Awesome content is what drives engagement on Social Media. I see a lot of emphasis on technology lately with Social marketing.  Putting technology before strategy is quite dangerous.  There are a lot of cool tools out there to manage your time.  However, automation is there to support your efforts, it’s not the guts of your campaigns.  You can’t skip planning, listening, education and go straight to engagement.  No one will connect with you if you’re not real.  Human connections are what drive sales. Focus on your connections, not your network.  People buy from people.  Each Like on Facebook, every follower on Twitter, every reader of a Blog post is a person.  Social Media has connected us all in ways we couldn’t have imagined even 5 years ago.  Never forget that each connection represents many things to those who participate.  Providing great content that people want to engage with propels your connec...

One of the first rules they tell you in sales training is it’s a numbers game.  You gotta throw a lot of spaghetti against the wall to have some stick.  Last week I blogged about using Social Media to foster long-term sales relationships (not one-night stands).  Instead of looking at each prospect you meet like a lotto ticket, use Social Media to touch people’s lives. Word of mouth is universally acknowledged as the most powerful and effective marketing force there is. In their book, “Go Givers Sell More”, Bob Burg & John David Mann write, “From Hollywood executives gambling hundreds of millions on the latest Summer blockbuster” to a car sales professional trying to fill his or her capacity of a few hundred clients, “everyone in business knows that their trade ultimately rises or falls on the quality of the word of mouth it generates.” It’s not that other forms of advertising and marketing aren’t effec...

It’s 1998.  You scan your inventory for the best cars to put in the ad.  You pay the local newspaper and cable company huge sums to run the ad.  Buyers show up on the lot with their checkbooks in hand.  The focus then was meet, greet, sell, then next up.  It was the equivalent of 50 first dates. We’ve come a long way, baby… or at least the customer has. My hero, Carl Sewell speaks about the $517,000 customer.  The average person buys 12 cars in their lifetime and the tab for those, including service, equals roughly $517K.  Establishing a long-term relationship with that potential repeat customer ensures you’ll be there for every one of those purchases.  The top salespeople know this.  They treat every customer as though they were going to do business with them for the rest of their lives. It’s 2012.  Buyers aren’t showing up on the lot like they used to.  Some dealers are more concerned ...

We talk a lot about Social Media as a marketing platform.  One of the cheapest, most effective forms of marketing is called extraordinary customer service.  When you combine Social Media with customer service, you create an environment where customers want to share their story. Social Media done right is like a supportive cocoon enveloping your customer during every stage of the sales process.  You serve your customer in ways they never expect.  You develop and manage long-term profitable relationships on a scale larger than ever before.  You create a personal connection with your customer throughout their life.  They emerge from their cocoon as butterflies, free to spread the good word. Your employees are an integral part of your customer service process.  They’re on the front lines interacting with your customers every day.  You can mirror this in the online world.  With guidance in Social Media best practices, employees can be...

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” ~Mitch Kapor, Founder, Lotus Development Corp. I’ve spent the last few weeks training a dealer group and their employees on Social Media content strategy.  It’s quite a leap for most employees as their job has never required them to consider how they want to be perceived by the buying public.  As a matter of fact, it gets overwhelming for most folks.  In this age of Social Business, it’s more important than ever to be a savvy content publisher.  It’s harder than ever to filter out all the noise to find what your brand and your audience is looking for. It’s important that when people Google your business, you’re not the only one talking about it.  You do this by developing a process to foster “evangelists” for your store.  Good news!  You already have part of that in place through CSI and your front line p...

Had I not experienced this first hand, I’m not sure I would’ve believed it. A car dealer said to me, “Social Media doesn’t make me any money”.  This was his objection to adding Social Media as part of the marketing plan for his dealership.  I remained calm and replied respectfully, “Just because you believe that, doesn’t make it true.”  Apparently, he would rather be right than rich. How willing are you to give up your misconceptions to close more sales? Social Media is exactly where small businesses (aka: car dealerships) make money.  I didn’t want this post to be about another reason to jump into Social Media–I’ve got plenty of those. Instead, let’s talk about some successes that people are having to illustrate how misconceptions harm your business. Continuing to sit on the fence about Social Media costs you money.  It’s no longer a question of “If”.  It&r...

