If you have any doubts about the power of Social Networking just look at the results from this year's election. The Obama campaign was the first to utilize it and they raised a new record of $150 million in September up from their previous high of $66 million. A major part of that was accomplished through Social Networking utilizing everything from their presence on Facebook, Twitter, My Space etc to name a few, to connecting with people who held rallys in their homes and neighbourhoods. They also encouraged people to download phone lists and make calls and even offered the ability to "mine" your personal phonebook and match up demographics and then download that to your iPhone as a list to make calls when you had time. The McCain campaign eventually saw the power of this and has jumped in with both feet. The benefit has been the personal touch and the empowerment that cannot be retracted and has made everything more transparent now and in the future.
This has the sa...

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeToday Reem Abeidoh looks at Corporate blogging and shares 13 Steps Fortune 500 companies take to Create a Blog.In order to maintain a competitive edge, corporations are increasingly looking for opportunities to make them stand out. Although traditional media serves as a solid medium that disperses company messaging to the world, the trends of information consumption are evolving. After some initial hesitancy, corporations are slowly starting to realize that it is important to jump on the virtual bandwagon of blogging. This medium represents the missing ingredient that traditional media lacks: the ability to directly connect a company to its customers.As of February 2008, 54 companies listed on the Fortune 500 have corporate blogs (source). I had the great honor of interviewing the social media gurus behind three of the top companies with blogs: Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist at Intel, LaSandra Brill, Manager, Web & Social Media Marketing at ...

Image via CrunchBase by Allan Bird 10/16/2008I attended one of the most enlightening Webinars yesterday, put on by Automotive News. It featured a presentation by Avinash Kaushik, an analytics evangelist for Google. He discussed what he described as the "Head and Long Tail Concept" which basically showed how most sites simply concentrate on the main keywords, such as the OEM Brand or Dealerships name etc as a way for customers to find them. While this is very necessary it only scratches the surface of what is available out there. The great differentiator is to invest some time in finding out who your demographic is and going after them with keywords that are of interest to that particular clientele. He also spoke of learning what is actually happening when people come to your website. Yes leads and sales are important, but what is working and not working on your site is worth it's weight in gold to a company. If people are concentrating on a particular element, why not highlight that an...

Some very interesting reading. - Allan
By Steve Finlay
Car dealers spend a bundle on conventional advertising, yet balk at small allocations for Internet marketing efforts.
That baffles Todd Stainbrook, even though he says he understands the dealer “mindset” after spending much of his Ford Motor Co. career in the field.
“Same-brand auto dealers at regional marketing meetings will approve millions of dollars on co-operative TV ads,” he says. “But then, when there’s a proposal to spend $25,000 on digital advertising, you’ve never heard so many skeptical questions.”
His job as digital integration manager for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands is to nudge dealers into the brave new world of digital marketing and make it a foundation of their ad plans.
“We’ve made a lot of progress but we have a lot to do,” he says at ENG’s annual automotive customer relationship management conference here. “There’s a lo...

Charles Green on 10/02/2008 12:46 0 comments ,21 views When the customer says, “I don’t know, that sounds kind of high to me…” what do you do? How does Trust-based Selling™ handle customers’ concerns regarding price? First, note the sales jargon for this situation—it gets called “objection handling.” The wording is revealing. It suggests we have a conflict with our customer, an oppositional situation—their side is objecting to our side. And our job is to “handle” it. Kind of like a counter-move in wrestling.But what if you’re trying to create a trust-based relationship with a customer? In that case, this isn’t about “objections,” much less “handling” them. Instead, it’s about a mutual inquiry as to whether joint value can be created—or not. Price is—at bare minimum—a simple and necessary part of the discussion.But much more importantly, when we hear price comments as “objections,” we immediately jump to a place of high self-orientation...

