This post is part of a series titled 10 Ways to Use Social Media for Day-to-Day Business. Every day we will be expanding upon a new tip until the list is complete.

If there's one medium to bet on for the future, it's video. Tweeting may someday fall out of favor. Thousands of new blogs are popping up every day, making it hard to get in through the noise. Even Facebook, as gigantic as it is today, could collapse under its own weight from a couple of wrong moves.

Video, on the other hand, is going to be around in one form or another for a long, long time on the internet. We, as humans, love the sit-back-and-enjoy style of information consumption. It's what made the television such a gargantuan medium and it will continue to drive the internet for decades to come.

Your business must be using video to promote an enhance your day-to-day business. Period. End of st... well, not quite the end of the story. There's more:

Frequency by Personality

How often you post is based upon two criteria: how much time you have and the personality of your dealership. "Amount of content available" is not a criteria. It doesn't matter if you have a single client and you talk to 1 customer a month. You should be able to get your creative juices flowing in a way that brings video ideas to mind.

Sometimes, it's just a matter of seeing what others are doing. Here are some ideas from the automotive industry...

Monthly Video Marketing

(3-10 hour time investment, $0-$10,000 financial investment)

If your business is driven by customers, creating high-quality videos of your customers is one of the best ways to integrate it into your day-to-day business. A single video done monthly with focus and the ability to allow viewers to associate with the subject can make an impact every day.

Here is an example of a testimonial video that took time to create. It wasn't a matter of whipping out a flip camera and asking questions (though there is definitely a place for those types of videos as mention below) but with some simple staging and a candid customer followed by some good video editing, the result was something that can help this business grab more customers today.

Other ideas for monthly videos include:

• * In-depth tips pertaining to your niche such as "How to change the spark plugs on a Honda Civic"
• * Explanation of services. For example, a steak house might make a video that demonstrates "Our Ribeyes, From the Cow to Your Plate" that follows the "path" your steak travels, including shots from the farm where you buy your meat, the cutting process, the aging process, time spent on the grill and finally how it's served to customers.
• * A "dozens of happy customers" video that takes your testimonials from the month (that you collect for daily or weekly videos) and forms a compilation of short comments they made. To be truly effective, remember the movie review videos that we see all the time. They usually do not focus on a single review, but instead they flash several quotes from noted reviewers. If you have 15 reviews, for example, you should take 2-5 second snippets from each and compile them into a rapid-paced, short video with a lot of smiling faces accompanied by gentle music and a strong intro and outro clip.

Weekly Video Marketing

(30-minutes to 1-hour time investment, $0-$1000 financial investment)

Above, we mentioned that you could do compilations of happy clients in a strong monthly video. This is also a good weekly video, though it shouldn't necessarily be as time-consuming. Longer scenes can be put together for a longer video that can have strong results.

This may go against our logic, but it's actually easier to make a longer compilation video with longer clips than it is to make a shorter one. Shorter ones with rapid-fire clips can be more challenging to make coherently.

Here's an example of a longer video that was easier to make (took 15 minutes of filming and 30 minutes of editing) than a strong, professionally-done rapid-fire piece.

It's not the best made video in the world but it gets the point across.

Other ideas for weekly videos include:

• * Product usage ideas. Spark some ideas in your customers by showing them creative ways to use the products or services they purchased from you.
• * Employee interviews. Keep them short - under 3 minutes - but get clips of happy employees enjoying their jobs. People like to do business with those who enjoy what they're doing. Having pride and putting a little love into your job fills potential customers with confidence.
• * Random rants. I know, YouTube is already loaded with too many people ranting about too many things, but if you have employees with strong personalities that translate well on camera, use them. Record them discussing issues in or out of your industry and add the human touch to your business.

Daily Video Marketing

(5-minutes to 15-hour time investment, $0 financial investment)

This is the easiest one. It takes the formation of a habit to do it right because consistency is the key. Testimonials are the "low-hanging fruit" in this segment. If you have happy customers, ask them if they'd do a 30-second video testimonial for you. Get one good snippet of them talking about your business, then post it with a quick intro and outro (one that you build and save for all of your daily videos).

On days where testimonials are not available, have a library of employee videos ready to post. You can spend a few hours one day grabbing your employees and having them say something short about their departments, the company, and themselves. Save these up and post them on days that you don't have testimonials.

The most important part of daily video marketing is to be consistent. If you can set a time when the videos are posted and subsequently promoted on Facebook, Twitter, and your blog, that's ideal. Even if you can't be sure to post every day no matter what.

