The Tendo View

I’ll admit it: I own a Ford Taurus. And even though I look like a pharmaceutical rep driving it, it’s still my ride and I have to defend the brand. Sort of. So, when David Murphy called out Facebook Ford Drives U as an example of improper use of a social network, I had to check it out.

He’s right.

The site is little more than a redirect to the Ford Drives U site, which is a program offering special deals, rates, financing, etc. for college students wanting to purchase Ford cars. It’s the prototypical example of how not to use Facebook.

BRAVO

The site features 500+ photos of all kinds of Fords in varying states of stock to fully modded. That’s it: Photos. Of cars. Most—but not all—of them Fords.

TRY AGAIN

The site hasn’t been updated since May 2008, when Ford posted a call for entries to the College 500: Driven by Ford. Billed as the “The road trip of a lifetime,” mtvU and Ford were looking for college students “to take part in a competitive journey across the country in the new reality show.”

There are no updates to the page, so I initially assumed that either the show got scrapped or they didn’t get enough entries. Not true. The show aired on mtvU last year. Hmmm.

There are 7,613 fans on the site as of this writing; yet there are no posts, no chatter, and no engagement between fans and Ford or among the fans themselves.