You can look at many dealership social networks and see why they are stuck in social quicksand; you just need to look closely enough to find out what is causing them to not be as successful as other dealerships and it has nothing to do with your make or model.

If you take a close look you will see that many cannot think outside of the dealership, often getting sucked into a cycle of promoting what’s on the show room floor instead of the brand. Here’s the thing, people who want a car already know what they are looking for, which vehicle is within their price range down to the smallest detail of what color, year and style they are after.

When using social networks or social media in general to communicate with others you need to think of what is happening outside of your dealership (this includes the lot) to truly capture the attention you sought for in the first place.

Your local community is full of events that are worthy of sharing and this is your opportunity to not only keep up with the happening’s that are occurring around you, but by sharing them on your social sites. You can also take a stance on rooting for local teams and even giving your community a heads up of games that occur within the different seasons to keeping score for them.

Take time to take pictures of your local area, find monuments, historical places and share the history of the city or town with a simple Google search. You can even turn it into a blog post or series if you have the writing skills, if not, find someone who does.

Take it a step further and team up with local events or businesses to offer promotions and swap to make a great campaign that will highlight each brand. You are a dealership but a business first and you need to work with your community to gain a following all year round, not just when someone needs to buy a vehicle.

This doesn’t mean you leave out cars, shoot a car within the setting as a part of the story; just don’t always make it THE story. If you write about the local museum then take a picture of a car in front of the museum. Tour the town with one of your cars, trucks or vans and make it a series that focuses on your local area with the vehicle as a part of the team.

People tend to want something that strikes up emotion, if a car is featured in a blog post or is constantly showing up on great pictures on Instagram, subliminally you are helping sell that car.

These are just a few tips to help you see more outside of the dealership than from your office window and begin thinking outside the box so you can gain more customers when using social media.

The more active you are within your community offline and online the more people you will attract. Become the interactive bulletin board that people in your local area want to read and your dealership’s name will remain within their minds and help them make that step inside your dealership by you thinking outside of it.

The word Community in cut out image via Shutterstock

Read more Automotive news on the Automotive Social Network DealerBar.

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Erin Ryan is Creator & Editor of Socialeyezer, a Social Media Blog as well as the Social Media Specialists Guide on TheErinRyan. Erin is passionate about Social Media, Writing, and the Automotive Industry. Connect on Erin Ryan's Social Networks through About.me

There are a ton of numbers in the various analytics programs out there. Many are worthless. Others are even misleading. The concept of analytics is to help us to analyze the performance of our websites. Unfortunately, they often do little in the way of analysis and more in the way of promotion.

It's for this reason that I'm a big, huge fan of Google Analytics. It's far from perfect, but it has certain qualities that make it worthy of attention:

• Third Party Trust - If your web provider is supplying the analytics, it is pretty much guaranteed that the numbers are not accurate. Skeptical? Install Google Analytics (or any other trusted third party source) and compare. I've never seen numbers on any home-grown analytics program that do not inflate or otherwise improve the perceived performance of a website.
• Portability - If you're like most dealers, you change your website provider from time to time. It's natural. The challenge that faces many is that the home grown analytics aren't portable to another system. Keep accurate, ongoing records by getting portable analytics installed immediately, just in case you do move to another website solution in the future.
• Power - It surprises just about anyone who dives into Google Analytics that the platform can be so powerful. By "diving in" I mean actually going through the free training that Google offers. You can do things with the platform that you probably would never have dreamed of otherwise.
• Easy Analysis - One thing that Google Analytics has is an abundance of people who understand it. At your dealership today, if you sent an email asking your staff if anyone is very familiar with Google Analytics, you will be surprised at how many experts there are. Whether they've applied this knowledge at other businesses or if they're running their own websites, it's a safe bet that someone at your store knows Google Analytics inside and out. If not, there are plenty of experts out there in and out of our industry who can help.

Before anyone asks, no, I'm not being paid by Google to say these things. I'm a firm believer in the platform. I have been for a long, long time. I think it's insane for any dealer to rely on their website vendor's platform solely. It's not that you shouldn't look at what they offer. It's that you shouldn't necessarily trust what they're telling you.

The Most Abused Statistic

There are plenty of numbers that vendors throw out there. Most are legitimate. Others are designed to make their offerings look better than they really are.

The most abused statistic thrown around in the automotive industry is "Conversion Rate." It is often considered the most important statistic to look at when judging website performance. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

If your marketing efforts are working, your conversion rate will go down. Most dealers are surprised by this statement. Most vendors adamantly disagree. It's not debatable. It's a well-known fact to those who understand how search marketing and other internet marketing efforts work, especially those outside of the industry. Automotive seems to be the only industry that tries to hide this fact.

