DrivingSales inc
Facebook Places and your car dealership
DrivingSales inc
Marketing is not the problem.
Despite the fact that most dealerships are still operating on an old marketing paradigm, most dealers are fairly decent marketers. They tend to manage large budgets and get predictable results with acceptable ROI. (The ROI part is semi-debatable, but that’s for another time.)
The biggest problem hindering most stores is not the marketing, it’s that they don’t deliver on their marketing promises. It’s sad, but our industry standard for customer service is doing just enough to get the job done with today’s fresh customers but stops way short of creating an experience that customers can rave about. In other words, the root problem holding dealerships back is not what you are doing in 140 characters on twitter, it’s what you are doing on your showroom and service drive.
Think about these points:
· Is the foursquare you use in your write up process designed for optimal customer experience or just to maximize gross?
· If a customer asks for the price, or even payments, on a vehicle, how hard is it for them to get a straight answer? Are your sales people trained in evasive tactics?
· Are your sales people paid in a way that motivates them to maximize gross at the expense of the customer experience?
· How long does it take to get through the finance office?
· Is your trade evaluation process transparent or do your customers have to wrangle through a negotiation process after being hit with a super low offer to get to an “acceptable” deal?
These items are just examples of common pain points within dealerships that hinder customers from truly loving you. I know this sounds a bit crazy, but if you were to bring your mom down to the dealership to buy a car, but you wouldn’t allow her to be subjected to your normal sales process… you have a broken process! Lets face it; we could all do a better job in certain areas.
Social Media is the COOL thing to do:
Social media is about really efficient communications. People now share information to the tenth power, and this power of “word of mouth” has WONDERFUL marketing implications for all business. However, most dealerships don’t give the customers something good to talk about. Even the most effective social media strategy is doomed if your dealership doesn’t operate in a super customer centered way.
My Recommendation:
There is a massive opportunity out there for those dealerships who are willing to be innovative with their marketing, including being heavily involved in the social media sphere, while innovating at the operations level to provide amazing customer service… then get out of the way and let your customers do the talking.
This is proven to generate wild success. Ask Eric Miltsch, Tom White jr, Andrew Difeo or Tracy Myers about how their stores have performed through the downturn, then ask them about the how they handle the pain points listed above. These guys are more than marketing geniuses, they pair excellent marketing with brilliant operations, and each puts their own flavor to it.
Killer success does not come from killer marketing alone. Huge success comes from the alignment of your dealerships marketing with your stores true value proposition, excellent customer service.
Everyone wants to be a business rock star but few are willing to put in what it takes to get there. Most in business operate at the status quo and try and dress things up in fancy marketing. Innovate at the operation level and pair that with killer marketing and you will become the rock star.
What’s holding your store back from rock star status? My guess it’s not just what you are saying on twitter or sharing on Facebook, it has more to do with giving your customers something to talk about.
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DrivingSales inc
To combat what I feel is a growing problem on Facebook, I’m experimenting in a big way with my strategy.
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DrivingSales inc
Why is President Obama focused on forcing expensive regulation onto dealerships as if they are banks?
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DrivingSales inc
Top Reasons You're not Seeing ROI from Your Social Pages
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PCG Consulting Inc
@Jared You bring up a good point that car dealers do not have experience with content writing strategies that add value in social media. That would be a great webinar to run for members of DrivingSales.com to coach them how to write more effectively on blogs and social media sites. Let's get one setup! Secondly, posting car specials and individual inventory on your wall will turn off consumers who are looking to engage with the dealership. I find a nice balance is to add a Facebook Tab to your Fan Page that has a car inventory research tool available IF the consumer chooses to engage and shop inside of Facebook. An example of this concept can be found at http://www.facebook.com/Marlboro.Nissan?v=app_360836281011 . This is a clean way to have the dealership's inventory one-click away but not in their face or in the stream of content on the Wall. As these types of apps develop, Facebook Fan Pages will be multi-purpose and a significant sources to promote your brand and sell more cars. As you have stated, the key is to create the content, articles and commentary that makes people want to follow your posts and grow attached to your brand. Then it comes down to the basics of human interaction and communication.
