What is your dealerships’ story?

If you were asked on an elevator to describe your dealerships’ brand what would you say? You sell XYZ products? If that’s your answer great, but more than likely if found in the same situation your competition would say the exact same thing. If that’s the case what separates you from them?

Crafting, developing and understanding your dealerships story is important for it’s what separates us from our competition; It’s what makes us unique and in some cases remarkable. If you’re having trouble understanding why or how you should be using Facebook, Twitter, [insert tool here] it’s because you have yet to discover your dealerships story. Those social tools are designed to be an avenue for you to tell a story. A unique story. Your story.

Here’s an example:

Circa 2009 Lebanon Ford’s slogan/motto was “changing the way you feel about buying a car”. I won’t even begin to explain all the things I can’t stand about this motto/slogan. With that being said I set out to craft something that was deep and meaningful. With some help from a six pack and an overly cooked grilled cheese sandwich I came up with…

Connect. Engage. Drive.

Connect to exceed expectations. Engage to grow relationships. Drive to build trust

Connect. Engage. Drive.  shapes and encompasses everything we do at Lebanon Ford, those are our core values, and what separates us from you. It is our story. What’s yours?

Stop thinking like this...

and starting thinking like this....

Social media tools by themselves (e.g.. Facebook in this case) aren't really all that important. Stop focusing solely on the tool and begin to understand how that tool fits into your overall marketing ecosystem. Sleep, eat, think... Synergy.  

You may have experienced this before, especially those who’ve recently decided to get serious about social media for your dealership. It’s that feeling when all your social platforms are open on your browser and you catch yourself just clicking back and forth between all of them without a purpose. Like a mindless zombie you’re just “there” in front of your computer, refreshing your Twitter or Facebook feeds contributing nothing of value to others, yourself, or society.

What you are experiencing is Social Media Overload. A very similar feeling to when you try to make sense of the Universe and your significance within it. It starts off by asking yourself “am I using this correctly?” followed by “I have no idea what I’m doing on Twitter!” and then caps off with “am I, and all this Social Media hubbub really worth it?”. Sometimes being social can be a bit overwhelming, here are 5 tips to help prevent Social Media Overload:

1) Keep your strategy in the back of your head. You do have a strategy right? This will help you maintain your focus on the bigger picture. If you don’t have it memorized, keep it close at hand.

2) Only bite off what you can chew. If you’re having trouble managing 10 social platforms at your dealership determine if all 10 of those are truly necessary. You may find you should only be focusing on three of them. If a social network doesn’t pass the “why” test than don’t waste your time with it.

3) Set aside 10, 15, 30, or 45 solid minutes in-which you close all your browser windows and focus solely on writing a blog post or engaging on one social platform (if you have ADD like me, this will help out greatly).

4) Get into a rhythm with content creation and engagement. This will not only help you stay on track but it will help your followers as well. Keep in mind everyone’s rhythm will be different so your mileage may vary. If you’re writing blog content in-house set up an editorial calendar for you and others to follow.

5) If you start to get to the point where you’re cursing your boss for this added responsibility, or feel like there’s no hope. Take a step back, grab a cup of water, and go for a little walk. This little escape can be extremely helpful to a healthy mental state.

6) What would you add for the 6^th tip?

One of our goals as DrivingSales.com Community Editors is to dedicate ourselves to quality content creation each week to benefit the dealer community. While all insights, commentary, tips and discussion pieces shared with you over the next year will be solely focused on your professional and personal growth; I wanted to take a different approach and start off by sharing personal and professional details of who I am in hopes of giving you and me a better field of experience for future conversations and debate.

The commonalities between an Auto, Entrepreneur and Gaming magazine you’re probably wondering are that they’re all part of my personal brand. I’m currently the Digital Communications & Marketing Director at Lebanon Ford a rural Ford dealer in Lebanon, OH. Graduated from Miami University (OH) last May and professionally consider myself a marketer, social business enthusiast and future entrepreneur first, car guy second. The gaming magazine touches on an obsession of mine, understanding “play” and its effects on work productivity and strong mental health especially at local dealerships. A topic we should discuss at a later date.

If asked, I’d best describe my brand as *Mindful & Playful, Enthusiastic & Cheerful, Supportive & Elvish. Other Mind & Play brands according to Olson Zaltman include: Apple, Target, Nintendo Wii, Mini and JetBlue. To effectively understand how to describe your brand transparently takes effort, confidence and courage. Ask yourself: Would you be able to describe honestly your personal brand if asked this very second? I’ll go first, here are details of the Jeff Cryder brand:    

My Weaknesses

• - My passion can sometimes come across as arrogance (one of my biggest faults)
• - I can be overly critical of myself and others
• - Don’t always communicate my points clearly the first time
• - Need to learn how to work smarter not harder (Brian Pasch said this to me during our conversation at last year’s DSES, it’s been stuck in my mind ever since. Much thanks Brian).
• - Writing

My Strengths

• - Passionate
• - Student of my Trade
• - I'm a little weird, I like it.
• - Compassionate & Supportive
• - Willing to take risk

Here are a few things I believe in

• - No question is a dumb question if it's thought-out
• - Trolls will be trolls
• - Taking professional and personal risks is good for growth (A risk is calculated, a gamble is not).
• - Being passionate about who you are and what you do. It rubs off on others.
• - Always seeking personal and professional growth not only for yourself, but for the benefit of others.

In order for us to build a relationship and ultimately trust with one another we must first build expectations of who we are. I’ve shared my brand, now it's time to share yours.

*This post was inspired by a TED talk given by filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. Ironically his brand is very similar to mine. which allowed me to refine my thought and relate my personal brand to more iconic brands shown in the video. 

Craig Lockerd, for the love of all that is good and holy stop spamming the Driving Sales blog feed. That is all.

I wrote this little piece on my other blog, Social Blade and thought it might be helpful to those dealers getting serious about Social Media Marketing in 2011...

Too often I see my fellow dealers jump into the Social Media pool without fully understanding why. Which can be mistake since the why question tends to be the most important one to answer. The how and what are easy, but we tend to shy away from the why because it’s hard to think about and difficult to answer. Or worse, we don’t know the right why questions to ask. Here's a sample of "why" questions to ask yourself:

Why are we on [Insert Social Media Platform]?

Why are our customers on [Insert Social Media Platform]?

Why would our customers follow/like us online?

Why are we investing our time and resources?

Why are we monitoring conversation?

Why are we directing conversation?

Why are we creating conversation?

Why are we measuring ROI?

Why should we synergize our Social Media, SEO and Traditional Media Marketing?

Why are our competitors… [Insert Above Questions]

Keep in mind the answers to why questions will be unique and specific for your dealership. But, You’ll find having the ability to answer the why makes the how and what that much easier. For the Why is what will determine the two.