When the topic of SEO comes up, many people envision HTML code and meta tag adjustments. They think of keyword stuffing. They consider the bounds set by the OEM of what they can and cannot do with their websites and how far they can push the boundaries to extend their market reach.

They don't usually imagine finding cool images and videos of epic cars or amazing places, but that's one activity that dealers and SEOs can do to affect their overall search rankings as well as reach out to their communities with amazing and sharable content.

Today, social has become a tremendous SEO tool. Content is the key to true social interactions. The best content is informative, fun, or both. You should see where I'm heading with this, but just in case...

Step 1: Find Content that YOU Enjoy

There are two connections between our virtual world and the real world that need to be noted. On one hand, you have the "sell sell sell" mentality that often prevents dealers from adding content to their website that isn't totally on point with the goal of the dealership: more sales. On the other hand, we're car people. If you're in this business, you love cars (at least you should). As such, thatconnection should definitely come through to the online presence of the dealership but it's often absent.

Above, you'll see an image of a 1956 Ford F-100. It's one of the coolest trucks (in my humble opinion) that was ever built. Why not pay tribute to it on a Ford website? That would be fun, right?

Perhaps more importantly, it can help your search rankings as well as your social outreach by doing so. Find content you love. Then...

Step 2: Put It On Your Website

The most important part here is attribution. I'm not a fan of stealing content. Whenever possible, use images that you've taken. If you must use the internet, there are sites such as Shutterstock that allow you to pay for content images and they have tons of pictures of both cars and locations. If you're going to rely on Google to get the images, be sure to attribute the source with a link to them. They are supplying you with content that will help your website. The least you can do is help them back by supplying them with a link.

With that out of the way, let's talk content. The reason that you're supposed to find content that YOU enjoy is because you'll be able to write much more easily about it. If it's something that you don't care about, it'll show in your writing. If you adore it (just as I adore the '55 and '56 F-100's I used in this project) then it'll show.

There doesn't have to be a ton of written content. If anything, that can be a detriment to have too much. Let the images or videos speak for themselves. With that said, you musthave some unique content on the page or it won't last. One, two, maybe three paragraphs is plenty.

Make it personal. This doesn't have to be the Wikipedia version. It can come from your heart. At your soul, you like cars, right? Let that shine through in the writing. Speaking of Wikipedia, you have to fight the urge to copy and paste. The content must be unique.

Check out the page itself on Holiday Automotive's 1955 Ford F100 page.

Step 3: Make a Couple of Quick SEO Decisions and Apply Them

It's great to have fun with your content, but you want to be able to get a benefit out of it without risking loss of a customer. The first benefit is to help with your search rankings. While it's possible for the page itself to rank for terms associated with F-100s, unless you're a classic truck dealer you're not going to benefit from this.

Instead, use the page to help your domain rank better in general and to help another page rank better for a specific keyword. In this case, we're going to work on getting the homepage ranked for "Wisconsin Ford Dealers", a keyword that they're currently not hitting with on page one. There are two other SEO benefits that we'll talk about below.

The other decision that you'll want to make is whether or not to include the page in your navigation. In most cases, one-off content like this should not be in your navigation. You want to drive traffic to a page like this through social media. No need to distract your normal website visitors with a "fun" page.

The exception to this rule is if you're going to create a lot of pages with amazing content. In such a case, you may want to consider having a section of the website dedicated to this type of content. It can be "Amazing Ford Vehicles through the Decades" with collections of pages similar to this one. It could be "The Best of the Best in Chicago" with pages dedicated to the amazing things and landmarks within the city. There are many options, but a time commitment is required. If you go with occasional one-off pages, you should probably keep them out of the navigation.

Step 4: The Social Buttons

Most pages on most dealer websites have social buttons. Some even go so far as to have toolbars at the bottom or "Share This" widgets. These are acceptable for most pages because, let's face it, nobody's sharing your site anyway. These toolbars and share widgets are smoke and mirror tactics used by some vendors to sell... nevermind - that's another blog post in the future.

