Today is my final day with OneCommand, as their social media manager. I have enjoyed my time here immensely, and the people I have worked with could not be better individuals.

But the community here at DrivingSales has also been unbelievable as well. Coming into this position, I had social media experience. But I knew nothing about the automotive industry itself. For the immense knowledge I have gained in that realm, I thank all of you.

Industry leaders like Brian Pasch, Gary May and Paul Rushing have made me ask questions, especially about SEO, that I never thought I would ask of myself. Those conversations have only made me a better, more knowledgable person.

So for all that participate here in the DS community, I thank you. I will be moving on to other endeavors. Currently, I do not know who my replacement will be. But I can assure you that whoever it is, they will be of quality. That is just how OneCommand rolls. So treat them well.

This is the Friday Fun post though. S...

Christmas is only 10 days away. But if you think that it's too late to spread some good cheer in your community; thereby building strong relationships that will become fruitful after the holidays, you're wrong!

The economic downturn has left record numbers of families in need this holiday season. As an integral part of your community, you have the opportunity to drive outreach programs that can help to support the members of your community that need it most. Consider joining forces with a local or national non-profit organization to fuel your give back efforts.

There are a million things you can do, even this close to the holiday, that will reinforce your strong connections to your community.

Thinking locally: have a coat drive, food drive, tweet-up for charity, sponsor a Christmas dinner for the homeless, etc.

Thinking nationally: Salvation Army drive, Toys-for-Tots, Adopt-a-family, etc.

It's never too late to pay it forward and build relationships in your community. If...

Today's Friday Fun post is provided to us from the good guys over at Autoblog.  A Chinese trucker recently lost his windshield, but due to his finances, couldn't afford to have it fixed or get behind on his route.

So he did what any industrious person would do, he replaced it with cardboard, continued to drive his route (almost 500 miles) happy labrador style.

The thought heading into this weekend is this:  What is the craziest fix you've ever seen, or done yourself?  Yes, this is an excellent opportunity to get your service guys involved on the DrivingSales Friday Fun.

Have a great weekend and continued Happy Holiday season!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

Alright, sometimes we all have those 'miss the forest for the trees' moment. I had one of those this morning.

We spent an inordinate amount of time on site like these speaking about SEO, Social Media Marketing, etc. And rightfully so, that is where the industry is heading. Dealerships that don't realize that, and adapt, will perish.

But I know that there are still many that are very leery of such initiatives. I can understand that, it can be daunting to come to terms with all of it.

That's when I realized that within all the technical jargon of SEO/Social Media Marketing that we have here on this site, we sometimes bury the lead:

It's all about helping you sell more cars, and earn more money for your dealerships!

Everything we speak of here on this site is not only to help you better understand the strategies, initiatives, etc., but ultimately about helping your dealership EARN MORE MONEY!

Keeping that mind should help you overcome any fears in adapting to the ever-ch...

The holidays are in full swing.  Bells are chiming, plans for spending time with family and friends are being made, vacations are being taken and Christmas (or Channukah, Kwanzaa, etc.) wish lists are being filled.

In the automotive industry, those things are being done as well, but charitable campaigns such as Toys for Tots or Salvation Army's Adopt-a-Family are being performed in addition.

But what about if you happen to be too late to the party for those holiday campaigns?  Or, for a variety of reasons, you just didn't have the time? 

Good news!  You can still make a holiday difference for your dealership.  Sometimes the simplest things can make a huge difference.  And those simple things can even be integrated into your social media initiatives as well.

Send a simple, well-timed Happy Holidays card that wishes your customer/potential customer all the best.
Tweet a daily holiday message of joy and cheer between now and the new year (Be careful: Don't overdo it; on...

It's Friday, so you all know what that means.  No, not another piece of information we didn't yet know about the Tiger Woods situation begin released.  It's time for Friday Fun Post.

Today, I thought I would give everyone some examples of the joker-like faces of Facebook.

First the good: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/12/facebook.alibi/index.html Unfortunately, this could open Pandora's box for all criminals.  But still a nice story for now.

