With the increasing number of ways that both social networks and email providers are working to help their users receive less noise, it's time that you stop producing so much of it. Take a look at your content, whether it's a status update on Facebook or an email newsletter it's important to note that just because you put it out there doesn't mean people will want to consume it. It may be time to quiet the noise and think really hard about the kind of content that you are putting out there.

With the onset of Gmails' Smart Folders that strip out all bulk email messages and Facebooks' EdgeRank algorithm that greatly reduces the amount of status updates it's users are subjected to, it's more important than ever to focus on quality engagement over "like" or email acquisition.

We've all heard it before, "think before you speak," the same could be said this way:

• "Think before you tweet."
• "Think before you press send."
• "Think before you click share."

The important word is think, think like the people you are targeting, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What reaction am I trying to create? (will people unsubscribe or click unlike)
2. What action do I want people to take? (Blog comment, click through, like...etc)
3. Do people really care about this? (is it only interesting to me, or will others find it interesting as well)

What noise are you producing now that isn't necessary, that people aren't engaging with and isn't producing the desired result? The answer to that question will let you know what you need to eliminate...and the sooner the better.

What are your thoughts?

David Johnson
Digital Marketing Strategist
PersuasiveConcepts.com

With the increasing number of ways that both social networks and email providers are working to help their users receive less noise, it's time that you stop producing so much of it. Take a look at your content, whether it's a status update on Facebook or an email newsletter it's important to note that just because you put it out there doesn't mean people will want to consume it. It may be time to quiet the noise and think really hard about the kind of content that you are putting out there.

With the onset of Gmails' Smart Folders that strip out all bulk email messages and Facebooks' EdgeRank algorithm that greatly reduces the amount of status updates it's users are subjected to, it's more important than ever to focus on quality engagement over "like" or email acquisition.

We've all heard it before, "think before you speak," the same could be said this way:

• "Think before you tweet."
• "Think before you press send."
• "Think before you click share."

The important word is think, think like the people you are targeting, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What reaction am I trying to create? (will people unsubscribe or click unlike)
2. What action do I want people to take? (Blog comment, click through, like...etc)
3. Do people really care about this? (is it only interesting to me, or will others find it interesting as well)

What noise are you producing now that isn't necessary, that people aren't engaging with and isn't producing the desired result? The answer to that question will let you know what you need to eliminate...and the sooner the better.

What are your thoughts?

David Johnson
Digital Marketing Strategist
PersuasiveConcepts.com

Creating an opt-in email list is as foreign to the auto industry as driving on the left side of the road but there is a place for it and in this post I'm going to share with you both the why and the how. On your dealer site the end goal is to turn surfers into leads, to get some sort of contact information whether it be an email address, a phone number or both. But, as we all know it's a fairly small percentage of people that do just that and the reason is simple... you. Now, don't take that personally, by you I mean the car business, car salespeople in particular and because of that the general public doesn't have a high level of trust for our kind (yes, I'm one the you). Of course the reasons are much deeper than just the trust level involved... but that's for another post.

There are a number of reasons why you should work to capture email addresses, outside of collecting for leads that is, and while there are more than we are going to talk about here I want to point out a few of the important ones.

It's Pure Permission Marketing

Permission marketing, a term coined by Seth Godin, is when a prospective client has given you permission to market to them. In other words, because they have opted-in to your email list to receive your newsletter or to download a whitepaper or ebook or even an auto responder series (more on all of these later) they have given you permission to send them more information. The undesirable inverse of permission marketing is interruption marketing, marketing in which your prospects are interrupted from what they are already doing to hear your marketing message, just think TV commercials. By giving people valid (and desirable) reasons for them to give you their email address you are better able to nurture your leads, build trust, and convert them into buyers (more on lead nurturing later).

It Builds Familiarity

If done correctly that is. I'm always remind of the scene in the movie Fight Club when I explain familiarity, the part when Edward Nortins character talks about being a single serving friend, yeah don't be one! What I mean by that is it takes more than visiting with somebody once, whether it's in person or on the web, if you plan on creating any semblance of a relationship with them.

By creating a newsletter... you know before I finish that thought I feel that it's important to mention that, just as on social networks, to keep in mind that the less you pitch the more you sell. The reason I say that is because when you are trying to build any kind of email list it's important to keep attrition rate in mind and pay particular attention to how many people are unsubscribing and why their doing it. You will notice that if you spend more time doing email blasts than you do lead (or email) nurturing your attrition rate will increase, and that's a bad thing.

So, by creating a newsletter that engages your readers in such a way that they want to hear more from you, you are better able to build relationships and create influence through increased familiarity. Remember, don't be a single serving friend.

It Builds Authority

Much like blogging creates authority, so does maintaining an email list as long as you're not just maintaining it but actively engaging with your subscribers. In society we hold those that are authoritative in high regard because we perceive those with authority to have high levels of knowledge and wisdom. By showcasing, through well written, helpful articles that you are the authority then when the time comes for your subscribers to make a decision to buy you will be one step closer to earning their business.

It Builds Top of Mind

We all know that if you want to be remembered then you have to stay in front of your prospect until they decide that they want to buy or you convince them too, whichever comes first. By sending out periodic newsletters you position yourself to become top of mind, always remember the less you pitch the more you sell.

Managing an Email List

There are a ton of software-as-service companies available that will help you manage your email list a quick Google search will net you plenty of reviews on any one of them, below find three that I recommend.

• Mail Chimp - I use Mail Chimp and they are very easy to use, powerful and cost effective. They even have a forever free option where you can have up to 2000 emails addresses and send out 6000 emails per month.
• Aweber - Aweber has a ton of features but is a little more advanced than MailChimp. That can be good or bad, just depends on your level knowledge of such things.
• Constant Contact - Constant Contact has been around for a long time, since 1996 and another great option for email list needs.

Any of the above will give you any kind of support you need with training videos and support forums that will be able to answer any of your questions. All three are as easy as naming your list, defining what fields you want in your sign-up form and then embedding (copy and paste) a bit of code where you want it to show up.

