I think one of the hardest parts about being a business owner is just knowing where the starting point is for different, important aspects of running a successful business! For instance, how important is having a sound video marketing strategy compared to, say, having a strong mobile website? How important is reputation management, and where should I get started with that? I don’t know - to me, that’s the toughest part, is just knowing how important different elements are, and knowing how to get started with each. I ended up using a service in Australia called Local Business Services Australia that was really amazing, as far as helping me navigate these things, but I have no idea how one would go about doing all this on their own!
 

Reputation management is a necessity. Google Alerts is a great starting point. That said, the best way to handle it proactively is to a) adjust your operations so negative posts are less likely to occur and b) to partner with a company that proactively solicits reviews from every customer. Most customers will not fill out a review unless they fall at either the extremely good or extremely bad end of the spectrum of customer experiences. Usually, it's the bad end that causes them to register on a site and write a review. That's why companies like Carfolks (not paying me for this plug, I am just in awe of their product) will dominate online reputation management in 2011 - because they facilitate gathering reviews from every customer.

If you wonder why you need to worry about your reputation, look at this slideshare about a bakery in Raleigh, NC. www.slideshare.net/3birdsmarketing/a-social-media...

Great article and replies thus far. Of note, I feel like we are back in 1998 and the internet was just taking a real hold of our lives. Corporate America had decided that they were going to TEACH the American consumer how to shop. There were focus groups and much hand wringing over how that was going to happen. A few years later, Corporate America looked back and realized that the American consumer held all of the cards and told THEM how they were going to shop. How to shop had become User Generated.

We are at that point right now in terms of Social Media. What to we do with it? How can we participate in it in a way that will help us sell more cars? How does it effect our business relationships and sales?

As Vice President of a professional SEM/SEO/SMM/ORM company, I am well versed in the need for ORM and how all of these functions are now very much intertwined.

I've been very involved in ORM for three years now, and have developed and patented an ORM function and algorithm that has proven very effective. The key point to understand now is that, as Google has changed it's search algorithm (personalized SERP's), SEM-SEO-SMM-and ORM are all now VERY much dependent on each other. Further, though we are all familiar with the big three search platforms (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) there are over 200 other search engines out there constantly looking for info about your dealership. And they talk to each other!

So what do I recommend? First, each of you ISM's need to study and understand what a Data Cloud is. Your Data Cloud is so very important now. And when you understand that, the ideology of the interdependence of SEM-SEO-SMM-ORM becomes very apparent. They all work together to form the broad opinion of what your dealership IS to those searching the web.

I'm not here to give a strong pitch for my company, but I think it fair to point a few things out. First, I'm a car guy. You can google "Tiny Malone" and you will figure that out real quick...and that I am a noted photographer. So I've sat where you sit, and dealt with the issues you have and are dealing with. So my point is this: Just as the vast majority of you smartly outsource your SEM and SEO...it might be MUCH more cost effective to outsource your SMM and ORM as well. Why? Do you go to the grocery store to buy roller skates? No! Do people come to you to buy puppies? No! The idea is to stick with your core competencies and sell cars. I have a dedicated staff and a Data Center that handles those functions for dealers nation wide. Cheaper and MUCH more effectively than they can do it themselves.

Repairing and enhancing your online reputation is a bit more involved than going to a few review sites and and putting in a set of reviews. We monitor 314 individual sites and have constant custom keyword searches refreshing every 5 minutes 24 hours a day. I want to commend Matt for making such an earnest effort too!! Just know, this is not going away, it's a new job, and you need to keep your Data Cloud full of good information and happy customers.

I just heard about TrackUR, I assume it stands for Track Your Reputation: www.trackur.com

I make no claims about it, just heard from someone highly respected in technology at the PubCon conference that it's all 90% of companies need for keeping tabs on their brand, and safeguarding their good name and reputation.

Hope that helps!

Brian - excellent suggestion! I can't believe I forgot about Google alerts.

Alex, for most dealers Google Alerts and Google Reader can be a great starting point for IRM. I use Google Alerts for tracking any posts on my company name, personal name, or keywords that define my industry. (Automotive SEO, Car Dealer Websites, etc.)

There are automated "compilers" of online posts with follow-up tools that have nice interfaces and provide a CRM like tool to respond, track or remove negative posts but you'll have to pay for that service.

If dealers are not monitoring their online reputation with any tool today, I would start with these two free tools and then after seeing the "field" and "frequency" of posts about your brand, decide if you need more sophisticated tools.

