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 automotive industry are easily distracted, right?)

So is social media the next big thing or will it go the way of “Second Life” and be yesterday’s news? And by the way, if you don’t know what Second Life means, then you just proved my point. Is it just a big fat waste of time, distracting us from business?

What do I think? I think social media is worth it. It’s inexpensive to participate in. The learning curve is short and it’s easy to competently master. It takes relatively little time to upkeep.  But the real question, after all, is how do you make it work for you?

This is why we’re meeting in Vegas next month at the DrivingSales Executive Summit. Ask the experts.  You’ll hear from some of the top social media marketing gurus out there: Chris Brogan, co-author of best-seller Trust Agents, and President of New Marketing Labs and Will Travis, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Dentsu, to name just a few,  will provide unique insights on new media marketing and entrepreneurship.  Facebook Bootcamp and Twitter Bootcamp will kick you into shape, with specific, hands-on advice from some of the leading experts in the field.  Breakout and roundtable discussions will focus on topics such as search marketing, behavioral targeting, mobile marketing, and back-end profits with new media.

 The Summit is 24 hours long from Tuesday Oct 13 at noon to Wednesday October 14 at noon, at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. So come see for yourself. After all, Facebook just announced it has over 300 million subscribers – that’s about the same size as the population of the United States! Don’t you think at least some of your current or potential customers are on there?

 For the full agenda and to register: https://www.drivingsales.com/home/events/register_dses

 

 

 

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 Brogan, but in addition to that, we'll have topics and speakers that have been suggested and selected by Summit attendees. We've received so many truly exciting and innovative topic ideas but the DSES is only 24 hours long! That's why we're asking people to come together and select those issues that are of greatest concern and interest so we can really zero in on those topics in detail. If you'd like to weigh in, we welcome your input, so leave it here. We'll be posting our UnAgenda next week on the DrivingSales website  and in the meantime, let us know if you have any questions and what you're thinking. After all, that's the whole idea behind our live action UnConference! For details about the DSES and to register, please visit: http://www.drivingsales.com/home/events

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 per the will of the attendees. Email me with any questions:  charlie@drivingsales.com

DrivingSales Executive Summit

Call for Topics/Presentations

Proposals for a breakout/roundtable presentation and/or an innovative product demonstration may be submitted to dses@drivingsales.com.  The topics must fit into the DSES theme of innovation and operational excellence. Please visit DrivingSales.com/home/events for keynotes/topics currently on the agenda and under consideration. For the "Innovation Showcase" product demos, only products that are brand new to the industry - meaning they have yet to be launched, are in beta testing or have been active in dealerships for less than six months - will be eligible. In keeping with the DrivingSales brand of social technologies, vendor neutrality and user-generated content, DSES breakout/roundtable and innovative product proposals can be submitted by anyone in the community and beyond, are NOT tied to sponsorship, and will ultimately be selected by the DrivingSales Summit invitees and attendees. As this event is predominantly for dealers, there will be a very limited number of service providers in attendance.  However, selected presenters will be allowed to bring two additional team members to attend the entire event and benefit from the other presentations and the networking.  Admission costs will be the responsibility of the presenter. Deadline for presentation submission has been extended to September 10^th, 2009.  Presentations selected by the DrivingSales community will be announced on September 15^th. Selected presenters will have the opportunity to prepare their audience prior to DSES via DrivingSales.com.  A 1-2 page blog post about the topic must be submitted by the presenters before September 18^th for publication on DrivingSales.com two weeks prior to the summit. To submit a breakout/roundtable session or innovative product proposal please email the following items to dses@drivingsales.com by September 10^th: 1.     Word document with your proposed topic/innovative product title, a 60 word summary (for display on the web site), and more detailed description of the topic (no more than 1 page total). 2.     Name title and contact information of the presenter. 3.     Company Name 4.     High resolution JPG image of the presenter. 5.     High resolution company logo. For more information about the DSES, click here DrivingSales.com/home/events.

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 time via live blogging, twitter and video updates on DrivingSales.com! While the conference includes some exciting speakers from inside and outside our industry, this is not a roll back on your heels conference - the core of the summit is a series of interactive roundtables focused around social media and other progressive marketing and operational strategies.  At the moment the agenda includes some world-renowned social media experts and topics such as Traffic Generation, Search Management (SEO & SEM) Video and Mobile Marketing, as mentioned those attending are voting to determine exactly what topics will be presented. This is just one way that the DSES differs from other conferences and it is an important distinction:  DSES content is not sponsor-driven, it is community driven. Finally, because the focus of this summit is on automotive retailers, and particularly on those retailers who are driving some of the key success trends our industry is going to need to ensure its future, the summit is an invitation only event.  As part of that, we will be limiting the number of non-dealers in attendance. However, in keeping with the social networking concept of the summit, everyone in the DrivingSales community, including vendors and suppliers, will have a chance to participate, either through submitting a topic, voting on one, or by following the summit realtime at DrivingSales.com. The team at Vogelheim Ventures, along with the team at DrivingSales, is thrilled to see that the buzz about DSES is already building.  Check back in with me next week when I will be announcing keynote speakers and letting you know why the DSES is the quintessential "unconference" - and how it will be structured to enable thinking and discussion that, in the post-recession and post-Cash-for-Clunker world, will take us beyond simple survival tactics and into a future that is full of promise. Click here for more information on the DrivingSales Executive Summit.