The share buttons you'll want on a content page like this will be the ones supplied by the sites themselves. We recommend Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest, though some may want to include others such as Tumblr, StumbleUpon, etc.

This is the second (and arguably most important) aspect to helping your SEO. Both Google and Bing have acknowledged that social signals play a role in the search rankings of a domain. For the most part, the content on dealer websites is unsharable... until now. These types of pages can be shared if you have the right content and the right social accounts in place to share them.

This is where the disclaimer must be made. This isn't A Field of Dreams. Just because you build it, that doesn't mean they'll come. At KPA we have accumulated some incredible social media experts that give us the resources to make sure our dealers get the social signals they need for success. Some would say it's the unfair advantage that keeps us at the top in SEO. It's definitely possible to get social signals without the "power accounts" that we have in our arsenal, but that, too, is another blog post altogether. For now, do what you can and even "fake it 'til you make it" by having employees, friends, and even family share the page on social media. After all, it's a content page. It's not like you're asking them to spam their social friends with a car for sale. This is an epic Ford F100. Share away!

Finally, you'll notice the "Embed this Image" code. This is best for infographics but it works for images as well. This is to assist in helping to get links to the page, which brings us to...

Step 5: Get Links to the Page

The concept of "link bait" is still a valid play in the SEO world and this type of page qualifies. However, unless you're able to drive massive traffic to the page, you won't get a ton of links organically. It's time to share it yourself.

Find content sites that would like to see this type of content on their pages. You have blogs (even your own blog), Tumblr, and other content sites that love compilations. In this case, we used Buzzfeed as well as some blogs.

As you can see in the image, we link again to the target keyword and include the images as the content on the page. The text content is unique - no copy and paste here either. It will only take a couple of links to get this particular keyword ranked if you're using the right sites.

Google's Penguin update is looking for link spam, so don't participate in those types of tactics. If you're going to be building a lot of links, make certain that it's natural and organic. Building links that all have the same anchor text is one thing that can trigger the algorithm's filter.

Do it the right way or don't do it at all. To much is at stake. In this case, the handful of links that we built will not hurt the domain and will help to get it ranked for our target keyword. It will also help the overall link authority of the domain. Whenever participating in link-building, always think quality over quality.

Step 6: Social Outreach

Now that you've got the page and supporting pages built, it's time to share it. If your social media pages are strong, it's as simple as sharing it by creating an image gallery. Keep in mind - this will not count as a Facebook like or Google +1. You can share the link from the page itself on your social channels but they will not get as much exposure that way.

Photos rule.

I did, however, link to the page in the comments.

The goal here is to drive some traffic. It won't be much, but if your social media presence is strong you'll get some traffic to it, particularly from Twitter and Pinterest. The goal is to "double dip" with the content so that you're allowing it to help your social pages to flourish. It's great content. Share it!

Step 7: Rinse and Repeat

Set a schedule for yourself. It could be once a week, once a month, or once in a while, but be sure to set aside some time to creating these types of pages. A content-rich website supported by links and social interactions is the key to overall success on both the search and social fronts.

A final note - this is fun and once you get good it can all flow very efficiently, but it does take understanding. If anything at all in this was unclear, please reach out to me. This isn't one of those things in automotive internet marketing that can be done partially well. You either do it right or you do it wrong - there's very little grey area and there's even less room for error.

One of my responsibilities with Hasai, the non-automotive social media marketing division of KPA, is to "pull and Enterprise" as we often say around the office. We explore strange new worlds. We seek out new social media life and new social civilizations. We boldly go where no automotive marketing firm has gone before.

With that said, it's a lot less fun and romantic than it sounds. In reality, we look at dozens of startups every week that will offer zero value to the car business (and at times, to any business at all). Every now and then, a startup comes to life that piques our interests. Little Birdby former tech journalist Marshall Kirkpatrick is one of those startups.