Note: Check with your CRM provider, a few of them have this type of functionality already built it.

Growing Your List

Again, there are many ways that you can grow your email list, below are but a few.

Maintaining A Newsletter

There are a few companies out there, dedicated to the auto industry, that will create and send out a monthly newsletter on your behalf, they can be pricey but can all be done in-house if you have the bandwidth to get it done. Maintaining a newsletter can be an attractive reason for people to want to opt-in to receive it.

In your newsletter make sure to include employee spotlights that link to both video and images so that your readers get a better feeling for who the people of the dealership really are. Also, include articles for car care and DIY maintenances such as oil changes, air filter installation and wiper blade replacement. You can even include articles on credit repair, the value of service contracts and what the heck gap insurance is. The idea is to become the expert by giving actionable advice that will actually help your subscribers while at the same time letting them to get to know you and other dealership personnel on a more personal basis.

eBook Creation

By creating an eBook you once again have a vessel with which to create authority, but if used correctly it's great bait to capture email addresses as well. I think that by giving you a few title examples you will get a better idea of what I mean:

• 10 Things You Must Know About Reconditioning Before You Buy Used
• 5 Ways To Increase The Value Of Your Car At Trade In Time
• Don't Buy ANY Finance Products Before Reading This
• 7 Ways NOT To Get Ripped Off When Buying A Vehicle

I know what you're thinking, I can't write and I have no desire to write a 10-15 page eBook! Don't worry, you don't have to, in fact you can do a quick Google search and find ghostwriters at just about any price range, go ahead try it.

Auto Responder Series

Sounds more complicated than it is, but setting up an auto responder series is very easy and once you set it you can forget all about it as it does its thing. Just use one of the eBook title ideas above (or your own) and create an auto responder series out of it, all that means is break it down into 5-10 different email that will be sent out over a predefined period of time.

As an example let's say that you wanted to create a course titled 5 Ways To Increase The Value Of Your Car At Trade In Time, you would set up your email course like this:

• Email 1 - Goes out immediately after sign up
• Email 2 - Goes out 1 days after sign up
• Email 3 - Goes out 2 days after sign up
• Email 4 - Goes out 3 days after sign up
• Email 5 - Goes out 4 days after sign up

A series like this is very easy to set up and each of the aforementioned email list companies makes this dead simple to do and once it's done, it's done. Imagine if you put a sign up form for a series like this on your trade in page, what would happen? Also, each of the emails should have a small call to action such as value your trade here (with a link to your trade in form), if you have any questions contact our used-car manager here (again put in a link), or any number of things as long as it's not a hard call to action and it comes after the content, not before. You don't want to people thinking that the only reason you are giving them great info is to get their email address to market to them, even if that is what you are doing!

Put Sign-Up Forms Everywhere

You can put sign-up forms on your website, blog, Facebook Page, Twitter Profile and any other number of places, be creative and get it in front of as many people as possible... without being pushy of course.

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing, I used the term a few times in this post and I thought it about time I dig into exactly what I mean by it. Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships by creating an informative dialogue that helps prospects that are not yes sales-ready.

I would encourage you to even create your CRM auto responder series in such a way as to nurture your leads instead of just bombarding them with email after email saying that you can't get a hold of them. There is evidence that suggests that prospects who were nurtured buy more, require less discounting and have a much shorter sales cycle than one who was bombarded with call attempts and get a hold of me emails.

Forester Research did a study about lead nurturing and found out that companies that excel in lead nurturing:

• Decreased the percentage of leads that are ignored by sales from 25-80%
• Increased win rates on generated leads by 7% points (out of 100 leads, that's 7 more sales!)
• Increase the number of sales reps that make quota, with a slower ramp up time for new recruits.

I know what you're thinking, why lead nurturing ? What's in it for me? In a study done by Rain Today they found that right off the bat 25% of leads are disqualified for whatever reason, another 25% is ready to buy and a whopping 50% isn't ready to talk to a sales person. In a nutshell lead nurturing is about building relations and creating dialogue with the 50% that aren't ready.

I want you to keep in mind that I don't want you to think of only leads in the general sense but also the email addresses that you collect from other places than just you dealer website. While the study by Rain Today mentioned that 50% of leads that are market-generated aren't ready to buy, closer to 100% of the people that sign up for your newsletter, eBook, or auto responder aren't ready, so take the time to build a dialogue and create relationships, you will reap the benefit sooner than you think.

Creating an opt-in email list is as foreign to the auto industry as driving on the left side of the road but there is a place for it and in this post I'm going to share with you both the why and the how. On your dealer site the end goal is to turn surfers into leads, to get some sort of contact information whether it be an email address, a phone number or both. But, as we all know it's a fairly small percentage of people that do just that and the reason is simple... you. Now, don't take that personally, by you I mean the car business, car salespeople in particular and because of that the general public doesn't have a high level of trust for our kind (yes, I'm one the you). Of course the reasons are much deeper than just the trust level involved... but that's for another post.

There are a number of reasons why you should work to capture email addresses, outside of collecting for leads that is, and while there are more than we are going to talk about here I want to point out a few of the important ones.

It's Pure Permission Marketing

Permission marketing, a term coined by Seth Godin, is when a prospective client has given you permission to market to them. In other words, because they have opted-in to your email list to receive your newsletter or to download a whitepaper or ebook or even an auto responder series (more on all of these later) they have given you permission to send them more information. The undesirable inverse of permission marketing is interruption marketing, marketing in which your prospects are interrupted from what they are already doing to hear your marketing message, just think TV commercials. By giving people valid (and desirable) reasons for them to give you their email address you are better able to nurture your leads, build trust, and convert them into buyers (more on lead nurturing later).

It Builds Familiarity

If done correctly that is. I'm always remind of the scene in the movie Fight Club when I explain familiarity, the part when Edward Nortins character talks about being a single serving friend, yeah don't be one! What I mean by that is it takes more than visiting with somebody once, whether it's in person or on the web, if you plan on creating any semblance of a relationship with them.

