Ralph - Plug Master! I say that with a smile on my face, as I did when I tweeted it too. Don't ever stop because you'll ruin all of our expectations. By the way, I'm expecting a call soon. We've got some business to conduct!

This has been a fascinating post to watch and the comments show many different perspectives. I especially like Jeff Kershner's summary with acknowledgment to each of the more significant commenters, and support Jeff's kudos and responses. However, I would like to pose a counter observation to Alex's original assumption... While two years ago there was certainly cause to ask such a question, today as we are in the last quarter of 2009 the issue posed by Joe Webb is far more relevant than asking why more dealers are not yet using social media marketing tactics.

The fact is that out of the dozens of dealers I get to speak with every week, it is now the exception to find one that has not had an employee or the dealer principal create some degree of social media presence with at least a blog, a Facebook profile and or Fan page, a YouTube Channel and maybe a MySpace account. To reiterate Joe Webb's point, and capitalize on the issues raised by Joe Pistell's hiring criteria, the real question in my opinion is how to create some sort of cohesive social marketing strategy supported by tactics that do not use more dealership resources than justified by the benefits received. I have implemented what has become an ongoing series of social marketing strategy pilots in over 20 Dealerships since June 2008, with each one a little more effective than the previous one as me and my colleagues get to cull the chaff and focus on what achieves objectives. At this point we are working with dealers who are selling cars daily to people whose relationship with people at the dealership was created and fostered via social media channels. The early dealers we first started with have become the new sales volume leaders in their respective OEM regions. Bottom line is that we don't know all the answers, but now have a pretty good idea of how to recognize and measure success indicators long before people start coming in to buy cars.

I will present details and KPI's during the Tuesday morning general session at Digital Dealer 7 in a couple of weeks. Yes, Alex, that is an intentional "plug" for Digital Dealer 7 in Nashville... I have also published a virtual social
media implementation guide via dozens of articles and file uploads at http://www.autodigitalmarketing.com that are free to use. We are all learning how to leverage social media and the lessons will continue to be learned for a long time. The key, this time is to pay attention to lessons already learned by others and then buildvupon them for the benefit of your dealership.

Some dealers still just have no clue. A lot of dealers do not take time to read Digital Dealer or AutoSuccess or even visit sites like these to learn about best practices. Those are the same ones that are failing becausethey are set in their own ways. The few that are successful ad clueless are just plain lucky. I learned that you do not have to spend most of your day on facebook. To work it propery you only need maybe 20 minutes per day with logging in about 3 to 5 times to check out messages and make status changes as well as grow your network. This is what I have been doing. This is one of the things that I do in addition to the 1000 other tasks I have.

What it comes down to is getting the right person and the support for that department to engage further into the social media / marketing / branding of the dealership itself. It also comes down to having the time to do it. I still speak with dealers that have the Internet Manager sell, take calls, respond to leads which prevents them to update their specials let alone their social media.
Branding is huge and surely should be taken advantage of. I suggest all dealers take advantage of this is as it is their reputation that is held in the consumers hands.
Great post Jeff!

@ericka great job on your page. I love it that you are not that OEM dealership and that you are the pirates in the auto biz. More hustle and personality than you see in the big boys. You are the type of smallbiz folks that I have worked with my entire career and feel free to follow me on twitter @smallbiztwit. Again love the face you have put on your dealership. WOW

@Jeff - Its still amazes how dealers, and even other businesses, still miss this mark.

While 99% of the people visiting this site understand the key tenets you spelled out above:

Branding and Awareness Opportunities
Search Engine Saturation
Build Link Popularity
Build Traffic to your Dealers Website
Interaction with the Public – Online Reputation

Most business owners either don't understand or "hear" what the this ultimately means with regards to improving their bottom line.

There is a direct relationship to the revenue generated by a company and their level of online engagement.

The results of the recent EgagementDB Study showed the highest engaged companies online saw higher year over year revenue increases than those companies who were not engaging their customers.

The most engaged companies saw revenue jump 18%, while the least engaged saw revenue drop by 6%.

Elements of engagement included:
Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
Wikis
Discussion Forums

Ultimately it all comes back to the bottom line. As time passes, it'll be easier to demonstrate the ROI for all of these efforts.

