For your weekend enjoyment, here's a KPA infographic about the social media companies that are leading their niche in 2012. Understanding the heart and soul of the companies can help us all make choices about where to put our efforts this year and in coming years.

Click to enlarge.

For your weekend enjoyment, here's a KPA infographic about the social media companies that are leading their niche in 2012. Understanding the heart and soul of the companies can help us all make choices about where to put our efforts this year and in coming years.

Click to enlarge.

The buzz is very positive. The tech sites that have turned Yahoo into a red-headed punching bag for the last 3 years are nearly-universally saying this is a win for the beleagured tech giant. Despite fading from prominence, Yahoo has something sexy and modern that may bring them back to prominence.

This isn't a declaration that comes lightly. I've been one of the tech bloggers bashing them. I almost didn't even look at the program once it came across the wire until someone from a big tech blog pinged me for a quote. I'm glad I did.

For now, just check it out and start imagining the possibilities. If it takes off, there's a good chance that the automotive industry applications for this could be plentiful. Are they going to dethrone Google? Of course not. However, they may have just gotten a little more relevant for our business. Be informed. Check it out.

The buzz is very positive. The tech sites that have turned Yahoo into a red-headed punching bag for the last 3 years are nearly-universally saying this is a win for the beleagured tech giant. Despite fading from prominence, Yahoo has something sexy and modern that may bring them back to prominence.

This isn't a declaration that comes lightly. I've been one of the tech bloggers bashing them. I almost didn't even look at the program once it came across the wire until someone from a big tech blog pinged me for a quote. I'm glad I did.

For now, just check it out and start imagining the possibilities. If it takes off, there's a good chance that the automotive industry applications for this could be plentiful. Are they going to dethrone Google? Of course not. However, they may have just gotten a little more relevant for our business. Be informed. Check it out.

I was having a discussion with a dealer over a nice vodka tonic and a nice cigar when the discussion turned to conferences. "There are just too many that it's hard to know which ones to go to and which ones to skip," he said.

This concerned me a bit. I've been on that side of the debate before but with the help of friends like Jared Hamilton, Brian Pasch, and Ralph Paglia I have come to the conclusion that the industry doesn't have enough conferenes. Before people start calling me a lunatic, hear me out...

NADA is "the" conference that most attend. It's the only one that can draw a large percentage of representation from the dealer community and often brings everything together in a single venue so that dealers can get the latest and greatest information, see the cool new products and innovations hitting the market, and network with their OEMs, peers, and vendors to help come up with solutions to keep the industry strong.

A decade ago, it was all that we needed. The changes were slow coming and even slower in integration.

Today, dealers should be attending conferences at least once a quarter and arguably once a month. Here's why:

The internet accounts for a portion of the vast majority of car deals. Research, location, comparisons, and buying tools flood the internet nearly as much as the consumers themselves who flood it. Therein lies the challenge because the internet is in a constant state of change. Trying to keep up with it is hard. Trying to do so by attending one or two conferences a year is impossible.

Many of the things that I heard at NADA just 2 months ago are, unfortunately, outdated. The internet is moving that quickly. NADA is and should always be the trade show of the year; we don't need more than one. However, conferences and summits are designed to talk about today and tomorrow and doing so requires constant refreshing, fine-tuning, and knowing what's working and what will be working (and more importantly what won't be working) in the near future.

The internet moves too fast for most dealers. That's not an insult. It's a matter of scale. Some dealers have digital advisors working at the dealership who stay on top of the latest developments, but most rely on an Internet Manager or Sales Manager to try to keep up with the changes. These people have jobs at the dealership that require attention and keeping up with (and implementing) the changes that happen in search, social, internet technologies, mobile technologies, and every other shiny ball bouncing around is a full time job.

That's what we do. It's what Jared does. It's what Gary May and Shaun Raines and Ralph Paglia and Brian Pasch and Steve Stauning and all of the other though-leaders in the industry do for a living. To get the word out, there are networks like Driving Sales to help us along but it's a heck of a lot easier to get this information in person at the conferences and summits.

More doesn't mean that everyone has to attend them all. It simply means that when we hear about a change at Google and it's buzzing around the networks, we shouldn't be waiting for months before we can go hear about them. We should be able to swing over to one of the conferences within a given month. That's how other industries work, and automotive is heading there but it isn't there yet.