By creating a newsletter... you know before I finish that thought I feel that it's important to mention that, just as on social networks, to keep in mind that the less you pitch the more you sell. The reason I say that is because when you are trying to build any kind of email list it's important to keep attrition rate in mind and pay particular attention to how many people are unsubscribing and why their doing it. You will notice that if you spend more time doing email blasts than you do lead (or email) nurturing your attrition rate will increase, and that's a bad thing.

So, by creating a newsletter that engages your readers in such a way that they want to hear more from you, you are better able to build relationships and create influence through increased familiarity. Remember, don't be a single serving friend.

It Builds Authority

Much like blogging creates authority, so does maintaining an email list as long as you're not just maintaining it but actively engaging with your subscribers. In society we hold those that are authoritative in high regard because we perceive those with authority to have high levels of knowledge and wisdom. By showcasing, through well written, helpful articles that you are the authority then when the time comes for your subscribers to make a decision to buy you will be one step closer to earning their business.

It Builds Top of Mind

We all know that if you want to be remembered then you have to stay in front of your prospect until they decide that they want to buy or you convince them too, whichever comes first. By sending out periodic newsletters you position yourself to become top of mind, always remember the less you pitch the more you sell.

Managing an Email List

There are a ton of software-as-service companies available that will help you manage your email list a quick Google search will net you plenty of reviews on any one of them, below find three that I recommend.

• Mail Chimp - I use Mail Chimp and they are very easy to use, powerful and cost effective. They even have a forever free option where you can have up to 2000 emails addresses and send out 6000 emails per month.
• Aweber - Aweber has a ton of features but is a little more advanced than MailChimp. That can be good or bad, just depends on your level knowledge of such things.
• Constant Contact - Constant Contact has been around for a long time, since 1996 and another great option for email list needs.

Any of the above will give you any kind of support you need with training videos and support forums that will be able to answer any of your questions. All three are as easy as naming your list, defining what fields you want in your sign-up form and then embedding (copy and paste) a bit of code where you want it to show up.

Note: Check with your CRM provider, a few of them have this type of functionality already built it.

Growing Your List

Again, there are many ways that you can grow your email list, below are but a few.

Maintaining A Newsletter

There are a few companies out there, dedicated to the auto industry, that will create and send out a monthly newsletter on your behalf, they can be pricey but can all be done in-house if you have the bandwidth to get it done. Maintaining a newsletter can be an attractive reason for people to want to opt-in to receive it.

In your newsletter make sure to include employee spotlights that link to both video and images so that your readers get a better feeling for who the people of the dealership really are. Also, include articles for car care and DIY maintenances such as oil changes, air filter installation and wiper blade replacement. You can even include articles on credit repair, the value of service contracts and what the heck gap insurance is. The idea is to become the expert by giving actionable advice that will actually help your subscribers while at the same time letting them to get to know you and other dealership personnel on a more personal basis.

eBook Creation

By creating an eBook you once again have a vessel with which to create authority, but if used correctly it's great bait to capture email addresses as well. I think that by giving you a few title examples you will get a better idea of what I mean:

• 10 Things You Must Know About Reconditioning Before You Buy Used
• 5 Ways To Increase The Value Of Your Car At Trade In Time
• Don't Buy ANY Finance Products Before Reading This
• 7 Ways NOT To Get Ripped Off When Buying A Vehicle

I know what you're thinking, I can't write and I have no desire to write a 10-15 page eBook! Don't worry, you don't have to, in fact you can do a quick Google search and find ghostwriters at just about any price range, go ahead try it.

Auto Responder Series

Sounds more complicated than it is, but setting up an auto responder series is very easy and once you set it you can forget all about it as it does its thing. Just use one of the eBook title ideas above (or your own) and create an auto responder series out of it, all that means is break it down into 5-10 different email that will be sent out over a predefined period of time.

As an example let's say that you wanted to create a course titled 5 Ways To Increase The Value Of Your Car At Trade In Time, you would set up your email course like this:

• Email 1 - Goes out immediately after sign up
• Email 2 - Goes out 1 days after sign up
• Email 3 - Goes out 2 days after sign up
• Email 4 - Goes out 3 days after sign up
• Email 5 - Goes out 4 days after sign up

A series like this is very easy to set up and each of the aforementioned email list companies makes this dead simple to do and once it's done, it's done. Imagine if you put a sign up form for a series like this on your trade in page, what would happen? Also, each of the emails should have a small call to action such as value your trade here (with a link to your trade in form), if you have any questions contact our used-car manager here (again put in a link), or any number of things as long as it's not a hard call to action and it comes after the content, not before. You don't want to people thinking that the only reason you are giving them great info is to get their email address to market to them, even if that is what you are doing!

Put Sign-Up Forms Everywhere

You can put sign-up forms on your website, blog, Facebook Page, Twitter Profile and any other number of places, be creative and get it in front of as many people as possible... without being pushy of course.

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing, I used the term a few times in this post and I thought it about time I dig into exactly what I mean by it. Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships by creating an informative dialogue that helps prospects that are not yes sales-ready.

I would encourage you to even create your CRM auto responder series in such a way as to nurture your leads instead of just bombarding them with email after email saying that you can't get a hold of them. There is evidence that suggests that prospects who were nurtured buy more, require less discounting and have a much shorter sales cycle than one who was bombarded with call attempts and get a hold of me emails.

Forester Research did a study about lead nurturing and found out that companies that excel in lead nurturing:

• Decreased the percentage of leads that are ignored by sales from 25-80%
• Increased win rates on generated leads by 7% points (out of 100 leads, that's 7 more sales!)
• Increase the number of sales reps that make quota, with a slower ramp up time for new recruits.

I know what you're thinking, why lead nurturing ? What's in it for me? In a study done by Rain Today they found that right off the bat 25% of leads are disqualified for whatever reason, another 25% is ready to buy and a whopping 50% isn't ready to talk to a sales person. In a nutshell lead nurturing is about building relations and creating dialogue with the 50% that aren't ready.