Own
As I said just last week in my last WebEx seminar, Social Media (and it doesn't matter if we are talking about Twitter or Facebook here) will help these dealers, who see their Social marketing followers in the MIDLLE of the purchase funnel, and not at the end - the consumer all ready to make a deal. As we all (should) know the MIDDLE of the Funnel is when our possible prospect is in the mood to find out more about a product or service and uses the time to make her research and observation "whom to pick as TRUSTED vendor". In my opinion, and as Jared has stated absolutely right, the huge chance to convert an "opportunity" begins with a car dealers fixed operations. Show your potential, future what made you the No.1 go to service department in the city, who is frequently holding "free car clinics" every first Wednesday in a month and the customers are receiving free Technician advice how do change oil filters, tires, air filters and so on - and the best thing is, the parts you possible need to perform the just taught are ON SALE the same day, and beats the price of the in-town AutoZone store. These clinics also should be YouTube(d), tagged with the right keywords and also posted on your dealer's URL under the tab "do it yourself" or similar. This is valuable content is what Social Media Marketing si all about and you need to share on all your Social channels - it is active, informative, vibrant content which directly points the interested Social Media consumer into your direction or even better into your store. There are far more ideas and Tips I would love to share, and I promise I will with one of my next posts. Jared, Brian let's work together on the strategy for the next Bootcamp ;)
ADP/Cobalt
I am currently an Internet Manager at a small rural GM dealership and we have really worked to make our Facebook page an itegral part of our marketing mix. We currently have over 750 fans, and while many are friends and family members of staffers, we actively invite our customers. I take the email address of each person who buys a car (and most who service with us) and I seacrh for them on Facebook. If they have a page, I use the "Share" button at the bottom of our dealership fan page to sent them a nice message inviting them to become a fan. I have sent hundreds of these and received only 1 message back from an unhappy customer. We try to post fun local events and specials, and have gotten a pretty good response. By no means do we expect to sell cars off Facebook, but I have found that the fans who have posted comments or pictures on our page are now loyal for life. That's just my two cents. You can't expect people to just stumble onto your fan page - you have to be active about inviting them,.
PCG Consulting Inc
@Erin I agree...to grow your Facebook Fans requires innovation and hard work. That work will be rewarded over time...dealers just have to be patient and NOT measure results in terms on days or months.
Persuasive Concepts, LLC
Brian, you bring up a very valid point and is the reason, I believe, why most social media attempts by auto dealers end up going awry. Auto dealers are always thinking about the return they can make today, not what they can cultivate for future returns. Having said that, that's the reason why we are seeing so many abandoned social media attempts, with fan pages that get updated once a month if we're lucky, or twitter profiles that haven't been updated in months. Even if they are updated they fall into one of the two categories that Jared talks about in his post. Dealerships need to realize that social media isn't the big splash that they are looking for, rather the ripple that takes time to grow.
