Carmakers have dived into the deep end of social media, with iPhone apps, Facebook pages, Twitter streams, and a whole host of other online ways to reach potential buyers and promote their brands.
Not surprisingly, given the affluent, environmentally aware nature of its audience, the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid is making forays into social media as well.
Most notably, you can visit the Toyota Prius Facebook page, which lets you download a "Prius Experience" Apple iPhone app and four separate Prius-themed games.
2010 Toyota Prius
Drives, puzzles, gifts, games
Those include a virtual drive of Toyota's best-known hybrid through Kyoto, a "Fantastic Contraption" puzzle game, one simulating the Touch Tracer steering wheel controls for the vehicle display, and a Harmony game themed to the innovative TV ad campaign that launched the 2010 Prius.
Facebook users can also send Prius gifts to their friends, including buttons for Love, Solar, MPG, Reuse, and Blue Sky. Our favorite gift is the "Prius Planet Freshener," which replaces those (virtual) pine-tree air fresheners you've been hanging from your (virtual) rear-view mirror.
Prius on Twitter? Not so much
Astoundingly, there don't appear to be Twitter users named @prius or @toyotaprius, though Toyota's U.S. headquarters tweets from @toyota.
Similarly, the U.S. operation maintains videos on the Toyota YouTube channel and a page of Toyota images on Flickr, although those images don't seem to be publicly available.
[Toyota]
