Buick, a brand favored by retirees, is delving into more youthful waters with a full-out social media campaign to coincide the debut of the new 2011 Buick Regal. Its tactic is to create a website of all social media channels called MomentofTruth.com that shows what everyone and anyone is saying online about the new model, certainly a radical step from granny-targeted TV ads.

So far for Buick things are looking on the upside. The Moment of Truth website has a stream of conversation from news sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The Regal discussion seems generally positive, and a quick look at the site gives the brand a favorable boost from the public. What’s even more significant is the general youthful vibe the social media chatter appears to give the brand. Just check out some of the comments on the Moment of Truth stream where actual people try to bust the myth that this is granny’s car:

To wit, the merits of the new approach is being bandied about already on RegalForums.com, a community for Regal owners.  And the general idea remains the same: This approach is a positive one, and Buick can perhaps finally shake off its stodgy reputation. Nonetheless, most forum discussion was pure shock that Buick was actually doing a social media campaign.

The fact that Buick has now embraced a mid-summer social media blitz shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just in the last two days we reported that Ford was ditching the traditional auto show for a Facebook launch in the unveiling of the 2011 Explorer, and we also noted the social philosophy key to the growing electronic vehicle market. The move by these three major car brands to involve social media at the core of the marketing message points to a larger issue: auto shopping is a social activity, regardless of your age.