You can always take weekends off, of course, and you can skip days that you're posting weekly or monthly videos, of course, but be sure that you're posting on regular intervals.

Other ideas for daily videos include:

• * Response videos. In certain niches such as computer technology, there are hundreds of good videos posted every day by others. Posting your take on these videos as responses fills your channel as well as helps to expose your channel through others.
• * Daily deals. Groupon may be having challenges, but the concept is there. Restaurants that serve daily specials are perfect examples of businesses that can take advantage of this. Get a video of the featured dish of the day with you or someone else describing it in a succulent manner, then post it in your channel. This can be particularly effective when combined with Twitter and Facebook.
• * Product focus videos. If you have several different products or services, take some time to describe them. A car dealership could take a quick look at the fresh trade-ins of the day. "Before they hit the lot" videos can draw in business, particularly from bargain-hunters who like things that are fresh.

The possibilities through video marketing are endless. You must be consistent, attentive, creative, and willing to make the commitment, but once the ball gets rolling it can be a fun and effective way of increasing business by giving you tools that you and your staff can use over and over again.

* * * Read more social media marketing tips on Soshable.

There are advantages and disadvantages to building proprietary, unique automotive internet marketing software. When TK started building Connect, we knew what we were getting into and thankfully the development and testing have fallen directly in line with our expectations.

Is it really better to build? The other options - white label and partnerships - have advantages of their own. As we move forward with our next batch of projects, I wanted to tap into the Driving Sales community and find out what dealers and other vendors prefer and why.

Building a platform, whether it's for websites, SEO, PPC, social media, or whatever, allows for complete control and fully automotive integration. It can be expensive and time-consuming, but having control gives vendors the ability to customize as they see fit.

Using white labeled products is the most common technique used by vendors. Granted, very few people know this - that's the point of white labeling. To take a pre-existing product, wrap it in a shell that hides the origin, and sell it as its own product is the way that most vendors go with at least half of their offerings. We have avoided this over the years, but if there are advantages, I would love to hear them.

Building partnerships with niche-leaders is our preferred way of doing things with anything that we do not build ourselves. Raven Tools, for example, is the best in the industry when it comes to SEO and social integration, and we proudly partner with them. Janrain is another rising star in social media and we will (hopefully) be bringing their high-dollar product to dealers at a much more affordable cost.

With these things in mind, where do you stand? What do you want your vendors to do? Build? White label? Partner? The advantages and disadvantages are numerous for each style, but in the end it really comes down to delivery. Which method brings the best products at the right price to car dealers?

Thoughs?

There are advantages and disadvantages to building proprietary, unique automotive internet marketing software. When TK started building Connect, we knew what we were getting into and thankfully the development and testing have fallen directly in line with our expectations.

Is it really better to build? The other options - white label and partnerships - have advantages of their own. As we move forward with our next batch of projects, I wanted to tap into the Driving Sales community and find out what dealers and other vendors prefer and why.

Building a platform, whether it's for websites, SEO, PPC, social media, or whatever, allows for complete control and fully automotive integration. It can be expensive and time-consuming, but having control gives vendors the ability to customize as they see fit.

Using white labeled products is the most common technique used by vendors. Granted, very few people know this - that's the point of white labeling. To take a pre-existing product, wrap it in a shell that hides the origin, and sell it as its own product is the way that most vendors go with at least half of their offerings. We have avoided this over the years, but if there are advantages, I would love to hear them.

Building partnerships with niche-leaders is our preferred way of doing things with anything that we do not build ourselves. Raven Tools, for example, is the best in the industry when it comes to SEO and social integration, and we proudly partner with them. Janrain is another rising star in social media and we will (hopefully) be bringing their high-dollar product to dealers at a much more affordable cost.

With these things in mind, where do you stand? What do you want your vendors to do? Build? White label? Partner? The advantages and disadvantages are numerous for each style, but in the end it really comes down to delivery. Which method brings the best products at the right price to car dealers?

Thoughs?

Some of the most important marketing tools start off with a completely different use in mind. Texting is one of them.

Anyone who has a teen with a smartphone knows that it's a "best practice" to have an unlimited texting plan. They love it. Most adults have embraced texting over the years as a good method of communication. Whether you're one of those people or not, you should definitely at least be looking at the different ways to integrate text messaging into your marketing strategy.

It doesn't necessarily even have to be outgoing. Sometimes, encouraging potential customers to contact you via text is a quick and easy way to collect more information about them. They don't always want to call and talk to a salesperson, but a text message is less direct (at least that's the perception). It offers a degree of separation that some customers crave.

