Amid the disastrous recall of millions of its vehicles earlier this year, Toyota faced another PR hurdle after it was accused of paying mommy bloggers to spread positive news about their brand. And so in February 2011, #ToyotaFail was born.

At the BlogWorld & New Media Expo ^[1] Wednesday morning, Shelly Kramer from V3 Integrated Marketing, Lucretia Pruitt from The Social Joint, and Christopher Barger from Voce Connect analyze how Toyota’s preventative maintenance and fast reflexes kept their brand image intact through the actions of their Social Media team in a panel mediated by Anne-Marie Nichols from The Write Spot.

Barger began praising Toyota for embracing the #ToyotaFail hashtag, despite the brand marketing tradition of shying away from anything so obviously negative. Toyota was able to turn such negativity into positive marketing by addressing the issue directly. Kramer also commended Toyota for not over compensating their tweeting efforts. “They didn’t freak out,” she said.

The panelists then identified Toyota’s missed opportunities, directing those into general advice for marketing with social media. Pruitt critiqued Toyota for its lack of follow-up, saying when there’s a negative spotlight on your company, not trying to change it is a missed opportunity.

Kramer encouraged brands large and small to outsource their social media content, like other advertising and branding, to an outside agency. “An agency’s job is working with you to craft the message of your brand,” she said. “Social media is just an element of that.”

Stay tuned for more content from BlogWorld & New Media Expo ^[1] as it happens.