To Bob Cobb, any "seller" listing a vehicle for sale on Craiglist and then claiming to be using an AutoTrader.com buying program is most likely a fraud. AutoTrader.com at no point facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers -- even with our Trade-in Marketplace product (noted in this thread). Please visit www.autotrader.com/fraudtips for information and red flags on common online shopping scams. These tips can help protect you and your family when shopping online for cars, computers or anything else as the scams are similar across all product lines.

I am interested in buying an R.V. listed in Craigslist and the seller wants to use Auto Trader Veh. Purchase program.I'm a little leary ---How does it work and how can I find out what I (the buyer) have to do to make it work to buy this RV???

Thank you---Bob

They're doing this in New York too. Check it out.

http://www.bigbucksauto.com/autotrader-ny.html

I agree with the dealers here. Having sold cars before, if you give a shopper an ACV for their trade without being in front of them to block their exit from your dealership, most people will walk on an ACV figure. Like the dealer mentions above, I have NEVER given a trade value, much less an ACV, expecially over the phone, where the client said "that's very fair, I think my trade IS worth 4K less than what KBB says"

I'd love to track the data on that tool to see what the bail out rate is, and what the appointment setting percentage is once you give out an ACV!

Good morning, I was wondering if you have an affiliate program in place to drive local traffic to your new trade-in marketplace. I generate quite a bit of local automotive traffic in the Austin/ Dallas areas.

Sounds like a great idea from AT standpoint to help show how much traffic they help bring in. 2 observations- many customers are "coached" to wait until the last second to "spring" their trade on a deal to ensure the best possible deal. So until you get to negotiations, you may not be entirely aware of their source if the customer chooses to hide the source as well (assuming it is a walk-in). Secondly, we all know from past experience just how objective customers are about their vehicles. I have met a couple of people in my years who are somewhat honest about the condition of the vehicle. I think this may potentially put the dealer in a position of trying to "discredit" Autotraders' ACV of the vehicle. The appraisal of the vehicle is topical at best. Perhaps that is by design. It will be interesting to see what happens. Not sure if it will help/hurt a dealer. My money is on the latter

ACV is Actual cash value. Yes it is guaranteed! The condition ,must be what the customer represented.

Ray, can you spell out acv? Not sure what that means and I'll need to know that to direct the question to the right person.

Does Autotrader guarantee the acv?

...think this is similar to Autotrader auction-style listings...

Just to clarify "vancouver autotrader," AutoTrader.com, the U.S. company, does not operate in Canada, so I believe you are referring to AutoTrader.ca, the Canadian on-line auto site that is not connected to AutoTrader.com. If you are an AutoTrader.com customer and you are having some problems with us, please contact your sales rep to have them resolved.

i do not have much trust in auto trader. they have repeatedly failed to deliver on their promises. but will have to wait to see this one in action.

I just went through the whole process, and although I am in Buffalo NY - it gave me a quote. Using a very nice 2007 Altima 3.5SE with everything but NAV I have here on the lot, according to my GM - the number was almost spot on as far as accuracy is concerned. So I guess it could work - and pop a bit of reality and sensibility into buyers.

I'll be suprised if this trial works out for either party. In all my years of selling I have rarely ever had a customer tell me, Hey thats a really fair trade value you just gave me! We have to sell the trade value, the cost of our vehicle and payments.The Black Book spread is good for us and the customers expectations. Next will be the issue of the customers perception of their trade condition it won't always be accurate. Did not see any mention of a history report weighing on the final value. I'm also guessing it will be overpriced and will we have to decide on different tiers of service!!

Mark from AutoTrader.com here. Thanks for the positive comments and more news to come on the Trade-In Marketplace product (which it's now called) in December, so keep an eye out. Just wanted to note one thing per above related to our site traffic and the foot traffic that ATC generates related to our competition. According to both our internal and industry-standard measures, AutoTrader.com’s site traffic has continued to grow during 2009, routinely hitting north of 15 million unique monthly visitors for most of 2009 and routinely beating monthly totals when comparing a month in 2009 to the same month in 2008. This comes at a time when many of our competitors have seen monthly traffic declines. Additionally, a study conducted by Northwood University with AutoTrader.com showed that AutoTrader.com was responsible for more dealer walk-in traffic than any other third party site. Thanks!

I talked to a dealer friend out of Lawrence, KS. Apparently the trade-in offers are not instant and are being handled much like any other internet lead. The above commenter is correct, it's akin to a sight-unseen black book quote. The offers they are throwing out seem low enough that it may actually deter customers from coming in. Not a surprise considering it's generally a bad idea to commit to trade-in value to customer who's never been on the lot.