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Mar 24, 2009

Um... uh... where did I take a wrong turn???
When I need to buy a car I go to a dealer, take look at a few cars and then buy one.
How did all of this become such a tangled web of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Blogs, Windows Live Messenger! You poor poor dealers and car buyers... how did you turn something so utterly simple into something so damn complicated??? I was in sales for 16 years, selling a product that didn't need any special "devices" to get customers because the product was exceptional. What is up with all this anxiety and frantic search for the "magic bullet"? Seems like you've all lost your minds and it's very very sad to observe. Lord_Finesse: you are the SCARIEST of the bunch.

Mar 23, 2009

Regardless of the methods for advertising on social media, social networks are here to stay, growing by leaps and bounds. We have just launched a new Social Value Network website, our goal is to help all members achieve success and give advertiser's the opportunities to advertise. Because of the diversity of audience visiting social networks, its becoming a prime target for reaching their targeted market.

Mar 20, 2009

Engage users, build your network and keep users coming back for more with Windows Live Messenger! Use the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit to connect users and let them communicate with hundreds of millions of Windows Live Messenger users all over the world. Use the Windows Live Messenger client (v. 7.0 and later) to develop a single- or multi-user application through the Windows Live Messenger Activity API.

Mar 20, 2009

Chris K,

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.

Western Union internal memo, 1876

Mar 19, 2009

Hey you peeps got it going on. Thinking digital age. I like that.

Coming from a serious social networking guru... I suggest you dealers don't over inflate the ROI on social networking alone.

Spread your Internet departments jar of mustard thick, and on the regular in those social networks. It's free you know! But I offer some suggestions on how to be effective in not turning peoples off from subscribing to your Fan page. Yes your fan page. You don't want a profile. Because profiles are for people silly. Start fan pages. Use yourself or a team of people in your dealership on facebook as your catalyst.

Getting fans is like becoming a rockstar on facebook. Look at how Skittles.com uses facebook. They have a kick ass fan page that everyone wants to subscribe to.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Blogs... are your channels. But strategize your use of them.

Warning! I unsubscribe from a lot of f'n birds on twitter because they tweet to f'n much.

You starting to catch my drift. I stumbled upon this blog because I followed a facebook update, which lead to a twitter page, which lead to a tiny url link to this blog. PWN!

Your Internet Sales dept needs to be your digital army with all the right tools.

This is the general speaking.

Mar 19, 2009

Has your computer locked up again, Chris?

Mar 19, 2009

Dealerships will survive without ever buying into this hype and trend that will last how long... before the next web gimmick is invented?

There are people like me, lots of them, that believe "not documenting every second of our lives online" is actually a healthy thing to do.

Right now as I write 40,000 cars a day pass by us, our radio ads dominate the airwaves, Nissan has great ads all over the radio, tv and internet...

And to say if we don't Twitter, or don't get a Myspace or Facebook account we'll quickly sink to the bottom is quite absurd and a narrow minded vision of the big picture.

Maybe if people shut off the tv, put down their pda's, smartphones, iphones and such they'd realize the world works well and exists brilliantly without their technology.

John O'Connell · Mar 19, 2009

The scary part is some of these dealers are so focused on hanging on and being one of the survivors that when things turn and they will. The dealerships that have not embraced the internet and have some sort of understanding of a BDC never mind social networks will be the first to fail unfortunately.

matkoenig · Mar 19, 2009

Alex,

Great article. I would say that I agree with Roland as well. In the same way dealerships overlook their current customer base from sales and service with thousands of opportunities and put all of their focus into finding "new friends" to sell vehicles to.

The question I struggle with when it comes to advertising on social networking sites is how will the consumer really respond to those of us in the car business.

If we're 'friend requesting' people so we can email market them on Facebook or MySpace we are technically taking an 'interruption advertising' approach. Similar to putting an automotive Ad in the sports section of a newspaper. When someone opens the sports section they're looking for football info, not a lease on a new Toyota.

I KNOW interruption advertising works but we all know why so many consumers are using the internet: they can get what they want, when they want it. Heck, it's the same reason I only watch TV that I DVR and never watch things live (except the Super Bowl).

I think that there is opportunity to advertise well on Social Networking sites, I just wonder if the time invested sill yield enough result to justify the effort? Will a multitude of advertising turn people off to the more popular social networking sites?

Look at the growth on Facebook once MySpace got overloaded with advertisements. I know that 70% of my peers switched to Facebook after MySpace became ad heavy.

Will our customers leave and do the same?

Mar 19, 2009

Roland - I like your thinking!

Mar 18, 2009

I think the challenge of harnessing the power of social networking could be to approach the question differently.

By looking for "new" friends and followers, we overlook the goldmine of "friends" we already have: website visitors.

If our website already has two or three-thousand visitors a month to their website, wouldn't that be a great place to start? Haven't they already initiated the social conversation? They’re already interested in your store, are considering buying from you – this is where the attention should go, at least initially.

The answer to the social networking question could be in your own backyard.

Mar 18, 2009

Corey Salzano - I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your comments since you came to DealerRefresh. They are by far and away the most value-adding, debate-inspiring, industry-improving comments I've ever seen! Keep up the great work!

Gerald - yep, you're probably right.

Gerald · Mar 17, 2009

It seems the immediate impact of social networking for dealerships will be initially the negative impacts, to wit, the M3 incident last summer, and slowly, I think more and more good use (i.e., more sales) will be realized from the power of social networking.