How do you want to be perceived on the Internet? Social Media gives you the platform to communicate everything anyone would want to know about your brand and–contrary to what you might think–that’s a good thing.  But what happens when something goes wrong?  What parts of your business would be affected if damaging yet truthful information started spreading like wildfire? The Los Angeles Times published a story recently about a spoof around the new TV ads for the Chevy Volt, congratulating GM for ceasing to fund the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank that questions the science behind global warming. The group that produced the spoof ad said, “There was such a clear contrast between what they were doing in the market and the positions that they’re taking and what Heartland does. The most emblematic example of that was the Chevy Volt.” When your brand’s values and perspectives don’t align with your actions, things ...

Have you recently come ’round to the idea that Social Media is an integral part of your overall marketing?  You’ve discovered how valuable it is at creating genuine interest in your store to generate leads?  Congratulations! Now let’s get to work. It takes a village to search, locate, curate and publish content on Social Media. In the world of auto retail, this is not easily achieved.  Everyone in the store is busy selling or supporting those that sell cars, parts or service.  Where do you find the time?  This is truly the case where the sum of the parts is more valuable than each part on its own.  It’s time to leverage the power you have in your staff. Involving your employees in Social Media is the key that unlocks your Social network and fosters high engagement with your fans/followers.  Here are 6 smart moves to engage employees in Social Media: 1.  Provide Education & Training.  Social Media (and onli...

“Flawsome is the new awesome.” ~Mari Smith Flawsome is using Social Media to declare the awesomeness of your store while allowing the consumer to see your flaws.  Customers want to know the real you. Take online ratings for example: 68% of consumers trust comments more when there are both positive and negative reviews.  The more open the better. Consumers actually prefer it. Try new things with your content on Social Media.  Marketing is a creative process.  That’s why you don’t see books or blogs about WHAT to post–only how, when and why.  If you asked Picasso how he knew what to paint, he couldn’t tell you.  Social Media marketing a process that’s part talent, part intuition and part inspiration. Your community manager curates content for your network and they know it’s working if the analytics say so and you’re generating leads.  Brainstorming sessions with a coach work wonders.  Sp...

What would you do if the FTC came knocking on your door? How would you handle what started out as a simple oversight from one employee and turned into a Social Media firestorm?  This is the age of quick-trigger reactions from the buying public.  If you don’t have an already-established Social presence AND a crisis management strategy in place, you could get hung out to dry. Take for instance these 3 examples of Social Media debacles.  Are you prepared for something like this to happen to your business? Belvedere Vodka Goes Down We all know sex sells, but it appears somebody forgot to tell Belvedere Vodka that forced sex doesn’t come under that rule.  Harrison Painter, well-known digital/Social Media marketer, covered this well in his article recently. Belvedere posted an ad on their Facebook page showing what appears to be a very frightened woman being grabbed by a possible rapist. The tag line added to the startling image stating “Unlike S...

I see a disturbing trend happening in dealership Facebook Pages and I’ve got to call it out.  I’m watching these pages acquire 100′s of Likes in a matter of a few days. In the name of all that is sacred, please stop buying likes!  I know the temptation is there and our culture supports those that get the most of anything, but please, it’s a waste of time and money. Ultimately, it harms your business. There are plenty of “like pimps” on the Web.  You only have to Google it and all those pretty ladies will promise you 100′s of likes for a few hundred dollars (or more).  I’m sure those of you that have purchased them had a little voice inside sounding a lot like your mother, warning you it was wrong. Our culture promotes winning at all cost and, to many Social Media newbies, I’m sure a lot of Facebook fans looks like success.  My friend, Cindy Morrison blogged about this subject recently in the Washington...

These days of blinding authenticity and transparency are causing everyone, brands and individuals, to sit up and take notice.  What you say today makes it to the Internet tomorrow. We all know that’s for keeps. Your store’s brand and your employee’s personal brand are on stage every minute. Reputations can be shot with one misplaced remark or an unexpected recording.