DMEautomotive
@Jared, wonderful blog and quite thought provoking. Frankly, it appears from my interactions with the automotive industry professionals that many just aren’t used to NOT selling. But the suggestion provided by @Brian to have an inventory tab on FB is probably the best option, as it’s not intruding on their daily Facebook experience but available to those interested. Ideally, social media can be used to position a dealership as an industry expert, act as a real-time customer service forum, and educate customers and general public. Instead of the hard sell, dealers MUST think of ways to help customers and general public better understand the car buying process and how financing works, the reasons behind various service requirements, ways to enhance the driving experience, how to improve or better maintain their car and other types of insightful and useful tips. Tidbits about car care, maintenance, and driving tips are usually well received. Those topics are ENDLESS. The important thing is to remember - as @Brian mentioned - is patience and perhaps dealers need to alter the way they are measuring the ROI. I wrote a white paper a few months ago that may be helpful, please check it out and let me know your thoughts: http://www.fullcirclesolutions.com/downloads/hiddenlink.php
DealerTeamwork LLC
Many dealers run the risk of simply creating the same run-of-the-mill page & which becomes the digital equivalent of the boring, ineffective weekend display ad in the newspaper. The average FB user goes into a new "user-mode" that is unlike their behavior on a typical website; think about your own usage - you're seeking fun, new, interactive things to click on, like, try-out, add to your page - you're not there to be sold the old way. (Why do you think Farmville's founders are wealthier than a small nation?) whatever you do, it needs to be different. Here's one small example of how I'm trying to mix it up - and it's got people asking questions: http://www.facebook.com/AuctionDirectUSA?v=app_331973405870&ref=ts
Interactive Marketing and Consulting Services
Jared, Great post and one more in a very deliberate path that our valuable dealer base in the US can read. And then hopefully put into action. And the points made above by everyone adding are very valid. To understand social media's place in any retail you must look at how that business operates. Social media, while very natural to us as people that generally network, is very unnatural to the essence of automotive retail. This has been very evident since the mid-90's with everything from online pricing, invoices, listing of dealer "trunk" cash and other intentional transparencies that the dealerships (mostly) have despised. Everything is fought. Any item that shines a light into how dealers sell cars is frowned upon. This may sound off topic but it's not and I've known this from being in the industry for a mere 10 years. Not decades. And I'm not from a line of automotive superstars (my parents, in fact, hate dealerships because of how they've been treated over the years). Social media, as well as other associated activities, is an extension of your brand. Pure and simple. If you don't have a brand and experience that you'd tell EVERYONE about, social is probably not your cup of tea. Success is nearly always top down and if a store's management is not on board, you'll either have to be a renegade or deliberately ignore their frustration with being involved. There are a few missing points in section 2 about ROI. Social is about engagement. Yes, content is hard enough for dealers, especially when a lot of people in the "Internet" departments have a hard enough time with writing emails to customers (both timeliness and content). You have to be on your game in social media and not just for customer service opportunities. First is that engagement via the content shared and commented on DOES drive traffic no matter what part of the 'funnel' they're in (let alone the funnel concept has been blown apart in the past three years due to the social web). This means you have to look at your FB analytics, for example, to see how people are using your content before they even hit your website, if they do at all. Second is process including making sure you go out of your way to engage influencers. Erin made a great point about this. One, she has a process. Second, she looks at the person's profile (and likely how many friends they have) when inviting. And this is no different than what you need to do with the recommendation sites like Yelp, DealerRater, MyDealerReport and more. As a matter of a fact, social reviews are proving...proving...to deliver more leads than any other social media. Also, while I'm not suggesting that anyone and everyone becomes SEO experts, social media done right is part of the equation in dominating Google rank. Again, important to point out done right. And just because you get 2,000 fans doesn't necessarily mean you'll have your FB page show up on page 1 of Google. But with the right traffic, links, interaction, events and more, there is a good chance that you'll have one more portal or dealer fall off of GP1 when your social media does well. IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE Dealers, providers, vendors, consultants: PLEASE stop setting up friend pages. You MUST set up Fan pages. Number one, by having a business as a friend page, you're in violation of Facebook's Terms of Service/Use. Second, you don't get to have analytics/dashboard when you have a friend page. Third, you don't have as much control over the engagement with your page. The list is too long of other things to do and not do but please start with those. DON'T SET UP FRIEND PAGES FOR BUSINESSES!!!!!! (yes I'm yelling after being ignored for the most part of two years). SECOND IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE Because, as pointed out by everyone here, content is king it is important to remind everyone that there is nothing social about inventory, price or automation. If you have an API set up to feed inventory to your Twitter page, you might as well stop. If you have an API set up to post well-followed content into your Twitter page, you're part of the way there. If you don't answer mentions and important follows or take note of what people are commenting about, you might as well not use Twitter because, well, you're not being social. People that use social media, want to be social or are in consideration of using/interacting with your brand and will become social. Don't continue to make the mistakes that most dealerships are making today with not realizing the power, and potential for huge mistakes and misses, that social media not done right allows for. Too many dealers use automation for content, auto follow backs and retweets, get 10,000 followers and think that helps them. To use an oft used Twitter hashtag: #FAIL (if you don't know what a hashtag is and you're in social media, you definitely need to get help). And to Eric's point about people asking questions, that is what social media is all about folks. Stop trying to sell in social media. Stop ignoring opportunities in social media. Stop thinking by having some networks up that you're in social media. Use social media as a tool to drive consideration, retention and information. That is all.
