The Facebook Revolution for Car Dealers
Posted by admin in Automotive, Social Media on February 16th, 2010
As we move forward more and more people are spending more and more time on Facebook. What originally started out as a college project for college students has quickly taken over the world! I mean that literally. Now Facebook encompasses not only college kids, but young teens, adults & now businesses looking to find a way to connect with their customers.
Think about what Facebook meant to you 2 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago? Now look at how often you find yourself in front of Facebook today. It would appear that we are driving ourselves more and more to use social media websites such as Facebook because more often than not, our friends are spending more and more time their.
This would appear to be causing a perpetual cycle of ‘lets be involved & lets be heard’. As businesses begin to jump into the mix, we are essentially turning Facebook into our virtual reality. As people spend more time in this virtual reality, auto dealers need to find a way to connect with customers and build relationships, partnerships and/or friendships.
I really don’t think this is all that different from what auto dealers were doing before the digital revolution. I mean think about it, auto dealers are always naming the store after their own name. Why, because dealers believe that people are more likely to shop with them due to their previous history and the ability of that dealer to network himself with customers, building a strong reputation.
Now, I don’t believe finding fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter is going to be all that much different. Dealers will need to have someone in the store help build that online reputation and establish that social status just as they do in the real world. The difference hear will be how quickly a dealers social status goes up or down. If a dealer messes up big time, it will be heard loud and clear very quickly. The same thing is true with positive news.
The speed at which things move on the internet has been dubbed ‘viral’ and auto dealers should get to know this term and how powerful it can be. Car dealerships should not fear this term, nor the social media revolution, but should embrace it, take advantage of it and harness the speed and power with which they now can market themselves.
Fresh Input is an automotive web solutions company that has fully integrated social media solutions for your auto dealership and your dealership website. Find out how we are changing the game and keeping your dealership Fresh!
How Auto Dealers Can Utilize Twitter
Posted by admin in Social Media on January 30th, 2010
Figuring out how to best utilize Twitter from a business stand point can be challenging. For auto dealers taking on this challenge should be a part of their online strategy. Think of it as a challenge and not a road block. Twitter looks simple enough, but the big question I always get is “What do I do with Twitter?”.
Here are a few things to help get you started.
- Communication – this is probably the most obvious use for Twitter for any business but as a dealer you can utilize this communication tool to help answer customer questions or address concerns a customer may have. This can include all your departments sales, service & parts.
- Research – By participating in the conversation and engaging people thru Twitter you can get answers to questions you may have or even learn something you never knew you were looking for!
- Support – Just check companies like Ford out on Twitter. Ford has taken great initiative here. Just ask Scott Monty, who is in charge of Ford’s Social Media strategy. He answers questions from customers & dealers quite often. You can ask questions or even provide answers. With this open format for communication the gloves are off! Scott can be found at www.twitter.com/ScottMonty
- Marketing – This is a great opportunity to get your marketing message out to your followers. Don’t over do it here, but if you’ve got something that will entice your following, your message could reach much more than your following in a matter of minutes.
- Engagement – By having your dealership engage with the customers or even vendors thru Twitter, your store is providing a human element to the online aspect of shopping.
With the explosion of social media over the last few years it has never been more paramount than right now for dealers to be concerned about their reputation.
Your online reputation is accessible by anyone with an internet connection, may last for years to come and will be a factor in the customers decision making process when they go to purchase a vehicle. Social media is changing the rules of the marketing game and how people will perceive your company when they go to purchase. Making sure your dealership is a part of the conversation and not ‘The Conversation’ will help set your store a part from the competition.
2010 Full of Promise
Posted by admin in Social Media on January 5th, 2010
Its been some time since I last posted anything. Not being a very good social media specialist now am I. Its good to take a break every once in a while. It lets you collect your thoughts and take a new approach at small business solutions and just about anything else.