I want you to keep in mind that I don't want you to think of only leads in the general sense but also the email addresses that you collect from other places than just you dealer website. While the study by Rain Today mentioned that 50% of leads that are market-generated aren't ready to buy, closer to 100% of the people that sign up for your newsletter, eBook, or auto responder aren't ready, so take the time to build a dialogue and create relationships, you will reap the benefit sooner than you think.

2010 brought with it main stream social media for the auto industry, some embraced it and ran with it while others (most) knocked their head against the wall wondering what they were doing wrong. 2010 was more or less a trial, a yearlong test in the field of relationship marketing, what did you learn from it? If you're like a lot of dealers you pushed social media to the side as a failed experiment and went back to what worked, more or less.

Social media has evolved and will continue to evolve, its only constant is change and if you take the time to learn it before you tackle it then you will be behind the moment you start. But, if you harness the human element of social media and stop trying so hard to learn the ever evolving tools, then you are well on your way to building a true social business, one that even the oldest school car dealer can get behind, grasp and run with.

In the beginning social media was seen as an extension of traditional advertising, as a way to get your marketing message heard by even more people, but that quickly fizzled out as you learned that people considered what you were doing as spam and only served to hurt your dealerships reputation. As time progressed you learned that the less you pitch, the more you sell. You learned that in order to build a social following that you needed to engage your online community in other ways, besides just your inventory.

Building A Purpose-Driven Community

Building an online community around the dealerships brand will often lead to failure, as participation is mainly driven by advertising dollars and costly promotions. I'm not taking anything away from this type of "community marketing" because it's often the best way to get things moving along in the right direction, but what happens if you stop doing promotions ? That's right, participation stops as well.

By anchoring your social initiatives in something larger than your brand, a higher calling, you drive community participation through passion. By building a purpose-driven community you create a common bonding point between the dealership and it's community, this is the surest way for community growth, participation, and an increase in ROI (return on influence).

The appeal to a higher calling builds organic growth that unites employees and communities behind a common cause that's larger than both the dealership and its community members. The higher calling can be a shared passion, a way of life or a cause, as long as it's something that people can rally behind and feel like their part of.

As an example let's talk about Metro Honda of Union County and their recent initiative to help fight hunger in their community. Wal-Mart, during their Fighting Hunger campaign, put up $1.5 Million to be donated among the top 6 communities with the most support. $1 Million to number 1 and $100,000 to the next five communities. During that time Metro Honda created videos, sent out emails and engaged their Facebook fans in order to get them to "like" their community. During this time they saw a tremendous increase in their post views, and daily active users.

A lot of dealerships fall into the trap of looking at their "likes" as a gauge as to how well their doing on Facebook, when the best stat to look at is their daily and monthly active users. During the Fighting Hunger campaign Metro Honda saw an increase in their Daily Active Users (people consuming their content) from an average of about 200 per day to over 1000, with their daily post views going from around 5,000 per day to upwards of 25,000! Now that the campaign is over they are still seeing double the number of daily active users and post views than was the case before the campaign begun. That's the power of a purpose-driven community.

Finding Your Purpose

It's important when finding a purpose that it's aligned with who or what the dealership is. It's important that the cause be the focus and that community members don't start to think that the only reason you are pushing that specific cause, way or life or passion is because you are trying to earn more business. While that is most certainly the case, don't approach it with that thought in mind. Instead just give, promote and grow the higher calling. I know that sounds counterintuitive, especially since marketing is all about pushing the dealerships agenda but if you spend your resources pushing fighting hunger, as an example, then you create a bonding point between the dealership and the community. It's that bonding point that will spur organic growth and create good will.

Going forward, 2011 will see the rise of the human business and dealerships will be wise to approach social media this way or they run the risk of going by the way of the dinosaur. We are in the midst of a relationship economy and more and more people are putting emphasis on what others are saying, what others are thinking and what businesses are part of. Keep in mind that there is more to a dealership than the brick and mortar building, the lot, and the inventory, there are also people, people that make up the business and its the connection between those people and the community that will drive the dealership to new heights in the new year.

Starting today it's time to redeveloped the core message of your dealership. Make it something community oriented, something that people can rally behind and become part of, something bigger and more grand than all of those involved, an ideal that goes beyond selling cars, beyond selling service and F&I products and becomes part of what people are passionate about.

David Johnson is the Digital Marketing Strategist for Next Generation Dealer Services and authot of PersuasiceConcepts.com

2010 brought with it main stream social media for the auto industry, some embraced it and ran with it while others (most) knocked their head against the wall wondering what they were doing wrong. 2010 was more or less a trial, a yearlong test in the field of relationship marketing, what did you learn from it? If you're like a lot of dealers you pushed social media to the side as a failed experiment and went back to what worked, more or less.

Social media has evolved and will continue to evolve, its only constant is change and if you take the time to learn it before you tackle it then you will be behind the moment you start. But, if you harness the human element of social media and stop trying so hard to learn the ever evolving tools, then you are well on your way to building a true social business, one that even the oldest school car dealer can get behind, grasp and run with.

In the beginning social media was seen as an extension of traditional advertising, as a way to get your marketing message heard by even more people, but that quickly fizzled out as you learned that people considered what you were doing as spam and only served to hurt your dealerships reputation. As time progressed you learned that the less you pitch, the more you sell. You learned that in order to build a social following that you needed to engage your online community in other ways, besides just your inventory.

Building A Purpose-Driven Community

Building an online community around the dealerships brand will often lead to failure, as participation is mainly driven by advertising dollars and costly promotions. I'm not taking anything away from this type of "community marketing" because it's often the best way to get things moving along in the right direction, but what happens if you stop doing promotions ? That's right, participation stops as well.

By anchoring your social initiatives in something larger than your brand, a higher calling, you drive community participation through passion. By building a purpose-driven community you create a common bonding point between the dealership and it's community, this is the surest way for community growth, participation, and an increase in ROI (return on influence).

The appeal to a higher calling builds organic growth that unites employees and communities behind a common cause that's larger than both the dealership and its community members. The higher calling can be a shared passion, a way of life or a cause, as long as it's something that people can rally behind and feel like their part of.