DMEautomotive
Love your comments Gary...so true. Especially about "Friend" vs. "Fan" Pages. Fan pages are the way to go. And they drive SEO! Missy
Dealers United
Loving this discussion! A few things: has anyone read "The Conversion Code" by Chris Smith? AWESOME tips on using social (particularly Facebook) to do social selling the right way. And yes content is key...but dealers I know don't have time to create hundreds of whitepapers and videos for different consumers. That's why the best strategies tend to advertise specific pieces of content, even "salesy" content, to specific users on Facebook - like pet adoption events to pet lovers, military discounts to active military and veterans, and even particular types of vehicles to shoppers who are In-Market for those specific makes & models. But heads up: since Facebook's organic (unpaid) reach has gone down immensely since 2014, Page fans and Likes hardly impact your reach when it comes to getting your message seen - another likely reason for not being able to measure ROI! According to a study by Social&Ogilvy, Business Pages that had more than 500,000 Likes were only achieving an organic reach of 2%. Even if you had 10,000 FB fans, only 200 would see your posts! When it comes to your dealership FB Pages, your Business Page and your "salesly" content need to be very different entities. That's what Facebook advertising is for - so anything sales oriented sits behind-the-scenes, not on your Page (which should be culture and content driven) - and no, “Boosting posts” doesn’t count! Lastly, another quick comment regarding ROI...if you do decide to run paid ads, you can use Offline Conversion Events (what we call Sales Matchbacks over at Dealers United) to track actual vehicle sale attribution to every ad you run. This is extremely useful when running vehicle ads, so you can see which styles are getting the most VDP views & sales every month, and help you plan your floor accordingly. (More tips can be found on our blog: http://www.dealersunited.com/blog/category/social-media/)
DrivingSales inc
Its been almost 2 years since I left the day to day dealership world and have focused on building DrivingSales. My objective is simple: give all dealers 24-7 access to proven best practices and industry innovations. Those on the front lines need better information than they currently get, faster than they can currently get it. I’m very passionate about solving this issue for the industry and we are making some great strides in that direction. (But still have a long way to go.) Things at DrivingSales are going GREAT and we have a team committed to keeping it growing and executing on our goals in some amazing ways; but at the same time felt I could accomplish two dreams at once. Given the current market, it’s a GREAT time to buy a store… so that’s what I did. No Comments
DrivingSales inc
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DrivingSales
Leading Social Media Network and Vogelheim Ventures Bring Auto Industry’s Top Thought Leaders, Retail Executives, and Innovators Together for Collaborative Conference
07.09.2009 – Salt Lake City, Utah & Orange County, CA - July 9th, 2009 - DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com), the auto industry’s leading social media platform and largest online community, today announced that the premiere DrivingSales Executive Summit, presented by Vogelheim Ventures will take place October 13th and 14th 2009 in Las Vegas. Designed as a uniquely collaborative and interactive forum, the DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) will bring together the nation’s most innovative dealer operators to collaborate on progressive marketing models, interactive technologies and operational solutions and feature speakers and experts from both inside and outside the automotive sector who have fresh ideas to help drive a better future for the industry.
“As our industry confronts perhaps its greatest changes and challenges, technology and media are rapidly evolving to provide some of the industry’s greatest marketing and operational opportunities,” says Charlie Vogelheim of Vogelheim Ventures. “We firmly believe that innovation and collaboration are the tools that will enable our industry to thrive beyond its current crisis, and we intend for the DrivingSales Executive Summit to serve as a critical starting point for ideas that will advance tomorrow’s technologies and innovative practices into today’s dealerships.”
