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Brent Palen

Brent Palen

8 Pounder Veteran
Jul 21, 2009
83
1
First Name
Brent
#1
As a GreenPea ISM I am trying to get this dealership caught up with the current trends. I just finished swearing off SEO after getting a beat-down on my last post her.:itsok2: I took Ryan's advice and got a blog going. What I am taking on now is a Facebook page with the possibility of doing some advertising on there. What is everybody doing as far as Facebook advertising goes? Pay-per-click on FB? Advertising Spots? I have a rather rural market but we are within a few hours of some more urban markets (Kansas City and Wichita).

Let me know!
 
#3
There are some interesting slide shows on social media like FB and Twitter at Groundswell.

Twitter for Business, Marketing, Branding and Communication
is one example.

Brent, just google Facebook Advertising and you will find a abundance of tips and analysis.

Ten rules,
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-rules-for-advertising-on-facebook-2009-7

Personally, I and 52 million other people (firefox users) use Adblock plus so we never see ads, in facebook , google or pretty much anywhere.

There are plug-ins to block ads for IE7 and IE8 has the feature built in, not that most people know how to find it or use it. Just press [Ctrl Shift F] if you have IE8. Its not as easy as Adblock plus or IE7 pro's ad blocking features.


I think the best use for FB is to have conversations, and develop relationships, instead of advertising. I can honestly say I have never clicked an adsense or FB ad, and Id wager that most 20-40 year olds who are not in the marketing biz dont click them that often.

Quoting one article on the subject,
"For one of his campaigns, out of 10,080 impressions there were only 8 clicks."

But Im sure there is someone who makes a living making numbers who can debate the effectiveness of adsense and FB type advertising.
 
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#4
Thanks for providing the links and information JohnScott.

I have messed around with facebook ads in the past in the automotive and another vertical. Was never too impressed with the results really. I do believe that "display" advertising does have a branding element but not sure how much on a site like facebook.

Monetizing social has been a struggle.

Here is another post on display advertising for car dealers

I'd also be sure to add this site/blog to your RSS reader. Inside Facebook - Tracking Facebook and the Facebook Platform for Developers and Marketers
 
#5
I believe that Alex Jefferson has tried this, so hopefully he will share his experience. We have not directly tried Facebook advertising, though we are considering from 2 different positions:

1) Branding: this is a fairly inexpensive way to promote your branding efforts and keep your dealership name in front of your local market. Remember - branding, not creating leads...
2) Retargeting: If you haven't noticed, Facebook is a big player for retargeting campaigns. eg. I visited the website for the Beatles Love show, and for the next month, whenever I went to Facebook, an ad for the Beatles Love show would show up on the right side of my Facebook page.

We have Facebook fan pages for every one of our rooftops, and they are another great SEO tool for you to utilize, though it can take up to 6 months for Google to spider these individual fan pages... You are invited to become a fan of our overall Jeff Wyler Automotive Family fan page
 
#6
Brent Palen said:
As a GreenPea ISM I am trying to get this dealership caught up with the current trends. I just finished swearing off SEO after getting a beat-down on my last post her.:itsok2: I took Ryan's advice and got a blog going. What I am taking on now is a Facebook page with the possibility of doing some advertising on there. What is everybody doing as far as Facebook advertising goes? Pay-per-click on FB? Advertising Spots? I have a rather rural market but we are within a few hours of some more urban markets (Kansas City and Wichita).

Let me know!
Click to expand...


Brent,

I am so proud of you! You will be successful, just remember try things and take risk but be smart. What works with another dealer may not work for you or vise versa. The FB ads are great for causes/non profits and thats about it. If you are selling something it isn't very effective. Now if you guys have a promotion that you feel people can benifit from you may want to do it. I would not advise it for a long term marketing strategy.

If you are giving something away in exchange for email or phone number that may work. Do a charity event at your dealership and promote it with FB ads. Thats along the lines FB ads are good for. How effective is that for profit? Not sure you need to ask yourself that.

As for the blog.....Write the blog and have someone else read it before you post it. Get it approved for grammer, spelling, and approach. Blogs can be used to promote products such as the release of a new model or whatever but it is also a great way to let people get to know your dealership. Tips on how to buy a car. Thats one of the biggest mysteries in the world and more people are afraid to make a mistake. Don't make it all about you and your dealership thats boring!!! Ask yourself "will my customers read this?"

Focus on the easy stuff and ask for review and feedback from your peers. You will do fine.

Oh, if you have an hour sit down and right out the different topics of what you are going to write about. Plan out your titles and make them catchy. Titles are everything when it comes to people reading your post. Don't worry about SEO with your blog it will come. Make it read well.

Good luck and if you need anything give me a shout.

I had to edit 2 words....see what vacation gets you and not reading your post before submitting it :)
 
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#7
kevinfrye said:
1) Branding: this is a fairly inexpensive way to promote your branding efforts and keep your dealership name in front of your local market. Remember - branding, not creating leads...
2) Retargeting: If you haven't noticed, Facebook is a big player for retargeting campaigns. eg. I visited the website for the Beatles Love show, and for the next month, whenever I went to Facebook, an ad for the Beatles Love show would show up on the right side of my Facebook page.

We have Facebook fan pages for every one of our rooftops, and they are another great SEO tool for you to utilize, though it can take up to 6 months for Google to spider these individual fan pages... You are invited to become a fan of our overall Jeff Wyler Automotive Family fan page
Click to expand...


I think you make a good point about the value in terms of branding, or top of mind awareness (TOMA). TOMA is huge for dealerships.

The one suggestion I would make as far as fan pages go is to be careful about how often you update your page. Its a fine line between too little and too much. If you update too often the end result is that you spam the fans news reader page which could result in their blocking you.

I have friends who I've had to block because my news reader page became populated with "mafia wars" and "texas holdem" posts. Which is a shame because I would like to hear what they have to say every once and awhile, I just dont want to hear about every piece of bling they've won on mafia wars.

One or two posts a week is fine with me. Again, remember this is subjective, and my opinion, maybe a lot of people dont mind??
 
#10
kevinfrye said:
I don't believe fan page updates show up on the Facebook reader page, and if you select the "Update all fans", it goes into their in-box. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

I am a fan of some pages that have had updates that do not show up on my NEWS READER/HOME page, whilst others do. Someone out there probably knows, I'll ask around and see if I can find out.

I have never gotten an update in my inbox, so maybe thats what update all fans does, it sends it to the NEWS READER page??

Maybe Christine knows, she runs the Checkered Flag page. They have had updates that do not spam my News Reader page.

I think the difference is how it is posted, like Alex said. After reading his post I checked Mercedes page and Checkered page and all of Checkered flags post have a
's feed: in the header, and none of the posts that show up on my news reader page have the 's feed: in them.
 
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