2010 is already turning out to be a positive, over last year and we’re only 4 days into it! This is great news for everyone. Just having a positive attitude can be up lifting and move people in the right direction. I was at a bar several weeks ago listening to a local band play and was fortunate enough to get introduced to the Sammy Steele Band.
Why is this important on my blog you ask? Because, as I stood around with everyone else listening to this band play I came to the realization that, we in America are something special and extra ordinary. You see, despite the fact we just went thru the biggest financial crisis since the ‘Great Depression’ I saw a lot of positive attitudes and good ol’ fashioned American spirit.
Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the beer, but thats why I waited several weeks to write this. There is talk of hope and optimism in the air, not just hear but I’m hearing it everywhere. At that show that night the music was a mix of Bruce Springsteen meets American Country. It was good ol’ fashioned American music without the twang! It gave me a sense of pride to be an American, despite our economic situation. It gave me a sense of motivation to continue to excel and continue to working hard for my dreams. Realizing we may be down but not out is what will drive all of us to succeed in 2010.
With that being said, may all of my clients have a prosperous 2010. Set you standards high, raise the bar and continue on with that American spirit that makes us a step above.
Open Transparency
Posted by admin in Automotive, Web Design, Web Solutions on November 21st, 2009
I recently read 2 great books. “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis and “Free – the future of a radical price” by Chris Anderson and they have given me many fresh ideas on web based marketing strategies for my clients.
One thing that was itching at me the whole time I was reading these books was the importance of transparency and how it relates to your website.
When you compare automotive web solutions companies look at what the company has to offer and how transparent are they with providing you raw data (analytics or web traffic). We review the information with our clients so they can make informed decisions. We even educate them on the importance of any data they may not be familiar with.
After speaking with a few client and discussing how some vendors just won’t open up and discuss numbers I began to wonder why. The truth is either the person on the other end doesn’t completely understand the numbers or the vendor has something to hide. This shows little attention to some of the most important details as well as a lazy attitude of care toward your client.
Fresh Input will be transparent with you and discuss with you the importance of such numbers as bounce rate, pageviews, pages per visit & time on website. We are recently delighted to see yet another one of our clients double the amount of visitors to the website, increase their pageviews by 190% as well as increase the time of their visitors from a 3 minute avg. to a nearly 5 minute avg.
Yelp – Take #2
Posted by admin in Social Media on September 25th, 2009
I just got off the phone with ‘Sam’ from Yelp. He comes across as pushy but I know he is probably a young guy that is just passionate about the Yelp website. Unfortunately he wanted to sit and debate with me over why I think Yelp is no longer worth visiting. He did not want to listen to the end user telling him how I felt. He wanted to talk about how great Yelp is and where it’s heading and how they are better than CitySearch, etc. I had to practically yell over him to get him to stop. Enough of the madness. Yelp believes that it is doing its community a favor by removing many reviews (based on what Sam told me). Their so called filter will automatically detect which ones to keep up and which reviews to take down.
I no longer contribute to Yelp, and I would suggest you don’t either.
I tried to communicate to Sam that I felt like I was wasting my time if Yelp did not want to consider my voice just as important as everyone else’s when I wrote reviews. Have written several reviews and not having them show up made me feel like I was not important. I wanted to know where those reviews went. After all I spent my time and energy writing them.
Yelp is not an open community like you might think. It is not social like you may think. If Yelp is going to police their reviews and services they should do a better job at making sure more people’s voices are heard. The users who spend time and energy writing and being a part of Yelp (therefor making Yelp what it is) deserve to have their 2 cents heard. I don’t think abusive language needs to be showcased on the website and do think that hateful or abusive language should be removed, but I don’t think the current policy Yelp has in place is going to work.
When Yelp decides to make the Yelp community a truly social and open community and have most of its reviews involved in the conversation I will participate once again. But as long as reviews are not being given their due credit, Yelp has found 1 less customer and with the ability to communicate that and my reasoning behind it across the internet they should take notice of what the end users think more closely.
More Yelp Contraversy can be found here.