I was having a discussion with a dealer over a nice vodka tonic and a nice cigar when the discussion turned to conferences. "There are just too many that it's hard to know which ones to go to and which ones to skip," he said.

This concerned me a bit. I've been on that side of the debate before but with the help of friends like Jared Hamilton, Brian Pasch, and Ralph Paglia I have come to the conclusion that the industry doesn't have enough conferenes. Before people start calling me a lunatic, hear me out...

NADA is "the" conference that most attend. It's the only one that can draw a large percentage of representation from the dealer community and often brings everything together in a single venue so that dealers can get the latest and greatest information, see the cool new products and innovations hitting the market, and network with their OEMs, peers, and vendors to help come up with solutions to keep the industry strong.

A decade ago, it was all that we needed. The changes were slow coming and even slower in integration.

Today, dealers should be attending conferences at least once a quarter and arguably once a month. Here's why:

The internet accounts for a portion of the vast majority of car deals. Research, location, comparisons, and buying tools flood the internet nearly as much as the consumers themselves who flood it. Therein lies the challenge because the internet is in a constant state of change. Trying to keep up with it is hard. Trying to do so by attending one or two conferences a year is impossible.

Many of the things that I heard at NADA just 2 months ago are, unfortunately, outdated. The internet is moving that quickly. NADA is and should always be the trade show of the year; we don't need more than one. However, conferences and summits are designed to talk about today and tomorrow and doing so requires constant refreshing, fine-tuning, and knowing what's working and what will be working (and more importantly what won't be working) in the near future.

The internet moves too fast for most dealers. That's not an insult. It's a matter of scale. Some dealers have digital advisors working at the dealership who stay on top of the latest developments, but most rely on an Internet Manager or Sales Manager to try to keep up with the changes. These people have jobs at the dealership that require attention and keeping up with (and implementing) the changes that happen in search, social, internet technologies, mobile technologies, and every other shiny ball bouncing around is a full time job.

That's what we do. It's what Jared does. It's what Gary May and Shaun Raines and Ralph Paglia and Brian Pasch and Steve Stauning and all of the other though-leaders in the industry do for a living. To get the word out, there are networks like Driving Sales to help us along but it's a heck of a lot easier to get this information in person at the conferences and summits.

More doesn't mean that everyone has to attend them all. It simply means that when we hear about a change at Google and it's buzzing around the networks, we shouldn't be waiting for months before we can go hear about them. We should be able to swing over to one of the conferences within a given month. That's how other industries work, and automotive is heading there but it isn't there yet.

In 2012, there's a person you need to hire if you haven't already. Every dealership or dealer group that wants to succeed MUST hire a Digital Manager. I go into more details about what a digital manager does in a blog post on Techi, but here I want to shed some light on the differences between an internet manager/BDC manager and a true digital manager.

First, digital managers are more than just the person sitting on Twitter and Facebook all day. They should be using these as tools, certainly, but that should be only a small part of it. If your dealership has a full time social media person, that's great, but that's not the end of it. You need more.

You need content. Real content. You need pages added to your site constantly that are created by real people. Automated "SEO pages" are junk thanks to Google Panda (and I would happily debate that point with any vendor pushing the "more pages is better for SEO" rhetoric that simply doesn't work anymore). You need real pages. You need unique content. You need engaging content such as videos and infographics tied into compelling text and images.

You need a pro-active presence. If your focus is on building a strong Facebook page, you're completely missing the boat. It's not what happens on your page that matters nearly as much as what happens on other people's pages and profiles when they're talking about you. Are people talking to you and about your dealership in a positive manner multiple times a day? Are 50% of the people driving off the lot with a new car posting a picture of themselves on their Facebook pages and Twitter profiles? Is your dealership involved in some way with local discussions, other pages/profiles, and every publication that has a voice in your area?

Your internet manager and his/her team should be contacting all of the inbound leads. Your BDC should be contacting old customers. It's the digital manager and his/her team that should be contacting everyone else. They are the voice of the dealership. They are sending emails, texts, direct messages on social media, and every other new method of communication that's popping up, and they should be doing this daily.

Are you in complete control over your search engine presence or are you leaving it completely to your vendor. If you are leaving it to your vendor, are they reporting to you adequately, talking to you when the need arises and empowering you to contribute if you want (or to sit back and let them handle it of you don't)?

