Big Data is hard to think about for some and so it becomes nebulous:  So, what is it?  It IS a business advantage--it’s not Internet 2.5 or Internet 3.0, it’s Internet^10.  These are some of the coming things possible (some already here!) for dealers to target for SALES with Big Data:

1. KNOW when your current customers are shopping elsewhere for vehicles:  Customer Retention.
2. KNOW which of your Aged Internet Leads are still in-market.  And what they are shopping for:  Maximize Lead-Based Sales.
3. KNOW when your current customers are hitting “life-changing” (read that “vehicle-sales-making”) events such as increase in income, pregnancy, or house purchase:   Life-Targeted Marketing.
4. KNOW which area to target shoppers who are NOT your customers: Conquest Sales.
5. KNOW what sources of advertising most drive your business:  Advertising Sourcing.
6. KNOW what inventory is trending so that you can adjust your lot:  Laser-Focused Inventory Management.
7. And more . . .

1. KNOW which dealers you currently have who are online using search terms that apply to your business:  Customer Retention.
2. KNOW which area has dealers you do NOT have signed up but are searching for your services:  Conquest Sales.
3. KNOW which dealers are under-performing for their DMA (in sales, customer satisfaction, etc.) so that you can target them for help:  Growth Sales.
4. And more . . .

hanging the World: Big Data and the Cloud The Atlantic But while two years ago, Cloud computing was appealing mainly because of its "pay per use" model (ideal in tough economic times), today, it is becoming more important because it is the enabler ofbig data analytics. As a quick review, big data is a ... See all stories on this topic »

By Decade's End, Big Data Will Be Bigger Than Ever U.S. News & World Report Information technology will be one of the fastest-growing fields this decade as commerce has gone digital in industries across the board. While the world may not see the turn-of-the century staffing crunch that was feared during the transition to Y2K ... See all stories on this topic »

The Promise of Big Data in Public Safety and Justice Government Technology The world is overwhelmed by data — and the prospects are for more than we can drink in for as far as we can see. Studies by IBM and Cisco have concluded that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been acquired in the past 18 months, and that ... See all stories on this topic » Government Technology

LexisNexis Showcases Big Data to Contain Costs and Improve Health Care ... The Herald | HeraldOnline.com ATLANTA — LexisNexis® Risk Solutions announced today its participation in the National Health IT Week celebration (http://www.healthitweek.org/) September 10-14, highlighting the use of data and analytics to drive down improper payments and ensure ... See all stories on this topic »

AppFirst DevOps Dashboard Delivers Systems, Apps, Business Metrics ... eWeek AppFirst collects millions of infrastructure, application and business metrics that are aggregated and correlated in a single big data repository. Data is collected continuously to provide customers with visibility into their entire infrastructure and ... See all stories on this topic »

HP Unveils New Enterprise Data Security Offerings eWeek With businesses using more cloud, mobile and big data strategies, perimeter-based security needs to be updated to proactive, intelligent security methods, says Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard unveiled several new data security products and services Sept. See all stories on this topic »

3M on Winning the Second Click with Big Data Appliances at BrightEdge ... Search Engine Watch On Wednesday I will be moderating a panel at BrightEdge Share 12, on the theme of a "New Direction of SEO" and will be joined by Raj Rao, VP of Global eTransformation at 3M, Leo Haryono, SEO Director at Macy's and Andy Johns, Product Manager of ... See all stories on this topic »

Group Emerges to Develop Big Data Privacy Standards Compliance Week Companies are just starting to consider how to unlock the massive potential of Big Data—the enormous and variant streams of information they are capturing, coupled with sophisticated tools to analyze them—and how to avoid the privacy and data ... See all stories on this topic »

Social/Mobile Analytics Company Kontagent Commits To Future In Toronto Via ... IT News Online The company foresees developing products that address Big Data analytics in a number of new and expanding business categories, and intends to leverage Toronto's considerable engineering talent base to help with product innovation and development. See all stories on this topic »

When it comes to our data and how it affects our business, how we can and must make money with it, retail automotive needs to wake up!  We need an "Internet Moment"--but, first, what the heck is that?  Understand that the "Internet Moment" was birthed this way at a very famous company:  The mid 90’s were a crazy time at Microsoft. The Internet was taking off, and it had left without Microsoft—and that was Bill Gate’s mistake, as he had written quite a bit internally at Microsoft about how the Internet was not going to be big.  I worked there back then, and he had led in that direction.  To put it in our perspective for automotive, that would be like Henry Ford and his descendants deciding way back that larger engines and eventually automatic transmissions were not important.  But worse.

And what would have happened in Ford’s case when he realized not having those was going to lose his market?  Bill Gates had that realization, that “Internet Moment”, because he finally listened to the people who worked for him—and the rest of the world—that the Internet was going to be huge.  Bill Gates turned Microsoft around overnight to match the market, and the strategy extended Microsoft’s dominance another ten years—not forever, but to be part of that certainly changedme forever.

In retail automotive, I feel that we are at our own “Internet Moment”, but it's not about the Internet alone any longer:  It's about our data.  I have recently seen, with my own eyes, just a small business wave on what is an enormous ocean of data.  The immense size of it is hard to grasp, and so some have suggested we can stop the data sharing and lock it back up.  We cannot.  Absolutely, we cannot.  First, the size of what is already happening with the data is thousands of points of data on every shopper in the USA, regardless of what they are shopping for.  Billions of data points.  The size of that d ike in just automotive alone is far past the number of our fingers, and far past the amount of time it would take to even try:  By the instant we achieved even a fraction of "stopping the leak", we would already be drowned by the other data sources.  We cannot stop it.

