’s own telematics services to provide drivers with services and alerts, as well as a direct connection to the company, dealerships, friends, and even their own car. The service will initially only be offered to Japanese consumers with select electric and hybrid models arriving in 2012.

While the full details of "Friend" are not currently known, it is known that the service will connect owners to their vehicles in previously unseen ways. Through the use of the service, car owners will be able to receive updates from their cars when the car is in need of servicing. One example outlined in TMC’s announcement was for hybrid and electric car owners, who need to be mindful of their battery’s charge level. The new service could mean the driver getting a text on their phone from their car telling them that the battery is in need of recharging. TMC also stated that customers would have the option of connecting the service to other social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

TMC and Salesforce.com have invested a combined 665 million yen in Toyota Media Service Co., which manages all aspects of TMC’s cloud development for their vehicles. In addition to their social network, TMC also plans to provide internet service to its vehicles via a partnership with Microsoft. These partnerships are all a part of TMC’s cloud development plan, which they hope will encourage consumers to feel completely connected with their vehicle.

The development of TMC’s private social network provides an example to all businesses about how important social networking is to the future of sales and customer satisfaction. By integrating products and services with social networking components, customers are able to easily promote these products to their friends. Customer satisfaction is likely to be higher also, due to the ease of which feedback can be provided to a company that has a social networking presence.

With the rapid development of cloud services and social networking, it is likely that more businesses will follow TMC’s example. The modern world is all about being connected, and being able to have a product communicate with a consumer directly is about as strong of a connection as any business can hope to achieve.