Almost everyone has a story related to cars. It doesn't matter if you're a die-hard car collector or a college graduate who just bought your first one. A car is almost like a character in the story of a fumbling first date, making a cross-country trip, or schlepping a friend's belongings for a move.

Tapping into that passion is the main focus of Nissan's new director, Erich Marx. He has held management positions in his 20-plus years at Nissan and is now in the newly created role as its director of Social Media & Interactive Marketing for Nissan North America, Inc.

Recently, Erich talked with MarketingProfs about social media and why it's crucial for businesses to harness its power.

Why does social media even matter for car companies?
There's an unbelievable amount of passion regarding the industry and cars. So, it's a natural fit. Whether Nissan or anyone else participates, there are conversations and articles being written and blogs. There's so much passion and energy about cars from consumers.

We want to be a participant in the passion. For example, there are Z clubs with get-togethers, blogs, and forums where owners write. Nissan will be part of it. We can do research, find out more about owners in terms of what they want, what they use, what they love, what they don't see much value in, and what items we should change. And we don't have to run formal consumer research in the way we used to to. We can crowdsource and get answers back by the hundreds of thousands.

A dozen years ago, I sat in the board room, and people asked, "How much do I have to invest in a website? We want people to go to the dealers to learn about the cars!" It was a struggle. We didn't want people to not need to go to the dealership. How much did we want to control our message? Boy, you don't want to give up more control! But consumers do control. And social media is here to stay.

Why did Nissan create this new role of a director of Social Media & Interactive Marketing?
For a deeper dedication. This emerging media isn't going anywhere. We've dabbled in the social media space for the last couple of years. We had an agency that did something for us at the brand level, but they were housed in two different divisions. It seemed sub-optimal, so we want all our efforts to have one integrated effort, with all oars rowing in the same direction. So, we needed to specifically designate someone to do this effort ... We've been toeing the pool of social media, got a foot in the pool, but it's time to dive in. And we weren't going to dive in as a corporation until we had a dedicated resource that provided strategy and oversight. They wanted on individual with a deep focus on it.

What are some examples of how social media will be integrated into your marketing mix?
One of the most compelling ways that we add value is by providing access or inside info. For example, at the New York International Auto Show, our chairman for the Americas for Nissan (who is in charge of running the entire operation) was there. Carlos Tavares is very knowledgeable and passionate about the car industry. So, we did an "Ask the Chairman" series on Facebook and Twitter. We were going to ask him five questions, so we asked people to submit theirs---any question about Nissan. Carlos Tavares personally responded. It was videotaped. He gave unscripted answers, and we posted those. It was a two-minute video, but it was one way to engage content. It was a behind-the-scenes look for fans and owners right on the floor of the NY auto show.

What can we expect from you?
I'm making sure social media is part of everything we do. It's not just an afterthought. It's an integral part of everything we do for every model launch. ( Social media marketing) needs to become part of our core marketing planning. It's part of every plan. So, we need to make sure our PR and marketing teams work together in an integrated way, not siloed or in chimneys. So, when we have a marketing program, we ask, "Do we have corporate/PR leveraging every one of the opportunities that we have to amplify the marketing message through PR channels. How do we make news about our brand is maximized and aligned, so it's the same story being told?" We don't want to be running in two different directions.

Is there a downside for being online?
We have to make sure people want to listen to our conversation. The biggest risk is to talk and have no one listen or just ignore us. If our content is boring or bland, it's just spam. Our goal is to foster conversations about Nissan and get people excited about our brand. So, all conversations need to provide value. And that's true offline, too. My biggest criticism as a consumer is that I think there's a lot of talking in the social space---but not always in a value-added way. We want to be  engaging.

Thank you, Erich, for taking the time to share your thoughts about social media marketing with MarketingProfs.