As an example let's talk about Metro Honda of Union County and their recent initiative to help fight hunger in their community. Wal-Mart, during their Fighting Hunger campaign, put up $1.5 Million to be donated among the top 6 communities with the most support. $1 Million to number 1 and $100,000 to the next five communities. During that time Metro Honda created videos, sent out emails and engaged their Facebook fans in order to get them to "like" their community. During this time they saw a tremendous increase in their post views, and daily active users.

A lot of dealerships fall into the trap of looking at their "likes" as a gauge as to how well their doing on Facebook, when the best stat to look at is their daily and monthly active users. During the Fighting Hunger campaign Metro Honda saw an increase in their Daily Active Users (people consuming their content) from an average of about 200 per day to over 1000, with their daily post views going from around 5,000 per day to upwards of 25,000! Now that the campaign is over they are still seeing double the number of daily active users and post views than was the case before the campaign begun. That's the power of a purpose-driven community.

Finding Your Purpose

It's important when finding a purpose that it's aligned with who or what the dealership is. It's important that the cause be the focus and that community members don't start to think that the only reason you are pushing that specific cause, way or life or passion is because you are trying to earn more business. While that is most certainly the case, don't approach it with that thought in mind. Instead just give, promote and grow the higher calling. I know that sounds counterintuitive, especially since marketing is all about pushing the dealerships agenda but if you spend your resources pushing fighting hunger, as an example, then you create a bonding point between the dealership and the community. It's that bonding point that will spur organic growth and create good will.

Going forward, 2011 will see the rise of the human business and dealerships will be wise to approach social media this way or they run the risk of going by the way of the dinosaur. We are in the midst of a relationship economy and more and more people are putting emphasis on what others are saying, what others are thinking and what businesses are part of. Keep in mind that there is more to a dealership than the brick and mortar building, the lot, and the inventory, there are also people, people that make up the business and its the connection between those people and the community that will drive the dealership to new heights in the new year.

Starting today it's time to redeveloped the core message of your dealership. Make it something community oriented, something that people can rally behind and become part of, something bigger and more grand than all of those involved, an ideal that goes beyond selling cars, beyond selling service and F&I products and becomes part of what people are passionate about.

David Johnson is the Digital Marketing Strategist for Next Generation Dealer Services and authot of PersuasiceConcepts.com

Social media is good for a lot of things: building relationships, finding and spreading news, marketing, a good laugh, keeping up with your friends and family and a host of other things, but there is another aspect of social media that most businesses aren't using. In fact I could argue and you could argue that it's the most powerful part of social media that most businesses aren't using. It's this missing piece that could be the difference your business has been looking for, the competitive edge that could push you over the top and allow you to grab market share.

Since the onset of marketing, marketers have looked at it as a way to get their product or service seen or heard but unfortunately have completely ignored the real reason why marketing works or doesn't work... it's people! Granted, marketing is a way to build awareness but it's the dialogue that's happening between people that will dictate whether or not your marketing efforts work or don't work. In other words, the real marketing gold here is mined from the people of your community, are you listening to what they are saying?

In a post I came across, written by Ross Mayfield, he shares with us a model for understanding how enterprises are assimilating the knowledge learned from listening to the conversations surrounding their business.

• 1% of customer conversations are assimilated as organizational knowledge
• 9% of customer conversations touch the organization, but no learning occurs
• 90% of customer conversations never touch the organization

Listening To The Conversation

It pays to listen and instead of rehashing how you can set up a free social listening station, I go into detail about it in a recent post I wrote on personal branding. If you take a look at the figures above you will notice that 90% of what's being said about your business is never even heard. It's not that your customers don't have a voice, because they do, it's called social networking. The reason 90% of what your target market is saying never gets heard is because you're not listening, and the consequence is that you are ignoring a way to make your business exceptional.

As an example: an emphasis, over creating brand ambassadors, is being put on bringing in new customers to dealerships. On the outside that doesn't sound so bad, and it's not really but if you're starting on the bottom every month it's very difficult, if not impossible, to build an empire. More about that in a bit but first let's take a look at the other 10%.

Almost as alarming as 90% of what people are saying about a particular business is never heard, 9% of it is heard but no organizational learning is happening. Put another way, you hear about the experiences your customers are having at your business (good or bad) but you are doing nothing about it. You aren't assimilating the potential gold mine that your customers are sharing with you into your organizations knowledge base and are missing a huge opportunity to be exceptional. As I've said before it's the difference between what's expected and the actual service received that will dictate whether or not they will talk about you, and they are talking, it's up to you though if you want to exceed those expectations and gain positive word of mouth or fail to meet them and gain negative word of mouth.

Knowledge Assimilation

Be Part of The 1%: If you hear somebody say something good about one of your employees you should reward them, share it with the entire organization and depending on the impact level make sure that other employees duplicate it with the intention of multiplying the effect of the first. With the reverse, if you hear about a customer complaining about it taking too long to get an oil change or to get through F&I at your dealership, then take a look at your internal processes and make a change.

A lot of people take it personally when somebody complains about a product or service, but if you look at it as a cry for help and as a way to have a positive impact on your future business then you will begin to approach what others are saying in a different light. With the onset of social networks and the desire, by the consumer, to have a voice about your business, good or bad, then all you have to do is start thinking of the customer as part of your business, not just marketing but operations as well.

The best part of Social Media – that you can now begin to strategically employ – is that it is a marketing tool that also serves as a collaboration tool as well as a marketing tool. When you implement Social Marketing in this collaborative fashion, then you go a long way to building a true social business by harnessing the true voice of the customer.

Building An Empire By Building Brand Ambassadors

Earlier I said that an emphases was being put on brining in new customers instead of creating brand ambassadors, before you lambaste me though let me explain what I mean by that. Auto dealerships are notorious for being short sighted, they think in terms of today and because of that they tend not to think in terms of compounding customers.

Much like compounding interest, which Wikipedia defines as "when interest is added to the principal, so that from that moment on, the interest that has been added also itself earns interest", compounding customers works much the same way.