Then the bad:  http://jalopnik.com/5416549/daughter-of-resigned-gm-ceo-attacks-new-gm-ceo-on-facebook?skyline=true&s=i  I'm guessing that Fritz's daughter was a bit mad.  Know how you can tell (well, other than the multiple F-bombs being dropped)?  She TYPED EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS! 

Enjoy the weekend everybody!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

Thanksgiving has past and we are rushing headlong into the Christmas and New Year's holidays.  So what better time to integrate your holiday programs and your social media initiatives?  Or better yet, finally jump into the social media ocean to begin with?

Holiday community campaigns like Toys for Tots, Salvation Army Adopt-a-Family, and local community church campaigns are excellent ways to not only prove how your dealership is an integral part of your overall community, but they are excellent ways to get folks into your dealership.

It has been mentioned several times (on this site and others) how social media can be used to start conversations that eventually lead to offline relationships between you and your customers.  Holiday campaigns are the ultimate feel-good, offline relationship builders.  See where I'm going with this?

Use your Twitter account to issue tweets about bringing in donations for Toys for Tots
Post some cool pictures of your employees putting up Adop...

Seeing as this is the Thanksgiving holiday, and I won't be around for the next two days to dole my usual Friday fun, I thought I would do a little early fun.

Check out this website for humorous car stories.  Then add one of your own in the comments.   We all have a humorous story that started our fascination with the four-wheeled transportation we all love.

Also, on behalf of myself and OneCommand, we wish all you here in the Driving Sales community a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Day holiday.  May it be restful and peaceful for you all.

Take care!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

Time again for another edition of Friday Fun Post.  I thought with the upcoming holiday, I would go with a Thanksgiving theme to the Fun Post.  Then I got to looking around the 'ol net and discovered that a lot of Thanksgiving themed writing is crap.  So much like the usuable metal from cars turned in at C4C time, I scrapped that idea.

Instead, I thought it might be fun to take a look at what goes ON cars, instead of the cars themselves.  I found an interesting little site, StickerGiant, which lists/sells top humorous bumper stickers.

Some of my favorites:

Mudflap Man
Don't Steal
Shut Up Hippy!
Flying Monkeys
Short Bus

There are a few more I'm fond of, but they just are not appropriate for this site, especially at holiday time!

So what are some of the best bumper stickers you've ever seen?  And  you can even include whether you thought the owner was damaging his car by placing the sticker on it in the first place.  There have been some that have left me walkin...

That's a sentence I heard recently from a friend of mine. Strangely enough, it was uttered at a bar, but not after a margarita and a Coors Light chaster (nod to Joe Webb).

Then this morning I was catching up on my reading, and came across the aforementioned Mr. Webb's excellent article here on DrivingSales, "The Genius of Chili's". I highly recommend it.

In the article he states, "The best pick-up line in the world is still your name, asking for theirs, and asking a simple question." It immediately made me think of my buddy shouting at the bar.

We spend a lot of time on SEO/SEM tips. Rightfully so. We spend time on telling anyone that will listen that dealers need to be involved in social media marketing. Rightfully so as well.

But ultimately, we need to continue to remind folks and ourselves that, "Its the relationships, dummy!" That's what it all boils down to.

You could have the greatest SEO/SEM & social media marketing strategies in the world, but that will ultim...

Since I'm out of the office tomorro, I thought I would help you all in the great DS community get off to an early weekend start.

Last week Businessweek listed the Ugliest Cars of the Last 50 Years.  Car blog site Jalopnik fired back with their list of cars that had no business on that list.  (Full Disclosure:  I follow Jalopnik's Twitter feed.  Very informative and hilarious stuff.)

So let's open it up to those to those whom cars are not just something to be admired, but are your livelihood.

What is the ugliest car you've ever had to sell?

(Leave answers in comments)

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

I still continually hear the same complaints about social media and social marketing.  I can't figure out how to make money off of it.  (Hint:  you don't make money off of it, you make money through it by driving traffic to your landing pages and stores).  It takes too much time.  I don't understand it.

The list goes on and on.

But as I was reading seveal articles on social media this weekend that were continually uses phrases such as "think differently", "reinvent your strategy", "rethink", etc. it dawned on me that's the wrong message.

You don't need to think differently than you ever have.  You need to think back.