The subject of hiring a digital manager is so important and a single blog post cannot do it justice. If you have any questions or would like to learn more (keeping in mind, this is all about education and help - I'm not selling a "digital manager in a box" product or anything) about the most important move you'll want to make that will have the most dramatic impact on your business in 2012, please feel free to contact me (jrucker@tkcarsites.com).

I'm here to help.

In 2012, there's a person you need to hire if you haven't already. Every dealership or dealer group that wants to succeed MUST hire a Digital Manager. I go into more details about what a digital manager does in a blog post on Techi, but here I want to shed some light on the differences between an internet manager/BDC manager and a true digital manager.

First, digital managers are more than just the person sitting on Twitter and Facebook all day. They should be using these as tools, certainly, but that should be only a small part of it. If your dealership has a full time social media person, that's great, but that's not the end of it. You need more.

You need content. Real content. You need pages added to your site constantly that are created by real people. Automated "SEO pages" are junk thanks to Google Panda (and I would happily debate that point with any vendor pushing the "more pages is better for SEO" rhetoric that simply doesn't work anymore). You need real pages. You need unique content. You need engaging content such as videos and infographics tied into compelling text and images.

You need a pro-active presence. If your focus is on building a strong Facebook page, you're completely missing the boat. It's not what happens on your page that matters nearly as much as what happens on other people's pages and profiles when they're talking about you. Are people talking to you and about your dealership in a positive manner multiple times a day? Are 50% of the people driving off the lot with a new car posting a picture of themselves on their Facebook pages and Twitter profiles? Is your dealership involved in some way with local discussions, other pages/profiles, and every publication that has a voice in your area?

Your internet manager and his/her team should be contacting all of the inbound leads. Your BDC should be contacting old customers. It's the digital manager and his/her team that should be contacting everyone else. They are the voice of the dealership. They are sending emails, texts, direct messages on social media, and every other new method of communication that's popping up, and they should be doing this daily.

Are you in complete control over your search engine presence or are you leaving it completely to your vendor. If you are leaving it to your vendor, are they reporting to you adequately, talking to you when the need arises and empowering you to contribute if you want (or to sit back and let them handle it of you don't)?

The subject of hiring a digital manager is so important and a single blog post cannot do it justice. If you have any questions or would like to learn more (keeping in mind, this is all about education and help - I'm not selling a "digital manager in a box" product or anything) about the most important move you'll want to make that will have the most dramatic impact on your business in 2012, please feel free to contact me (jrucker@tkcarsites.com).

I'm here to help.

As in industry, automotive has had a history of being behind the times when it comes to internet adoption. That has seemed to change in the last couple of years as dealers and manufacturers have launched full-force into embracing search and social in ways that surpassed other industries.

There's still a ways to go, especially in social media,. While most are taking on Facebook and YouTube and a good amount are embracing Twitter and blogging, there are platforms that all but the most forward-thinking have failed to embrace. We have often recommended to dealers that they should focus on "the big four" and leave everything else to the side, but that's only for sake of focus. It's easier to stay on target with less distractions.

Those who have embraced social fully have either been met with failure or success. It sounds like an obvious statement, but the difference between social and other areas such as search or classifieds is that in those areas there is much gray. Those who do a full-court press in social either win or lose - very little gray.

As more jump in the deep side of the pool and begin exploring other social media options, they should be looking at things beyond sheer marketing and outreach. This infographic sheds some light on 4 types of social media platforms that are, for the most part, not being used by the automotive industry.

Yet.

Click to enlarge.

As in industry, automotive has had a history of being behind the times when it comes to internet adoption. That has seemed to change in the last couple of years as dealers and manufacturers have launched full-force into embracing search and social in ways that surpassed other industries.

There's still a ways to go, especially in social media,. While most are taking on Facebook and YouTube and a good amount are embracing Twitter and blogging, there are platforms that all but the most forward-thinking have failed to embrace. We have often recommended to dealers that they should focus on "the big four" and leave everything else to the side, but that's only for sake of focus. It's easier to stay on target with less distractions.

Those who have embraced social fully have either been met with failure or success. It sounds like an obvious statement, but the difference between social and other areas such as search or classifieds is that in those areas there is much gray. Those who do a full-court press in social either win or lose - very little gray.

As more jump in the deep side of the pool and begin exploring other social media options, they should be looking at things beyond sheer marketing and outreach. This infographic sheds some light on 4 types of social media platforms that are, for the most part, not being used by the automotive industry.

Yet.

Click to enlarge.