Let’s face it: not too many people want to like a Facebook page that’s purely “sales-y.” If all you do on your car dealership Facebook page is post lists of prices and cars, you’re missing the point of social media. People join Facebook for the chance to interact personally with their friends and come to expect the same casual approach from the pages they like.

There is a much better chance of gaining fans on your page if you post pictures, interesting facts and news, and statuses that may or may not relate to the cars you sell. Comment on things like the weather or sports games to get people to interact on the page. The more people see interaction on your page, the more likely they will think your page looks interesting and will want to join in.

Giveaways for items like iPads are a surefire way to gain fans, but you can pump up giveaways even more if you show pictures and videos of people who won past giveaways. Also, take pictures of smiling customers with their cars and salespeople. Let your Facebook fans see a personal side of your employees—get salespeople posting on the page. Involve managers in posting about their latest specials as well as about general topics of interest.

Build a relationship with potential customers by making your page show your dealership as a group of people and not just a business. Make your auto dealership Facebook page be a page that people want to like!

Paul Potratz

Google is now integrating Promoted Tweets into Google Realtime Search. Twitter allows advertisers to pay for Promoted Tweets that will show up above the others in search results, similar to Google AdWords. Twitter itself only just unveiled Promoted Tweets, which the company is running on a trial basis with a select group of marketers, but eventually will open up to anyone who wants to advertise, including car dealers.

Not too long ago, Google rolled out Realtime Search, showing results from Twitter statuses that update in real time on the page. Now, paid-for Promoted Tweets will get prime position in Google results. Though this is a feature in progress of rolling out, car dealerships need to watch and see when and how they can take advantage of this new method of social media promotion.

As of now, these results will not show in regular search results but only in the Realtime search category (click “Updates” along the left side of search results to see). This integration with Google marks a continued cooperation between Google and Twitter and a new opportunity for interactive automotive advertising.

Paul Potratz

The Ford Motor Company’s large Social Media footprint coupled with their “One Ford” philosophy has helped the company come back from potential bankruptcy. Ford just announced their Best Third Quarter Ever, which marks their sixth consecutive quarterly gain. Currently the company is on track to paying off their debt by the end of 2010, one year ahead of schedule, and plan to create 1,200 news jobs at their Detroit Area plants.

Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally credits Ford’s comeback to cutting brands on focusing on their Ford products. “We have a laser focus on Ford” Mullaly said. After recently awarding Ford “Marketer of the Year”, Ad Age publications credit Ford’s Vice President of Marketing, Jim Farely, and his aggressive social media campaigns aimed at millennials and baby boomers a like.

A lot has happened for the Ford Motor Company in 2010. Mercury was phased out and the Fiesta Movement begun. By the end of October, the all new 2011 Ford Fiesta looks to sell 1 Million Units worldwide. This is thanks in large part to Ford’s use of social networking sites to target tech savvy consumers.

Ford’s use of Social Media doesn’t end with debut of the Fiesta. The company has also had a hugely successful Facebook Launch for their 2011 Ford Explorer. Ford also plans to repeat their success with these by launching a new social media campaign to promote the Ford Focus.

Ford’s national level social media campaigns have created a lot of opportunity for their Hometown Ford Dealers, but there are still opportunities for car dealerships that don’t have as much social media support from their manufacturer. Potratz offers a series of Automotive Marketing Webinars geared towards helping your dealership focus on a social media strategy that works no matter what brands your dealership sell.

PAUL POTRATZ

How Your Dealership Can Start Using QR Codes to Drive Traffic

There are countless ways to integrate QR Codes into your Dealerships Automotive Marketing Campaigns. QR stands for Quick Response and they are essentially a two dimensional barcode that pack a lot of information in a little black and white box. Most phones have applications capable of reading QR Codes that can be used to link potential car buyers to a digital and interactive space.

Car dealers can put QR Codes on virtually anything. As long as the image is still and can be read by a QR reader you can put a QR code on it. Below are five ways your dealership can start using QR Codes to drive traffic.

1. Point of Sale Materials – Put a QR Code on a Lot Banner to link Customers on the Lot to your Dealerships New or Used Car Specials

2. Repair Order Fliers – Get feedback from your customers on your service department by linking a QR Code to an interactive survey

3. Newspaper Ads – Place a QR Code in this weeks ad and link it to your dealerships video testimonial page.

4. Direct Mail Pieces – Get an entire zip code to come into your dealership to read the QR Code that they got in the mail.

5. Business Cards – Link your customers directly to your personal contact information by including a QR Code on your Business Card.