Texting is big and getting bigger. You should be collecting cell numbers through text messaging whenver possible. Those teens of today who are texting like crazy are the buyers tomorrow.

Does anyone have anything that they're doing at their dealership to use texting in marketing, either outbound or to collect opt-in cell numbers?

Some of the most important marketing tools start off with a completely different use in mind. Texting is one of them.

Anyone who has a teen with a smartphone knows that it's a "best practice" to have an unlimited texting plan. They love it. Most adults have embraced texting over the years as a good method of communication. Whether you're one of those people or not, you should definitely at least be looking at the different ways to integrate text messaging into your marketing strategy.

It doesn't necessarily even have to be outgoing. Sometimes, encouraging potential customers to contact you via text is a quick and easy way to collect more information about them. They don't always want to call and talk to a salesperson, but a text message is less direct (at least that's the perception). It offers a degree of separation that some customers crave.

Texting is big and getting bigger. You should be collecting cell numbers through text messaging whenver possible. Those teens of today who are texting like crazy are the buyers tomorrow.

Does anyone have anything that they're doing at their dealership to use texting in marketing, either outbound or to collect opt-in cell numbers?

The thought crossed my mind the other day to search vendors for the different SEO packages they offered. I wanted to see where the high-end was and who was still hovering in the low-end, "make your site SEO-friendly" realm.

What I found surprised me. Those who have read my writing here in the past know that I do not get all controversial about topics - I prefer to stay productive and constructive at all times. However, I had to point this little tidbit out because, as someone who has been doing Automotive SEO for 4 years now, I found it disconcerting.

One size cannot fit all. When it comes to search, different cities, brands, and goals determine the level of SEO. A Mercedes dealership in a small town can get away with little or no SEO as they likely have their market covered. A Honda dealer in a large metro may need to have the latest and greatest "super-awesome-mega-SEO-package-of-the-month" just to stay above the fold for important searches.

I guess this is more of a question than a blog post -- am I missing something here? Is it realistically possible for any company to offer 1 or 2 different SEO pacakages and be able to cover the needs of any dealer, anywhere? Is SEO simply not given enough respect yet?

Sorry for the minor rant, but I'm baffled and could use some input.

The thought crossed my mind the other day to search vendors for the different SEO packages they offered. I wanted to see where the high-end was and who was still hovering in the low-end, "make your site SEO-friendly" realm.

What I found surprised me. Those who have read my writing here in the past know that I do not get all controversial about topics - I prefer to stay productive and constructive at all times. However, I had to point this little tidbit out because, as someone who has been doing Automotive SEO for 4 years now, I found it disconcerting.

One size cannot fit all. When it comes to search, different cities, brands, and goals determine the level of SEO. A Mercedes dealership in a small town can get away with little or no SEO as they likely have their market covered. A Honda dealer in a large metro may need to have the latest and greatest "super-awesome-mega-SEO-package-of-the-month" just to stay above the fold for important searches.

I guess this is more of a question than a blog post -- am I missing something here? Is it realistically possible for any company to offer 1 or 2 different SEO pacakages and be able to cover the needs of any dealer, anywhere? Is SEO simply not given enough respect yet?

Sorry for the minor rant, but I'm baffled and could use some input.

This is a portion of an article titled Why the Automotive Industry is Shifting to New Media.

While social media is the “new sexy” in the industry, search is still the primary tool that consumers use to research different vehicles. Once they make their decision on which vehicles to consider, the go again to the search engines to find the vehicles themselves. OEMs such as General Motors may be spending millions on making a splash in social media, but they continue to use paid search as a primary means of driving traffic both to their corporate properties as well as their dealer websites.

Organic search is trending as the primary method of driving traffic at the dealer level. The vast majority of dealers in the US utilize some level of search engine optimization to help get their websites ranked higher. The industry has turned into one of the most competitive with major metros crowded with dealers and 3rd-party lead vendors vying for the top 10 spots for high-volume searches.

“It’s a mess compared to what it was like just a year ago,” said James Bradford, President at TK Carsites. “Everyone is optimizing to some extent. The difference between the dealers who are ranking at the top and the rest of the pack is in the quality of their Automotive SEO. Solutions are not created equal and those who really want to make it have to step up.”

Despite a robust and effective social media marketing strategy, Chuck Capps at Advantage Nissan is still seeing over 60% of their traffic coming from organic search. “We’re selling vehicles through many different channels, but search is still our bread and butter.”

As Google and Bing continue to improve the way they rank sites, dealers are focusing on getting their inventory, specials, and various profit centers on as many search results as possible. (continue)

This is a portion of an article titled Why the Automotive Industry is Shifting to New Media.

