The Dealer Impact Blog

Digital Dealer Conference 2011

Dealer Impact will be in Vegas this week for the 2011 Digital Dealer Conference! If you have any questions about our Full-Service Programs, Social Media, or Reputation Management please don’t hesitate to ask.

You can find more information about the conference here.

GMs New Social Media Marketing Agency Is Staffing Up

It looks GM is putting some weight behind their Social Media Marketing.

Big Fuel, the New York-based agency that handles all of General Motors’ social media marketing, is opening a Detroit office to service the account and is on a hiring binge. Avi Savar, the CEO and founder of Big Fuel (pictured), said he has about 15 people on the ground in Detroit right now and is looking to double that number by March. The agency has another 80 people in New York and handles other clients including McDonald’s, Neutrogena and Colgate-Palmolive’s Wisp toothbrush. Savar said he hopes to have a staff of more than 200 by the end of 2011.

Big Fuel was brought on about three months ago. Previously, the agency had been gearing up to work with Hyundai, but when Hyundai’s lead marketer Joel Ewanick moved over to GM (after a short stint at Nissan), Ewanick persuaded Big Fuel to come over. The agency hasn’t executed any campaigns on behalf of GM yet, but Savar said a few are set to launch in January. This includes one for the Chevrolet Cruze called “Cruze-arati” that gives Cruzes to people who have big followings on social media.

GM’s social media marketing had previously been handled in house by, among others, Chris Barger and Mary Henige. The two were behind a program back in March in which eight teams of drivers/bloggers attended South By Southwest on GM’s behalf. GM’s social media marketing, however, has often been overshadowed by rival Ford, whose Scott Monty has more than 48,000 followers on Twitter. Ford also made a splash this summer when it introduced the Ford Explorer on Facebook and, in November, began circulating videos featuring celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Bret Michaels responding to consumers’ questions about the model.

via: Mashable

HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster

If there’s one thing that keeps social media marketers up at night, it’s the ever-present threat of a PR disaster. By now, every marketer is well-aware of how quickly dissatisfied consumers can turn to the social airwaves to vent about a brand. Nestle, BP, Domino’s, Southwest Airlines, and many other brands have witnessed the unbridled power of social media as a platform for disgruntled consumers to rally around an anti-brand cause.

1.) Create a Social Media Policy/Community Management Plan
2.) Have an Escalation Plan
3.) Plan for the Worst – Expect the Best
4.) Respond Quickly, Personally and Directly
5.) Don’t Play the Blame Game

Via: Mashable

Marketers are NOT spending their money where users are spending their time

Earlier this week, Nielsen released their latest report on where U.S. Internet users are spending their time online. Social media dominated all other categories at more than twice the time spent on the next closest category. It occurred to me after reading that report that social media is not where marketers spend most of their money. So, I wanted to look further into the difference between where users spend their time online and where marketers spend their budget. Here is what I found.

1.) Marketers are not fishing where the fish are
2.) Search dominates the marketing budget
3.) Email is used a third less than it was last year
4.) Destination not Acquisition

Via: Social Fresh

Advertisers to Spend $1.7 Billion on Social Networks in 2010

The latest numbers from eMarketer project that advertisers will spend nearly $1.7 billion in the U.S. on social networking sites in 2010. Worldwide, spending will hit $3.3 billion according to the report.

The numbers represent a significant bump up from estimates published by the research firm at the end of last year, when it projected $1.3 billion would be spent on the space in the U.S.

Not surprisingly, eMarketer sees about half of that money (in the U.S.) going to Facebook, with MySpace continuing to see a smaller share of the pie. Separately, the firm estimated that Facebook’s 2010 revenue would hit $1.2 billion in a report published last week.

Earlier this month, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that some of the social network’s biggest advertisers had boosted ad spending by 10x this year; a trend that’s apparent in the eMarketer report.

Via: Mashable

How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies

Businesses both big and small are flocking to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare. The fact is that a presence on these platforms not only allows companies to engage in conversations with consumers, but also serves as an outlet to drive sales through deals and coupons.