Maybe not EVERYONE knows what a QR Code is or how to use one. But as Smart Phones increase in popularity and apps become more accessible it can be advantageous for your dealership to get out ahead of the marketing curve. Feel free to contact us for more ideas as to how your dealership can implement QR Codes in your dealerships interactive marketing.

We encourage you to follow the QR Code at the top of this post if you're looking for some more ways to integrate QR Codes into your Car Advertising Campaigns.  Or visit us online for more information.

Starting this week, Potratz will produce a short weekly video highlighting the latest trends in digital automotive marketing. Think Tank Tuesday will be a fun and informative source of advice for dealers.
Take a few minutes each week to join us and learn how you can integrate digital and traditional advertising to make your dealership stand out from the rest.

In this week’s video, Paul Potratz talks about utilizing Facebook to its fullest by switching
your dealership’s profile page to an actual business page. You can
build more fans and promote your business to the fullest with a business
page.

Stay tuned each week for the latest automotive marketing tip from Potratz! Click here to sign up to receive weekly email updates with the latest episodes, blog posts, webinars, and more.

If you have an idea for a topic you would like to discuss, send it to ideas@ppadv.com. If we use your tip, we’ll send you a free iPod!

Paul Potratz

Claim your Dealerships Venue Using FourSquare!

Geomarketing is becoming more and more viable for Car Dealers with availability of Smart Phones that come equipped with GPS.  If your Car Dealership isn’t already listed on FourSquare, then we will give you all of the steps you need to geomarket your car dealership.

Once you have your Car Dealerships coordinates set in FourSquare the next step is to add some valuable details.  Categories and Tags can help optimize your dealerships visibility when FourSquare users are trying to find you.  Make sure your Categories and Tags are beefed up with descriptive categories and tags.  But most importantly make sure your dealership’s address is listed properly.

For instance, look at what Metro Ford of Schecectady has done.  They have listed their dealership’s location, categories and tags.  Although this seems to be cover all bases we would suggest you throw in a couple more tags to promote your dealerships back end services as well.

Fortunately FourSquares website gives you the ability to list your dealerships tags and quite easily and all you have to do is select the edit button to add more information to these fields.  We would encourage you to add as many descriptive tags as possible to really build to optimize your dealerships visibility on the FourSquare.

Logging into your dealerships FourSquare page also give you the ability to see what kind of Tips your customers are leaving.  Tips will give your potential customers to leave comments about their experiences, but your dealerships sales people could also be using this to promote special offers and savings that are going on at your dealership.  Keeping these tips up-to-date takes little time and could be highly valuable if your internet service managers kept the message up-to-date.

The whole FourSquare community is obsessed with becoming Mayors of venue.  Our Potratz Team has been battling it out to obtain and retain the Mayor Status at our home base.  Most businesses taking advantage of geomarketing give perks to their mayors.  Your dealership too can give an incentive to your customers to come check out your dealership.  Some ideas that work for a couple of our clients in different markets are VIP Service Specials and VIP Access to Break Room Coffee!

Now that FourSquare has surpassed the 1 Million User mark it seems that the social network will start to climb an even steeper increase of users.  Creating a Geomarketing Process is key to staying current with trends in Auto Dealer sales.  So it is important to authorize your dealerships venue so that you can  take control of your profile and ensure that accurate information is being shared.  Location-Based Applications are currently on the frontier of marketing and being on the forefront is important for your company’s visibility.

Step one to claiming your venue involves telephone verification.  You will need to use your dealerships telephone number to verify your account and then an automated message with a four digit verification code will be generated to authenticate your ownership of the venue.

Step two of the claiming process gives the dealership a chance to create custom messages for your customers who have checked in using this location-based app.  These are then reviewed, but think of all of the incentives a Car Dealership can create to encourage customers to compete for the chance to hold the coveted Mayor Status.

Now that you’ve claimed your Dealerships Venue we encourage you to participate in our series of Potratz Automotive Webinars.  You can stay current with our schedule of Potratz Automotive Webinars by following this link: Potratz Automotive Webinars

The social networking and media jungle is constantly changing, and sometimes automotive dealers get lost trying to cut through the bush to
stay ahead of current trends. Although it’s beneficial to stay
knowledgeable in the shifting social media arena, using the 1,000 pound
Gorilla (Facebook) to its maximum potential will provide a dealership
with the biggest return on investment.