While social media is the “new sexy” in the industry, search is still the primary tool that consumers use to research different vehicles. Once they make their decision on which vehicles to consider, the go again to the search engines to find the vehicles themselves. OEMs such as General Motors may be spending millions on making a splash in social media, but they continue to use paid search as a primary means of driving traffic both to their corporate properties as well as their dealer websites.

Organic search is trending as the primary method of driving traffic at the dealer level. The vast majority of dealers in the US utilize some level of search engine optimization to help get their websites ranked higher. The industry has turned into one of the most competitive with major metros crowded with dealers and 3rd-party lead vendors vying for the top 10 spots for high-volume searches.

“It’s a mess compared to what it was like just a year ago,” said James Bradford, President at TK Carsites. “Everyone is optimizing to some extent. The difference between the dealers who are ranking at the top and the rest of the pack is in the quality of their Automotive SEO. Solutions are not created equal and those who really want to make it have to step up.”

Despite a robust and effective social media marketing strategy, Chuck Capps at Advantage Nissan is still seeing over 60% of their traffic coming from organic search. “We’re selling vehicles through many different channels, but search is still our bread and butter.”

As Google and Bing continue to improve the way they rank sites, dealers are focusing on getting their inventory, specials, and various profit centers on as many search results as possible. (continue)

Every few months, we see a dip in sentiment regarding social media. It's been going on consistently since early 2009 and we know that it will continue. Dealers try social, see little reason to continue, and set things on autopilot or abandon it altogether. Then, something changes that makes social media more important and the searches for "Automotive Social Media" spike again.

Get ready to do the search. Social just got more important again. A LOT more important.

During the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa last earlier this month, I gave a keynote that highlighted Google's commitment to social media (as soon as Jared, Bart, and Arnold send me the video, I'll be happy to post it here... hint, hint). Google reaffirmed that commitment in a big way earlier today that will change the way savvy dealers do social media.

Google Social Search is a game changer - even SearchEngineLand, a blog that is often conservative about the impact of Google changes, agrees. It will insert links into the natural search stream based upon social connections that share and produce those links. While social search itself has been around for nearly 2 years, it has always been a side-note buried at the bottom and likely unnoticed by most. Now, it has the potential to change the search results important to us with a single Tweet, review, or blog post.

With access to Beta, I did 2 searches for "Washington DC Chevrolet." The first, I did while not logged into Google, personalized search off and cookies cleared:

Then, I did the exact same search while logged into Google:

As you can see, a post by good friend Paul Rushing popped up at the top.

What does this mean for search and social? It means that social sentiment, which many dealers are paying attention to more regularly, just got that much more important. It means that dealers who are unprepared have the potential to see their search traffic drop, particularly if a competing dealer in the market is able to take advantage of this.

It means that YOU can beat them all to the punch and start getting prepared today before it rolls out fully.

I am in the middle of exhaustive research on the subject right now, but here are some key points to think about while you wait for our next version of the Automotive Social Media strategy guide:

• - Tweets Matter. A Lot. - Imagine a potential customer doing a search for one of your makes in your metro area (the most common new car search; "Denver Ford," for example). They under one of the results close to the top your dealership's listing. It's not at the top, but something catches their eye... Co-worker Debbie tweeted your dealership URL. They click through and see that 14 months ago, Debbie bought a car there and tweeted about how good her experience was. Bingo.
• - If You Thought Reviews Were Important Before... - As Google always does when they roll out new search features, we can expect expansion. While Facebook is almost completely out of the question for integration, reviews are definitely part of the equation. Same scenario as above, except replace "Tweet" with "RatePoint." Bingo again.
• - That Pesky Blogger... - Remember the guy who thought he'd wreck your business by posting on his blog about how you low-balled him on his trade? You were smart and covered your Google page one results to keep his post off, but now it's showing up again for hundreds, even thousands of people who are either connected to him or connected to someone who shared his post on social media.
• - Your Connections. - Now more than ever, having a strong and well-maintained Twitter account is important. Do you still have an RSS feed handling your Tweets, driving potential customers to unfollow you, or are you growing your account and being interesting? If the subtle, intrinsic benefits of Twitter didn't get your attention before, how about moving your website up to the top of hundreds of searches? Still want to automate?

I'm not going to sit here and say "I told you so." Not here. Not on Driving Sales. The dealers here represent the top echelon of automotive social media knowledge so you're probably taking advantage of social media in one way or another. Don't let up. Stay aggressive. Keep up with the changes.

And don't forget to bug Jared about getting me that video. It has some information that may further change the way you do your social media.