According to Vogelheim, the summit is designed to break away from traditional automotive conference formats by emulating the productive collaboration, diverse knowledgebase and immediacy of a social networking site. The keywords guiding the DSES format are ‘participation’, ‘education’ and ‘collaboration,’ and, in addition to world-renowned speakers and experts, it is set to include a rotating series of interactive roundtable forums, best practices workshops, technology showcases, live blogging, video feeds and the presentation of data from a new automotive retailer marketing white paper, set to be released exclusively at the DSES.
Said DrivingSales Founder Jared Hamilton: “The DrivingSales Executive Summit will take both a global and a domestic view of our industry as we separate hype from reality to learn from those in the trenches which technologies and marketing strategies are currently working, which ones are destined to bring future results -- and which ones have no impact on the bottom line.”
Unlike other automotive industry events, DSES has a vendor-neutral policy, meaning adherence to a strict dealer-to-vendor ratio and no vendor influence on presentation selection. Topics currently on the summit agenda are Social Media: Does it Work?; Internet Reset: Where’s it Headed; Media Spend: Appropriate Allocation; Effective Monitor and Measurement; Blogs Get Real; Searching for Successful Search Marketing; Life After Bankruptcy: The Next Incarnation; The Global Future: Europe, China and India; Reputation Management and Throw Out Your Internet Department!
The DrivingSales Executive Summit is an Invitation-Only event and will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on October 13th and October 14th 2009. For more information about attending the conference, sponsorship opportunities and to apply for an invitation, visit www.drivingsales.com/events or contact dses@drivingsales.com. Follow conference news as it develops on www.twitter.com/drivingsales.
About DrivingSales
DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com) is the largest and premiere online community for the auto industry, where its thousands of members, including dealers, dealership managers, manufacturers, industry experts and vendors, collaborate and share best practices in a 20-group style setting. At DrivingSales, members create profiles and communicate with each other; build their networks and knowledgebase; share and rate proven strategies, and have access to relevant content contributed by fellow industry experts, including blogs, videos, interviews, and more. Dealer members rate and review vendor products - sharing their experiences with the DrivingSales community - while vendors have the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. Created and built from the ground up by third-generation dealer Jared Hamilton, DrivingSales is the auto industry’s leading social media custom platform.
About Vogelheim Ventures
Vogelheim Ventures is an automotive industry consulting firm that facilitates educational programs, collaborative development and innovative symposiums. Principal Charlie Vogelheim has been involved in the Automotive Industry for nearly twenty five years. His insight and counsel have been utilized by a variety of automotive related companies including, Kelley Blue Book, J.D. Power and Associates, The National Auto Auction Association, Car and Driver, Wards Automotive, Bobit Publishing, Meguiar’s and several emergent companies. During his 20 year tenure at Kelley Blue Book, Charlie was instrumental in developing the website kbb.com. Serving as chairman of the Automotive Internet Standards Committee he was an original contributor to the development and implementation of the automotive sites at Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Vehix, e-Bay and several others. Vogelheim created the J.D. Power and Associates Internet Roundtable, and built it into the premier forum for automotive industry leaders and executives to share and discuss the development of the internet and its influence on the automotive industry.
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DrivingSales
Auto Industry’s Largest and Premiere Online Community Recognized in Best Web Site or Blog Category
05.21.2009 – Salt Lake City, Utah– May 21, 2009 –DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com), the auto industry’s leading social media platform and largest online community, was named a Finalist today in the best Web Site or Blog automotive/transport category in The 2009 American Business Awards, also known as The Stevie® Awards.
“I am proud that DrivingSales.com has been recognized with this honor, further validating the vital role to be played by social media in the current challenging automotive climate,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “This is a tribute to the thousands of dealers and auto industry professionals who have joined DrivingSales.com to collaborate and to share the best practices and industry trends that are so critical to helping our community thrive and survive in these tough economic times.”