Dealerships, as well as most Fortune (you choose the number) companies were started way before (and I mean waaaaay) before the advent of the current technology.

They built their business and reputation by doing a couple of crucial things:  1) they became an integral part of their local community 2) they got to know their customers and potential custom...

Time for another edition of Friday Fun Post to get your weekend off on a smiling note.  I've got two for you this Friday (as always, thanks to Autoblog for posting the content).

First:  Never lose your car in crowded lot again (provided you own an iPhone).  http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/06/latest-auto-iphone-app-augmented-reality-parked-car-finder/

Second:  Racing bikes are going electric as well.  Yeah, that should make for exciting racing.  http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/06/sema-2009-mavizen-introduces-130-mph-ttx02-electric-racebike/

And a bonus this Friday:

Soon you could manage your tire pressure by just looking at your dash (currently only in F1 racing):  http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/06/sema-2009-the-geekiest-thing-weve-found-so-far/

Enjoy our weekend everybody!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

Halloween is finished, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and retailers have long since been putting out their initial Christmas stock.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the holidays are here!

Much is written on this site and others about various strategies, campaigns, best practices and the amount of time spent performing them.  But one of the best ways to improve your standing in the community, and probably your sales is to get in on the holiday spirit.

Full disclosure:  My employers here at OneCommand have already begun our Salvation Army initiative, so that's why this is probably on my mind this morning.

So get out and be part of the holiday spirit.  And I mean more than just putting up decorations at your dealership and some nice window stickers.

If you need some help with holiday campaign ideas and, more importantly, someone to help reduce the time required by you to run said campaign, give us here a try.  We love the holidays and are more than happy to h...

I'm back for the regular fun post timing.  Got three for you all to get your weekend off on the right humourous note.

Toyota is taking "green" to a whole new level.

Juan Pablo Montonya answers the derogatory comment made by Bob Griese about him last weekend.  He tweeted from his lunch.  Yep, tacos were prominently involved.

And finally, UK writer Brian Milton sent a copy of his new book to the guys at Top Gear challenging them to re-create his 1968 feat.  (Hint:  it involves an Austin 7 Ruby and a certain famous desert)

Make it a terrific Halloween weekend!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

I'm on the phone with my mother last night, and we're discussing social media.  She and my father run a KOA camp in Albuquerque, NM.  A couple of weeks ago, they enlisted my help in helping them learn/understand social media.

I won't bore you with the details of what tools I'm helping them learn slowly, and the campaign that I've designed for their site.  But over the phone last night she hits me with this, "it just takes so much time".

Well....yeah.

In the beginning of any social media marketing campaign it takes a decent amount of time to get things set-up.  Once it's up-and-running, it might not take as much time to manage, depending on how intricate your campaign is.

But that's when it hit me:  Time is social media's currency. 

When a business sits down to figure out how much money they want to sink into advertising, marketing, public relations, IT, etc., there is usually a correlation between the amount and the success.  If  a (oh, I don't know...let's say) ...

Since I was out of the office on Friday, and didn't get to send out my usual Friday Fun Post to get the weekend off to a rousing start, I'll substitute and get the week off to one with a Monday Fun Post.  And I'll give out a double-shot at that.

First, we have this little beauty:  The Myer Motors NmG.  Some of my favorite lines from the article are:

kind of like an enclosed motorcycle
we managed to bump our head getting out of the NmG
the bus-like wheel
the dash is not easy or hard to see; it's just there
it's an act of faith to put the NmG in reverse
it's possible to stick your head out of the window in the door (which is only on the "passenger" side)

The future of electric powered transportation, ladies and gentlemen.

And for the second shot, I take you all the way back to 1988 for this interesting Yugo ad.  Enjoy!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

Let me just begin by saying that my personal answer to the above question is a resounding "NO". But I was reading Freep.com this morning and, from the strategic thinking point-of-view, I felt like I had to put the question out there to my compatriots here at DrivingSales.

When perusing Freep, two large headlines caught my eye: 'The worst is past' as Fiat ekes out a 3Q profit and Firm: U.S. auto sales outlook rosier.