Dealership A

Dealership A spends a ton of money on advertising, they have catchy jingles and bring in a ton of customers every month. They give service that is expected but aren't very good at following up. Let's say that they sell 100 new customers every month, by new I mean that they aren't repeat or referrals. Through their advertising they are building top of mind, or so their radio and TV reps are telling them so they keep spending a ton of money each and every month on advertising but they still are only selling 100 cars each and every month.

Dealership B

Dealership B is a referral machine, they treat their customers right and work mainly through word of mouth. Management places an emphases on client follow up but they don't spend much money on traditional marketing so they aren't building a lot of NEW awareness but they are increasing their monthly unit count, but slowly.

Dealership C

Dealership C is a hybrid of Dealership A and B, they have a good marketing mix and spend a fair amount of money on tradition advertising but they also put an emphasis on customer experience and building brand ambassadors and relationship marketing (social media). They understand the Law of Compounding Customers (not really sure if it's a law, I may have just made it up! LOL) and that each and every single month, because 45% of their sales volume is from repeats and referrals, that they will grow perpetually, if they keep doing what they are doing.

If you follow with me here for a second I will explain in mathematical detail, to the best of my ability anyway, how you can take advantage of the Law of Compounding Customers. Let's say that in month 1, Dealership C sells 50 new customers and 35 referral and or repeat customers for a total of 85 units. Because of Dealerships C's exceptional track record they know that 45% of their customer will either come back or give them a referral.

Instead of starting from 0 each month they know that in any given month, the new customers they sold in previous months will either come back or send them referrals 45% of the time. In other words, out of the 50 they sold the previous month they can expect an additional 22 sales sometime in the future. If this keeps happening, month in and month out, the number of repeats and referrals will compound on the new customers in addition to the repeats and referrals in the previous months.

Breaking It Down

By listening to your customers and increasing the total customer experience in your business you create an environment for rampant word of mouth. If the point of sale experience matches how you portray yourself on social networks and in traditional advertising then you have the beginnings of a truly great customer experience and which increases your chance of effectiveness and frequency at creating influential brand ambassadors. But, it all starts with listening to your customers and assimilating that knowledge into your business operations to make an even better customer experience.

David Johnson is the social media strategist for Next Generation Dealer Services and author of PersuasiveConcepts.com. Sign up for the Automotive Social Media Newsletter HERE.

Social media is good for a lot of things: building relationships, finding and spreading news, marketing, a good laugh, keeping up with your friends and family and a host of other things, but there is another aspect of social media that most businesses aren't using. In fact I could argue and you could argue that it's the most powerful part of social media that most businesses aren't using. It's this missing piece that could be the difference your business has been looking for, the competitive edge that could push you over the top and allow you to grab market share.

Since the onset of marketing, marketers have looked at it as a way to get their product or service seen or heard but unfortunately have completely ignored the real reason why marketing works or doesn't work... it's people! Granted, marketing is a way to build awareness but it's the dialogue that's happening between people that will dictate whether or not your marketing efforts work or don't work. In other words, the real marketing gold here is mined from the people of your community, are you listening to what they are saying?

In a post I came across, written by Ross Mayfield, he shares with us a model for understanding how enterprises are assimilating the knowledge learned from listening to the conversations surrounding their business.

• 1% of customer conversations are assimilated as organizational knowledge
• 9% of customer conversations touch the organization, but no learning occurs
• 90% of customer conversations never touch the organization

Listening To The Conversation

It pays to listen and instead of rehashing how you can set up a free social listening station, I go into detail about it in a recent post I wrote on personal branding. If you take a look at the figures above you will notice that 90% of what's being said about your business is never even heard. It's not that your customers don't have a voice, because they do, it's called social networking. The reason 90% of what your target market is saying never gets heard is because you're not listening, and the consequence is that you are ignoring a way to make your business exceptional.

As an example: an emphasis, over creating brand ambassadors, is being put on bringing in new customers to dealerships. On the outside that doesn't sound so bad, and it's not really but if you're starting on the bottom every month it's very difficult, if not impossible, to build an empire. More about that in a bit but first let's take a look at the other 10%.

Almost as alarming as 90% of what people are saying about a particular business is never heard, 9% of it is heard but no organizational learning is happening. Put another way, you hear about the experiences your customers are having at your business (good or bad) but you are doing nothing about it. You aren't assimilating the potential gold mine that your customers are sharing with you into your organizations knowledge base and are missing a huge opportunity to be exceptional. As I've said before it's the difference between what's expected and the actual service received that will dictate whether or not they will talk about you, and they are talking, it's up to you though if you want to exceed those expectations and gain positive word of mouth or fail to meet them and gain negative word of mouth.

Knowledge Assimilation

Be Part of The 1%: If you hear somebody say something good about one of your employees you should reward them, share it with the entire organization and depending on the impact level make sure that other employees duplicate it with the intention of multiplying the effect of the first. With the reverse, if you hear about a customer complaining about it taking too long to get an oil change or to get through F&I at your dealership, then take a look at your internal processes and make a change.

A lot of people take it personally when somebody complains about a product or service, but if you look at it as a cry for help and as a way to have a positive impact on your future business then you will begin to approach what others are saying in a different light. With the onset of social networks and the desire, by the consumer, to have a voice about your business, good or bad, then all you have to do is start thinking of the customer as part of your business, not just marketing but operations as well.

The best part of Social Media – that you can now begin to strategically employ – is that it is a marketing tool that also serves as a collaboration tool as well as a marketing tool. When you implement Social Marketing in this collaborative fashion, then you go a long way to building a true social business by harnessing the true voice of the customer.

Building An Empire By Building Brand Ambassadors

Earlier I said that an emphases was being put on brining in new customers instead of creating brand ambassadors, before you lambaste me though let me explain what I mean by that. Auto dealerships are notorious for being short sighted, they think in terms of today and because of that they tend not to think in terms of compounding customers.

Much like compounding interest, which Wikipedia defines as "when interest is added to the principal, so that from that moment on, the interest that has been added also itself earns interest", compounding customers works much the same way.

