The Dealer Impact Blog

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

Why Corporate Social Media Fails

“Here’s are five key reasons why social media failure is far more prevalent than anyone wants to admit to talk about.

1. The lack of a strategic plan. Far too many companies run before they walk. As a result, they jump into social media without a well-articulated idea of why they want to do social media, what they want to get out of it, what success looks like, and what rivals are doing.

According to a recent study by Digital Brand Expression, 78% of respondents said they were doing social media but only 41% of companies said they had a strategic plan.

2. The lack of a tactical plan. This is more than just knowing how to use Twitter, Facebook or a blog because they’re not that difficult to learn. Tactics has more to do about best practices, knowing when and how to engage with other people on social media, and using the best and most effective tools to be as productive and efficient as possible.

3. The lack of resources, or hiring people who lack the right skills or experience to get the job done. Too many companies get excited about a social media program but don’t or won’t allocate enough people to actually make it happen. Another mistake is they hire people who are too inexperienced but hope that their enthusiasm about social media will compensate for it.

4. The lack of content that is compelling, engaging, interesting or valuable. At the end of the day, great content and stories make social media be successful. Truth be told, social media services are simply tools to distribute content. In other words, content and stories and the ammunition that makes the weapons (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) effective.

5. The failure to build relationships. Social media is not a one-way street or a one-way conversation. For social media to work, you need to build relationships with people, have conversations, engage and connect. It’s work requires time and effort.”

Via: Sysomos

Dealer Impact can help your dealership take your social media strategy to the next level. For more information check out our Factor of 10 program. You can reach us at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @dealerimpact.

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation

Social media is the top emerging channel for lead generation among technology marketing professionals surveyed in May 2010, according to the annual Unisfair marketing survey. Furthermore, 66% of respondents said lead generation was their top priority for 2010, with only 17% ranking brand awareness and 16% ranking customer retention as top concerns. The survey illustrated that marketers are beginning to rely on social media as a steady source of new customers.

In another study, 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, strengthening the argument that social media is one of the most important emerging channels for lead generation.

Being that social media is a great place to attract new customers, we put together a quick guide on how to use social media for lead generation.

via: Mashable

Looking for some advice on Social Media Marketing and Lead Generation for your dealership give us a call at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com.

Reaching the YouTube Generation

YouTube turns five this month and to celebrate, Google (which owns the site) announced that the video-sharing site just exceeded 2 billion views a day for the first time. That’s nearly double the prime-time audience of the three major U.S. broadcast networks combined.

The YouTube player is embedded across tens of millions of websites (including ours and probably yours) and the average person spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube. Blue-chip companies understand the power of viral marketing (94 of Advertising Age’s 100 top advertisers run campaigns on YouTube) but even small auto dealerships can benefit.

Selling cars to younger buyers takes tech savvy (a basic web site and an ad in the phone book aren’t enough). To reach the new virtual tire kickers, dealers need to create inventory videos and distribute them on sites like YouTube.

In addition to engaging young buyers, utilizing social media sites is like making dozens of mini-websites that create a virtual trail of breadcrumbs that lead users to your dealership. YouTube has proven itself to be a low-cost, high-reward marketing tool (made even simpler with Dealer Impact’s social media network). Get started, or get left behind.

Are You on Foursquare?

Foursquare users can quickly "check-in" at local businesses on their smartphones

With new social media sites popping up left and right, it’s easy to dismiss most of them as passing fads. One you may not want to ignore, however, is Foursquare. The year-old site already boasts 1 million users and plenty of buzz.

Foursquare is one of several new location-based networking sites that use GPS technology to allow smartphone users to “check in” at various locations. The idea is to encourage people to explore their cities, meet up with friends, and share tips and secrets about area businesses and attractions.

Businesses are quickly discovering the marketing benefits of geo-sites like Foursquare and its main competitor Gowalla. Auto-repair shops and coffeehouses offer specials or freebies to visitors who check-in first or most frequently. McDonalds will be the first to take advantage of Facebook’s new location-based status updates, which begin later this month.

Setting your dealership up as a Foursquare venue is simple (and is included in Dealer Impact’s social media network program) and the marketing possibilities are endless. Don’t miss the chance to engage your increasingly mobile customers using these increasingly popular technologies.

Save Time with Video-to-Picture Products

Dealerships often spend hours taking video and photos of all the cars on their lot and then uploading the footage and images for the web. Their work could be cut in half, however, if they utilized new video-to-picture products.

These programs automatically turn a vehicle video into hundreds of still images, eliminating the need for a separate photo shoot. After uploading the footage, the system slices it into still images giving the dealer hundreds of high-quality photos in a matter of seconds.