There are many reason why this is true, but here's the easiest one to understand. One of the goals of your search marketing efforts is to expand your market reach. People in your local area can find you today. They are searching for you by name in most cases. Check your analytics and you will find this to be true.

With search marketing, you are trying to reach people who are not searching for you by name. You are trying to reach into your competitors' markets. You are trying to cast a wider net. Unfortunately, the result is that your conversion ratewill go down and this is confusing to some.

The only number you really want to affect is your total conversions. You want more leads. Effective search marketing makes this happen. As more traffic from other areas starts coming to your website, the chances of them becoming a lead diminish. If Jeff is in Lebanon, Ohio, and he starts ranking for the term "Cincinnati Ford Dealers" 40 miles away, he will get more leads. However, his conversion ratewill go down. People who search for his dealership by name are going to offer the highest rate of conversion. Once he starts branching out to other areas, suddenly his rate goes down but his total leads go up.

He's not losing any of his other leads by ranking in a competitor's area. He's simply increasing the traffic with people who are less-likely to put in a lead. That doesn't mean it's bad. If he's getting 500 leads today against 10,000 visitors, his conversion rate is 5.0%. If he expands to be found in other areas outside of his immediate vicinity, traffic and leads will go up but his conversion rate will go down.

Last month, he got 500 leads from 10,000 local visitors to his website. This month, he is ranking better in other areas close to his. Now, he's getting 540 leads from 11,000 visitors. His total conversions went up by 40 but his conversion rate went down from 5.0% to 4.9%. As he continues to expand his reach, the same thing will continue to happen - his rate will go down but his leads will go up.

* * *

There are other misleading statistics out there and we will be going over them in-depth on my webinar on Wednesday titled, "How to Simplify Analytics to See the Numbers that Make a Difference". I strongly encourage dealers to check it out. After all, it's free (as always).

Check it out on Dealer Webinars.

Social media is a visual experience. Sure, there are great links. There are insightful comments. There are cool videos. All of these are important, but for the most engagement, photos rule.

The video below is a short portion of our webinar titled, "Taking Facebook to the Next Level: Advanced Posting Strategies". We go into great detail about how to do Facebook the right way, but this simple tip from the video below should help you to understand why images are the kings of Facebook.

You can use images to set up your "money posts". A picture of a hot car is great but unless it's a unique vehicle that you have on sale at your lot right now, picture posts won't help that much. However, the engagement that you get through likes, shares, and comments on your interesting photos will help your important posts with links or messages to appear higher on your fans' news feeds.

At the end of the video, I mention that you can use images to help get exposure to your links. Facebook does not like links as much, but if you post an image, then include a link in the text above the image, you won't get the same news feed penalty that direct links get. The click thru rate is lower but the overall clicks can be higher.

I drew a few great takeaways when I visited Google in Mountain View a couple of weeks ago. The company is heading in millions of directions as it has been for several years, but the gap that's being bridged between search and social is changing the way we are organizing the very core of our business. Dealers will become aware of these changes sooner than they probably realize.

In short, the things even the savviest of dealers are doing today may do a complete 180 very quickly.

My lunch with the head of Google Analytics revealed more than I had anticipated; you can tell a lot about the direction of the search algorithm based upon what the company plans to start tracking.

Things have been changing rapidly for the past couple of years. Social media and search engine marketing are quickly becoming consolidated strategies for those who understand what is happening.  I was planning to talk about it at DSES but circumstances beyond my control prevented this.

Thankfully, the changes that are coming are not the type that need to be kept secret for long. Dealers will have much more control over their search marketing than ever before. They'll have to. Reliance on vendors to make it happen is going to be less important than reliance on internal personnel with the right experts guiding their actions.

In the coming weeks I will be posting more about it. Right now, there is more formulating, strategizing, and adjustments to our training regiment that must occur, but I will do what I can for the audience to grasp the bigger picture of the changes as soon as I'm able. Stay tuned. It's an exciting time for dealers who are willing to do what it takes to be dominant in internet marketing.

Author's Note: This is an article that was actually written a while back. I hesitated to post it initially as it was still up in the air about whether or not I would be attending DSES but with the event around the corner it's a safe bet that I won't be speaking there. Obviously I would rather present it directly but the coming articles will have to suffice. Have a great conference and I look forward to trying to get back in next year.

Let's face it. Klout is, for all intents and purposes, just a way for people to bolster their confidence and flex their social media muscle. It's a game, really, but one that's fun and that can help like-minded professionals find each other and network more effectively.

