Most who are active participants of the Driving Sales community are well aware of the importance of having a Facebook page, getting local people to like it, and posting engaging content to keep our feeds present for people to see when they visit Facebook. Let's take it a step further and discuss some advanced marketing techniques that have been proven to be effective on Facebook.

One easy technique is the use of sharable photos. Many of us are posting pictures of our customers on our Facebook wall, but I cannot stress enough how important it is for these pictures to go beyond our own walls. We need them to be on other people's walls. We need them shared, getting comments, and getting exposure for our brands to as many locals as possible on Facebook.

Take a look at this update:

It has many of the attributes of a very strong update. It has real people doing real things. It highlights the personality of the dealership and the fact that they didn't something extra special for a local charity. It was originally posted on the charity's wall.

Here's what it was missing. Keep in mind, the likely reason it was "missing" these things is because this was done as a truly charitable, self-less act without marketing taken into account. They weren't looking for a publicity stunt or look-at-us exposure. They wanted to help.

Even when helping, I still recommend marketing as well.

Here are the things that would have made it perfect:

• Bigger photo with the dealership sign in the background
• Pro-active promotion of the image, asking people to not only contribute to the charity but to spread the word by sharing the image with friends and family
• More comments
• Links within the body to Facebook profiles of the participants
• Call to action: share, share, share!

Facebook isn't just about what we're saying about ourselves. There's more power in getting others to talk about us. Everyone knows that a business likes itself. What they want to see is that other people like them as well. The best place to see it is on their Facebook profiles more so than on our own pages.

This and 6 other tips are detailed in this week's TK Carsites and KPA webinar, 7 Idea-Sparking Examples to Jumpstart Your Facebook Marketing. The hour spent watching it can help you sell more cars through social media immediately.

Most who are active participants of the Driving Sales community are well aware of the importance of having a Facebook page, getting local people to like it, and posting engaging content to keep our feeds present for people to see when they visit Facebook. Let's take it a step further and discuss some advanced marketing techniques that have been proven to be effective on Facebook.

One easy technique is the use of sharable photos. Many of us are posting pictures of our customers on our Facebook wall, but I cannot stress enough how important it is for these pictures to go beyond our own walls. We need them to be on other people's walls. We need them shared, getting comments, and getting exposure for our brands to as many locals as possible on Facebook.

Take a look at this update:

It has many of the attributes of a very strong update. It has real people doing real things. It highlights the personality of the dealership and the fact that they didn't something extra special for a local charity. It was originally posted on the charity's wall.

Here's what it was missing. Keep in mind, the likely reason it was "missing" these things is because this was done as a truly charitable, self-less act without marketing taken into account. They weren't looking for a publicity stunt or look-at-us exposure. They wanted to help.

Even when helping, I still recommend marketing as well.

Here are the things that would have made it perfect:

• Bigger photo with the dealership sign in the background
• Pro-active promotion of the image, asking people to not only contribute to the charity but to spread the word by sharing the image with friends and family
• More comments
• Links within the body to Facebook profiles of the participants
• Call to action: share, share, share!

Facebook isn't just about what we're saying about ourselves. There's more power in getting others to talk about us. Everyone knows that a business likes itself. What they want to see is that other people like them as well. The best place to see it is on their Facebook profiles more so than on our own pages.

This and 6 other tips are detailed in this week's TK Carsites and KPA webinar, 7 Idea-Sparking Examples to Jumpstart Your Facebook Marketing. The hour spent watching it can help you sell more cars through social media immediately.

What started off as a debate turned into one of the most eye-opening discussions of my career. A friend of mine who run marketing at an online corporate giant was interviewing me about my recent decision to purchase several of their products. The topic of conversions came up and the fireworks started: what was considered a conversion in the automotive industry?

His contention was that conversions can only be sales, that leads by themselves weren't enough to qualify as a web conversion. He went so far as to say that a good dealer website should be able to SELL cars directly and that people should just be coming in to finalize paperwork and pick up their vehicle (or even better, have it all delivered to their house or work).

I won that part of the debate - leads are conversions in today's world because so few people will buy cars without driving them first. I explained the necessity of building excitement and taking ownership during the drive, that people might be willing to plop over a couple of hundred dollars for a tablet sight-unseen but that even a new car is challenging to sell without a visit to the dealership, let alone a used car.

He relented, but only after pointing me towards the lack of a Chief Conversion Officer at dealerships. Despite being something that is more easily translated in direct online sales rather than lead generation, there are things that we can learn from the concept.

This infographic by Monetate details the job and its responsibilities. Click to enlarge.

What can the automotive industry learn from it?

What started off as a debate turned into one of the most eye-opening discussions of my career. A friend of mine who run marketing at an online corporate giant was interviewing me about my recent decision to purchase several of their products. The topic of conversions came up and the fireworks started: what was considered a conversion in the automotive industry?

His contention was that conversions can only be sales, that leads by themselves weren't enough to qualify as a web conversion. He went so far as to say that a good dealer website should be able to SELL cars directly and that people should just be coming in to finalize paperwork and pick up their vehicle (or even better, have it all delivered to their house or work).

I won that part of the debate - leads are conversions in today's world because so few people will buy cars without driving them first. I explained the necessity of building excitement and taking ownership during the drive, that people might be willing to plop over a couple of hundred dollars for a tablet sight-unseen but that even a new car is challenging to sell without a visit to the dealership, let alone a used car.

He relented, but only after pointing me towards the lack of a Chief Conversion Officer at dealerships. Despite being something that is more easily translated in direct online sales rather than lead generation, there are things that we can learn from the concept.

This infographic by Monetate details the job and its responsibilities. Click to enlarge.

What can the automotive industry learn from it?

