ATLANTA, Georgia, ‐‐ EasyAutoSales.com, America’s fastest growing consumer driven automotive resource launches version 3.0 of its classified services to focus on vehicle research and premium classifieds. The new EasyAutoSales website features added integration with Craigslist and a number of social‐networking websites to help car dealers better reach car buyers in the social web.

“94% of consumers are researching cars online and reading peer reviews weeks or months before they browse classified listings,” said Randall Prince, Co‐founder of EasyAutoSales.com. “With EasyAutoSales, buyers can now do both vehicle research and comparison shopping at the same time.”

The EasyAutoSales Community allows both car buyers and car dealers to interact, share vehicle photos, and post YouTube videos within the online discussions. All relevant car reviews and discussions are linked to the 2 million+ vehicle listings found on EasyAutoSales.com. 

“With existing online classifieds, car buyers browse and shop alone and the experience they get is similar to walking through a dealership lot after closing,” said Wei Yang, CEO of EasyAutoSales.com. “With the new EasyAutoSales, our shopping experience will be like browsing new cars at a car show along with hundreds of other people around you doing the same. Not only will you see tons of photos, comments and videos, you can participate in discussions, and read car reviews by current owners.

In addition to helping car buyers make more informed choices on EasyAutoSales.com; buyers can also extend their pre‐purchase shopping questions to their Facebook or Twitter network by sharing vehicles found on EasyAutoSales to those services.

“Our goal of integrating EasyAutoSales with Facebook and Twitter is to allow car buyers to tap into the wisdom of their existing social network for general car advice,” says Yang. “A typical Facebook or Twitter user has hundreds of friends in their network ‐ which means between their friends and their friends’ network, there are at least thousands of personal experiences with a variety of different vehicles.” 

A car buyer who is interested in a particular vehicle found on EasyAutoSales can now easily share that tidbit of information on their Facebook wall, FriendFeed, or Twitter updates and get instant feedback on that exact vehicle. 

“Chances are someone in the buyer’s social network will be able to chime in and let the buyer know if the vehicle in question is a rip‐off or a worthwhile purchase,” says Yang. “Ultimately, getting real advice from the people you trust is the best way to shop and we have the best system in place to put dealer inventories in those discussions.”

For more information, please check out http://www.easyautosales.com

About Easy Autos, LLC (www.easyautosales.com) 

EasyAutoSales.com is America’s fastest growing automotive resource for buying, selling and researching new and used cars. EasyAutoSales encourages consumer education and promotes interaction between car buyers, car dealers and car enthusiasts. The website lists over 2 million vehicle listings from over 60,000 dealerships and private sellers. Dealerships that are interested in promoting their vehicle inventory on EasyAutoSales should contact EasyAutoSales to setup an export of their inventory. For dealerships that do not have an existing inventory system, EasyAutoSales also provides inventory management services directly on EasyAutoSales.com.

To add your vehicles or your dealer inventory to EasyAutoSales, contact service(at)easyautosales(dot)com for more information.

At EasyAutoSales we are feverishly working to improve our offering for car dealers.  Our goal is to make selling cars as easy as possible for you.  Who better to help us do that than YOU?  We've created a Car Dealer Online Marketing Survey using Survey Monkey.  It will take you less than 5 minutes to cruise through, and your responses will be tremendously helpful to us.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE OUR SURVEY

We will post our findings on this blog, as well as our company blog http://blog.easyautosales.com.  So check back in the next couple weeks.

Thanks so much for your time!

If you read our previous post outlining 10 reasons why car dealers need to engage car buyers online , than your next logical question would be, "Where is the best place online to engage these car buyers?"  We've crafted a list of where we believe are the 10 best places to engage car buyers online.  Depending on the make and model your selling, one online community may make more sense than another, but this list should at least get you started on finding where the relevant conversations are taking place.

10. Edmunds Carspace - "The Car Enthusiasts Automotive Lifestyle Social Networking Site". Edmunds Carspace is one of the most popular forums on the web. As such, finding what you want can be a bit daunting and the conversations can be long. However, there's a lot of great advice to be had and a wealth of information in archive. The interface is clean, but there are a lot of ads.

9. AutoMedia - "Car Advice You Can Trust". Whereas Edmunds does forums by car, AutoMedia does it by topics. From car care to automotive performance, AutoMedia displays all sorts of information about making the car you already have, better. There's lists on proper driving techniques, restoring tired cars, how to get better gas mileage, amateur motorsports and hundreds of other topics in addition to a simple buying guide for new cars.