Nice thread Jeff.

Eric

We have had great sucess with Facebook in our business. Our page has more fans than some of the large dealer groups I have looked at. I believe that is because we let everyone we talk to via email, in person, and over the phone know that we have a very interactive facebook page and it is a great place to view the pictures and testimonials of our customers. We even have the FB logo on our busiess cards as well as a Facebook Badge on every signature from the company email. We are looking at Facebook as a giant networking party and we are the hosts we invite as many people as we can and like to share information as well has have people get to know us as a company. Our entire business is about 70% internet and that is combined, Facebook and Website and other internet sources. Right now our Facebook is linked to the Twitter site, but we are changing that due to the fact that they are two different platforms and should be treated as such. Yes the salespeople get on Facebook for personal reasons, but they are also intrumental in gaining us fans, they have embraced the internet and as we tell our new hires-
We don't have an internet department. We are an internet dealership. We have embraced it and will use every aspect of it to our advantage. What new idea do you have to expand our internet presence?
They must be able to answer that question or they are not a fit for our team. We also don't have a whole lot of turnover. You are probably wondering if we can track sales to Facebook, well we have. We have gained a fans and within a few days they are contacting us via our webiste. This has happened twice in the last month. As far as traffic to our site last month FB was the #5 traffic driver and the #1 amount of time spent on the site at 22 min. Check out our FB page here:

@tyler here here 1st stop should be the customers you already have. It seems all the car guys care about or at least discuss is selling them. The best chance to engage and get them using your new tools is thru service without a question. How about linking real time updates on service to your customers that use twitter.. they will love it because more than likely they are addicted and they love to share the cool stuff ( hey they get it ) and will.

@Chris:

I realize that most of the world thinks that car sales is the entire Industry..... but amazingly enough... get ready..... they actually have to service their vehicle every few months...

@everyone:

The various Social networking sites are an incredible tool for the Fixed Operations Departments... making customers aware of service specials, accessory promotions,etc. and in general just staying in front of the customers throughout the entire ownership experience. Especially for facebook groups or twitter or any of the "opt-in" choices!

Chris - are you saying we should just give up on advertising?

@Chris is there a guarantee in life except death? Where are these people that just show up at the dealership wanting the best deal coming from? Thin air I think not.. Do nothing then and see if anything changes.. just drop all your efforts and see if they still show up love to track that program. Social is not the be all end all but if you are not going to get in the game it will just ignore you too...

If you are on every social networking site, pay crap loads of money to have the best website, best SEO, gimmicks, do-dads, best this and best that - there's absolutely NO guarantee it will make you more money. I've done it all and don't see the hype add up to anything. I think people inside the business are pushing for all this stuff, but the customers I talk to don't care - they just want the lowest price.

@Jim-

There are many services out there for doing your own press release with good results. Just FYI.

Look forward to seeing the new website.

@Steven...we are looking at putting pictures up of our customers at time of delivery and also videos. We are working with our advertising agency on a release form for that.

@Gerald...we are in the works of getting a new website put together which will be active next week hopefully and will have all of our links on there. We are also going to have a youtube channel with walk arounds.

@Jim- great stuff on the social front. I was wondering if you have considered putting your blog on your home page to drive SEO, or at a minimum, a link from your blog to your website?

@jim very nice job on your blog,FB and Twitter and it is nice seeing a customer on your site raving about your service dept. Great way that you are highlighting the service side- best wishes with building of your community. I am still looking for a dealer to use their fan page with a quick vid. of a new car buyer taking delivery of their car, and then sending him a link to it on your fan page and then let him pass it on to his fb friends- it would work better than just cards...

Steven - thanks! Intel's policy on Social Media is perfect!


Jay - I'd love to see us all switch to Macs. Only thing holding us back are OEM's and DMS's.

We look at the social networking sites as a great way to have a dialogue with our customers all the time. We can share information with them that they might call up and ask about, such as how to maintain proper tire pressure or get their cars ready for winter. We can tell them about money-saving services. We can introduce our staff, so that our customers feel comfortable when they come in. And we can hear back from our customers all the time, on any topic, in a way that’s very easy for them. We want to know what they’re thinking, what they need and what they like.

