Ford's Social Media Head Defends Crowdsourcing

Scott Monty, the ubiquitous head of social media for Ford Motor Co., stopped by Brandchannel.com to comment on Sheila Shayon's item earlier this week on Ford's latest foray into crowdsourcing, the "Your Ideas" forum on thefordstory.com. Monty, who oversees the company's social outreach on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and beyond, explained why Ford is bullish on crowdsourcing:

"The reason we've elected to open this up - and this isn't anything new, as we've had fordnewideas.com for quite some time - is because we wanted to offer a forum where people could openly comment on ideas, rate them up or down, and give our team a chance to listen to what customers are saying in one place. After all, social media is supposed to be about listening first. We're not committing to these ideas. We're merely seeing what's hot and what's not. If we choose to pursue any of them, it will be with the same level of research and stringency that has gone into making things like the industry-leading and award winning SYNC system. We're not planning on debuting the Homermobile."

Are you a fan of soliciting public feedback and ideas, and how? Read Sheila's story and tell us what you think.