Now that the 2011 NADA Convention is over, our industry will set its sites on upcoming educational opportunities.  I would like to remind members of DrivingSales.com of two special opportunities that need your attention to lock in savings on registration fees.

2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp

The much-anticipated 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is scheduled just prior to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference, which will be held in Orlando Florida.  The Boot Camp is scheduled April 16th-18th.

The 2011 Boot Camp classes provide hands on tactical training for Internet marketing, social media, lead management, CRM systems, phone handling, video SEO, reputation management, Google Places optimization, blogging content creation, as well as Automotive SEO.

This year’s workshop leaders also include dealer principals and dealership employees that have stood above their peers in achieving excellence in their dealership’s digital marketing and sales strategies.

Workshop leaders include Scott Falcone, Jeffrey Kershner, Andrew DiFeo, Hagen Durant, Scott Falcone, Eric Miltsch, and Timothy Martell.

The 2011 Orlando Boot Camp is also attracting popular speakers with specialized skills including Jerry Thibeau, Brian Pasch, Christine Rochelle, Christy Roman, Jared Hamilton, JD Rucker, Matt Murray, and Alex Snyder.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp delivers the knowledge and skills dealers need to create, execute and manage effective dealership processes. New to this year’s program will be added seminars on back-end marketing; how to better handle phone calls and leads to maximize lead conversion.

The boot camp is perfect for General Managers, eCommerce Direcrors, and Internet Sales Managers. Last year, Boot Camp attendees posted rave reviews of their investment of time for this event.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is very unique and effective because participants receive preparation materials in advance of the class and participants use their own accounts during the classes so that they can then continue to work with them on their own long after the boot camp.

Save $100 This Week Only

Learn more about the Boot Camp and register online at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com .

Dealers can save $100 on Boot Camp registration fees by registering by February 11, 2011.

Automotive Internship Program

PCG announced at the 2011 NADA Convention a new turnkey package for car dealers to attract talented college interns to assist with their digital marketing and social media strategies. 

The Automotive Internship Program (AIP) is also an idea program to train existing employees or new hires to bring the needed skills into the dealership to supplement an effective digital marketing strategy.

The Automotive Internship Program (AIP):

• Is the first of its kind intern training program for car dealers
• Programs include printed curriculum guides, marketing materials, and live instruction
• Online materials and community forums aid the learning process
• Attracts and prepares the next generation of automotive marketing professionals
• Dealers receive customized marketing materials to send to local schools
• Each AIP is a complete 12-week course with a final test.
• Programs offered or beginner and advanced skill levels
• AIP classes cycles three times a year: January, May, September
• First AIP classes start in May 2011
• AIP is affordable and provides tremendous value to students and the dealership

Visit the AIP Registration Page for the 2011 Summer Semester starting in May. Certificate Programs Scheduled For May Include:

• Digital Marketing & Social Media Associate
• Automotive SEO Associate
• Automotive SEM Associate

Members of this community can save $200 if they register for the program by February 11, 2011. 

Register now to allow PCG time to create the customized marketing materials for participating dealers for the May semester.  The sooner dealers advertise the AIP to local colleges and universities, the more candidates will be able to participate.

You can click on any of the links to read more details about each certificate program. If you would like to read testimonials from car dealers who have participated in PCG Digital Marketing training programs, I have provided a number of student testimonials.

Now that the 2011 NADA Convention is over, our industry will set its sites on upcoming educational opportunities.  I would like to remind members of DrivingSales.com of two special opportunities that need your attention to lock in savings on registration fees.

2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp

The much-anticipated 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is scheduled just prior to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference, which will be held in Orlando Florida.  The Boot Camp is scheduled April 16th-18th.

The 2011 Boot Camp classes provide hands on tactical training for Internet marketing, social media, lead management, CRM systems, phone handling, video SEO, reputation management, Google Places optimization, blogging content creation, as well as Automotive SEO.

