Ford is roadhouse on the power of social media for the new merchantry operation around the Ford Fiesta subcompact. The auto giant handed over 100 new Fiestas to "agents" selected from 4,000 applicants and created YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter commerce for them to relay their experiences. "Ford is taking a hands-off convergence and telling participants not to hold back their opinions, bolstering the campaign's credibility. 'We've told them to be perfectly honest -- that's the only way it's going to work,' Monty told us. 'We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.' So far, it's working in Ford's favor. The tweets on the FordFiesta Twitter page are generally favorable, if a bit dry, as are the posts over at The Fiesta shift Facebook page. None of the 80 picture show on the Fiesta moving Flickr page show broken down cars. There are a few hundred videos on the FiestaMovement YouTube account if anyone's got a few hours to kill."

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