The first is self-explanatory. The second speaks of a leading auto consulting firm, CSM Worldwide, upping their sales expectation for 2010. If there new estimates are attained, it would be the first year-over-year sales increase since 2005.

Let me just break right here and posit my second opinion: While I certainly hope that the CSM forecasts come to fruition, and the auto industry begins to strenghthen again, by no means I'm I saying that it's out of the woods. Just to be clear.

But here's where I'm coming from with regards to the header question (and ultimatel...

A recent study from the Notthingham School for Economics found that saying "sorry" to an unhappy customer works better than offering them cash for their unhappiness with your product.

The school analyzed feedback on an unnamed company that does about 10,000 transactions on eBay per month.  They took all the negative comments that were posted about this company's products.  They offered some of the disgruntled customers only an apology (no money in addition) to please remove their negative comments.  45% of those offered only an apology agreed.

They offered others only cash to remove their comments, but no apology in addition.  Only 23% of those offered strictly cash agreed to remove their negative comments.

I find this study extremely interesting because I'm what you would call a "combo" guy.  I order the combo meals at fast food restaurants, and I like to combine parts of theories/strategies to form something even better.

So the next time you have a customer that is d...

This week's fun comes courtesy of Autoblog's Jeremy Korzeniewski.  I have no other additional comments.  The commercial says it all:

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/16/funny-car-commercial-of-the-day-careful-what-you-put-in-your-mo/

Enjoy your weekend folks!  Happy selling.

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager

After two straight days of following the tremendous ideas, strategies and thought leadership that went on at the Driving Sales Executive Conference, I decided to mix up the posts to keep the dreaded "conference burn-out" from occurring.

I was doing a little catch-up reading this morning and noticed that GM Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, gave an update yesterday on GM's 60-day money-back guarantee.  Lutz said that 150,000 cars have been sold since GM instituted the program.  Of that number, only 1 person returned a car.  Not too bad.

Apparently, a customer bought a manual transmission Corvette and determined he'd rather have an automatic.  So as Lutz put it, "He brought it back because he made a mistake."

But hold on a minute. There was another number that Lutz presented that caught my eye even more:  100.

According to Lutz, there were just over 100 customers that chose the money-back guarantee option when purchasing their car.   The rest of the 150,000 went for the cash in...

So it's been a week or two since I've done a Friday Fun post here on Driving Sales.  But seeing as we're heading into the weekend before the big Driving Sales Executive Unconference, I thought it the perfect time to break out another one.

And I've got a doozie.

There is a world record for blind driving.  You read that right.  Blind Driving!  And it was recently broken by South African Hein Wagner.

Wagner got behind a Mercedes SL65 Black Series and pushed it just a tick over 200mph. 

A blind man driving 200mph!  However, that's not the whole story.  There was a man, Ray Wakefield, who had even bigger guts than Wagner.  Wakefield rode shotgun the whole way.  Would you get in a car going 200mph with blind man at the wheel?  Uh....I'm going to have to get back to you on that.

I just have one question:  Does anyone else have a problem with blind people trying to break world speed records?  I'm all for anybody with a handicap overcoming obstacles.  But I think th...

With the Driving Sale Executive Summit fast approaching, I recently read a report done by Alterian that revealed some interesting facts.  Surely, some of the issues raised in their report, and strategies surrounding those issues, will be given full treatment at the DS Unconference.

But just as a precursor, here's some of the ones that jumped out to me:

1. Businesses are clearly defining social media as the channel that has had the most influence over the consumer in the last year, and will have the most influence in the coming year.
2. Almost half (48%) of those polled felt that strategy was the most important factor in defining customer engagement.
3. The top obstacle to overcome with online marketing, according to businesses, is integrating relevant products/services with offline channels.

So what does that tell us?

First, we who participate and believe in online/social marketing should definitely be encouraged that business is starting to get that this not a fad and i...

Social media thought leader, Brian Solis, recently posted on his site, PR 2.0, a survey and analysis that he conducted.  The results are pretty interesting.

On every major social media network, from Facebook to Twitter to MySpace to Delicious and beyond, women far outnumber men in their participation.

So for all you dealers out there who are participating in social media (yes, I still want to know; take my survey), you might want to re-think your strategy, if this is news to you.