This year’s workshop leaders also include dealer principals and dealership employees that have stood above their peers in achieving excellence in their dealership’s digital marketing and sales strategies.

Workshop leaders include Scott Falcone, Jeffrey Kershner, Andrew DiFeo, Hagen Durant, Scott Falcone, Eric Miltsch, and Timothy Martell.

The 2011 Orlando Boot Camp is also attracting popular speakers with specialized skills including Jerry Thibeau, Brian Pasch, Christine Rochelle, Christy Roman, Jared Hamilton, JD Rucker, Matt Murray, and Alex Snyder.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp delivers the knowledge and skills dealers need to create, execute and manage effective dealership processes. New to this year’s program will be added seminars on back-end marketing; how to better handle phone calls and leads to maximize lead conversion.

The boot camp is perfect for General Managers, eCommerce Direcrors, and Internet Sales Managers. Last year, Boot Camp attendees posted rave reviews of their investment of time for this event.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is very unique and effective because participants receive preparation materials in advance of the class and participants use their own accounts during the classes so that they can then continue to work with them on their own long after the boot camp.

Save $100 This Week Only

Learn more about the Boot Camp and register online at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com .

Dealers can save $100 on Boot Camp registration fees by registering by February 11, 2011.

Automotive Internship Program

PCG announced at the 2011 NADA Convention a new turnkey package for car dealers to attract talented college interns to assist with their digital marketing and social media strategies. 

The Automotive Internship Program (AIP) is also an idea program to train existing employees or new hires to bring the needed skills into the dealership to supplement an effective digital marketing strategy.

The Automotive Internship Program (AIP):

• Is the first of its kind intern training program for car dealers
• Programs include printed curriculum guides, marketing materials, and live instruction
• Online materials and community forums aid the learning process
• Attracts and prepares the next generation of automotive marketing professionals
• Dealers receive customized marketing materials to send to local schools
• Each AIP is a complete 12-week course with a final test.
• Programs offered or beginner and advanced skill levels
• AIP classes cycles three times a year: January, May, September
• First AIP classes start in May 2011
• AIP is affordable and provides tremendous value to students and the dealership

Visit the AIP Registration Page for the 2011 Summer Semester starting in May. Certificate Programs Scheduled For May Include:

• Digital Marketing & Social Media Associate
• Automotive SEO Associate
• Automotive SEM Associate

Members of this community can save $200 if they register for the program by February 11, 2011. 

Register now to allow PCG time to create the customized marketing materials for participating dealers for the May semester.  The sooner dealers advertise the AIP to local colleges and universities, the more candidates will be able to participate.

You can click on any of the links to read more details about each certificate program. If you would like to read testimonials from car dealers who have participated in PCG Digital Marketing training programs, I have provided a number of student testimonials.

Google met with top automotive dealers and manufacturers at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco this week to introduce their new lead generation model for search, which one insider called "Dealer Preference". This is a new strategy for their popular Google Adwords software.

The new paid automotive advertising model by Google would create special automotive ads which are designed to generate calls or leads, which will be sold to the highest bidder. This is a game changer in my mind but people at the meeting said that dealer response was very mild.

Take a look at this screen capture for the search phrase "mortgage loans" and look at the new Adwords section that says "Comparison Ad" that is highlighted in red.

Google Automotive Lead Gen

This model is new to the automotive industry but not new to other verticals like Mortgages. You can see from the screen shot above highlighted in red, Google has created a special new pink bar for ads that it creates for lead capture and places them ABOVE normal Adwords ads. Notice that ad has radio buttons and a call to action to "Compare Rates".

On a related note, you will also see one business using Google Boost and how much more attractive PPC ads will be getting if a car dealer has high review counts!

When you click on that link, this is what you will see:



The position of this page is sold to the highest bidder, I assume. Details on the Dealer Preference advertising is forthcoming in a second post. My first guess that this will be used for New Car advertising and that some OEM's might prefer this enhanced lead generation model. The jury is still out and I need to get more information on this product offering.