The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit entries to the ABAs – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.
More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories.
“Despite very tough economic conditions, many organizations and individuals continue to perform well,” said Michael Gallagher, founder and president of The Stevie Awards. “The results of the 2009 ABAs thus far are a testament to the resilience, creativity, and hard work of American organizations, executives, and workers.”
About DrivingSales
DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com) is the largest and premiere online community for the auto industry, where its thousands of members, including dealers, dealership managers, manufacturers, industry experts and vendors, collaborate and share best practices in a 20-group style setting. At DrivingSales, members create profiles and communicate with each other; build their networks and knowledgebase; share and rate proven strategies, and have access to relevant content contributed by fellow industry experts, including blogs, videos, interviews, and more. Dealer members rate and review vendor products - sharing their experiences with the DrivingSales community - while vendors have the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. Created and built from the ground up by third-generation dealer Jared Hamilton, DrivingSales is the auto industry’s leading social media custom platform.
About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.
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DrivingSales
Salt Lake City, UT May 14th, 2009 DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com), the auto industry’s leading social media platform and largest online community, today announced that auto industry veteran and Internet pioneer, Charlie Vogelheim, has joined its Board of Advisors. Charged with further amplifying DrivingSales as the authoritative data and best practices source for the industry, Vogelheim will also focus on industry relations and serve as a guardian for DrivingSales’ media- and vendor-neutral environment.
Formed in early 2008, the DrivingSales Board of Advisors consists of the industry’s top innovators and executives who are charged with expanding DrivingSales’ mission to marry the power of technology with the power of community to provide dealers, dealership managers and other industry professionals with a vendor-neutral, online environment where they can collaborate and share best practices, industry trends and news.
“DrivingSales brings together the industry’s most critical and authoritative voices – from Internet, Service and General Managers to OEM executives – all in one place,” said DrivingSales Founder and CEO Jared Hamilton. “Charlie’s extensive background driving and evangelizing industry innovations, as well as his ability to view the industry from multiple perspectives, will help us further elevate DrivingSales - and its many authoritative “voices of the industry’ - to become the defacto industry knowledge base and best practices destination for the thousands of dealers and automotive professionals who are striving to survive and thrive in this challenging environment.”
With over two decades of experience in the automotive industry, Vogelheim is known throughout the industry for his insight and counsel on current challenges and emerging trends and is a frequent commentator for media outlets such as Fox News and Car and Driver. As Vice President of Automotive Development at J.D. Power and Associates, he was responsible for elevating the International Automotive Roundtable to the premier forum for industry leaders; and at Kelley Blue Book, where he served as executive editor, he was instrumental in helping to change the Kelley identity from a regional trade publishing company to the Industry’s leading internet information provider. An original contributor to the development and implementation of leading automotive portal sites such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and e-Bay, he has also served as chairman of the Automotive Internet Standards Committee.
“The auto industry’s most important advances have come from a combination of game-changing technology and the battle-won wisdom of those who are on the frontlines,” said Charlie Vogelheim. “DrivingSales utilizes technology to create a true community of industry voices – of those who are facing challenges as well as those who are achieving success – all without bias. DrivingSales is dedicated to furthering the interests of our automotive community as a whole, and this is why I am excited to help bring more and more of our industry voices into the DrivingSales network.”
About DrivingSales
DrivingSales.com (www.drivingsales.com) is the largest and premiere online community for the auto industry, where its thousands of members, including dealers, dealership managers, manufacturers, industry experts and vendors, collaborate and share best practices in a 20-group style setting. At DrivingSales, members create profiles and communicate with each other; build their networks and knowledgebase; share and rate proven strategies, and have access to relevant content contributed by fellow industry experts, including blogs, videos, interviews, and more. Dealer members rate and review vendor products - sharing their experiences with the DrivingSales community - while vendors have the opportunity to provide feedback on reviews and showcase their products and services. Created and built from the ground up by third-generation dealer Jared Hamilton, DrivingSales is the auto industry’s leading social media custom platform.
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