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5 Ways To Screen Your Dealers Next Social Media Consultant
- Off Topic & Everything Else
- 3 Replies
The recent post on the DealerRefresh forums about Social Media Gurus and scams led to the idea that some information might be helpful to dealers in deciding who to hire and trust.
Here are some questions to consider:
How can you research a company or consultant when they claim to be social media gurus?
What's considered authentic in terms of social media consulting for your dealership?
These are justifiable questions, that deserve to be answered with examples of work and real results. It's difficult however, for a company who isn't quite clear on the examples they've been provided to make a confident decision on whether they're hiring a quality provider.
Lets dive in and discuss five ways you can do some due diligence when selecting a high quality social media provider.
1. Client List
The first thing you should look at is their current and past clients. If the provider is reputable, they should provide you with as much information about what they are doing and what they've done for clients in the past. Ask them for some specific examples and reports where they've blown away their clients with results. Ask them for some popular posts they've done, or ways that they've engaged on Twitter. You should be able to sense whether they have the passion to work with you on that same level, or if they are a large agency, whether you'll get the level of attention this work requires. Social media for your dealership is extremely time sensitive, so immediate action is often necessary, be sure to ask about their response time to urgent issues.
2. Knowledge
You're hiring a provider to leverage their knowledge and to apply that skill and knowledge to your marketing initiatives. Often times you will find that a number of different tasks may be needed to announce an upcoming event that your dealership is promoting, and its good if they have the broad range of skills to help you develop the landing pages, registration, emailing, integration of the page on your site, SEO, socially spreading the message, images, videos, etc. The ability for your provider to understand and be willing to help you handle all of these things will enable you to be less involved with the technical requirements of the events and to me more focused on what, where, and when the event will take place.
3. Who's In Their Network
High quality providers will leverage their network when needed to help you. If you're considering a provider that isn't well known then you could be missing out on finding one that has built a solid network. Request that they connect with you on LinkedIn so you can look over their network. If they do not have connections with influential or notable people then it could mean that they aren't taking their work very seriously. Building relationships with recognized and successful bloggers, founders of internet companies, venture capitalists, and others in interesting positions means that they have been highly invested in building relationships - which is the core of what social media is about.
4. Statistics = Warning Sign
If you get an offer that is promising your dealership "x" number of anything, Twitter followers, links to your website, or just about anything that sounds outrageous, just ignore them. Trustworthy providers won't try to wow you with numbers, because the real value comes from building quality relationships. Ask them for a few examples of what they consider to be reputable sites that have linked to them. If these are genuine links, meaning they were not placed in profile by themselves or a site they built themselves, than consider how they earned the link and ask if you can expect that type of commitment. Almost always it requires that they've contributed something of great quality, and as a result they got a link for the work.
Links are the most important thing you can get that will benefit you from an SEO standpoint, and if it's a site that anyone can buy a link or place a link then it's not as valuable and could potentially harm your rankings.
5. Influencers
In order to be successful as a blogger, or social media consultant, you must have the ability to become influential. Ask them for examples of popular sites where they've contributed meaningful information, or if they've built any websites that allowed others to contribute information. Finding an influencer that will do social media on your behalf is not going to come cheap, this person is typically an entrepreneur or a blogger that has built a substantial network. If you aren't getting the advantage of having someone who's done this type of work for themselves, then it's unlikely that they will know what works and what doesn't. If you aren't sure, ask if they'd be willing to come meet you in person, as this is a great way to find out whether you trust and believe they will be able to deliver.
Hopefully these 5 suggestions help you screen some of your candidates on hiring the right social media firm for your dealership. There are clearly some things that I've left out, but these are some of what I believe to be true tests of ones ability to perform for your dealership.
If you have any questions about these suggestions or would like to share some experiences or opinions about what I've stated, please do so in the comments.
Look-Out AutoTrader and Cars.com, There's a new Guru in Town
- Automotive News, Press Releases, and Events
- 32 Replies
Hi Joe,
In a field full of misinformation (automotive SEO) and snake oil salesman it's great to see and educated, empirically driven individual writing about topics that aren't even on most people's radar yet. Great article!
