Having now had a closer look at the #LRNY tag, its clear that the thing hasn’t really worked.  The reason is that Land Rover have failed to notice that a successful conversation has two mandatories – an ability to listen and an ability to speak.  Land Rover is doing neither – and its paid tweeters are doing nothing more than say “wow- aren’t Land Rovers really nice, please look at this website”.

As a result the space is filled either with people like me talking only about the fact that the space exists, or, more latterly, people complaining about Land Rovers.  I can’t even see a twitter identity for a Land Rover person to respond in any way to what people are saying on the tag although a chap called Keith Rhodes seems to performing some official function.

Its a shame really because having generated all the attention this could have been an interesting initiative.  However, the exercise bears all the hallmarks of having been invented by a traditional media / advertising / digital agency who can see no further than simply trying to own a channel and place messages within it.

Lesson – don’t think Channel, think Content, Conversation, Community.  That’s what social media is all about (and it is also what most traditional agencies are institutionally incapable of either understanding or delivering).

UPDATE: I have looked back at the twitter stream to see how it all started a couple of weeks ago.  I few things struck me.  First – the proforma statement

Hey car fans, my background is sponsored by Land Rover! Watch the video from the NY Auto show http://bit.ly/1KOx7s l

looks rather sad when you see them all lined up together – so obvious – shame LR couldn’t have encouraged them to say something in their own words.  Second, it is clear than one of the paid-fors @powerwomenmag gets very upset that their background gets changed, but perhaps more disturbingly, the person who appears to be the key protagonist in all of this @keithrhodes states

2010 Land Rover first look video on YouTube. Video was created by a consumer who got into the reveal. http://bit.ly/1KOx7s

I looked at this and thought “in your dreams son”.  The idea that a ‘consumer’ got into the press reveal and was the person responsible for posting this video smells very fishy to me – especially when you check out the YouTube profile of said ‘consumer’.  A more plausible explanation to me was this was a piece of astroturfing.

Hmmm.  It gets worse.

See also update re further analysis