This is a game changer for the automotive advertising industry. If Google starts to become a middle-man in automotive price advertising and comparisons, a whole new strategy will need to be considered. It still will have to be seen if this increases clicks on paid ads.

Automotive Advertising Changes Again

This new features does a few things:

1. It pushes other paid ads lower on the right sidebar.
2. It pushes organic search results down so positions 1-3 become even more valuable
3. Dealers that have been ignoring Adwords will need to get in the game and test things.

The idea that Google has in mind is that if a consumer types in "Used Honda Miami" it will display its OWN lead collection ad and show cars or sales based on participating dealers.

What is your reaction?

Do you have some additional information from NADA to share?

Google met with top automotive dealers and manufacturers at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco this week to introduce their new lead generation model for search, which one insider called "Dealer Preference". This is a new strategy for their popular Google Adwords software.

The new paid automotive advertising model by Google would create special automotive ads which are designed to generate calls or leads, which will be sold to the highest bidder. This is a game changer in my mind but people at the meeting said that dealer response was very mild.

Take a look at this screen capture for the search phrase "mortgage loans" and look at the new Adwords section that says "Comparison Ad" that is highlighted in red.

Google Automotive Lead Gen

This model is new to the automotive industry but not new to other verticals like Mortgages. You can see from the screen shot above highlighted in red, Google has created a special new pink bar for ads that it creates for lead capture and places them ABOVE normal Adwords ads. Notice that ad has radio buttons and a call to action to "Compare Rates".

On a related note, you will also see one business using Google Boost and how much more attractive PPC ads will be getting if a car dealer has high review counts!

When you click on that link, this is what you will see:



The position of this page is sold to the highest bidder, I assume. Details on the Dealer Preference advertising is forthcoming in a second post. My first guess that this will be used for New Car advertising and that some OEM's might prefer this enhanced lead generation model. The jury is still out and I need to get more information on this product offering.

This is a game changer for the automotive advertising industry. If Google starts to become a middle-man in automotive price advertising and comparisons, a whole new strategy will need to be considered. It still will have to be seen if this increases clicks on paid ads.

Automotive Advertising Changes Again

This new features does a few things:

1. It pushes other paid ads lower on the right sidebar.
2. It pushes organic search results down so positions 1-3 become even more valuable
3. Dealers that have been ignoring Adwords will need to get in the game and test things.

The idea that Google has in mind is that if a consumer types in "Used Honda Miami" it will display its OWN lead collection ad and show cars or sales based on participating dealers.

What is your reaction?

Do you have some additional information from NADA to share?

I just recently conducted a 20 Group workshop and it reminded me that the more I speak and connect with dealer principals the more I am excited about being in the automotive industry.

I am very passionate about helping dealer principals lead their business with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. That's right, dealer principals as leaders.

Having the privilege to educate and share my passion for digital marketing to hundreds of dealers each year, it is clear to me that many dealer principals cannot effectively lead their digital marketing strategies and inspect their advertising investments.

They would like to but they don't know the right questions to ask.

All of the dealers in attendance at this meeting said that they would like more leads from their main website because those leads convert the best. Yet NONE of the dealers could recite any important data points about their website:

• How many unique visitors a month
• How many page views per visit
• How much time were they spending the their site
• Bounce Rate
• Top referring sources

For many of these dealers, they are investing thousands of dollars each month to maintain and market their website. Some advanced dealers may also be adding fresh content, videos, photos, and specials to "improve" the website experience.

Yet in spite of these significant investments, they had no clear report on their desk to say whether these investments were moving the needle. Increased visitors? Reduced bounce rate? More leads?

None of the dealers had ever tested and measured the impact of changing their home page design. Frankly, they did not know that they could ask for those types of test. None had tested different landing page designs for their pay-per-click advertising campaigns.

