We’ve written a few times here about Ford’s for-the-people approach to marketing its new models, an approach that relies heavy on social. As a kind of follow-up we have an interesting piece of research from social metrics specialists Inefegy that looked at how Ford weathered a recall storm a few weeks back. Hint: there’s a silver lining in here for save-the-world eco-types.

Let’s start with the recall. You may recall that Ford was forced to recall 140,000 Focuses for wonky windshield wipers that could lead to an electrical short. According to Inefegy’s buzz study, the recall was a mere blip of bad news. What was the public buzzing about? The gushing reviews for the new electric and hybrid Focus. It is the discussion on electric that has people buzzing. In fact, Inefegy found that the overall chatter, again despite the recall, was 84% positive. Of course, charting buzz based on positive, negative, neutral is notoriously fickle, but when the ratio is so solidly in-favor it’s hard to quibble with the results.

Here’s how Inefegy charts it:

It’s good to know that recall news cannot dent the unmistakable consumer enthusiasm there is for fuel-efficient and next-gen hybrid cars.