We too have noticed CarGurus.com for over a year now. We fully understand the notion of the small start up that's flying under the national radar quietly doing it's thing
We are that! BTW Ed, thanks for the props.
CarGurus core application and their automated SEO is in a league of its own. The link structure, URL structure, geographic organization of various inventories, etc, are (in a single word)...elegant. To dominate the long tail key phrase means appearing at the top of the search results for A LOT of key phrases while showing up for short tail key phrases means show up A LOT for relatively few key phrases.
Currently, due to the elegance of the core structure and informational organization of their site/inventory they're doing exquisitely well for long tail. And as you said, once they get the Google quality team's blessing, they'll start competing (if not dominating) the short term key phrase game as well. Once that happens, the other retail sits (AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc) will suddenly find that they have a serious threat, not on the horizon, but in their back yard.
Next gen SEO has always been part of our core infrastructure which is why and how we've managed to dominate the long tail game for terms as competetive as "used honda accord boston" or even "used honda accord new england" etc. We're in latter phases of the next version of our applications which emphasizes heavily on quantum leaping even our own SEO game. Although the details SEO strategy of a retail portal are slightly different than that of a dealer's local site, the over riding principals remain the same. CarGurus is so far ahead of the SEO game, and the industry so very heavily reliant on SEO (including AutoTrader and Cars.com) that once CarGurus gets Google's quality blessing, brand or no brand, they will be a heavy weight contender and if I were in the retail game...I'd be very concerned.
When CarGurus hits critical mass and attains an organic yet signifcant brand, it's the equivalent of Mohammad Ali fighting George Forman.
Here's my two cents when it comes to the formula for the success of any auto retail portal:
Brand + Google's blessings + great site structure/relevance = Eat their lunch!
Thanks for a great article Joe, looking forward to more insights from you.
Best,
Alan Ezzati
Managing Director,
Captive Lead LLC.
In a field full of misinformation (automotive SEO) and snake oil salesman it's great to see and educated, empirically driven individual writing about topics that aren't even on most people's radar yet. Great article!
We too have noticed CarGurus.com for over a year now. We fully understand the notion of the small start up that's flying under the national radar quietly doing it's thing
We are that! BTW Ed, thanks for the props.CarGurus core application and their automated SEO is in a league of its own. The link structure, URL structure, geographic organization of various inventories, etc, are (in a single word)...elegant. To dominate the long tail key phrase means appearing at the top of the search results for A LOT of key phrases while showing up for short tail key phrases means show up A LOT for relatively few key phrases.
Currently, due to the elegance of the core structure and informational organization of their site/inventory they're doing exquisitely well for long tail. And as you said, once they get the Google quality team's blessing, they'll start competing (if not dominating) the short term key phrase game as well. Once that happens, the other retail sits (AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc) will suddenly find that they have a serious threat, not on the horizon, but in their back yard.
Next gen SEO has always been part of our core infrastructure which is why and how we've managed to dominate the long tail game for terms as competetive as "used honda accord boston" or even "used honda accord new england" etc. We're in latter phases of the next version of our applications which emphasizes heavily on quantum leaping even our own SEO game. Although the details SEO strategy of a retail portal are slightly different than that of a dealer's local site, the over riding principals remain the same. CarGurus is so far ahead of the SEO game, and the industry so very heavily reliant on SEO (including AutoTrader and Cars.com) that once CarGurus gets Google's quality blessing, brand or no brand, they will be a heavy weight contender and if I were in the retail game...I'd be very concerned.
When CarGurus hits critical mass and attains an organic yet signifcant brand, it's the equivalent of Mohammad Ali fighting George Forman.
Here's my two cents when it comes to the formula for the success of any auto retail portal:
Brand + Google's blessings + great site structure/relevance = Eat their lunch!
Thanks for a great article Joe, looking forward to more insights from you.
Best,
Alan Ezzati
Managing Director,
Captive Lead LLC.