Building A Community For Toyota Owners During The Recall

The headlines for Toyota in recent weeks have not been good.  The recall of 11 models to repair sudden acceleration, including a ban on the sale of eight models, has put Toyota at an estimated $500 million in lost revenue per week.  The timing of this couldn’t be worse, as Toyota is faced with what could be their second straight annual loss when the final numbers are in for 2009.
The financial hit aside, Toyota is clearly in the midst of a public information challenge.
What role can .ORG have in this?  Being a very serious problem that affects Toyota drivers, potential buyers, and the community at large, it is only natural that this vital information should reside on Toyota.org or myToyota.org.  At a time of crisis, people turn to .ORG – it stands for trust, credibility and community, and instantly associates that to the information.  Toyota is getting out-maneuvered at this.  In doing research this morning, we found an independent, unaffiliated site named www.toyotarecall.org – a website that has a load of good information, including  videos, recent news articles, FAQs, etc. It’s basically an example of what Toyota should be doing to communicate with customers.  This .ORG website is viewed by over 8,000 thousand visitors a day.  Toyota, take note.