In the competitive world of automotive internet marketing, it's hard sometimes to know what's really working and what's a waste of time. Too often, dealers and their vendors are led down a path to some new form of "marketing gold" that will help their search and/or social gain an upperhand on the competition. It's for this reason that I've avoided pushing too hard about Tumblr.

After using it for 3 years internally here at TK Carsites, I'm finally confident that it has 3 attributes that are important for anything that we are willing to recommend:

• - It's got to have sticking power. Despite ups and downs, Tumblr has emerged as a real player in social media and shows no signs of slowing in the future.
• - It has to be relatively easy. One of the reasons we don't recommend that dealers should build a unique class-C IP-driven, relevant-content-based blog network is because it is hard. It requires manpower, dedication, and several hours a week for a long time just to get it to the bottom level of automotive marketing tools. It works, but it's a huge investment for an individual dealer or even a large dealer group. Tumblr, on the other hand, is easy.
• - It has to work. There are pros and cons to using Tumblr, but the site has gotten to the point that, done right, it can bring much more value than many of the other things dealers spend time on today.

Wednesday, we'll be doing our first Tumblr-centric webinar called "Tumblr: The Most Powerful Automotive Marketing Tool (that nobody's using right)". It's from 9am-10am Pacific. If you're serious about your marketing, I recommend attending.

In the meantime, here's a video I did that highlights the basics of Tumblr.

In the competitive world of automotive internet marketing, it's hard sometimes to know what's really working and what's a waste of time. Too often, dealers and their vendors are led down a path to some new form of "marketing gold" that will help their search and/or social gain an upperhand on the competition. It's for this reason that I've avoided pushing too hard about Tumblr.

After using it for 3 years internally here at TK Carsites, I'm finally confident that it has 3 attributes that are important for anything that we are willing to recommend:

• - It's got to have sticking power. Despite ups and downs, Tumblr has emerged as a real player in social media and shows no signs of slowing in the future.
• - It has to be relatively easy. One of the reasons we don't recommend that dealers should build a unique class-C IP-driven, relevant-content-based blog network is because it is hard. It requires manpower, dedication, and several hours a week for a long time just to get it to the bottom level of automotive marketing tools. It works, but it's a huge investment for an individual dealer or even a large dealer group. Tumblr, on the other hand, is easy.
• - It has to work. There are pros and cons to using Tumblr, but the site has gotten to the point that, done right, it can bring much more value than many of the other things dealers spend time on today.

Wednesday, we'll be doing our first Tumblr-centric webinar called "Tumblr: The Most Powerful Automotive Marketing Tool (that nobody's using right)". It's from 9am-10am Pacific. If you're serious about your marketing, I recommend attending.

In the meantime, here's a video I did that highlights the basics of Tumblr.

There is a distinct taste of irony to this post. I made my feelings known about cross-posting on all of the social networks earlier this month. Now I must break my own personal rule.

This time, I have good reason.

We're trying to compile a complete list of automotive social networks. We've put together a good list but I'm sure I'm missing some, so with a heavy heart I must do the thing I prefer to avoid: post this article across all of the social networks I know.

Over the past 5 years, the automotive industry has managed an amazing transition. We were behind the times half a decade ago as an industry with many dealerships still using old technology or leaning on traditional advertising as their primary method of pushing out their message.

In the short amount of time since, we've gone as an industry from being behind other industries in internet marketing practices to setting the trend and embracing the internet as the primary method through which we market our dealerships. It has been an amazing transition and I believe we can thank the networks on the list for helping to blaze the path that has gotten us all here.

Please review the list and let me know if I'm missing any. You can comment here or email me at jrucker@tkcarsites.com with any additions.

There is a distinct taste of irony to this post. I made my feelings known about cross-posting on all of the social networks earlier this month. Now I must break my own personal rule.

This time, I have good reason.

We're trying to compile a complete list of automotive social networks. We've put together a good list but I'm sure I'm missing some, so with a heavy heart I must do the thing I prefer to avoid: post this article across all of the social networks I know.

Over the past 5 years, the automotive industry has managed an amazing transition. We were behind the times half a decade ago as an industry with many dealerships still using old technology or leaning on traditional advertising as their primary method of pushing out their message.

In the short amount of time since, we've gone as an industry from being behind other industries in internet marketing practices to setting the trend and embracing the internet as the primary method through which we market our dealerships. It has been an amazing transition and I believe we can thank the networks on the list for helping to blaze the path that has gotten us all here.

Please review the list and let me know if I'm missing any. You can comment here or email me at jrucker@tkcarsites.com with any additions.

If anything, 5-minutes is overkill. It shouldn't take that long.

Using the network, learning the ins and outs, consolidating the philosophy and strategy to combine nicely with search and other social sites - all may take longer. Here, let's start with the basics. Get your page built.

There are a few things to keep in mind, but first and foremost is that you want it attached to your Google Places account. Eventually there will be some vetting that happens, but unfortunately anybody can make a page for any business. This won't last - they're just getting adoption rates up for now. Once they have the accounts active and working, they'll get into attaching them officially.

That will be a cluster, but we're not there yet. First, let's just get the page built.

If anything, 5-minutes is overkill. It shouldn't take that long.

Using the network, learning the ins and outs, consolidating the philosophy and strategy to combine nicely with search and other social sites - all may take longer. Here, let's start with the basics. Get your page built.

There are a few things to keep in mind, but first and foremost is that you want it attached to your Google Places account. Eventually there will be some vetting that happens, but unfortunately anybody can make a page for any business. This won't last - they're just getting adoption rates up for now. Once they have the accounts active and working, they'll get into attaching them officially.

That will be a cluster, but we're not there yet. First, let's just get the page built.