I gathered myself up on Sunday afternoon to go to the Ford (as in the carmaker) 2010 Ford Taurus Meet/Tweet/Bleet Up! event at Opal Divine’s. The guy with me was willing to drive the new 2010 Ford Taurus, so we had an excuse to go see what Ford was up to. Among the bloggers there was the dryly hilarious Jefre Outlaw, who intrigued the group with stories of his stem cell transplant two months ago. And then we learned all about country dancing, which Mr. Outlaw has eagerly if not maybe a tad too early gone back to doing for fun. Did you know that there is country dancing competition in eight different categories? Anyway, I know I digressed from Ford, but it was a Blogger meet up after all!

Ford was represented by some nice young professional people, including the marketing manager, Mike Crowley, who although he said he had been with Ford for almost two decades, looked like he was barely over two decades old. Ford must treat ‘em well. The best I could figure about this little gig on the second floor lounge of Opal Divine’s is that Ford is trying to work the new social media game and hop onto some of that word of mouth internet frosting for the new Taurus. People in the group took the Taurus on a test drive, and apparently it is quite the sweet car and worth a little internet talking.

Whether this kind of meet up and test driving can create the buzz that Ford probably hopes for is still to be seen. I can’t help but wonder if one can really “capture” that blogger benefit and tweeter thread with planned meetings. I suppose that is the big question for most marketing people right now. Can we harness the stuff that creates the buzz, or does harnessing it kill the buzz? I will leave that to Ford to answer as they continue their 100 city tour of Blogger/Tweeter/Bleeter Test Drive meet ups!