We compiled a list of the highest Klout scores in the automotive industry. The list is incomplete; there's no way to get everyone without input. We put together a comprehensive list that's up to the top 80+, but we would love help in finding the people that we're missing.

No brands or companies were included. We only went after individuals in the automotive industry. Most journalists, including auto review bloggers, were excluded as well because they normally are not associated with helping with internet marketing or other things that are relevant directly to dealers.

If Klout is as useless as I say, why would we compile the list?

The answer comes down to connections and networking. We believe that it's not necessarily an indicator of real world influence but connecting with those who are active on social media can help us (and you) find the "cutting edge industry folks" who are most likely on top of the latest and greatest in automotive marketing. By communicating with those who have high Klout, it can help to get more exposure for your own messages.

This list is so tremendously incomplete it's not funny. If you or someone you know is missing from the list, please comment below and let us know. The complete list is available here, but the top of the list, those with scores in the 70s, are listed below.

It is noteworthy and very telling that many of the top automotive Klout scores come from people who are very active on DrivingSales, including team members Chris Costner and Eric Miltsch, both of whom are in the top tier in the automotive industry.

Klout Score in the 70s

Scott Monty ~ 79
Louie Baur ~ 78
JD Rucker ~ 78
Grant Cardone ~ 78
Chris Costner ~ 76
Tracy Myers ~ 75
Joey Little ~ 73
Micah Birkholz ~ 73
Ralph Paglia ~ 73
Ric McCoy ~ 73
Brian Pasch ~ 72
CJ Romig ~ 72
Erin Ryan ~ 72
David Johnson ~ 71
Eric Miltsch ~ 71
Jae Chang ~ 71
Nancy Simmons ~ 71
Shawn Clos ~ 71
Jim Bell ~ 70
Kathi Kruse ~ 70
Lindsey Shaker ~ 70

Check out the rest of the list and PLEASE comment below if you know of people we're missing.

I was chatting with a social media marketing buddy of mine in Dallas earlier today when he told me a funny story. He knows that I'm in the automotive industry and he found it humorous that two dealers in his area shared the same image onto their Facebook pages at the exact same time. He followed both as he follows many local businesses and checked to see who posted it first and who reshared it.

To his surprise, it wasn't a case of one dealer liking and sharing the content that another dealer posted. It was a simultaneous post of the same image by two different dealers in the same metro.

This is awkward.

This is lazy.

Clearly, they were using the same social media vendor. Clearly, the vendor didn't believe in posting different content to different pages. He also noted to me that the image was cut off, so "add sloppy to my list of complaints," he told me.

I received what equated to a lecture about how "my" industry was doing it wrong. I assured him that we would never do something like that, not because it's a big deal but because we don't believe in automating our clients' interactions. It makes it impersonal and lowers the credibility level of any dealers who are pulling from a content pool, particularly when they're in the same city.

There's nothing wrong with sharing content that you find on the internet. There's nothing wrong with sharing another dealer's content; if it's interesting and relevant, Facebook is the perfect place to share and reshare. We do it all the time.

However, make sure you're not sloppy about it. Make sure that if you're having a vendor do the posting for you that they're not pushing the bulk send button on your behalf. Your goal is to stand out on Facebook, not act as a group posting the same thing that countless other dealers are sharing.

Be different. Be original. Don't settle for posting the same tired content just because your vendor has a lot of other dealers to post for as well. You deserve better.

We are compiling a list of Google+ accounts for anyone in the automotive industry. Testing shows that Google+ relies almost entirely on quality rather than quantity which makes it extremely important to network properly.

This is extremely important. Getting involved requires nothing, but the benefits (particularly by 1st quarter of 2013) can be dramatic.

It's not Facebook. Despite similarities in the platform functions, the ways that people and businesses engage on Google+ are completely different. The benefits are likewise different; with Google+, there is much more of a search and social hybrid function happening where engagement on Google+ both at the page/profile level as well as the website level can yield stunning results.

To those who think it's a ghost town, check again. They have made strong steps towards adoption over the last 3 months and it's starting to show signs of life.

What To We're Doing

We will be publishing a list of Google+ URLs for dealers, vendors, and individuals in the automotive industry. Through this list, the networking function that Google craves from Google+ will be applied and everyone who participates actively will benefit from it.

We have done this sort of thing outside of the automotive industry through our Hasai product line for several years now and it has yielded strengths that could never be achieved through individual efforts alone.

Basically, active players on Google+ will follow the other active players. Our combined engagement will translate into increased engagement outside of our personal networks and create an opportunity for the virality and trust elements that are driving both rankings on the search engine as well as traffic (to some extent). There is no need to go into details about why it works - the important part to understand is that it definitely does work and when properly organized can help everyone who is involved.