In essence, it appears to be a localized social media influence engine. There are others already out there but initial tests and browsing around the sample reports shows that this one might actually be able to tell the difference between real influencers and those who have artificially inflated their Klout or whatever other measures there are out there.

We'll keep a close eye on it, but for now here's the launch video:

One of the promises of social media in the early days was that it would help dealers generate new customers by exposing their brands and vehicles to people who otherwise might never see them. It was a great reinforcement tool; much in the same way that television ads work through passive acceptance and absorption of messages, so too does social media allow for exposure while people are in their “happy place”.

The biggest roadblock to seeing this promise become real is that the options available to dealers to allow them to market properly are so abundant that it can become extremely confusing. For some networks such as Twitter and Tumblr, it can be non-targeted and cost-prohibitive. Facebook is the social media master of targeting and cost savings in social media ads, but are dealers really using all of the tools available to them?

More importantly, are they using the right tools?

One of the tools that is used so rarely is the custom audience feature for ads. The standard thought process is that dealers want to reach new people. Doing so through Facebook means exposing ads to anyone who is in the area regardless of whether they are past customers or not. In many cases, dealers prefer that their past customers didn’t see their ads. They’re already customers so why waste the budget when there are plenty of non-customers to attract?

This is a mistake in the automotive industry. The first place they should go with their Facebook ads is their current and previous customers. There’s (hopefully) a built in trust factor associated with current and past customers. For car dealers, there is an opportunity for them to get their happy customers liking their page and interacting with their posts. They are more likely to like a product or service on Facebook that they’re familiar with. The exposure from engaging with these people is potentially very high.

It isn’t what you’re saying about your business that’s important on Facebook. It’s what others are saying about you. Promoting this is easy when you apply some (maybe even all) of your Facebook advertising budget to “friendlies” out there. Let them do the spreading of your message for you.

I vividly remember a conversation I had with Wikimotive's Tim Martell back in 2008. Even four and a half years later, the conversation has remained in my mind. We were discussing the rise of social media. We both agreed that Facebook would be the big thing, but he told me something that surprised me.

"I actually get more traffic from my MySpace page than Facebook," he said.

We knew it wouldn't last, but it was hard to let go completely. His team maintained the strongest MySpace page in automotive for a long time until the social network stopped really being a social network. He then started focusing on the world of Facebook and the rest is history.

Today, Google+ is a "player" in the automotive social media field, but very few are sure how to use it properly. Some would say that at this stage it's a ghost town and isn't a valid part of the social media strategy. My argument to the contrary is similar to my argument against abandoning Twitter: it just doesn't take a lot of time to keep it ready.

Even if you don't believe it will materialize into anything, get these words stuck in your head: "Just in case."

There are reports of it helping from an organic search ranking perspective. These reports are confirmed, then unconfirmed, then refuted, then reconfirmed. Google has said that it is important. Then they've said it doesn't have an affect. What people often don't realize is that they're masterful at spin, particularly when it comes to their search algorithm.

In mid-2010 they vehemently denied that social signals had any effect on search rankings before stating for the record later the same year that they definitely had an effect on search rankings and had been having an effect for nearly two years. It's no coincidence that they made the latter statement six months before launching Google+.

With Google Local having a direct impact on business and being tied in with Google+, you can't afford to think that it will fail. Assume it won't. Assume it will be a thing. Here are three things to do to make sure it doesn't die on the vine.

1. Post on it Like Facebook - Whatever you're posting to Facebook, post it to Google+ as well. It's an extra step that takes about 2 minutes if you're slow and requires nothing more than copying and pasting.
2. Use Hootsuite - This shouldn't be your only method of posting as everything comes across as links (even images) but it's a good way to keep the page scheduled and going strong.
3. Manage Your Page Weekly - Posting is quick. Managing takes a little more time. You don't have to do it daily like you do with Facebook, but once a week check out your new followers, follow the appropriate ones back, and go through your feed (logged in as your page) giving +1s to good content. Total time: 10 minutes.