Larry Bruce has been like John the Baptist on this topic, as he has been trying to get dealers to do more with what traffic they are already getting. A/B Testing and conversion is surely a timely message from Larry Bruce, which can save dealers significant money if they invest in education and testing in 2011.

Ironically, the dealer principal proudly admitted to testing different radio, TV, and print ads to find the right message that worked. Yet, when it came to digital marketing they never thought they could test that medium as well. The good news is that they can.

Digital Marketing Education is NOT Sexy

Spending the dollars to educate your staff may not be sexy, but it is critical for leadership in today's automotive retailing model.

I'm not sharing this story to put down dealer principals. I'm writing to challenge the automotive industry and dealer principals to make 2011 the year of empowerment. A year where investments in digital marketing education are a priority. A year where dealer principals see the importance of leading and INSPECTING their digital marketing investments.

If dealer principals can't inspect the work of their eCommerce team, vendors, and automotive advertising partners they cannot effectively leverage the opportunities that the Internet and social media offer. If dealer principals can't speak the language associated with SEO, SEM, IRM, and social media they will not feel confident in vendor meetings.

Automotive Digital Marketing Education

In 2011 PCG Digital Marketing is committing significant resources to dealer education. The commitment started with the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC). The conference is being held February 103, 2011 just prior to NADA.

In 2011 PCG will be announcing a series of initiatives and partnerships to assist car dealers with educating their team to master the skills needed to be successful with automotive retailing.

At DMSC, attendees will be empowered to lead their dealership with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. The curriculum, speakers, and educational format will deliver solutions and processes to take back to the dealership that will move the needle in 2011. The conference diet is high protein and no junk carbs.

Do focused workshops really work?

In just three hours with this 20 Group, I was able to review a series of simple spreadsheets that I created to allow them to inspect their digital marketing investments. All of the dealer principals committed to having their reports on their desk each month and said that they would review them. They now have the ability to inspect, where a few hours earlier they did not. They were empowered to lead, from a 3 hour class.

A Budgeting Paradox

These dealers expressed their gratitude that I came out to their 20 Group. I'm not sure how many dealers, if any, would sign-up for a conference on digital marketing without having this face to face experience with me.

I find it ironic that a dealer will try a new "advertising" idea (shiny object) for $1,000 and yet they won't INVEST $1,000 to send an employee to a great educational conference. These same employees may manage hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertising and marketing investments.

It's odd that dealers’ use an excuse that the conference "is a busy time to be out of the dealership" like they don't control workload and have backup resources in case someone is sick.

When I inspect a Google Adwords campaign for a dealer, it is not uncommon that in 75% of dealers I can save them thousands of dollars a year in wasted clicks or improved conversion. Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When I inspect a dealership website, it is not uncommon that 85% of website are not tagged properly for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When surveyed, over 35% of car dealers said that they had no formal budget line item for staff education in digital marketing and social media. So it is no surprise why this important area of growth for car dealers is not being fully leveraged.

Who Will Lead in 2011?

I can go on with more examples but it is clear to me that the tools and strategies dealer principals need to succeed have changed and education has lagged. That will change when dealer principals decide to lead ALL profit centers in their business.

That gap is getting wider and I hope that we can provide the education and resources to close the gap between the haves and have-nots. I hope dealer principals reading this article will be inspired to take action and invest in education in 2011.

It’s really not an option but dealer principals can deny reality as long as they want which will allow their competitors to gain a strategic advantage.

P.S.  Please take this Digital Marketing Education Survey.  Start Here

I just recently conducted a 20 Group workshop and it reminded me that the more I speak and connect with dealer principals the more I am excited about being in the automotive industry.

I am very passionate about helping dealer principals lead their business with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. That's right, dealer principals as leaders.

Having the privilege to educate and share my passion for digital marketing to hundreds of dealers each year, it is clear to me that many dealer principals cannot effectively lead their digital marketing strategies and inspect their advertising investments.