Anthony Iannarino of The Sales Blog wrote a great piece recently on Greg Smith, the employee who resigned from Goldman Sachs by publishing his “resignation” in the New York Times.  Anthony points out some very valuable lessons for dealers, sales managers and salespeople.  At the core of Mr. Smith’s letter is the very heart and soul of what it means to sell and serve your clients. His indictment of his former employer reads like a manifesto for those who sell with integrity, respect and aspirations of being a long-term trusted advisor.

In his article, “Why I&rsq

We buy from brands when they align with our values and share our perspectives. We’re much more inclined to buy when we have a relationship with the seller, whether it’s the corner bike shop, local car dealer or an enterprise brand.  It’s simple: if we’ve had a good experience with them before or through their marketing, we feel they’re someone we “like” and we buy from them.  This alignment is what drives the Social customer and dealers should capitalize on it immediately.

Huffington Post Tech Blogger Bianca Bosker published a post recently saying, “We buy from brands, we don’t befriend them!”.  For dealers and their community managers, the “befriending” is a social way of communicating what’s unique about the store so that potential customers will find a connection with them.  With today’s Social customer, the “buy” only happens after that connection is established.&

Outstanding content is at the heart of every Social Media success story.  Whether it’s Facebook status updates, Twitter messages, or Blog posts, when your customer is interested in what you’re publishing, they will come back for more.  In fact, they’ll look forward to what you’ve got next.  How does a busy dealer, with a traditional sales and service team begin to attract and engage the Social customer?

 

Awesome Content Strategy

Content marketing is new for auto dealers.  We’re used to advertising to the masses and watching the results walk into the store.  Today, people walk into your store alright, but they’ve been online an average of 11 hours researching everything about you.  The sales relationship no longer starts with an Up.  It begins months before you ever see them and it’s built on trust using Social Media.

The old way of advertising was to “push” marketing messages on th

“The mimicry of passion is the most intolerable of all poses.” ~Oscar Wilde

There are a lot of Social Media poseurs out there.

I can’t tell you how many times a week I see great dealers paying good money for Social Media sewage.  My years of running dealerships compels me to speak up because I was once sitting in the same chair making these business decisions.  I’ve never been one to keep my mouth shut when I see opportunism and exploitation and you can bet I’m not stopping now.  These carpetbaggers ride into the store, looking and sounding like they’re the answer to all your burning desires with Social Media.  They make it sound great: just pay me $___ every month and we’ll have you gaining fans immediately.  Don’t fall for it. They harm your brand and they are harming our industry.

You can’t automate Social Media.

Your store is unique, like a fingerprint.  Your employees are unique.  Y

“Change before you have to.” ~Jack Welch

What a day it was.  I was having a nice Wednesday morning: clearing email, writing my next blog post and getting ready for the Facebook Marketing Conference in NYC.  I set up Livestream and within moments I realized I was “not in Kansas anymore”.

To say these changes to Facebook Business Pages are monumental is an understatement.  Whether you felt it or not, there was a Facebook “off the Richter Scale” earthquake yesterday and it means life as we know it has changed forever.

One main theme rose above all else for me during the conference: engagement is what drives Facebook success and awesome content is how you do that.  Before I make my point however, here are some of the highlights that are key to dealers and their community managers:

1. Timeline for Pages deadline is March 30th. You can preview and publish now if you want to but you’ll need to work out your Page’s m

If you’re a car salesperson, you need Social Media. You need an online network just like you do your customer list. You need referrals through word-of-mouth because you know those relationships are the most profitable.  Getting started may seem overwhelming because you most likely view Facebook as something your “kids do for fun”.  Well, it’s a lot more than that–you can generate leads online.  That’s right: You can sell cars on Social Media! It’s not surprise that Social Media will consume your greatest asset: Time.  However, having been on the line myself, we all know there’s downtime during the day that you can put to better use. Here’s a pretty remarkable reason to start: You @ 200 contacts Those 200 @ 200 contacts = 40,000 prospects You can easily build your Facebook up to 200 contacts.  Your 200 contacts have 200 contacts so that means you have the potential of reaching 40,000 prospects on F...