Nobody worth their salary has a ton of time to waste in the automotive industry, but it's important to keep this high-potential network from dying on the vine.

It's a question that is raised from time to time, particularly by sales managers and internet managers. Should employees, in particular the sales team, be allowed to connect with their customers through Facebook and other social media sites? It's not a question of whether or not they should encourage their customers to like the dealership's Facebook page or follow the dealership's Twitter account. It's about a personal relationship. Should employees become social media "friends" with customers?

For some, the answer is a clear "no". There is simply too much turnover in the automotive industry and allowing connections with customers can be akin to allowing a book of business to walk out the door. This is silly for many reasons but it's not the type of opinion that can be easily changed, so we'll leave it as an opinion with which I disagree.

The other big reason is time and distraction. Some dealerships and businesses in general do not allow their employees to use social media on company time. It's a time waster, after all, and one that cannot be easily monitored or controlled.

The argument against that thought is that unless you're willing to take everyone's smart phone away during business hours, you aren't really taking them off social media. They're still checking. They're still updating. They're still "LOLing" the viral cat picture that's circulating on any given day.

If we can assume that the negatives associated with allowing social media to be used as a business tool by individual employees can be outweighed by the positives, then you can continue reading. If you are unwilling to accept it, then there's no reason to read on.

Here, we get into actual strategies...

How Employees Connect with Customers

The toughest question asked about connecting through social media also has the easiest answer. "How can my salespeople connect with their customers on Facebook?"

The answer: "They ask."

The action is easy. As long as they give them a reason and use their sales skills to make it happen, they'll be surprised at how well it works. Here's a sample talk track:

"Mr Customer, I follow up with those who buy a vehicle from me from time to time, usually just a few times a year. What's your preferred method of contact? For me it's Facebook."

"I won't bug you on Facebook - I know it's a personal thing and I treat it as such. You won't see much of me other than an occasional follow up message and some pictures of my kids. Can I add you as a friend?"

You'll be shocked at how often they say, "Sure."

We're Friends. Now What?

This is where the real magic can happen. First and foremost, the employee must follow through with what they promised. If they said they're going to follow up with them from time to time, they need to do just that. Don't send a message the first day of the new friendship. Wait a week. Wait two weeks if you're organized.

Just send a quick message, "Hi Mr Customer. I just wanted to check in and make sure that the Mustang was still cruising along nicely. Did you get your free oil change certificate in the mail yet?"

From there, it's a matter of acting normal and NEVER overposting. Two or three updates a day. All natural content. Thoughts, pictures, etc. - keep the business components away from your Facebook profile the vast majority of the time.

Once, maybe twice a month, put out a call for referrals. "It's been a slow month so far which is weird because we're loaded with inventory. Anyone in Cincinnati know someone who needs a car. We're dealing right now and I have some referral money to give you if you send anyone my way!"

That's it. Rinse. Repeat. Be a good social media user most of the time. Be a salesperson some of the time. Be a networker all of the time. Don't forget birthdays - Facebook tells you everyone who has a birthday today. Send them all messages. Post interesting content. Be real.

But, My Facebook Profile is MY Facebook Profile

Some people hold the sanctity of their social media profiles in high regard. If they love their Facebook and do not want it polluted with customers and promotions, so be it. Never force it. For decades, there are sales people who sell cars from 9 to 5 and there are sales people who sell cars anywhere and everywhere at any time.

You can't force one to become the other. It's inherent.

This stuff works. It's no different than keeping a rolodex of customers with pictures, birthdays, and the names of their kids on an index card. Facebook and social media in general can be your rolodex, but you have to be willing to make it happen.

* * *

This article originally appeared on Dealer Bar and is happily shared with Driving Sales community!