They would like to but they don't know the right questions to ask.

All of the dealers in attendance at this meeting said that they would like more leads from their main website because those leads convert the best. Yet NONE of the dealers could recite any important data points about their website:

• How many unique visitors a month
• How many page views per visit
• How much time were they spending the their site
• Bounce Rate
• Top referring sources

For many of these dealers, they are investing thousands of dollars each month to maintain and market their website. Some advanced dealers may also be adding fresh content, videos, photos, and specials to "improve" the website experience.

Yet in spite of these significant investments, they had no clear report on their desk to say whether these investments were moving the needle. Increased visitors? Reduced bounce rate? More leads?

None of the dealers had ever tested and measured the impact of changing their home page design. Frankly, they did not know that they could ask for those types of test. None had tested different landing page designs for their pay-per-click advertising campaigns.

Larry Bruce has been like John the Baptist on this topic, as he has been trying to get dealers to do more with what traffic they are already getting. A/B Testing and conversion is surely a timely message from Larry Bruce, which can save dealers significant money if they invest in education and testing in 2011.

Ironically, the dealer principal proudly admitted to testing different radio, TV, and print ads to find the right message that worked. Yet, when it came to digital marketing they never thought they could test that medium as well. The good news is that they can.

Digital Marketing Education is NOT Sexy

Spending the dollars to educate your staff may not be sexy, but it is critical for leadership in today's automotive retailing model.

I'm not sharing this story to put down dealer principals. I'm writing to challenge the automotive industry and dealer principals to make 2011 the year of empowerment. A year where investments in digital marketing education are a priority. A year where dealer principals see the importance of leading and INSPECTING their digital marketing investments.

If dealer principals can't inspect the work of their eCommerce team, vendors, and automotive advertising partners they cannot effectively leverage the opportunities that the Internet and social media offer. If dealer principals can't speak the language associated with SEO, SEM, IRM, and social media they will not feel confident in vendor meetings.

Automotive Digital Marketing Education

In 2011 PCG Digital Marketing is committing significant resources to dealer education. The commitment started with the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC). The conference is being held February 103, 2011 just prior to NADA.

In 2011 PCG will be announcing a series of initiatives and partnerships to assist car dealers with educating their team to master the skills needed to be successful with automotive retailing.

At DMSC, attendees will be empowered to lead their dealership with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. The curriculum, speakers, and educational format will deliver solutions and processes to take back to the dealership that will move the needle in 2011. The conference diet is high protein and no junk carbs.

Do focused workshops really work?

In just three hours with this 20 Group, I was able to review a series of simple spreadsheets that I created to allow them to inspect their digital marketing investments. All of the dealer principals committed to having their reports on their desk each month and said that they would review them. They now have the ability to inspect, where a few hours earlier they did not. They were empowered to lead, from a 3 hour class.

A Budgeting Paradox

These dealers expressed their gratitude that I came out to their 20 Group. I'm not sure how many dealers, if any, would sign-up for a conference on digital marketing without having this face to face experience with me.

I find it ironic that a dealer will try a new "advertising" idea (shiny object) for $1,000 and yet they won't INVEST $1,000 to send an employee to a great educational conference. These same employees may manage hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertising and marketing investments.

It's odd that dealers’ use an excuse that the conference "is a busy time to be out of the dealership" like they don't control workload and have backup resources in case someone is sick.

When I inspect a Google Adwords campaign for a dealer, it is not uncommon that in 75% of dealers I can save them thousands of dollars a year in wasted clicks or improved conversion. Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When I inspect a dealership website, it is not uncommon that 85% of website are not tagged properly for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When surveyed, over 35% of car dealers said that they had no formal budget line item for staff education in digital marketing and social media. So it is no surprise why this important area of growth for car dealers is not being fully leveraged.

Who Will Lead in 2011?

