Providing a free ride to influential people is a tried and tested method that carmakers employ to generate publicity about a model. Sports players and socialites, however, now have to take a back seat to people with a great influence on social media.

What exactly does this mean? Well, General Motors has enlisted the services of a company named Klout. This company ranks a person’s “social influence” and then runs a sampling program providing said person with certain “perks” – in GM’s case, a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic.

This isn’t the first time GM and Klout have run this program: earlier this year, they gave 20 “socially influential” people a chance to test drive Chevy’s Volt and comment on their sites, blogs, Twitter of Facebook accounts about it.

There are no restrictions on the kind of comments, other that the participant must have a Klout score of at least 35 (whatever that means) and a valid driver’s license.

They can write whatever they want, as long as they mention that the car was provided free of charge by General Motors.

In theory, this practice can prove a double-edged sword if the reviews posted are negative. Chevrolet spokeswoman Cristi Vazquez, said that all but one Volt drivers posted blogs complimentary to the car, generating about 2,000 tweets for Chevy’s hybrid in the process.

“It’s effective for getting out the message”, said Vasquez. “One of the things we’ve found is that the best way to get people to change their perception about our company is to get them behind the wheel.”

The Sonic program, which is already up and running since November and will end on December 14, is bigger than the one used for the Volt.

According to Vasquez, 139 socially influential drivers in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco will get the chance to get a 3-day test drive of Chevy’s new subcompact, which went on sale this fall and has, so far, recorded 10,035 deliveries. Each city will get at least four to five cars.

Klout CEO Joe Fernandez said that the target group for the Sonic campaign is the young, “post-college crowd”, despite the fact that the average age of new car buyers in the U.S. rose from 50 in 2006 to 55 in 2009.

GM isn’t the first carmaker to use social media in promoting a new car. In 2009, Ford loaned 100 Fiestas to bloggers for a six-month period.

Andy Prakken, executive director of media planning for Team Detroit, notes: “If you just start with advertising head-on, you’re probably starting at a disadvantage. You need to open the hearts and minds of people. With the Fiesta, we went to the market in a new way.”

Story References: Autonews