We’ve certainly been hearing all about it.  You wouldn’t be on this site if you weren’t aware of it and willing to participate in it. But the real question is: how do you get it – social media, that is -- to work for you?
Some of the dealers I’ve been speaking with aren’t interested because they view social media, as do some business owners, as a time-waster, not a tool to build income. Sure you can talk about trust and you can talk about building relationships. But if you’re referring to ROI as every businessperson should, it’s about sales.  It’s about income. It’s about a return on your investment in both time and money.
The tricky thing about the Internet is that the new media makes participation costs relatively small, with no TV broadcast or print ads. The flip side of course, is that the time investment is much greater, both in terms of the learning curve and let’s face it, all those distractions that the Internet provides. (Fortunately, none of us in ...

The DrivingSales Executive Summit in Las Vegas is just a month away on Tuesday October 13th and Wednesday October 14th at the Hard Rock.

As I've already mentioned in earlier blogs, the Summit is a whole new breed of "Unconference", bringing together the nation's top automotive retailers in a truly collaborative environment to sort through and better understand all the emerging social media marketing trends and interactive strategies available to us. What's working? What's not? What's right for you? What's right for automotive?

The event is structured more like a live social media site with everyone participating at all levels, from choosing the topics to roundtables and workshops.  Which brings me to the UnAgenda. Most conference agendas are dictated and determined by conference organizers and sponsors. We're doing it a bit differently this time.

The DSES will definitely highlight some of the movers and shakers in social media marketing, like Aaron Strout and Chris Broga...

Great news!  We made an important decision this morning to extend the the call presentations for the DrivingSales Executive Summit for just a few more days!

As you know the DrivingSales Executive Summit, like social media, is a user driven event.  The Dealers on the Invitation list, and a few industry experts have requested a few more days to submit topics before the voting starts on the final agenda.  While the keynotes will be delivered by world renowned experts in social media and emerging markets and many presentations have already been received, we figured if we were going to extend the invitation for a few, its was only right to extend it for all.

If you are interested in presenting a dealer focused topic to the most innovative dealers in the country (the event is invitation only to a group of elite operators) please submit your topic proposal by Sept 10.  Those on the invite list will then vote on the topic they wish to hear from an the final agenda will be finalized p...

Because of the large number of requests I have received regarding the DrivingSales Executive summit, I figured I'd kick off my blog with a general overview of this unique event.

The DSES is a private event for the nation's top automotive retailers.  We are bringing these innovative executives together in a truly collaborative environment to sort through emerging social media trends and other interactive strategies to help our industry as it emerges from what has been one of its toughest years on record.

Perhaps the best way to think about it is as a twenty-group meeting for Internet, social media and progressive marketing models - or better still, as a "live action" social media site like DrivingSales.com.  The attendees are voting on the topics being presented and the event itself is very interactive and "social".  Another innovative piece, and industry first, is that even though the show is going to have a limited number of participants EVERYONE can follow along in real ti...