My days start the same way. Every morning at around 2:15am, I wake up and hit the feeds. I have over 20 SEO blogs, 40 social media blogs, and a dozen automotive blogs that I start with at the beginning of my day and that I check regularly throughout. I read more about these two important topics, search and social, on any given day than most read in a month.

I’m not saying all of this to brag. If anything, it’s sort of sad that I chose to enter a pair of worlds that are in such a state of constant change that staying on top of my game is a daily task.

The reason that I bring this up is that despite all of the effort that I put into staying ahead in search and social, the topic that I’ve received the most questions about over the past two months is Klout.

Klout? Really?

It’s the only thing I understand about internet marketing that has absolutely nothing with driving traffic, generating leads, or making sales, yet a day hasn’t gone by in a long time during which I am not asked about how to do better on Klout.

If it is to be, then so be it. Let’s talk Klout…

Understanding the Underlying Forces

Before learning the tips and techniques that can help you grow your Klout score, it’s important to understand the dynamic. Monitoring Twitter tells me that there are some misunderstandings surrounding how Klout works.

First and foremost, it’s a 90-day scale. Every day worth of activity is not adding to your score. It’s replacing whatever you did 91 days ago. This is important to understand because all too often I see complaints about how someone had a strong content day with a ton of +Ks, great posts on Facebook that got a ton of likes and comments, and retweet requests designed specifically to go after more Klout. These people wonder how their Klout score could have gone down after such a strong day.

The reason is that it’s a replacement day. One day falls off the tail end as yesterday gets added to your score. If 91 days ago you were a social media rockstar, yesterday’s addition to the mix might not make a big difference.

Another dynamic that must be understood is that the it’s not a linear scale. It’s a logarithmic scale. In other words, moving from a 60 to a 65 is much easier than going from a 65 to a 70. The difference between 79 and 80 is greater than the difference between 50 and 60. This does nothing to change strategy but it’s good for the psyche to not get discouraged; moving up quickly into the 60s or 70s might set you up for disappointment if it takes you a month to go from 74 to 75.

The last thing to understand about the underlying forces is that the different networks do not necessarily compound. Having an amazing Facebook profile and adding in a stellar Twitter account does not give you double the bang. There is repetition involved. Facebook friends are often Twitter friends and as a result their influence on you is only counted once even if they double the activity. Even if the networks have completely different audiences, there will be a forced overlap between the networks. Again, not terribly important but combining it with the rest of the understanding behind the system gives you the ability to “feel” your Klout score more easily. Now, the tips…

What to Avoid

Notice the title of this article. I mentioned doing it the “right” way. There are definitely wrong ways to go about building Klout. These things include but are not limited to:

• - Don’t Get Klout Goggles – The quest to get a higher number has caused many that I’ve seen to abandon their real social media goals (such as promotion and/or marketing) and replace it all with Klout bait. Klout can get you free Axe Body Spray. It won’t pay the bills.
• - Don’t Buy Followers – This should be a no-brainer and anyone reading this blog is probably advanced enough to avoid this at all costs, but it should be stated that from Klout’s perspective, quality definitely rules over quantity. That’s not to say that you’re going to blow up the Klout world with 14 Twitter followers and 8 Facebook friends, but take a look at CJ Romig. He has 1600 Twitter followers, 200 Facebook friends, and he’s in 500 Google+ circles. He has average numbers in the follower department, but his Klout is 70 because his content is amazing and his engagement is strong.
• - Don’t Fake Engagement – It’s one thing to be interesting. It’s another thing to be desperate. This is probably a personal bias that has nothing to do with tips and will probably offend some, but it annoys me when I see people post a picture of a sick little boy in Africa with the title, “Like this if you think Lizo deserves clean water. Share this if you think he deserves a proper education.” Exploitation. Don’t do it. If you’re not writing a check for every like and share you get, don’t get involved with awareness campaigns that lead to nothing.
• - Don’t Overpost – First of all, it doesn’t work. Second, it’s more annoying than effective. Third, it still doesn’t work. Just like with followers, posts have the same basic formula – quality over quantity.
• - Don’t Pollute Your LinkedIn – Yes, Klout looks at LinkedIn, but it’s weighted very low. The network is much more valuable as a networking tool than an engagement tool. You should always stay on point with what you post and who you connect with on LinkedIn.