Image via Wikipedia A new Jupiter research report, The Social and Portable Inbox: Optimizing E-mail Marketing in the New Era of Communication Tools ," shows that newer marketing communication methods, such as social networking sites and text messaging could be eroding the effectiveness of email promotions.The report states in 2007, 51 percent of e-mail users said e-mail inspired at least one online purchase, and 47 percent said the same for off-line purchases. However, in 2008, only 44 percent of users were inspired to purchase online and 41 percent for off-line purchases. In addition, 22 percent of those surveyed said they use social networking sites instead of e-mail, and a large amount more indicated they use their cell phones, text messaging and instant messaging (IM) as an alternative to email."Consumers' confidence in e-mail has become shaken by irrelevant communications and high message frequency, which are top drivers of subscribers' churn and channel skepticism," explained Dav...

by Daniel Schawbel on 10/01/2008 07:37 0 commentA lot of very influential people are sounding off that it’s not the number of friends you have on social networks that matter, but rather the quality of the relationships. For instance, many people would rather have 100 close knit contacts on LinkedIn than 600 “lose contacts” or people who you might not even know. Facebook considers users with 5,000 friends (the max you can have) “whales.” Basically having a lot of friends on Facebook, contacts on LinkedIn or followers on Twitter is giving people a bad name. There was even a recent study done that compared the number of friends and wall posts you have on Facebook to being more or less narcissistic.Follow this link to a great discussion and analysisRelated articles by ZemantaTop Social Networking Sites and How to Use Them Nvizion Life:Threading the Social NeedleTop 10 Tips for Social Networking SuccessNetworking Tips from A Pro: Charlene Li ...

(by Brad Fallon)The problem with so many web sites today is that they are built around an advertising model – but the wrong kind. As a result, business owners are throwing away money hand over fist when they could be pulling in tons of qualified, interested prospects and customers.If you want your web site to capture more quality leads, this article is for you. You see, there are two types of advertising, but only one kind of web site. Unfortunately, most web site designers don’t seem to know this.Read more of this exciting article by clicking here ! ...

By Steve Finlay WardsAuto.com, Sep 5, 2008 8:38 AMCOSTA MESA, CA – Car dealers spend a bundle on conventional advertising, yet balk at small allocations for Internet marketing efforts.That baffles Todd Stainbrook, even though he says he understands the dealer “mindset” after spending much of his Ford Motor Co. career in the field.“Same-brand auto dealers at regional marketing meetings will approve millions of dollars on co-operative TV ads,” he says. “But then, when there’s a proposal to spend $25,000 on digital advertising, you’ve never heard so many skeptical questions.”His job as digital integration manager for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands is to nudge dealers into the brave new world of digital marketing and make it a foundation of their ad plans.“We’ve made a lot of progress but we have a lot to do,” he says at ENG’s annual automotive customer relationship management conference here. “There’s a lot of room for improvement.”Stainbrook adds: “The...

by Adam Broomfield-Strawn on September 13 2008, 04:52The 10 commandments were given as a set of guidelines as to how we should live our lives. The following 10 commandments are given as a set of guidelines as to how sales reps should live their sales lives. Reps: print them off and live by them. Managers: give them to your sales team. Business owners: whenever you get a new rep, hand them a copy. These commandments are designed to promote hard work, perseverance, honesty, integrity, well earned results and a higher level of service and if followed will do so.Want to learn more, click here...

Image via Wikipedia Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later by Stephen Baker and Heather Green Editor's note: When we published "Blogs Will Change Your Business" in May, 2005, Twittering was an activity dominated by small birds. Truth is, we didn't see MySpace coming. Facebook was still an Ivy League sensation. Despite the onrush of technology, however, thousands of visitors are still downloading the original cover story.So we decided to update it. Over the past month, we've been calling many of the original sources and asking the Blogspotting community to help revise the 2005 report. We've placed fixes and updates into more than 20 notes; to view them, click on the blue icons. If you see more details to fix, please leave comments. The role of blogs in business is clearly an ongoing story.First, the headline. Blogs were the heart of the story in 2005. But they're just one of the ...