I can go on with more examples but it is clear to me that the tools and strategies dealer principals need to succeed have changed and education has lagged. That will change when dealer principals decide to lead ALL profit centers in their business.

That gap is getting wider and I hope that we can provide the education and resources to close the gap between the haves and have-nots. I hope dealer principals reading this article will be inspired to take action and invest in education in 2011.

It’s really not an option but dealer principals can deny reality as long as they want which will allow their competitors to gain a strategic advantage.

P.S.  Please take this Digital Marketing Education Survey.  Start Here

Following the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3rd in the Napa Valley, I will be leading workshops at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco. My workshop is entitled "Blogs, Microsites, and SEO" will be repeated three times on the following days:
 

• Friday February 4^{th –} 3:15 Room 2002-2004 West
• Sunday February 7^{th –} 2:15 Room 206-2008 West
• Monday February 7^th – 8:30 am Room 2011 west

I would like to invite all DrivingSales members who are attending 2011 NADA Convention, to mark your calendar and attend my workshop. If you are not attending, but someone from your dealership is attending, please send them a link to this page.

I will be covering that latest digital marketing strategies that can help increase the visibility and relevance of your dealership website. I'll be providing step by step instructions how to increase traffic, leads, links, and grow market-share using proven contenting publishing and SEO strategies.

NADA Wine Tasting At French Restaurant

PCG is also hosting a wine tasting on the first night of NADA in San Francisco just one block from the Convention Center. What a great way to open up the NADA Convention; great wine and food.

Catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The restaurant is short walk from the Convention Center so you can walk to the restaurant when classes end.
 

• Date: Friday, February 4, 2011
• Time: 6:00pm – 10:00 pm
• Location: Le Charm Restaurant
• 315 5th Street, San Francisco
• Phone: 415-546-6128
• Website: www.lecharm.com

DrivingSales members should RSVP by January 24th. Tickets for the event are limited. Call 732-450-8200 or email Carrie Hemphill at: carrie@pcgmailer.com

Following the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3rd in the Napa Valley, I will be leading workshops at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco. My workshop is entitled "Blogs, Microsites, and SEO" will be repeated three times on the following days:
 

• Friday February 4^{th –} 3:15 Room 2002-2004 West
• Sunday February 7^{th –} 2:15 Room 206-2008 West
• Monday February 7^th – 8:30 am Room 2011 west

I would like to invite all DrivingSales members who are attending 2011 NADA Convention, to mark your calendar and attend my workshop. If you are not attending, but someone from your dealership is attending, please send them a link to this page.

I will be covering that latest digital marketing strategies that can help increase the visibility and relevance of your dealership website. I'll be providing step by step instructions how to increase traffic, leads, links, and grow market-share using proven contenting publishing and SEO strategies.

NADA Wine Tasting At French Restaurant

PCG is also hosting a wine tasting on the first night of NADA in San Francisco just one block from the Convention Center. What a great way to open up the NADA Convention; great wine and food.

Catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The restaurant is short walk from the Convention Center so you can walk to the restaurant when classes end.
 

• Date: Friday, February 4, 2011
• Time: 6:00pm – 10:00 pm
• Location: Le Charm Restaurant
• 315 5th Street, San Francisco
• Phone: 415-546-6128
• Website: www.lecharm.com

DrivingSales members should RSVP by January 24th. Tickets for the event are limited. Call 732-450-8200 or email Carrie Hemphill at: carrie@pcgmailer.com

Every week it seems that a new social media website or micro-blogging platform comes to market and your circle of friends invite you to join. I don't know about you but how does the average person evaluate the benefits of using these new digital marketing tools? Are you overwhelmed? Do you feel that you are dodging bullets?

