Ford unveiled the 2011 Ford Explorer in a unique way – making it’s commitment to social media more significant than any automaker has ever done.

The first time any automaker has chosen a virtual unveiling now gets credited to Ford. Aside from the obvious hope that people will actively engage, share with friends and comment on the pieces of content to the extent it leads to sales remains to be seen.

The decision to use Facebook, and to integrate the Facebook “Like” buttons in it’s material is definitely a good idea should Ford want to study the effects of the social graph and the characteristics of “influencers”.

Influencers are people who are very active only, blog, tweet and often stimulate great discussions about topics their audience is interested in. If Ford can figure out what makes these people tick, they’ll definitely have some ideas on how to create a network of influencers.

It’s still a gamble worth taking because being on the front lines and differentiating yourself will get people’s attention. People want to break free from the norm, they want to experience remarkable things in their own space and not have to physically travel to an auto show to experience the excitement.

That being said, there is still definitely something missing from online media and it’s certainly the inability to replicate human interaction and physical emotion from an event.

Ford hopes that the people will appreciate this effort in being different in hopes that it will generate specific conversations about the new product. Ford has invested in social media with campaigns like the Ford Fiesta movement where they gave cars to people who are active online and allowed them to become the voice behind the brand.

There is no doubt that great things have been happening for Ford with it’s second quarter income of $2.6 billion, a sign that they are doing a lot of things right.

It still comes down to the product in the end. Ford products have been brilliant, so the 2011 Ford Explorer should be no exception. The focus on technology and marrying the online experience using the vehicle as the connection is proving that Ford is listening and taking full advantage of utilizing social networks to their greatest extent.