Dealership A

Dealership A spends a ton of money on advertising, they have catchy jingles and bring in a ton of customers every month. They give service that is expected but aren't very good at following up. Let's say that they sell 100 new customers every month, by new I mean that they aren't repeat or referrals. Through their advertising they are building top of mind, or so their radio and TV reps are telling them so they keep spending a ton of money each and every month on advertising but they still are only selling 100 cars each and every month.

Dealership B

Dealership B is a referral machine, they treat their customers right and work mainly through word of mouth. Management places an emphases on client follow up but they don't spend much money on traditional marketing so they aren't building a lot of NEW awareness but they are increasing their monthly unit count, but slowly.

Dealership C

Dealership C is a hybrid of Dealership A and B, they have a good marketing mix and spend a fair amount of money on tradition advertising but they also put an emphasis on customer experience and building brand ambassadors and relationship marketing (social media). They understand the Law of Compounding Customers (not really sure if it's a law, I may have just made it up! LOL) and that each and every single month, because 45% of their sales volume is from repeats and referrals, that they will grow perpetually, if they keep doing what they are doing.

If you follow with me here for a second I will explain in mathematical detail, to the best of my ability anyway, how you can take advantage of the Law of Compounding Customers. Let's say that in month 1, Dealership C sells 50 new customers and 35 referral and or repeat customers for a total of 85 units. Because of Dealerships C's exceptional track record they know that 45% of their customer will either come back or give them a referral.

Instead of starting from 0 each month they know that in any given month, the new customers they sold in previous months will either come back or send them referrals 45% of the time. In other words, out of the 50 they sold the previous month they can expect an additional 22 sales sometime in the future. If this keeps happening, month in and month out, the number of repeats and referrals will compound on the new customers in addition to the repeats and referrals in the previous months.

Breaking It Down

By listening to your customers and increasing the total customer experience in your business you create an environment for rampant word of mouth. If the point of sale experience matches how you portray yourself on social networks and in traditional advertising then you have the beginnings of a truly great customer experience and which increases your chance of effectiveness and frequency at creating influential brand ambassadors. But, it all starts with listening to your customers and assimilating that knowledge into your business operations to make an even better customer experience.

David Johnson is the social media strategist for Next Generation Dealer Services and author of PersuasiveConcepts.com. Sign up for the Automotive Social Media Newsletter HERE.

Continuing on the path I started when I wrote "Building Your Personal Brand by Harnessing The Power of Social Media" I wanted to write a second post that digs a little deeper into a few aspects of that earlier post. I can't stress enough about how important building your personal brand is to the future of your business. Just a take a look at the most popular brands out there and what they stand for. When you think "shoes" what brand comes to mind first? What about "soft drinks" or "car insurance?"

What do you stand for? What do you want to be known for? Who is your audience and what are they looking for? Keep in mind that the surest way to building a powerful personal brand is by giving your audience/customers what they want... over and over again.

Below find 5 things that you should start working on right now to build your influence and your own personal brand:

1. Create Valuable Content - Become A Thought Leader

By continually showcasing that you know what you are talking about, by becoming the authority you gain influence by becoming the expert. It's a psychological fact, authority is influential. People want to do business with people that they know (or think) has all the answers. People want to do business with a professional and if you show them, by creating powerful, thought provoking content , you are well on your way to establishing yourself as a thought leader.

Content doesn't just have to be a blog post, it can be a video or a podcast, an engaging topic started on your Facebook wall or even a tweet. The idea is to make people think by giving them valuable insights. If you sell cars you can create content around a number of topics such as:

• Blog Post: 5 Things You Can Do Right Now To Increase The Value Of Your Trade
   
• Facebook Wall Post: If you could ask a car salesperson one question, that they HAD to answer honestly, what would that one question be?
   
• Video: How To Stay Confident During The Negotiation Process

Of course there are many different valuable and thought provoking topics to choose from, but as stated earlier, it's important to be seen as THE thought leader in your field of expertise. Along those same lines it's important that you continually grow in your craft, consume as much content as possible yourself from other leaders in your field as well as in others. Keep in mind that learning is a never ending process and also that "He who knows everything, knows nothing."

2. Influence Others To Talk About You

By creating valuable content that speaks to the people reading it you are, in effect, influencing others to talk about you. But I want to take things deeper than that, if you really want to get other people to talk about you then you have to get them to like, know and trust you.

• Like: Getting somebody to like you is easier said than done but there are some things that you can do to become "likeable." First, don't talk about yourself, get other people to talk about themselves. You can do this online by asking questions of your customers, by starting engaging discussions on social networks and by addressing those that comment on your posts, videos, or podcasts. Also, while you are showcasing that you are a thought leader in your field, don't be unapproachable, thank people for commenting, and make it easy for people to connect with and contact you.
   
• Know: Don't be all professional, allow others to see your personal side. Let them see that you are human. You have likes, talk about them. Post pictures of your family on Facebook, write posts about a family outing or vacation, you can even talk about your favorite books or movies. Give people reasons to want to know you and a way to do so.
   
• Trust: Always, always, always do what you say you are going to do. Be transparent, thoughtful and help other people. Post client testimonials, social proof is a great way to build trust and is influential to others that are looking for somebody to be a car from or to hire to fix their plumbing.

3. Follow Up With Past Clients

By following up with and getting to know your past clients you are working to develop personal brand ambassadors. The best place to start, when building an online following, is by tapping into your current reservoir of clients. Befriend them on Facebook, get to know them beyond "business." Be careful here though, nobody likes to be cyber stalked so make sure that you get permission.

Once you have connected with past clients allow them an opportunity to get to know you, influence them to like, know and trust you. By you taking an active interest in wanting to know them and reading their content they will do the same for you and will quickly learn that you are a thought leader in your field. By working on your client relationships you are showcasing that you are exceptional and exceptional people get spoken about and referred to. These are all things that work toward building an army of brand ambassadors that want to spread your good word.

4. Talk About Other People

You've heard it before, probably because I say it a lot but, the less you pitch, the more you sell. In other words, the less you spend talking about you and what you do the more you will sell. So, instead of talking about yourself, spend more time talking about and referring others. Not only will other people notice that you lift others up but the people you are talking about and referring others to will feel influenced (Law Of Reciprocation) to reciprocate and will begin to talk about and refer others to you.