8. Yahoo Answers - A specific section for questions about buying and selling vehicles. Yahoo Answers gives you the opportunity to ask questions to an entire community at once through their main page. Not only will members of their community answer your question, other members will rate the answers to give you a "best answer". The incentive to give the best possible answer means there's a lot less "noise" in Yahoo's forums.

7. Ask.Cars.com - "Our Experts Answer Your Questions" Ask.Cars.com has one of the best interfaces of any forum out there. A simple "Question of the Day" takes up a majority of the homepage and subsequent answers are at the bottom of the page as "Recent Questions". The unfortunate problem is that most questions only have a few answers. The questions jump between tax issues, new cars, problems with cars and hundreds of other things.

6. Cargurus - "Got a question about your car? Ask the CarGurus community and get a response within hours!" CarGurus is a sort of car rating site. It's not so much a way to ask and answer questions as it is a "raves" vs. "rants" site. If you're looking for what people who actually own cars think of them, this is a good place to go. Though, there is a very large gap in the models actually reviewed and those still awaiting reviews.

5. DealerRater - Allows dealers to promote their quality customer service. When searching for a new car, that moment comes when you finally say, "Yes. That's the car I want." Who are you going to buy from? DealerRater helps you decide by letting users comment on the quality of service they receive. Consumer Reports has noted that new car shoppers rate quality second only to safety as the aspect of owning a car most important to them. DealerRater helps you make sure you get quality service.

4. EasyAutoSales - The first and only social classifieds for cars! EasyAutoSales ties community to car classified listings with Facebook Connect. This allows questions asked, comments to be broadcast and interesting cars and topics to be shared with your network of friends on Facebook and beyond. EasyAutoSales' free platform connects car buyers, car sellers and car experts to create one of the most exciting and fastest growing car communities.

3. MySpace - 62,192 automotive related groups. Most people know MySpace as merely a social network for communicating with friends, but MySpace also has one of the largest car communities too! With over 126 million users, MySpace can be a huge ally in discussing cars and, if utilized properly, selling cars.

2. Twitter - People talking and asking questions about cars in 140 characters or less. Twitter allows you to talk about cars in a very real-time, open forum with people who you know or associate with. As opinions on a car, where to get the best deal or what's popular. Twitter is a great place to discuss cars as well as taking advantage of ancillary sites like TwitPic, where you can share pictures from your cell phone real-time.

1. Facebook.com - With over 500 groups related to "car buying" alone and 175 million users, Facebook is the final frontier in social networking. The combination of fan pages, applications, media sharing and a simple way to interface with all your friends and family on a daily basis, Facebook is a powerful marketing tool. Whether is be via Facebook Connect and sites like EasyAutoSales that use their technology or simply sharing a story or a picture, Facebook has the power to make your car buying or selling experience much easier and more fulfilling.

If you've had experience interacting with potential car buyers on any of these sites, or feel like we are missing one, please share in the comments below.  Remember, be helpful, be transparent, and be authentic.  Good luck engaging!

Word of mouth is the holy grail of reaching potential customers - car buyers are no different.  If someone who just bought a car from your dealership blogs or tells a friend that they had a great experience, BAM! you will surely have new shoppers walking through your doors instead of the dealerships down the street. 

Until fairly recently, harnessing the power of word of mouth has been virtually impossible.  Now, thanks to social media and social networks, the possibilities are becoming a bit more tangible.  If your dealership is not already engaging potential customers online, these 10 data points will certainly set you straight.
 
10. 93% of consumers do research online before buying a car.
   
    Whether your dealership and inventory is online or not, almost 100% of your potential customers are on the web searching for information, reviews and recommendations!

9. 67% of consumers say that recommendations and information from people online influences their purchasing decisions.

    More than 2/3’s of consumers make their purchasing decision based on peer reviews and recommendations!  As long as you are transparent about your affiliations and are tactful with your approach, your recommendations could be just as influential as the next guy, maybe even more based on your unique expertise.

8. 56% of consumers feel a stronger connection with a brand if they are able to interact with the company through social media.

    The days of large, faceless corporations are long gone! Individuals want to be heard and they want to connect on a one-on-one basis. Instead of blasting your advertising message through an air horn, cater your dealership’s voice by listening to your customers’ needs and use social media to allow for two-way communication.

7. 57% of consumers feel better served by a company when they can interact with them through social media.