As we already know, Facebook is the world’s largest social networking platform. What may not be so familiar is the amount of time the average
person spends on Facebook each day. According to Alexa, a third-party
website rater, the average Facebook-er spends over 30 minutes per day on
the network. So even though there are tens of thousands of social
networking sites that include features like GPS targeted apps,
micro-blogging functions, and more, statistics show that Facebook is
still the 1,000 pound Gorilla, with no signs of slowing down.

Results from our recent surveys for a dealer in the Chicago area show
that 82% of their customer database using social media is exclusively
using Facebook. That compares to 8% MySpace, 6% Twitter, and 4% using
both Facebook and Twitter. How can this information benefit your
dealership? For starters, you now know that over 3/4 of the people in
your database are probably using Facebook solely as their social network
of choice. That means your sales staff and managers can be confident
that Facebook should be your point of focus for the dealership’s social
networking efforts.

Now I know what you’re saying… What about Twitter, Foursquare, GoWalla, MySpace, LinkedIn, and thousands more?! I would say you’re
right, but how many dealerships can say that their staff have sufficient
time to manage and grow these networks properly with specials,
promotions, and information on a daily and hourly basis? That’s why it’s
crucial to focus on Facebook, because you can achieve many of the same
benefits that the other networks and apps give if you stick with the
Gorilla.

GPS Targeted Updates? Facebook Places. Notifications & ‘Likes’ Updates? Your business page can create events and send updates
instantaneously to your entire following, just like Twitter does. Video,
Audio, Photos? Check, Check, Check. If you use Facebook properly, you
can more effectively reach car buyers and past customers. Post video
deliveries and tag your customers, create events and share updates for
social promotions, take photos of your everyday activities, give
benefits to customers for checking in at the dealership on Facebook
Places, and much much more. But, most importantly, network, and have
fun! It’s an online cocktail party, so share personal interests,
stories, and experiences that will allow the car buyers to connect and
interact on your dealership’s business page!

The stats are there and it’s time for your dealership to stop being lost in the jungle by constantly wavering over new networks and where to
focus time. The Gorilla (Facebook) is the king, and anything you’d like
to achieve in the Social Networking arena is possible. Reaching more
people more efficiently to get more leads for your dealership–isn’t that
what advertising is all about? More than 3/4 of your customers and car
buyers are there, every day. It’s time your dealership spent the time to
capitalize on Facebook’s endless opportunity.

For more information on using Facebook to promote your dealership, please contact us.

POTRATZ
Paul Potratz
518-788-4724
paul@ppadv.com
Like us on Facebook

It might be difficult to sell cars using Groupon, but selling the services your Dealership provides would be a piece of cake.  A Subaru Dealer in Seattle recently did Full Car Details for half price while a Ford Lincoln Mercury Dealer in Kansas City did a Brake Inspection, Tire Rotation, Charge System Test, Multipoint Inspection and a Car Wash for 66% off.

The days of clipping coupons out of the Sunday Edition are coming to an end thanks in part to social sites like Groupon.  Dealerships nationwide are using Groupon to provide group coupons (hence the name) on products and services.  And there are a couple of ways Car Dealerships could use Groupon to promote their brand.

Automotive Dealerships can promote themselves to Groupon’s massive email database by offering exclusive one day service specials, but there’s a catch.  Groupon’s Group Coupon’s only go live if a minimum threshold is met by consumers.  In smaller markets that number would be around 10 while in larger cities that number can be much much higher.  This means at least the minimum threshold needs to be met before a group coupons go live.  And consumers are only charged if the minimum threshold is met.

If you think Groupon could work promoting your Dealership feel free to contact us today.  Also, check out our Schedule of Upcoming Automotive Marketing Webinars.

POTRATZ
Paul Potratz
518-788-4724
paul@ppadv.com
Like us on Facebook

Professionals from all industries are creating profiles on LinkedIn to network with others. In turn, auto dealers need to take advantage of LinkedIn to build relationships on a more professional level than through Facebook.

Car buyers may check out your dealership and employees’ profiles before purchasing a car, and so the more content they can find, the better. You may be able to network with potential buyers yourself, and LinkedIn offers one more opportunity to sell cars through social media.

Make sure you enter all possible information into your profile. Let people see all the experience and knowledge you have.

Join groups and participate actively in discussions. Countless groups exist for the automotive industry, in which you can discuss sales strategy and promote your auto dealership’s presence in the process. Also join groups related to your hobbies—let people see a personal side of you.

LinkedIn gives auto dealers a platform for networking with other dealers as well as potential customers. For more information on using LinkedIn or other social media to promote your car dealership, please feel free to contact us.

POTRATZ
Paul Potratz
518-788-4724
paul@ppadv.com
Like us on Facebook