So, you have a Facebook page for your business. You’re ready to tap into the most powerful social site in the world. You want to get fans, to get people to like your page and hear your messages, to communicate with them in a meaningful way and to help drive more business. You figure that, “Hey, I’m a business. The only way people are going to like my page is if I have a drawing for a free iPad or give them a game that they can only play if they like my page!” Nope. It’s the wrong thinking. It’s not just the fact that you’re going to get people liking your page from everywhere around the world rather than the coveted local area Facebook users. What’s worse is that you’re actually going to do damage to your page and prevent locals from seeing your post or engaging with your page. Here’s why…   Their Intentions are Not Good Convenience stores don’t make a ton off of lottery tickets, but they get peo...Read post

All companies' business capabilities rely on how they identify opportunities, and gain more business insights. And to achieve this, all of things need to successfully function in the marketplace, from giving nice experience on the web store, smooth payment processing, to excellent customer support. When these things come together rightfully, there is always a good chance of extending business capabilities. But it is important to seek the right tools that have potential of turning around things for more business capabilities. Organizations use different tools and technology to exceed themselves in the competition such as customer relationship management systems, business intelligence tools, help desk, phone and chat support. But what’s more important is determining your business strategy, and how the implemented tools are going to complement your strategy. For instance, if customer service is something your organization has determined to be a strategic capability, find out th...Read post

Rumors always fly about Google, particularly when it comes to search. Next to Apple, Google is the beneficiary and/or victim of rumors on a regular basis. Some of them are started by others, but occasionally they're started (and confirmed) by Google itself. Such was the case last year when they hinted about the first variation of Penguin and it was the case this year with the latest update, dubbed Penguin 2.0. Now it's here and their was a nice writeup about it on Driving Sales by Aaron Schinke of DealerFire. The advice he gives is sound and falls in line with what we've seen from this update. The update has proven to be a very positive one for those who are doing SEO the right way. I spent an hour doing spot checks on dozens of our clients last night and found that they either kept their strong positions or moved up if they weren't #1 already (which usually means that their competitors actually moved down as a result of the update, but the net result is the same). ...Read post

Remember how slow the industry was to embrace the internet as a sales tool way back when? I do, I got into this business around the time the “fad” hit the noodles of dealers across the country. I found as a trainer for an automotive training company, there was a 33/33/33 factor when I would talk to dealers and management about it.   33% said the Internet was not a force to reckon with but a fad 33% said that they were “watching” to see how things developed but remained in park 33% started trying to figuring out how to engage but not really more than a little “figuring”   Then there was that 1% - they were actively moving into this new territory, making mistakes, figuring it out along the way with bumps, bruises and some pain. If someone was to do a survey of all dealerships that were around then and are still around today- I bet they would find that the 1% are the current industry leaders boasting the highest sales, largest grosses, l...Read post

Here’s the sad truth about the way that most dealers are posting their inventory to Facebook. It’s not getting seen. None of it. Not at all. Currently, there are three primary ways that dealers are posting their inventory to Facebook. The most common method is to have a tab on their Facebook page with their inventory. This doesn’t work. The click stats that we’ve studied using three different inventory types show that even the most active dealer Facebook pages are seeing next to zero traffic, clicks, or leads from this form of inventory posting. The reason is obvious – people don’t visit your Facebook page unless they get there through search, a link from your website, or an ad on Facebook. In these three scenarios, they’re either not interested in seeing you inventory (if they were, they’d just go to your website) of, in the case of referrals from your website itself, they’ve already seen it. Now they want to see you and your...Read post

Yesterday's announcement about Pinterest's new product pages and feature enhancements has me all excited about this platform. This is clearly a sign of a new direction in web design, eCommerce models and especially mobile content creation and consumption. Bottom line, I love Pinterest and you should too. Read post

Penguin 2.0 has been rumored to be on the brink of release for a while now. Well it’s finally confirmed here by none other than Matt Cutts himself. We all know that it’s only a matter of time before all of the fear mongers start posting jargon-filled posts meant to scare you into paying for protection. Well I thought I’d attempt to beat them to the punch. Here’s what you need to know:   Original content is more important than ever. A big part of the original penguin and what’s being revised in 2.0 is how links are being built. Great content builds natural links. Period. If you are building links in any other way you are at risk of this and future spam updates. I know content can seem cumbersome but it’s not as bad as you think… Get signed up with webmaster tools! A great and much less ‘scary’ update will be the enhanced messaging through webmaster tools. If your site gets hacked, hit by this update or if any significant e...Read post

The Truth About Your Data almost always begins with contracts.   I know that dealers are often unaware of the full content and ramifications of vendor and services contracts, and that's why the vendor's sales people make a visit and explain the service delivered by the contract.  To sell you on the value.  And the dealer applies his or her trust of the vendor, weighs the value of the vendor's service, and when he or she buys then makes that decision believing the description matches the service.   The problem can come for the dealer when, in the contract, as I put it, "The Large Print Giveth and The Fine Print Taketh Away".  And that can happen with your data, where it goes, and to what purposes it is put. For example, your vehicle inventory can be syndicated to whatever additional partner websites you allowed in your contracts with any vendor handling your inventory information--and you often don't kno...Read post