Nothing wrong with it, that just seems to be how we embrace things.

Mar 17, 2009

not sure why you consider blogs to be social networks, i didn't see that in the nielsen paper. also twitters are 140 characters.

Justin Duff · Mar 17, 2009

I read this post because I saw it on twitter. I'd say social networking plays a big role

Dealers who embrace social networking sooner than later will reap the benefits. It's going to be a "learn as we go" approach this time around. Advertising with banners or paid ads on social networks will be the Google Adwords of this current time period. I think dealers are more willing to try different internet strategies this time around. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Alex Snyder · Mar 22, 2009

According to Nielsen, more time is spent on Social Networking sites than is spent reading or sending emails. In their latest study, this equates to one out of every six minutes of the average web user's time is spent on sites like FaceBook, MySpace, or Twitter...or Dealer Refresh (and other blogging sites). Social Networking is growing at twice the pace of other major online activities such as using a search engine, researching a car purchase, or just sending an email.

To put social media into the simplest of definitions, think of it as a place where people can converse with other people on the Internet.

Take a look at Nielsen's survey. Of note is page 7 where they address the problems in advertising within a "conversation".

It will take time to work out the magic formula for successfully advertising in social networks. The diversity and personalised nature of the environment means standard ad models - such as contextual search and standard unit sizes - won't cut it. Different approaches across ad units and ad inventory will have to be tried, involving a trial and error mindset.

As advertisers, do we join the conversation or interrupt it?

Nielsen also points out that:

Social media has fanned the flames of consumer distrust about advertisers claims.

If you are familiar with an eBay and M3 incident from a few months ago, you already know the power of Social Media on an advertiser's reputation (notice what's indexed in that search link). Knowing you cannot control every little thing that may or may not be done by one of your employees, how can you combat these medias when they're not working for you? How do you stop the Flogging?

Social Media brings up two major problems for advertisers:

How do you advertise on it?
How do you keep your reputation clean in it?

Imagine a customer sitting in your finance department with his iPhone. He loved everything about your sales person, loves the deal on the car, and is on Twitter describing the whole process to his 100+ followers - great! Then your F&I Manager says "if you buy this warranty, I'll lower your rate by 2 percentage points." Guess what was just Tweeted to over 100 people...who may Tweet that to their own followers. What was a great time, has now become a single 140 character sentence on Twitter that just ruined your reputation with a bunch of people...and you have no idea!

I'm not trying to scare you with this, but I am trying to grab your attention. On the positive side, you can specialize in a particular social media network/site and gain a serious following of consumers who won't even think of doing business anywhere else. You just have to do it right, and join the conversation.

Apr 14, 2009

I am currently in training during the dealer synergy session. He came out to our dealership a couple weeks ago. I can't get enough of this guy!!! I'm learning a ton and Sean is amazing!!! I highly recommend him!!! If you have any questions feel free to email me: mdemonaco@toyotaofboardman.com

Apr 3, 2009

We just had Sean at our store last week for a 4 day program he designed to help us get our internet department up and running at its fullest potential. Sean was a indispensable key to the proper upstart of our department within the company and the direction we have taken since his visit has been soley based upon his methods. We currently have been operating as outlined by Sean for the past few weeks and have seen great progress within the department. A few of our Internet Directors are already planning on going to this event and anybody else wondering weather or not do to so should definitely try to make the trip. I personally as an Internet Sales Manager will not be making the trip to the director immersion program, but look forward to implementing the knowledge I know my team is going to be bringing back from any of Seans events. Consider it a must for any dealer who is just starting to grow their departments, or anyone who is frustraded with the lackluster results of their current setup.

stantheman · Mar 31, 2009

I saw Sean speak at NADA 2009 and he is very dynamic and knowledgeable. He brings a lot of great ideas to the table and is a great promoter. He is passionate about what he does which is why he is successful. I believe that any training that is available should be taken advantage of.

Feb 19, 2010

This blog has been a useful read and I will tell my friends about it thanks

Oct 11, 2012

As a tech-head who works with data feeds on a regular basis your topic and insight are spot on. I'm amazed that the industry hasn't really adopted some standards for automotive data that are out there. Try to aggregate / integrate data from multiple providers and it can be cumbersome at times.

Great articles, keep up the good work guys!

Sep 1, 2009

The bottom line is do you trust the vendor with your data? Which methodology they used to get the data doesn't really matter if you ask me.

Jul 27, 2009

I work for a 3rd Party company the intergrates with DMS systems. We have gone thru the "expensive certification" with the BIG DMS vendors. Our company did this because we wanted to make sure when we were extracting information to our system we did it securly so that none of the customers information was able to be stolen or hacked. where as our competition does not do this and the information from thier system is very vunerable to hacks and theft.

umer.autojini · Mar 26, 2009

@Matt "Crisis Avoidance Specialist"

David Book · Mar 26, 2009

@ DP

Your post is so spot-on and important. There are many many implications with "slinging information around" that almost nobody thinks about when they enter a agreement with a new vendor.

I think our industry is asking for trouble if we simplify (like I did in an earlier post) the integration issue. But, we cannot afford to ignore it. Seems to me that these yet-to-be-developed standards should start with a solid data protection and security plan.

Thanks for sharing from your perspective
David Book

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