Do it Right

Now that you know what not to do, here are some tips to help you get your score up.

• - Long vs Short – Long posts (including photo galleries) on Facebook and Google+ that are text-heavy tend to get more likes. Short posts (including single images) get more shares. Comments are determined by the quality and style of the post. Try to mix it up, posting short posts often and inserting long posts from time to time. Stick within the bounds of your personality, though. Tracy Myers does exceptionally well with his long posting style, while Louie Baur rarely posts a complete sentence. Both are rocking the Klout.
• - Mix Real Life with Virtual – Some are able to keep their social media profiles loaded with what they’re doing in the real world. Look at John Boitnott. He’s always on the move and documenting his journeys in the form of images and videos. He posts through Facebook mobile, Instagram, and other tools to keep his posts flowing properly (discussed below). On the other hand, some can do well without a single image from their smartphone. The ideal formula mixes the two, combining real life events with interesting finds or opinions that come from the comfort of your desk.
• - Splitting the Tools on Facebook – The most annoying part about the biggest (and most Klout-influential) social network is that they batch images. If you take two photos in a 24 hour period with your mobile device, they get batched. More than one Instagram post in a couple of days – batched. Using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer more than once in a 24-hour period – batched. The problem with batched images is that they do not have like, share, or comment buttons that appear in the news feed. For someone to like an image that has been batched, they have to click through to it, something that most are unwilling to do. I’ve seen batched images on my feed get zero engagement. I could then manually post the same image the next day and get dozens of likes, comments, and shares. Facebook likes posts from Facebook.com. The others get one touch a day or less. Mix up your posting tools and avoid getting them batched.
• - Don’t Forget Google+ – I can always tell when a friend remembers Google+. They’ll be inactive on it for days, then bust out with a dozen uploads to make up for lost time. The best way to do it is to post on Google+ at the same time that you’re posting to Facebook. Technically, you want to post different content as the two networks have nuances, but that’s for another blog post to discuss. For now, if you’re posting to Google+ every day, you’re already ahead of the curve.
• - Give Klout +Ks – Those who give, receive. If you’re active on Klout, you should get 10 +Ks per day to give to those who influence you. Take advantage of these. It’s not just about being a nice person and giving kudos to friends. Giving often gets people to give back to you. Call it artificial. Call it back scratching. Call it cronyism. They put +Ks on the site for a reason and they do have an influence over your Klout score, so using them daily is a simple best practice.
• - On Twitter, One-Way-Engagement (unfortunately) Works – Getting into conversations on Twitter is great. It’s easy. You can spark them. People will spark them with you. Everyone benefits from this type of back and forth engagement. Unfortunately (I think it’s a flaw in their system), you get more credit for being a snob. If you get retweets and @replies from people that you aren’t talking to, it weighs more than conversing with them. Klout looks at conversations much the same as how Google looks at reciprocal links. Don’t let Klout change your Twitter personality, though. If you thank every single person who retweets you, don’t stop now! You’re a better person than most. It’s a good bit of information to know but you don’t necessarily have to act on it. Snobs are snobbish, after all.
• - Build Diversity by Spreading Out – The Klout algorithm sees patterns. If the same people are liking, commenting, sharing, retweeting, +1ing, and generally engaging with your content over an over again, the returns on Klout diminish. The easiest way to reach a broader audience and diversify is to post through the day and night rather than in a couple of batches the way that most people handle social media. Spending 10 minutes every couple of hours is better than spending 30 minutes twice a day.