Dealer Impact recently added a free video-to-picture feature to its Video Generation System (VGS), an Internet marketing system that allows auto dealers to create inventory-specific video advertisements.

Customers using the program now have both video and photos automatically integrated into their websites and distributed to third parties, such as YouTube, Cars.com, and other online classifieds.

To learn more about VGS or the new video-picture feature, call 877-334-9638 or visit www.dealerimpact.com/vgs/.

Unleash the Power of Facebook

In today’s high-tech world, marketing requires more creativity than a basic ad in the telephone book or a big billboard on the highway. To compete in the modern landscape, businesses need to go where consumers are—online.

Internet marketing is essential and the most effective avenue of reaching customers online is Facebook. The social media site is too powerful to ignore with statistics like these:

—It is now the second-most visited web site in the U.S. after Google

—With 400 million users, it is the most popular social network in the world

—100 million people use Facebook on their mobile devices every month

—There are 5.3 billion fans of nearly 3 million Facebook fan pages

—A recent study found that Facebook pages create more loyal customers

Tapping into the vast Facebook network is easy with Dealer Impact’s new Facebook Inventory App, a dynamic program specifically designed to integrate with Facebook’s interface. The innovative program functions like a second web site for a dealership. The app helps dealers display current inventory on a Facebook fan page, generate and capture qualified leads, and much more.

To see an example of our Facebook Inventory App visit www.facebook.com/karlchevrolet

To learn more about Facebook Inventory App and how you can use it to boost sales, contact Dealer Impact at 877-334-9638.

Get Your Mobile Site Today

To help auto dealers tap into the expanding mobile web market, Dealer Impact has created a phone-friendly interface that provides shoppers with on-the-go information.

Dealer Impact can now optimize a dealership’s web site for use on iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or Palm Pre. There are many benefits of these mobile web sites, including:

• They look and function like the apps that smart-phone users are accustomed to. When a person types the dealer’s web address into a mobile browser, the technology automatically recognizes the phone and converts the site to a phone-friendly interface.

• Car buyers do not need to download anything or pay to use the service.

• They are simplified and load quickly, allowing customers to navigate the site to find inventory, specials, and other information in seconds.

• Clickable contact information allows a user to immediately call the dealership or pull up a map with driving directions.

To stay ahead of the competition in the expanding mobile market, add phone-friendly features to your site today. Learn more by contacting Dealer Impact at 877/334-9638.

Best Practices in Web Design

With more than 10 years of experience designing web sites specifically for auto dealerships, Dealer Impact knows how to drive online traffic. Unsure whether your site meets our best practices? Here are three basic rules for a well-designed web site:

1. Less is More

Websites are for the user, not the designer. Adding a lot of bells and whistles to a site is meaningless if the user can’t find what he/she wants. Keep your site clean and simple, with the most important information front and center. Customers don’t want to jump around a site to find current inventory or dig through several layers to locate contact information, specials and inventory.

2. Search-Engine Friendly

Clean, uncluttered sites not only appeal to users, they are more likely to be indexed by the major search engines (sites that use Flash design can’t be read well by search-engine spiders). If you want users to find you first, be sure to incorporate common SEO (search engine optimization) elements, including tags, keywords, fresh content, and shortened URLs for optimized inventory links.

3. Support Systems

Attracting customers to your web site takes more than good design. You must be ubiquitous on the Internet, with multiple points of presence. To do this, build a trail of breadcrumbs that leads back to your site using such tools as satellite videos, blogs, Youtube, Facebook, and other social media

Every web site Dealer Impact designs follows these best-practice principles. If you are interested in having us create or improve your dealership’s site, call our sales reps at 877-334-9638.

3 Reasons to Go Mobile

Experts predict that by next year the majority of mobile phones in the U.S. will be smart phones. That means that more consumers than ever will have on-demand access to the Internet. Despite this expanding market, most auto dealers don’t yet have mobile web sites. Here are the top three reasons they should:

1. The future is now

The statistics on mobile web use are astounding. One-fifth of Americans already access the mobile web everyday. In less than a decade, half of all web searches will happen from a mobile device. The mobile generation is already here and it includes your customers.

2. A regular site isn’t enough

Traditional web sites are designed for people surfing from the comfort of home using a full-size computer. Mobile users are on-the-go and limited by small screens; they are looking for specific information and they want it quickly. To satisfy these users, dealers need simplified sites designed specifically for the smart phone platform.

3. The competition is already there

Picture this scenario: A consumer is driving around looking for a new car. As he drives by dealers’ lots, he uses his smart phone to search inventories before deciding where to stop. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile web, he’s likely to move on to the next lot. Can you afford to lose out?