Mediaboss Marketing

You don't have to look very far to notice that there are a lot of car companies trying to get in the social game -- you can see plenty examples in this year's Super Bowl ads.

[More from Mashable: 8 Things That Could Make iPad 3 More Expensive Than iPad 2]

It wasn't always this way for Ford. In 2009, they recruited Scott Monty to be their head of social media. Since then, he's come up with innovative strategies to blend social into all of Ford's marketing campaigns.

"Social media is not a standalone," Monty said. "It's not a rubber stamp you put on after having done everything else. It's absolutely important to be integrated into the thinking early on as you're putting your strategies, programs and tactics together."

[More from Mashable: Facebook Marketing: Why News Feed Still Trumps Timeline Pages]

In this episode of Behind the Brand, Monty speaks to Brian Elliot about the company's biggest success stories in bringing all their marketing elements together. When Ford began planning how to unveil the 2011 Ford Explorer, they decided they wanted to centralize the announcement around the brand's Facebook Page.

"Not only did we want to reinvent the vehicle, we wanted to reinvent the way we told the story," Monty said.

Watch the whole interview with Scott Monty above to learn about the innovations behind Ford's social media strategy, and how he's helped raise the brand's engagement level, then tell us what you think in the comments.

Behind the Brand is hosted by Bryan Elliott. Stay tuned to Mashable every Wednesday for new episodes.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Read the original:
How Ford Kicked Its Social Marketing Strategy Into Overdrive [VIDEO]