If you do these things, you’re on your way, but remember that these are just tips. The real keys to Klout are (a) building an engaged audience, and (b) posting absolutely amazing content. If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re controversial, be controversial. If you’re cynical, go to Reddit and forget Klout exists.

Remember, your value is not determined by an algorithm. Klout is a game, an inaccurate measurement designed to keep geeks like me worried about our scores. I might have a higher Klout score than Robert Horry, but I don’t have 7 NBA Championship Rings on my hands to go with it.

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook started cracking downon fake accounts and false likes. The network is finally at the point to where they believe quality is more important than quantity for their advertising model to work and they're right. Dealers should do the exact same thing, maximize quality of the people liking their page, if they want to delve into the high-potential world of Facebook sponsored posts.

The last statement needs some qualification. If, like many, you do not see the value of Facebook sponsored posts, we'll start there. If you have seen the value and you're already playing with it, skip ahead and let's learn about pruning.

If You Do This, Facebook Sponsored Posts WILL Work

There has been an open debate for a couple of years now about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising in the automotive industry. The reality of it is that it will notwork for most dealers. If your Facebook page is weak, if your fans are not localized, or if your goals are not geared around branding and exposure, then Facebook ads won't work for you.

If, on the other hand, you:

• - ... have a strong Facebook presence with multiple daily updates, an active community who like, comment, and share your content, and a strategy that is geared towards ramping up your EdgeRank before blasting out your "money shots", AND...
• 
  - ... your fans are mostly localized, AND...
• - ... you view social media as more akin to television advertising where you're getting your brand and message out to people when they're not necessarily looking for a car but when they are psychologically in a place of enjoyment and relaxation...

... then Facebook advertising can be of great benefit to you. The primary reason for this is the cost. It's cheap! You can blast out a sponsored story to be viewed by thousands of people for tens of dollars. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, a strong Facebook page can outperform television for branding and exposure as long as you understand that the goals are the same.

If your goal is to generate direct leads from Facebook, there are definitely strategies that can work for you but that's extremely specialized. It can be done, but it's not easy. It requires some commitments at the dealership that most are not willing to do and I could argue that the same amount of effort put into search marketing has a higher yield. That's a different blog post altogether, but if you're Facebook page is a strong branding and exposure tool, then you should...

Prune

Size isn't everything. It's important, probably more important than most would give it in today's cynical-towards-fake-Facebook-likes world, but it's not nearly as important as focus on the local market.

Facebook offers localized advertising options to allow you to grow your local market. That's what you use to get fans. Keeping them and actually appearing in their news feed is a function of quality and engagement, but getting them is done through marketing, Facebook ads, and in-store promotions.

Facebook sponsored posts do not target a geographical location. They work on your fans and friends of your fans. It's for this reason that you create your own targeting by limiting your fans to the local area.

You do this by pruning.

If you do not run sponsored posts and have no intention of doing so, there's no real need to prune. The distant likes aren't necessarily hurting you that much. Sure, it's a perception concern (another blog post altogether) but the real damage comes from affecting your sponsored posts budget.

If you go through and remove the fans that are not in the local area, you will be able to maximize the relevant exposure of your sponsored posts. Does that mean that all of your fans should be in our direct market area? No. Having someone in San Diego like your Los Angeles Honda dealer Facebook page is fine. What you don't want is that person in Dallas liking your page and taking up budget with her Dallas-based friends.

Even worse is the person in Indonesia who likes your page. Foreign likes, particularly those in east Asia, have friends who are much more likely that domestic fans to like your post. While this might seem like a good thing for artificially inflating your numbers, it's not. It's better to have one local like your post than to have 10 irrelevant likes. Yes, the exposure would go up with the irrelevant likes, but it would not be exposed to anyone you actually want to see your posts.

If you have enough fans, you can prune down to 1000+ local people. This is a great starting point and Facebook sponsored posts sent to those people would give you incredible exposure for very little money. It's true bang for the buck.