May 16 Written by: Guest Blog 5/16/2008 11:47 AM By: Jody Stoehr, Director of Business Development and Partnerships, R2i Being in the sales field, social network theory plays a significant role in how I interact and connect with other professionals. With the emergence and evolution of social media sites, we use many networking tools today to connect with others: LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. And, I often find myself asking this question: What is the right balance of cyber interaction versus face-to-face time?In order to maximize social network tools, it is important to remain balanced, never underestimating the power of personal interaction. The “old school” way of networking is undoubtedly the key to making memorable connections and lasting impressions. But in order to maintain a good balance, keeping a social media presence can be invaluable. For instance, a connection that may have otherwise been unknown is easily brought...

from Peter Bachner's Blog - a dialogue on Automotive Retention Marketing by Peter BachnerAs part of my training and consultancy with OneCommand, a leading national automotive CRM marketing company with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio and Costa Mesa, California, I've produced a video titled " Simplifying Fixed Operations Marketing" based upon my recent White Paper by the same name. (a pdf copy of this White Paper is available for download on this Blog).This short 17 minute video highlights the key elements considered to be the basis of a truly solid marketing strategy within the service department of a U.S. automotive dealership.A concurrent theme that comes out in all of videos and the White Paper is the need of sound management and processes within the service drive. Both videos that focus on the Service Drive, as well as the White Paper, key in on how important this is. From a consulting standpoint, a real depth of knowledge of processes is CRITICAL towards the success of a dealer...

As I approach people in the Car Business to discuss the Social Media happening in the world, I find that there is more skepticism than acceptance. Last year the Auto Industry in the US spent 12-15 BILLION dollars on advertising alone.Do you know if it worked ?Did you reach the audience you wanted or did much of fall on deaf ears and eyes and end up in the garbage can ?You have 100 million of YOUR customers on Facebook alone and yet there is almost no presence in that space. What does this Automotive 2.0 cost you ? Almost nothing, just some time and a caring attitude.Want your CSI to improve ?Want to sell more cars ?Then get involved or keep doing what already does not work ? Don't believe me just look at the results.If you want to learn more call or email me and I will share with you what I know and how I can help you take advantage before the rest of the world wakes up !The train has left the station. Wouldn't you like this to be your Dealership ? One of your customers lives right nex...

by Mark Hendrickson on September 11, 2008 TrueCar joins GoodGuide in helping consumers obtain more information about the products they buy - information that sellers don’t necessarily want them to have. In TrueCar’s case, that information is simple yet elusive: just how much you should pay for a new car. TrueCar aggregates data from a variety of (mostly unnamed) sources to determine how much money other people have paid for new cars around the country. It then places its findings at your disposal so you can determine whether or not that dealership down the street is offering you a good deal. The outcome, hopefully, is that you save not only hundreds and possibly thousands on your new car but the time it would have taken to comparison shop as well. To use TrueCar, you just have to enter your zip code and the model you’re interested in buying. The price data is offered to you in a variety of visual formats such as bar graphs and charts. And it can be narrowed down to ...

Image by scriptingnews via Flickr 163 Comments by Erick SchonfeldNote the Toyota AD - Allan Three jam-packed days, and 52 startup demos later, we finally have a winner for this year’s TechCrunch50. Every day, the presentations just seemed to get stronger and stronger. There were so many strong contenders this year that we are awarding five jury selection prizes, in addition to the top prize. But there must be a winner, and that winner is…Yammer. Yammer is Twitter with a business model. Created by an existing company, Geni, to scratch its own itch, Yammer takes the familiar Twitter messaging system and applies it to internal corporate communications. There is such a huge demand for this type of service that 10,000 people and 2,000 organizations signed up for the service the first day it launched on Monday. Anyone with a corporate email can sign up and follow other people in their company. But if a company ants to cla...

If you are looking for new ideas to help get your business out of it's funk, then click on the video to learn more ! If you have any questions email me at allan@allanbird.com or just give a ring to 415-717-5079. Enjoy the show !

By CLIVE THOMPSON On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt. Zuckerberg, a doe-eyed 24-year-old C.E.O., founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard two years earlier, and the site quickly amassed nine million users. By 2006, students were posting heaps of personal details onto their Facebook pages, including lists of their favorite TV shows, whether they were dating (and whom), what music they had in rotation and the various ad hoc “groups” they had joined (like “Sex and the City” Lovers). All day long, they’d post “status” notes explaining their moods — “hating Monday,” “skipping class b/c i’m hung over.” After each party, they’d stagger home to the dorm and upload pictures of the soused revelry, and spend the morning after commenting on how wasted everybody looked. Facebook became the de facto public commons — the way students found out what everyone around them was like an...