We have to decide, in our retail ships that ride this giant sea of data, whether we will sink in it or do business on it.  And it's not because of TrueCar.  It's not because of Google Cars.  It's not because of Yahoo.  It's not because of anybody else, in fact:  As Pogo once famously said, "We have met the enemy, and he is US!" (Google it if you don't get the reference, as ironic at is is to suggest you do that while writing THIS article!).

This is the mantra I look for and measure companies and partners by:  I support companies that protect and use this data to help dealers close deals and make more profit.  Nobody is perfect, but are you a partner to build business or a parasite taking profits?

We are having our "Internet Moment", and it is about our data.  It won't matter what we want to happen, it will only matter what the consumer wants to happen.  If someone like Bill Gates can't control the consumer, do we think we can?

Of course not.  We cannot fight it, because for sales we must follow where consumers go.  And the data (including OUR data) is how we will get there.

The 2010's will be remembered as the "Data Decade", but don't end up a memory, yourself.  You can do great business with your data for profit, with all the data, and you should.

In fact, it's no longer an option:  In our "Internet Moment" for Data, you must.

P.S. "“Big Data is the new definitive source of competitive advantage across all industries,”… “For those organizations that understand and embrace the new reality of Big Data, the possibilities for new innovation, improved agility, and increased profitability are nearly endless.” - Forbes, 2/18/2012"

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved  www.keithshetterly.com
keithshetterly@gmail.com

Here’s my social media business development "moth light" attractor experiment:  I have a very positive personal reputation that some of you know.  I am writing about this on automotive professional/vendor social media.  And I have a strong, new message that can benefit us both.  Ready?

If you want the most business-building, field-proven “Road to the Sale” (RTTS) set of products and services for your dealership—from the bones of your processes to the muscle, nerves, and brains to drive them to be their best—then call me.  Or eMail me!  Contact me any way you can and I will tell you all about it.

Why?  Because I have a great answer for more dealership sales profit built around using the long-established RTTS, including the tools and services (reasonably priced) to deliver the goods.  And all with my personal reputation stuck right on it.  100%.  Don't just get better--get more.  What is it?  What am I talking about?  Contact me and I'll tell you all about it.

My further commitment:  If you just want to discuss processes around the RTTS only, regardless (which I’m very good at, with references), contact me anyway.  I’ve been doing, writing, training, and consulting on this for years, doing far more of it for free than I ever charged for.  Price and features don't compel attraction--reputation and relationship do that.  I have the first, and let's build the second.  Because attraction, and success, are mutual here.

Thanks!

Keith Shetterly
281-229-5887 cell/text
keithshetterly@gmail.com
www.keithshetterly.com

"Never let perfect get in the way of progress."  -- Keith Shetterly, 2012

There's a great article here called Doing It Wrong: 11 Boring Things GM Posted on Facebook.   I couldn't agree more with the article.  And, like the article itself, I have more to say than just comment on the "boring" Facebook page operation by GM, as well:  GM is stupid, or "dot dumb", for revoking their paid Facebook ads.

What is going on?  This is really "Old Media vs. New Media" and nothing new for GM's advertising, unfortunately.  I don't agree with the folks who claim Facebook cannot be monetized well--in fact, if I were running GM's online efforts, I would have wanted to WORK WITH Facebook to tune up their ad system!  The press from such an effort would have been very big.  And positive, even if the project itself didn't work (which I think it would).  We will sell 14 million vehicles this year, give or take, and spend (between the OEMs and dealers) $14 billion dollars in advertising!  That's $1,000 a vehicle.  And that's a lot of money to direct to the right places.

And yet Facebook--with a standing audience of many millions that includes both domestic GM customers and possible conquests (not to mention SERVICE customers)--is somehow not, in GM's eyes, worth working it out?  Evidently.  Well, whether you believe Facebook is the Next Online Ad Giant or you don't, GM's move to revoke $10 million of Facebook advertising (very important, though a drop in the bucket for both OEM car ads as well as Facebook income) is indicative of a systemic problem:  GM has never, ever really "gotten" the Internet.  From their matching funds efforts for digital ad strategies to their lead programs, they don't understand what it takes to really advertise vehicles much less sell vehicles leveraging the Internet.  And this was true before the bankruptcy and is true after.

Phrases like "Emperor's New Clothes" and "Calling Their Baby Ugly" come to mind, as clearly GM has an entrenched mindset that has continued to not "get" the Internet OR social media for years--and so I don't expect either to make a change at GM or make a friend from this article (and I do have friends who work at GM, by the way, and for the record as individuals they are very smart).  I'm just one guy who DOES get it writing a blog in an online community.

However, change is needed for GM.  And how long does it take for GM to really change?  Another decade will be equivalent to at least 50 "Internet Years".  How much must happen for GM to really change and not be "dot dumb"?  A bankruptcy couldn't even do it.

Which is sad.  I'm a long-time GM vehicle buyer, by the way.  A true fan of the product.  Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of us:  Most of the "unaffiliated" vehicle buyers are on Facebook.  And they're under 35.  And maybe under 40.

And, as the most-marketed-to age group in history, they are not stupid.  They are "dot smart".

Maybe GM Marketing/Advertising should hire a few of them.

by Keith Shetterly, Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved, www.KeithShetterly.com
keithshetterly@gmail.com