In the past 60 days you may have been invited and joined:
 

• IMfaceplate.com
• CarDealerWiki.org
• Amplify.com
• Thoughts.com
• Quora.com
• Branchout.com

I thought I would share with you some of the processes I use to evaluate the many requests that come across my desk each month. In my experience, some websites serve as useful Automotive SEO tools, others as Automotive Social Media tools, and some just fail to do anything. The key is to know how to evaluate your investment in these websites. You must have the tools to evaluate which websites are worthy of your continued investment of time and energy.

Your time is valuable so treat it that way!
 

Automotive Advertising Strategies

For car dealers, automotive advertising strategies have never been as diverse and confusing as they are today. Dealers are faced with deciding how to find the correct balance of traditional marketing, social media, SEO, SEM, blogging, email marketing, re-marketing, and the list goes on. All of the sites that I listed above may have been presented to dealers as "worthy" of their staff time and content.

Which new websites are really delivering on those claims?

All of the sites listed above may be suited for car dealers. However, some may be better for personal branding. In either case, the question comes down to your time investment. Should you engage or not?
 

Sites You Think Are Good For SEO

If a website is introduced to you as a new Automotive SEO tool, there are some quick ways to measure that claim. First, make sure you are using Google Alerts, Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools. Setup Google Alerts for your dealership name and your personal name.

I like to use Google Alerts to see how fast a blog post I created is picked up by Google. This is a measure of how often Google pulls and indexes content.

For example, I posted content on www.Quora.com, recommended by my friend Eric Miltsch, under my name this past week. One question I posted was about Frank Herbert and Dune books. I received a Google Alert within an hour of posting and from the screen shot below, you can see that it is now in the Google index. This site is definitely respected by Google.



In contrast, all the social media sign-ups that I have done on Branchout.com in the past two weeks have not triggered any Google Alerts. In the first case, Quora.com is getting into the Google search stream and Branchout.com seems to be limited to inside of Facbeook. Branchout.com fails on the SEO front and we will have to see how it does on the networking front.
 

Automotive Advertising on CarDealerWiki

As I stated in another blog post this week, www.CarDealerWiki.org is showing strong SEO visibility and links. Take a look at this search query for a dealer who is leveraging the page publishing power of CarDealerWiki:

You Should Be Seeing Increased Links

Secondly, if your posts or articles on micro-blogging platforms are being respected by the search engines, any hyperlinks in your posts should be showing in Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools to your main website. If after 30-60 days your links are not showing, you can assume you are not getting SEO back-link benefits from these posts.
 

Sites You Think Are Good For Networking

Other websites that are not designed for Automotive SEO may claim to increase your networking potential. In these cases, I recommend that you use a tracking phone number on all posts to these sites. This can be in the form of a user profile or a signature block that you add to all articles. In addition to tracking numbers, you can see how many people are commenting on your posts.

For example, IMFaceplate.com is a new micro-blogging platform. I have posted about 12 articles on my profile so take a peek: Brian Pasch. The comments on my articles have not been very interactive or meaningful. In addition to low engagement, I have not been seeing Google Alerts coming in for my efforts. I will give this website another month or content and if I don't see any positive confirmations form the search engines, I will stop.

As a side note, www.imfaceplate.com has slow website response times which I think is hampering their search engine credibility.
 

Prioritizing Your Time

With so many new websites in play each month, just be careful about how you invest your time. Measure the search visibility, link counts, or contacts you get by engaging in any new community.

If you want some proven strategies for content publishing and link building, there are many articles that I have published in the past. If you need an updated Top 10 List, just send me an email: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com. I'll send you my Top 10 Content Publishing websites that can assist car dealers with search visibility, links, and traffic generation.

P.S. Dealers who want to develop the strongest digital marketing strategies for 2011, are coming to the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference Feb 1-3rd in the Napa Valley prior to NADA. You can be there as well, register at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org

Every week it seems that a new social media website or micro-blogging platform comes to market and your circle of friends invite you to join. I don't know about you but how does the average person evaluate the benefits of using these new digital marketing tools? Are you overwhelmed? Do you feel that you are dodging bullets?