Our business success is built upon relationships with people who buy and service their cars with us. Being on Facebook and Twitter and writing a blog is a great way to develop those relationships. We can connect in a very non-obtrusive, helpful way and be a real resource in the community. Our customers become our friends, so we look forward to staying in touch.

We just got involved in the social websites in the last month or so. We have a blog that is updated 3 times a week and is tied to our twitter and facebook. Check us out and see what we are doing.

www.twitter.com/donayreshonda

www.donayreshonda.blogspot.com

@alex here is the link for my bookmarks on social media policy guidelines.

the Ibm one is here.

There is also a wiki that I am trying to find that is of documented business case studies and another one with SM policies... Hope this helps you with writing about the need for these in dealer biz. I am at @smallbiztwit on twitter and from there you can get all my contacts points online and off.

The answers to this are the same as Why We Suck! Even the people in dealerships that do, and can, handle Social Media are not given the due respect because, "Yeah but did you sell a car today?" is all most GM's and GSM's know how to say. Until we as an industry can stop living in the past we will always be way behind the times when it comes to all the things a good eCommerce manager has to do on a daily basis. We might not have, "sold a car today" but we certainly influenced 80% of the cars that the dealership sold.

I, like so many others are on facebook, and for the most part, it WAS a means to connect with old friends from high school university, etc. which I would wholeheartedly agree has little to no value in the workplace.

HOWEVER recently, business contacts began "adding me" as their friends and soon businesses that I have done work with began adding me as a "friend" or inviting me to join their "Group", and so I am embraced it - NOW my facebook page has grown to be both business and social.

The reality is, most people log in to fb (or their social network of preference) almost everyday, and yes, I see the mundane comments of a an old friend who just got a new puppy, but I also see the newest Pre-Owned units at some of my clients stores or that they just got a load of the new 2010 Whatever in stock....

Talk about being "top of mind"!!!

For a dealer to be "in front of" their customers on a daily basis in any manner is invaluable!

Facebook or any social network is simply where the "customers" are, and those dealers who are using it, no doubt are realizing RETENTION of their customers moreso than a dealer is who is not.

First of all, if history tells us anything, it's that when it comes to technology, car dealers are usually among the last to adapt. Social media is/will be no different.

Secondly, too many dealers want that report that you speak of, Jeff..."how many cars will this sell me this month?" From a dealer's perspective, I can understand this. They want ROI, and they want it immediately. Social media simply does not provide for an immediate ROI.

Dealers need to approach this topic more as social branding and engagement, as others have stated, not as social media. All of the tools and applications available with Web 2.0 make it easier and more cost-effective than ever to brand your business and engage your customers. In fact, other than time, using Web 2.0 tools cost virtually nothing. Dealers need to see the big picture and look at the long term ROI possibilities, rather than the "how many cars will this sell me today?"

Think about it. The traditional media (TV, newspaper, and radio), while they may allow you to help build your brand (less and less every day), do any of them allow you to truly engage and interact with your customers? No. Furthermore, with the Internet, DVR/TIVO, and satellite radio, how many people is your brand actually reaching? Fewer than ever. Yet, these media remain very costly.

Until dealers learn to adapt more quickly to changing technologies and changing culture, they will continue to spend their resources that provide for immediate (albeit significantly smaller) ROI, rather than the longer term (and potentially much higher) ROI.

Oh Alex! Just force Dealers to buy Macbook Pro's!

I did 2.5 months ago and I'll never look back. Although I do peer at the glowing green light in my docking station under my desk to see if my Dell hasn't died.

There are great answers here. For the most part I agree with Joe. If you don't embrace and maximize conversion from unique visitation, it's hard to justify an effective Social Media or CGC strategy.

Do a better job of understanding the what-why and how of traffic to your site and Social Media becomes a natural extension.

Gerald - it isn't like we don't see each other every day on twitter and facebook - lol

The paranoia I speak of, inside IT Departments, is on two levels:

1. Security as viruses are passed through holes in Flash code and deception in links that most people aren't savvy enough to see.

2. The work environment can be plagued by time wasted on social media sites not doing work. On top of that it is virtually impossible to block the porn or other things that shouldn't be seen from these sites.

Great point Joe. The old days were "How many people are in your Rolodex?" Can't remember the last time that was asked.