Ford pulled a very pleasant surprise amidst the crippling recession and ‘the worst market for American car manufacturers.’ The company is finally profitable, having recently reported a $1 billion profit for the third quarter period. It predicts to be “solidly profitable” in 2011.

Ford has had some dependable strategies and standard reasons such as cost-cutting, layoffs, and the cash for clunkers program. But there has also been another unusual, crucial, and extremely successful tactic: the use of social media. It seems that Ford has been gaining sales through it social media prowess.

‘This summer the company boasted that it had logged 13.2 million interactions with the public over social media.’ Having seen that ‘an uptick in positive social media interaction was responsible for Ford’s impressive profits,’ the company pursues its plans to spend ‘a full 25% of its advertising budget online this year, compared to 9% for the rest of the industry.’

Ford is cashing in on the ‘continued rise in social media’s popularity, and its online numbers reflect the buzz’: ‘more than 1.8 million YouTube views, more than 270,000 Flickr views and more than 1.8 million Twitter impressions, resulting in more than 13.2 million interactions.’ The @Ford Twitter account has 18 thousand followers.

Companies are starting to realize that the advertising game is now played online, away from the erstwhile and costly tri-media campaigns of television, print, and radio advertising platforms.

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Via Mediaite