Great post, two examples I hadn't seen before. I've noticed the same thing and have been collecting a few examples as well. A few more to add to your list include Axe and Pepsi. Details in my post here on Brand Presence Strategy in the Social Web Era: http://bit.ly/dp9EP

Cheers,
Geoff

http://beta.cpbgroup.com/

As Alex Bogusky says in the welcome video, everything gets posted—”the good, the bad and the mildly unnerving.”

I found the site the day buzz was flying about their intern video being racist. All the tweets were there.

Personally, I find this brilliant. It affectively defuses the sting of negative press, by, basically, extending your definition of 'brand' to the entire conversation.

There's no such thing as partially authentic. It's oxy-moronic.

The biggest thing social media has taught me is that brand, personal or corporate, is built much more on behavior than on the words, spoken or written.

When a brand steps out and says, Bring it, which CP+B basically did, they look strong.

When a brand jumps through huge hoops, like building a site that appears unfiltered, and then filters it, they look weak and inefficient. Worse, they look dishonest. They would be better off to leave all SM off their site. I'd rather hang out with the guy who has clothes all over his bedroom floor than the guy who shoves them under his bed any day.

Just saying.

Interesting topic. Gonna go RT it with ref to CP+B. And it will appear on their BETA site within the minute. Check it.

Jen

My hunch, though, is that brands won't embrace true transparency via unfiltered inclusion of social mentions. The risk/reward analysis probably doesn't work out as well as we'd all like it to.

A more likely scenario is what Ford and Nissan are doing here. But I don't consider that social integration. I consider selective message control, wrapped in the shiny new publicity machine of “social media innovation.”

Websites had this sort of faux social media years ago, but we called it Frequently Asked Questions and Testimonials. And the reality then, as now, was a carefully orchestrated message.

Pulling in a few favorable comments from social media sites isn't “being social” — it's message management. Effective? Maybe. But social? No.