In the past 60 days you may have been invited and joined:
 

• IMfaceplate.com
• CarDealerWiki.org
• Amplify.com
• Thoughts.com
• Quora.com
• Branchout.com

I thought I would share with you some of the processes I use to evaluate the many requests that come across my desk each month. In my experience, some websites serve as useful Automotive SEO tools, others as Automotive Social Media tools, and some just fail to do anything. The key is to know how to evaluate your investment in these websites. You must have the tools to evaluate which websites are worthy of your continued investment of time and energy.

Your time is valuable so treat it that way!
 

Automotive Advertising Strategies

For car dealers, automotive advertising strategies have never been as diverse and confusing as they are today. Dealers are faced with deciding how to find the correct balance of traditional marketing, social media, SEO, SEM, blogging, email marketing, re-marketing, and the list goes on. All of the sites that I listed above may have been presented to dealers as "worthy" of their staff time and content.

Which new websites are really delivering on those claims?

All of the sites listed above may be suited for car dealers. However, some may be better for personal branding. In either case, the question comes down to your time investment. Should you engage or not?
 

Sites You Think Are Good For SEO

If a website is introduced to you as a new Automotive SEO tool, there are some quick ways to measure that claim. First, make sure you are using Google Alerts, Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools. Setup Google Alerts for your dealership name and your personal name.

I like to use Google Alerts to see how fast a blog post I created is picked up by Google. This is a measure of how often Google pulls and indexes content.

For example, I posted content on www.Quora.com, recommended by my friend Eric Miltsch, under my name this past week. One question I posted was about Frank Herbert and Dune books. I received a Google Alert within an hour of posting and from the screen shot below, you can see that it is now in the Google index. This site is definitely respected by Google.



In contrast, all the social media sign-ups that I have done on Branchout.com in the past two weeks have not triggered any Google Alerts. In the first case, Quora.com is getting into the Google search stream and Branchout.com seems to be limited to inside of Facbeook. Branchout.com fails on the SEO front and we will have to see how it does on the networking front.
 

Automotive Advertising on CarDealerWiki

As I stated in another blog post this week, www.CarDealerWiki.org is showing strong SEO visibility and links. Take a look at this search query for a dealer who is leveraging the page publishing power of CarDealerWiki:

You Should Be Seeing Increased Links

Secondly, if your posts or articles on micro-blogging platforms are being respected by the search engines, any hyperlinks in your posts should be showing in Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools to your main website. If after 30-60 days your links are not showing, you can assume you are not getting SEO back-link benefits from these posts.
 

Sites You Think Are Good For Networking

Other websites that are not designed for Automotive SEO may claim to increase your networking potential. In these cases, I recommend that you use a tracking phone number on all posts to these sites. This can be in the form of a user profile or a signature block that you add to all articles. In addition to tracking numbers, you can see how many people are commenting on your posts.

For example, IMFaceplate.com is a new micro-blogging platform. I have posted about 12 articles on my profile so take a peek: Brian Pasch. The comments on my articles have not been very interactive or meaningful. In addition to low engagement, I have not been seeing Google Alerts coming in for my efforts. I will give this website another month or content and if I don't see any positive confirmations form the search engines, I will stop.

As a side note, www.imfaceplate.com has slow website response times which I think is hampering their search engine credibility.
 

Prioritizing Your Time

With so many new websites in play each month, just be careful about how you invest your time. Measure the search visibility, link counts, or contacts you get by engaging in any new community.

If you want some proven strategies for content publishing and link building, there are many articles that I have published in the past. If you need an updated Top 10 List, just send me an email: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com. I'll send you my Top 10 Content Publishing websites that can assist car dealers with search visibility, links, and traffic generation.

P.S. Dealers who want to develop the strongest digital marketing strategies for 2011, are coming to the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference Feb 1-3rd in the Napa Valley prior to NADA. You can be there as well, register at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org