What YOU Need to Do

I'm compiling the list through my personal account rather than the business accounts (so nobody thinks this is a ploy to get followers for the company). Simple follow my account and I will follow you back.

Once the list is adequately large enough, I'll publish it here. After you follow my account you can also post your profile and page URLs in the comments so those who are already active can get a head start and follow you.

I'll send instructions to everyone who participates, but it isn't hard at all. Check Google+ at least once a day. +1, comment, and share content that you find interesting, particularly if it's from someone in the industry. The feed will "learn" based upon your actions and start displaying the profiles and pages you like the most at the top of your feed very similar to how Facebook does it.

We will stay perfectly aligned with what Google wants. Everything will be natural. We're networking. We're building an automotive network of like-minded people and businesses who all have the same basic goal - rank better and drive traffic to our sites.

Please don't dismiss this. It's really a no-brainer. If you're spending any time at all on Facebook, you should be spending at least a very small portion of it on Google+ as well. In the very near future, Google+ will demonstrate through their Local service (reviews), through search rankings (social signals), and through the adoption associated with both mobile and everything else Google that those who engage properly and strive for quality on their services will rise to the top.

Keep in mind that participation and results are intertwined, so there's no "risk" involved with getting on the list. If you're active, you'll be rewarded. If you become inactive or simply don't find the value, your lack of participation will not hurt you, it simply won't help you. There is literally nothing to lose.

Follow my account. I'll show you how to make it work for everyone, most importantly you.

As I look at the social media presence of various dealers, I noticed that many are either automating or have abandoned Twitter all together. Is this trend based upon lack of effectiveness or is it simply not a hot topic anymore?

We've seen dealers that have been effective on Twitter, but they are few and far between. Has Twitter become too thin? Is there simply no valid way to generate leads, communicate with customers, or find new prospects?

I'm asking because I still believe in Twitter. I know that there are ways to find potential customers on Twitter. I know that people do communicate with dealers on Twitter and often get disappointed when they don't get a reply. The question is: do you believe Twitter is worth it?

All too often I see dealers (and just about everyone else) posting images multiple times in the same day using a single tool. It could be Instagram, Hootsuite, Buffer, KPA Local Engage, Path, or any of dozens of great tools out there that can post images to Facebook.

The challenge with this is in how Facebook batches images into albums on the news feed. You can look at your Facebook page and everything looks fine, but the way that multiple images posted from the same tool in a 24 hour period looks in the news feed of your fans is completely different. They get batched as an album that does not have a like button.

Let me repeat. It does not have a like button on these auto-generated albums when viewed from the news feed. In other words, for your fans to interact with your image content they will have to click through to the individual image in the album.

They won't. They might think, "Oh, that's cool," but because there is no like button in their feed they'll skip it and continue scrolling.

Even the scheduling tool withing Facebook itself does this.

If you post images through mobile or directly to your page through Facebook.com, this isn't an issue. There's even a like button when you intentionally create an album through Facebook.com. It's in using any tools or the scheduling feature that the challenge arises.

This content can actually hurt your EdgeRank and make your content appear lower on the news feeds if at all. Already, only 16% of your fans are able to see your content at all in your news feed. There's no need to make that number go down even further by scheduling multiple images in a 24-hour period from the same tool.

We get around this and are able to get tremendous engagement on our page by using multiple tools. It doesn't apply for links or videos (which you should post sparingly anyway based on their penalties in the news feed), but more than one image from a tool in a 24 hour period makes it difficult for your fans to engage even if they want to.

Check out our Facebook Page. You'll see that we get strong interactions from our fans and are able to post multiple images a day because we split the image posts between the various tools. On the page or in the image above, you'll see that we use up to 5 different tools (including Facebook.com itself) at any particular time to make sure that Facebook doesn't auto-batch our posts into albums that cannot be liked directly from the news feed.

Try it out. Utilizing a single tool is easier but it can decrease engagement if you're posting more than 1 image a day. If you're posting less than one image a day, you're missing out on a lot of potential that images offer in Facebook. It's a visual medium. Be visual!

Most dealers have gotten involved in some way in Facebook at some point. Many are doing exceptionally well. Others are not. Some have abandoned it. Others have started but haven't really "started" all the way.

For those who have either not started or are not really sure what to do, Adam Ross posted an excellent guide to help dealers get their Facebook going. For those who are doing well or on the verge of doing well, here are some advanced Facebook posting tips just for you. We give examples as well as tips on why, how, when, and what to post. Find it on Dealer Webinars or watch it below.

It's long, but it's worth the time...