Written by Sarah Perez / September 6, 2008 7:00 AM / 18 Comments « Prior Post Next Post » If you were interviewing someone for a position with your company and they admitted that they didn't know anything about the new trends and innovations taking place in their field, what would you think? Likely, what you would think is "next candidate, please." In today's business world, job-seekers are expected to stay current with the happenings taking place in their area of interest. There was a time when those happenings were very much job-specific and anything having to do with technology fell squarely on the shoulders of I.T. That time has passed. Web 2.0 technologies lifted the veil of mystery surrounding computing technology and made it accessible to everyone. Today, if you're not staying current with Web 2.0 technologies' impact on business, then you're just not staying current. Period. Web 2.0 Is Everywher...

Image via Wikipedia A new set of business practices are slowly but steadily starting to creep into the way companies sell their wares to customers. This new trend in selling is being called “Sales 2.0” by some. It’s an unsophisticated, yet appropriate, moniker for this phenomenon, since many of the tools and methods that are fueling the Sales 2.0 trend have their roots in the Web 2.0 movement.Before we focus on Sales 2.0, it is instructive to examine and to try to define Web 2.0, which we do later in this paper. Indeed, the definitions of Web 2.0 and Sales 2.0 are problematic since both are relatively new phenomena. They are also hard to define because they are grass roots or bottom-up movements, and as such, have very hazy boundaries. It’s very difficult to determine where Web 1.0 ends and where Web 2.0 begins and the same can be said for Sales 1.0 and Sales 2.0.Web 2.0 is a movement fostered by incremental improvements in technology and greater adoption of the Internet which ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Google doesn't just want to grab market share with its new Web browser, Chrome. It wants to change the way we use computers by Heather Green - Business Week Article Browser wars? On steroids. When Google (GOOG) announced on Sept. 1 that it was releasing its own Web browser, Chrome, the immediate buzz was that the bruising battles over browser domination, played out between Netscape and Microsoft (MSFT) in the late 1990s, were back on. Google, though, has much bigger ambitions. The goal, say Google execs, is not merely to win share of an existing market, but to change the very nature of Internet browsing—and the way we use computers. If Chrome works as planned, it will lead much of computing from the desktop—Microsoft's domain—toward remote data centers. These, in Google's lingo, are known as the "cloud." Google runs the biggest and most efficient data centers on earth, and moving much of the world's computing from desktops into its clouds ...

Book cover via Amazon Quoted from the Best-Selling Book Groundswell:"Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. Most companies see it as a threat. You can see it as an opportunity. In Groundswell, two of Forrester Research's top analysts show you how to turn the force of customers connecting to your own advantage. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff show how leading companies are gaining insights, generating revenues, saving money, and energizing their own customers. Whether you’re in marketing, research, support, sales, development, or even running the whole enterprise, there’s targeted advice here for you, backed up with real-world ROI to prove it works. Groundswell is bas...

Image via Wikipedia Social Networks Get Down to Business significance As number of business users of social networks increases, advertising expenditures rise, tooIn 2008, US advertisers to spend $40M to reach business audience on online social networksThat's just the beginning, projections are that ad spending will reach $210M in 2012Marketers will spend more over next few yrs to create and manage their own social networksVertical industry networks targeting just about any job description or category proliferatingFacebook has become de facto B2B social network; many business executives have joined Related articles by ZemantaThe Truth is 140 CharactersOnline Social Networks - What's the attraction?Announcing The TechCrunch50 FinalistsVodafone friends Facebook ...

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown There is a movement happening that all Auto Industry people need to be aware of and ultimately embrace. In the beginning it was our kids who used MySpace.com to keep in touch and share their world with each other. Then Facebook.com came along and it had an older college audience that extended beyond that world to the population at large.Now there are many sites in this arena such as Linkedin.com and Orkut.com, Xing.com etc., etc.So what does it all mean ?As the traditional ways of marketing are drying up and the costs skyrocketing, what can you do to drive business and even more importantly sustain it ?You can get involved directly or watch from the sidelines until it is too late !Companies such as Dell and Visa understand this and not only have an account on these sites but they use this new medium to provide feedback on existing products, support and help their customers and build lasting relationships that ensure their business will be around in ...