    When a consumer feels better served, that’s when they recommend you to their friends at the next cocktail party, write rave reviews on their blogs and recommend you online.  We are in the Recommendation Age.  Interact = Get recommended.

6. 33% of consumers visit blogs, communities or social networks to research products before buying.

    Conversational media plays a significant role in car buying process and before the consumer even knows what car they want to buy, they are out there reading reviews, comparing specs and test-driving cars.  Shouldn’t you use your unique position to help them with basic questions and build a relationship? It’s time to engage!

5. Nearly 13% of new vehicle buyers commented on someone's blog or forum (J.D. Power & Associates)

    Not only are consumers searching for information, they are engaging and providing their own views of the presented information. By interacting with your customers and offering free help, you will build awareness for your brand online as they do their research.  

4. 57% of consumers say they would likely take action based on information they received from an online brand representative.

    You and your dealership are a brand. If you don’t represent yourself someone else will.  People are Googling you and your dealership, and your reputation is being built on those results.  Put your online reputation in your hands by joining the conversation.

3. 67% of consumers say they are likely to pass the information they received from an online brand representative along to others.

    If you are willing to help out your potential customers, they will help you out.  It’s word of mouth hard at work for you.

2. 45% of consumers say they pass along information they find on social media websites, compared to only 36% who pass information they received from company or news sites.

    Why rely on customers coming to you?  People hang out on social media sites and word of mouth happens more often as a result of information found on social media sites.  Find, listen and engage.

1. According to eMarketer’s recent report, by 2013 an estimated 52% of all Internet users will be regular social network visitors. (Up from 41% in 2007)

    Social media is not a fad and as technology improves, the number of people that will connect on a one-on-one basis will only continue to grow. Make your presence known in the conversation today and let the ripple effect help you grow through personal connections.

Most of the data above was provided by: http://www.sherpastore.com/socialmediabmg09.html - the above information doesn't even scratch the surface of the invaluable information contained in this report.  We highly recommend it!

Stayed tuned for our next post where we highlight the best places for dealers to engage with consumers online…

Are these numbers enough to convince you to join the conversation?
 

There's always a silver lining.  The cutting of costs in the automotive sector is leading to more and more Do-It-Yourself internet marketers in the car industry.  Forced to get rid of advertising, and pricey lot services to take and upload inventory photos, car dealers are turning to the internet to figure out ways to promote their business for free.  Social networks like DrivingSales are proof of this phenomenon, as automotive professionals are seeking out help from their more internet savvy peers.  As car dealers learn how to increase their presense online, in the long run this will be a contributing factor to the improvement of the automotive industry.  Increased online presense means increased transparency, which means better service, which means better consumer reviews, which means more business.  Auto sales online will follow the way of popular websites like Amazon.com.  If you are a car dealer without positive reviews online you will be at a disadvantage.  The more automotive professionals learn how to utilize online platforms to improve and highten their reputation and business the better off the industry as a whole will become.

Do you agree? Disagree?  What are some tips you have for automotive professionals just being introduced to the online space?

Ok, so maybe you've heard of a few of them, but these aren't the obvious ones like YouTube, Digg and Facebook.  The point is your customers are using social networks everywhere they go.  Its becoming a natural part of online behavior.  Connecting with people on these niche social sites in a relevant manner may be more effective than the large networks that everbody is a part of.  In the long tail of social networks its easier to figure out what interests your audience.  So don't be affraid to migrate off Facebook and MySpace. It may require more of an effort to connect with people, but I'm will to bet ultimately conversions will be higher.

Are you a visual learner?  Well I am, and that's why I'm such a big fan of the Search illustrated column at Searchengineland.com.  Some SEO concepts are a whole lot easier to understand in an infographic.  For my first blog post at DrivingSales I would like to direct you to the Search illustrated graphic about article search engine optimization. 

Writing, hosting, and submitting articles is an excellent way to give your site visitors helpful information and at the same time provide keyword rich content for the search engine spiders. Once you put your article on your own site and it gets indexed by Google, you can then submit it to the many article submission sites online in order to build backlinks to your site. Not only will you be getting a link from the site you submit to, but if your article is compelling enough it will often get picked up by other automotive publishers seeking content. There is no guarantee that other sites will keep your link intact, but they typically do.   Here's my top 5 article submission sites:

1. ezinearticles.com
2. goarticles.com
3. findarticles.com
4. searchwarp.com
5. articlesbase.com

What are your favorite article submission sites?