If you do not have enough fans, keeping domestic likes is fine but still get rid of the foreign likes. Build your page up with as many localized fans of possible until you're to the point that you can start hyper-targeting the locals only.

When you get to that point, the $10 here, $20 there that you spend on sponsored posts will get you as much (possibly more) quality branding and exposure than thousands of dollars worth of television advertising.

There have been debates in the past about whether or not it's good for businesses to follow everyone who follows them. The old way of thinking (for some, including me) was that if they take the time to follow you, that you should be courteous and return the favor.

I switched my way of thinking in 2009 but for many it continued. Many today still feel that way. It's no longer the right way to work with your Twitter account regardless of what business you're in. Here's why:

So Much Spam

Twitter has always been loaded with spam ever since the days of Ashton Kutcher trying to get to 1 million followers. Once it hit the mainstream the spammers saw an opportunity and they've seized it ever since. Twitter does what they can but with half a million users, the spammers and bots are impossible to keep down without damaging real accounts.

They are often easy to spot and if you are already only following important and relevant people, vetting your new followers is easy. If you follow too many people, it's time to start vetting. Unfortunately, this can be a manual process, but it's worth it.

Start Vetting if the Volume is Low Enough

For those with under 2000 followers, vetting them is something that can be done a little at a time every day until you're done. This is still tedious but if you commit to check out 100 Twitter accounts a day, you'll be done in a month (assuming you end up skipping some days).

It's not as hard as it sounds. If you're at least a little active on Twitter you'll be able to recognize many accounts by name. No need to check them out - just whitelist them and move on. Others will be obvious spammers based upon their name, avatar, or both.

The others will need to be opened manually and checked out. Here's what you're looking for:

• - Autoposters: If they are simply using their Twitter account as an RSS feed, you won't see any @replies from them. These are relatively worthless to follow as they aren't going to engage with you or anyone else.
• - Overposters: To some, this isn't a problem. For me, I can't stand following someone who Tweets hundreds of times a day. Nobody's life is that interesting to me and I don't need their posts flooding my stream.
• - Inactives: It doesn't apply to everyone and some would say that following someone who posts 5 times a year is harmless because they aren't filling up your feed, but there's something that can be said about selectivity. As you can see by the @TKCarsitesInc following, we've knocked it down to where we're only following 700 accounts versus being followed by 19k.
• - Spammers and Bots: You'll be able to tell the difference.

Get it down to a manageable number and your feed will be useful, your account will look good, and Twitter can be useful.

But I Followed Thousands!

There is a major challenge facing some Twitter accounts. If you have an account that's simply too large to go through manually, you'll have to start from the bottom up.

It's impractical to think that you can vet tens of thousands of accounts. If, like the TK Carsites account, you followed over 10k (or over 2k for that matter), then it's easier to simply unfollow everyone and refollow the important accounts.

To do this, you'll first want to make a list. If you're using lists on Twitter or other tools like Tweetdeck, this is easier. You've already identified the people you definitely want to follow so unfollowing everyone and refollowing them is a piece of cake.

If you don't have lists, make one. Twitter itself has a decent List option, so build your list of accounts that you want to follow. Then, send out a message to all of your followers letting them know you're about to unfollow everyone.

"Hey everyone. I'm purging my list and following everyone I really know. If I unfollow you, please send me a reply and I will refollow you."

Now, it's time to unfollow. I use JustUnfollow. It's not free, but Twitter is very picky about following and unfollowing, requiring a direct click to do the action. They cut off any programs that allow you to bulk follow or unfollow without individual clicks on each account, but JustUnfollow has the easiest interface that allows you to click straight down the line and unfollow hundreds per minute depending on how fast your index finger can hit the mouse button.

Once you make it through the list, add everyone back that you really want to follow. Then, Twitter gets easy. It will help you by recommending other similar people you might want to follow. By having an accurate following, Twitter can help you find others.

When you're done with the process, the doors to using Twitter as an actual communication and marketing tool swing wide open.