And while major brands like Starbucks, Virgin, and Levi’s have been participating in the social web for some time now, the rate of adoption among small businesses is increasing too. According to a recent University of Maryland study, social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. But as these businesses look to Facebook and Twitter to connect with customers, many are finding that some strategies work and some do not produce results. We’ll be exploring these questions at a panel on Social Media and Businesses at our Social Currency CrunchUp on July 30. We’ve found some local and national businesses using social media effectively, ranging from Levi’s to a creme brulee cart, whose case studies are below.  Some of these businesses will be sharing their experiences at the CrunchUp (You can buy tickets to the CrunchUp here).

Via: Techcrunch

Check out these great case studies they are quite interesting.

Dominos UK Social Media Initiatives Help Increase Profits by 29%

According to Domino’s UK financial earnings report, the company has increased its pre-tax profit by nearly 29%, which equates to roughly $26 million. The UK pizza retailer attributes social media initiatives and its Foursquare promotion for the gains.

In the earnings statement, CEO Chris Moore points to the rise in online orders — which now account for 32.7% of all orders — as proof that their web and social media efforts are paying off.

Moore reports that when it comes to the web, “Our main Facebook site now has in excess of 36,000 fans In addition, we have led the way with social media initiatives such as affiliate marketing, our superfans programme and the development of a link up with Foursquare.”

Via: Mashable

5 Tips for Managing Your Companys Brand on the Web

Brand management in the current era means not just keeping an ever-present eye on the social web, but also engaging in meaningful ways with brand advocates and detractors. Professionals in the field have come to accept social media as crucial to their jobs, but most know that managing a company’s brand on the web is so much more than setting up shop on social sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Here we’ll give you an inside look at the strategies of avant garde industry leaders who’ve spent years figuring out how to move beyond social media hype and implement practical management practices into their daily work routines.

Brad Nelson, Jeremy Thum, Joel Price, Joel Frey and Bowen Payson are all marketers behind big brand names. They’ve done the dirty work. Their lessons and words of wisdom range from finding ways to unify digital assets to knowing your niche, and each tip should be heeded by those looking to follow in their footsteps.

1. Let Someone Else Say It
2. Unify Digital Properties
3. Leave Your Ego Behind
4. Know Your Niche
5. Don’t Wallow or Gloat

Via: Mashable

Just setting up a Twitter and Facebook accounts isn’t enough on today’s social internet honest customer engagement is key to any company’s brand.

The Factor x 10 drives traffic from social media and video portals

The Factor of 10 increases a website’s chances of being found by a factor of 10. The program creates 10 Points of Presence (POPs) out on the internet to increase your chances of being found and at the same time increasing your current website’s popularity with all the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Each of these pages is specially formulated (SEO) for the search engine spiders to find and index their content, thus by creating these satellite websites out on the web we create a network of doorways for people to find you. These satellite pages can exist anywhere, even inside the Facebook network.

The Factor x10 Examples:
Satellite Pages

• Yes Team Auto Pontiac – Steubenville, OH

Facebook Fanpages

• Holmes Auto – Des Moines, IA

YouTube Channels

• Des Moines Imports – Des Moines, IA

Please contact us to find out more about the Factor of 10 and make it easier for customers to find you vs. your competition.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

Tags: aol, car dealerships, facebook, google, microsites, search engines, traffic, video, website, yahoo, youtube

The Power of Satellite Videos, the number one way to drive traffic to your virtual dealership!

Videos provide visual stimulation and an emotional response, however provoking an action from that response only happens when people can find them. Satellite Videos dramatically increase conversion ratios and time on your website, but the general population is not on your website day in and day out.

Dealer Impact believes your website presence should be in as many places as possible, all the time. We all know YouTube is the number one video portal on the internet, so if you export your videos, let’s say 100 for easy math, that is 100 more Points of Presence (POPs) you didn’t have before. The video player comes with an embed code that allows you to integrate these videos anywhere. You can embed them on Facebook pages, eBay, Cars.com, blogs, anywhere.

Each video acts like a satellite in cyberspace, a POP, for people to find you. Place them in popular social media sites or portals where there are hundreds of millions of potential customers giving them a direct link back to your dealership.

Let the power of Satellite Videos put your dealership on the screen of every computer on the planet.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

Tags: dealership, google, leads, search engine, video, youtube