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

The Driving Sales community is chock-full of tremendous best practice advice for social media.  SEM, SEO and various other best practice advice is also available.  Thought leaders like Paul Rushing, Brian Pasch, Gary May and others offer amazing advice and counsel.

But I've also noticed that more and more dealers, and staff of dealerships, have been joining the community.  That's terrific.  However, I don't usually see that many comments/participation from those at the dealer level.  So I've got to ask, "WHY?"

The OEM level has been all-in on social media for quite sometime.  Ford has Scott Monty running their social media initiatives.  Mr. Monty is one of the pioneers and original thought leaders of social media.  (Side note:  Chris Brogan is another, and he'll be at the Driving Sales UnConference that is fast approaching.)  Ford and Mr. Monty have leveraged thier social media presence to put out PR fires before they've become raging infernos, as well as develop a cutt...

Well folks, it's been almost a month since the FTC's rules changes went into effect regarding telemarketing.  If you just asked yourself, "What?"  No worries.  You can go to the FTC's website directly and learn all about them.  Or if you don't have the time to read that tome (who does these days?), you can simply contact us at OneCommand, and we'll be glad to walk you through them, and how they might affect you.

But seeing as we've now been living under the new guidelines for a month, OneCommand CEO, Al Babbington, has some advice on how to maximize your telemarketing efforts without violating the new conditions.

1.  Auditing all prospect and customer communications

2. Control your messaging and product

These are just two of the ways Mr. Babbington outlines.  If you want to read more, click here.

Have a great day!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager...

More than enough time has been devoted in recent months to the pros and cons of the Cash for Clunkers project.  Did it really work?  Was it worth the effort?  Can the industry be sustained by the influx it caused, or will it revert back to pre-Clunkers era? 

But the ultimate message behind C4C was not to stimulate the auto industry, although that was probably message 1A.  No, the ultimate message was to get the nation moving toward more fuel efficient vehicles, by inticing consumers with older model cars that sent emissions into the air like a factory chimney to turn them in for models that were more fuel efficient.

Running currently with that message are constant stories of manufacturers releasing plans for electric cars.  The most recent one I read was companies lining up to change their fleets to electric.  Then there is the Chevy Volt, which is getting huge media play right now for it's claim to get an average mpg of around 230 mpg (although this is a bit of a tricky c...

Today's Friday Fun post concerns the new "supercar", the Audi R-8 V10.  The financial realities of today's economy means that most of the world will not be able to afford it.

However, Audi Canada has a way for you to get one...for only $469.99!  Check it out!

Jeremy Fischer, OneCommand Social Media Manager

Ralph Paglia has a very interesting post over on Automotive Digital Marketing about the gap between social media ROI measurement and social media strategy adoption.

It is something that I personally agree with; not just in the automotive industry, but in social media as a whole. 

I struggle quite often with measuring the effects of the strategies that I'm implementing.  I think those of us that practice social media are also currently struggling to really define what it is that we do.  There is very much the perception that social media IS Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Unfortunately, those are merely TOOLS to practice social media; they AREN'T social media.  Defining what IS social media is quite hard, and I'm still not quite ready to throw out a definition (sorry about that).

But ultimately, I just wanted to do an informal poll:  How many consider the lack of ROI with social media as the factor that is keeping you from jumping into the social media waters?

Leave...

The Cash for Clunkers program has long since passed.  I'm sure some of you are still trying to get the money owed to you, so you probably disagree with the "long since gone" part.

However, for the consumer, the opportunity to take advantage of the C4C has long since passed. 

Most will tell you that the auto industry will now revert right back to previous Cash for Clunkers levels.  After all, $4,500 towards a new car was a pretty sweet deal for the consumer.  Granted, there was that rather large "catch".  Your old car had to qualify as a bonafide "clunker".  That was a tiny bit of a problem for the nation at-large, to say the least.

But after taking a look at the recent automotive news, I'm starting to wonder if now isn't just as good a time to purchase a car?

Chrysler announced on Wednesday that they are bringing back their leasing program.  In addition, they are providing a $1,000 owner loyalty bonus and cash back incentives on select models.

General Motors has n...