5. Listen To Conversations, Then Engage

Just as in real life, you can't meet people unless you venture away from home. What I mean by that, is don't spend all of your time on your Home Base (your website or blog). Spend time going to other people homes and outposts. Go to their Facebook pages and get to know them, engage on their discussion topics and comment on their blog posts.

There is a whole world of conversation going on that has nothing to do with you, go join in and become part of it. Add to the conversations and keep in mind that you don't want to pitch, just showcase your willingness to help and others will seek you out to find out more about you. They will read your profile, follow your other discussions and will see that you are a thought leader in your field and will be influenced to do business with and/or refer others to you.

Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand, whether its business wide or a single employee is worth cultivating. By building a strong personal brand, built on moral ethics and the desire to help others, then you are well on your way to building a business based on repeat and referral business. Start working on your brand today, it's the first step to building a fanatical following of brand ambassadors that will talk about and refer other to you.

What can you add? What have you done to build your own personal brand?

Continuing on the path I started when I wrote "Building Your Personal Brand by Harnessing The Power of Social Media" I wanted to write a second post that digs a little deeper into a few aspects of that earlier post. I can't stress enough about how important building your personal brand is to the future of your business. Just a take a look at the most popular brands out there and what they stand for. When you think "shoes" what brand comes to mind first? What about "soft drinks" or "car insurance?"

What do you stand for? What do you want to be known for? Who is your audience and what are they looking for? Keep in mind that the surest way to building a powerful personal brand is by giving your audience/customers what they want... over and over again.

Below find 5 things that you should start working on right now to build your influence and your own personal brand:

1. Create Valuable Content - Become A Thought Leader

By continually showcasing that you know what you are talking about, by becoming the authority you gain influence by becoming the expert. It's a psychological fact, authority is influential. People want to do business with people that they know (or think) has all the answers. People want to do business with a professional and if you show them, by creating powerful, thought provoking content , you are well on your way to establishing yourself as a thought leader.

Content doesn't just have to be a blog post, it can be a video or a podcast, an engaging topic started on your Facebook wall or even a tweet. The idea is to make people think by giving them valuable insights. If you sell cars you can create content around a number of topics such as:

• Blog Post: 5 Things You Can Do Right Now To Increase The Value Of Your Trade
   
• Facebook Wall Post: If you could ask a car salesperson one question, that they HAD to answer honestly, what would that one question be?
   
• Video: How To Stay Confident During The Negotiation Process

Of course there are many different valuable and thought provoking topics to choose from, but as stated earlier, it's important to be seen as THE thought leader in your field of expertise. Along those same lines it's important that you continually grow in your craft, consume as much content as possible yourself from other leaders in your field as well as in others. Keep in mind that learning is a never ending process and also that "He who knows everything, knows nothing."

2. Influence Others To Talk About You

By creating valuable content that speaks to the people reading it you are, in effect, influencing others to talk about you. But I want to take things deeper than that, if you really want to get other people to talk about you then you have to get them to like, know and trust you.

• Like: Getting somebody to like you is easier said than done but there are some things that you can do to become "likeable." First, don't talk about yourself, get other people to talk about themselves. You can do this online by asking questions of your customers, by starting engaging discussions on social networks and by addressing those that comment on your posts, videos, or podcasts. Also, while you are showcasing that you are a thought leader in your field, don't be unapproachable, thank people for commenting, and make it easy for people to connect with and contact you.
   
• Know: Don't be all professional, allow others to see your personal side. Let them see that you are human. You have likes, talk about them. Post pictures of your family on Facebook, write posts about a family outing or vacation, you can even talk about your favorite books or movies. Give people reasons to want to know you and a way to do so.
   
• Trust: Always, always, always do what you say you are going to do. Be transparent, thoughtful and help other people. Post client testimonials, social proof is a great way to build trust and is influential to others that are looking for somebody to be a car from or to hire to fix their plumbing.

3. Follow Up With Past Clients

By following up with and getting to know your past clients you are working to develop personal brand ambassadors. The best place to start, when building an online following, is by tapping into your current reservoir of clients. Befriend them on Facebook, get to know them beyond "business." Be careful here though, nobody likes to be cyber stalked so make sure that you get permission.

Once you have connected with past clients allow them an opportunity to get to know you, influence them to like, know and trust you. By you taking an active interest in wanting to know them and reading their content they will do the same for you and will quickly learn that you are a thought leader in your field. By working on your client relationships you are showcasing that you are exceptional and exceptional people get spoken about and referred to. These are all things that work toward building an army of brand ambassadors that want to spread your good word.

4. Talk About Other People

You've heard it before, probably because I say it a lot but, the less you pitch, the more you sell. In other words, the less you spend talking about you and what you do the more you will sell. So, instead of talking about yourself, spend more time talking about and referring others. Not only will other people notice that you lift others up but the people you are talking about and referring others to will feel influenced (Law Of Reciprocation) to reciprocate and will begin to talk about and refer others to you.

5. Listen To Conversations, Then Engage

Just as in real life, you can't meet people unless you venture away from home. What I mean by that, is don't spend all of your time on your Home Base (your website or blog). Spend time going to other people homes and outposts. Go to their Facebook pages and get to know them, engage on their discussion topics and comment on their blog posts.

There is a whole world of conversation going on that has nothing to do with you, go join in and become part of it. Add to the conversations and keep in mind that you don't want to pitch, just showcase your willingness to help and others will seek you out to find out more about you. They will read your profile, follow your other discussions and will see that you are a thought leader in your field and will be influenced to do business with and/or refer others to you.

Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand, whether its business wide or a single employee is worth cultivating. By building a strong personal brand, built on moral ethics and the desire to help others, then you are well on your way to building a business based on repeat and referral business. Start working on your brand today, it's the first step to building a fanatical following of brand ambassadors that will talk about and refer other to you.

What can you add? What have you done to build your own personal brand?