Some have suggested this might be a good opportunity for auto dealers, however I am not convinced that Twitter is a place worth spending time for auto dealers.

Twitter in an of itself offers limited advertising potential, limited primarily to big mainstream brands, primarily celebrities. The only players in the automotive space I can see benefiting from Twitter advertising would be the OEMs and the big third-party classified sites such as Cars.com, Edmunds, etc.

For auto dealers, the goal is almost always incremental sales and so the ads you would have to run would be the Twitter equivalent to your car commercials advertising how you are the best in customer service and that you offer the best prices that nobody can beat, all bunched into a 140 character Tweet. Studies show that when it comes to social media, solicitous advertising does not deliver.

So what will work for sponsored Tweets? Who knows? Does anybody even see what people Tweet? Unless somebody specifically mentions you in a Tweet, the bulk of Tweets published go unnoticed. Sponsoring a Tweet won’t change that.

If you are inclined to give it a whirl for your dealership, mosey on over to this post by PCG Marketing for a visual how-to guide for getting set up with the program. And if you do, let us know how its working for your dealership by posting your comments here.

I found several vendors on the fringes of blogging and social media, but it wasn’t what defined them, it was something they were comfortable promoting.

There were three companies however that do define their business with their online reputation management, social media, and like solutions. These companies are:

• PCG Digital Marketing
• Social Dealer
• Digital Air Strike

The fact that these companies have booths says a lot. Most importantly it says they believe they will profit from their products and services. I believe they will too, if they aren’t already, but it won’t be easy.

Automotive Blogging and Social Media

These companies can profit because the role that blogging and social media play for dealers throughout the automotive purchase cycle is still in its infancy, meaning there is much room for growth in this space, and they are the early players. Companies that are able to be in this space now and profit from it are getting a jump on future competition.

The reason it won’t be easy though is twofold: 1.) It is difficult to profit in the service business (as opposed to software business), unless you overcharge; 2.) There is a lot of education required with this niche audience of auto dealers, and a sales process that requires education is a difficult formula.

PCG has already raised the bar on what can be accomplished in this space. Led by one of the industry’s leading experts in automotive SEO and online reputation management (Brian Pasch) PCG offers some of the best training events and conferences the industry has to offer (DMSC, Automotive Bootcamp, PCG Pit Stops). PCG has been highly effective at garnering a core audience, or base, from which it can grow over the years.

But this could be more a reflection of knowing the game and being diligent in practicing what it preaches, which does not always translate to the type of results that a dealership actually needs. Whether or not PCG’s methodology is right for your dealership is something you must decide and depending on who you talk to you may get a mixed bag of responses from people.

SocialDealer is in a unique position in that its business model revolves around an actual piece of software. SocialDealer does offer social media services, but that is not its core business. SocialDealer’s software is practical, I have seen it, but much like a CRM system does not alleviate the need to communicate, SocialDealer’s interface does not alleviate the labor-intensive requirements of social media. It merely provides an interface to organize these labor efforts much.

As they are finding, most dealerships prefer to have support carrying out these labor efforts, or handle them altogether, and so they become the primary users of their own software. As a social media power user, this interface has limited value to me personally but depending on where they take it that value could increase quickly for me.

Digital Air Strike interestingly is in a unique position as well. After learning about their approach, or methodology, I was weary of what they had to offer. From what I have gathered, Digital Air Strike offers to do a lot of stuff that on paper sounds like the right things to be doing, but in the end what do these activities ultimately accomplish?

I realize this might seem like a brazen thing to say and that I will need to explain myself with more detail, but knowing this space and what it takes to produce a meaningful result for auto dealers, I would be sure as a dealership to define your objectives and expectations of the service offerings at Digital Air Strike before making too big a commitment. As I stated earlier, it’s one thing to do the work of social media for dealers, but producing a tangible effect or result that can be mutually appreciated is tricky business.

All three of these companies are in unique positions in front of the pack – for now. Each has value to bring to the table and each offers a solution that is of growing importance to dealerships. I expect next year we should see at least twice as many players in this space.

While researching, I came across Brian Pasch’s article on DrivingSales.com titled, “Is Your Advertising Strategy Based on Fear, Data, or Blind Faith?” In his article, Brian builds a good case around the thinking that TrueCar is more of a symptom or product of an addictive  tendency repeatedly displayed by auto dealerships. I agree with Pasch’s point.

What Brian is getting at is something I believe is true. I built my business around it blogging for car dealers. It’s how companies like HubSpot have achieved great success. It’s the reality that Internet marketing today gives essentially all businesses, including auto dealerships, the ability to establish their own marketing pipelines to drive sales and stop relying on outside sources for all of their business.

To be clear, the argument is not against using third-party lead generators and partners to drive sales, but to build your own sales machine so that you can keep your third-party partners selective and minimal, and ultimately avoid the dilemma of feeling forced to work with businesses such as TrueCar.

Build Your Own Inbound Marketing Machine

The idea here is to build your own inbound marketing system. Inbound marketing is a term coined by HubSpot that refers to the practice of using content and advertising to educate and inform your target audiences through free and easily accessible content persistently over time to establish and build trust and ultimately sales of your product.

This, as opposed to traditional marketing practices of splattering your name and logo everywhere with the hope and expectation of it magically turning into sales, is necessary today primarily due to the role of search engines and Internet marketing. You can still advertise your business using traditional media. The problem is the cost and the ROI of it if that is your primary or only approach. When you do the math it just doesn’t add up.

Google AdWords vs. Traditional Media

Refer to Brian’s example in his article where:

• The cost per visitor for their Adwords was: $1.50
• The cost per visitor from their Traditional Media was: $18.65

Technically, Google AdWords is not inbound marketing but it is search engine marketing.  If you look at Google’s ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth), one thing you will see from the research is that the primary stimulus points for auto shoppers IS NOT traditional media. It’s the Internet and search engines are the gateway to the Internet.

It is easy for Internet marketers to challenge why you would invest the majority of your advertising dollars into traditional media. We are bias. But traditional advertising sales reps will argue that if you want to reach the masses then you need to spend on traditional media.

I understand that dealers continue to spend on traditional media because it is what they are familiar and comfortable with. But as Pasch suggests, that is fear-based thinking and eventually it will be to your detriment if it isn’t already.

How Blogging Benefits Your Dealership Digital Strategy

I am not here to convince you that traditional media is not the best use of your advertising dollars. I am not here to tell you that TrueCar is bad for the auto business either. What I am here to share with you is why and how blogging is an important part of your marketing strategy, and how it can help dealers that feel forced into a corner about using TrueCar.

Blogging is about producing content for two primary purposes:

1. For SEO
2. For Relationships

In my early days of blogging for car dealers I would say that you are blogging for people (relationships) and for robots (SEO). Blogging still is about these two things and it’s important not only to understand this but to have a strategy for it.

A blog marketing strategy is tricky. There are numerous aspects to it.

• The strategic aspect
• The technical aspect
• The executive aspect
• The analytical aspect

All this is a lot to juggle for most auto dealerships, but not all of it needs to be managed by the dealership. Some of this process can be outsourced, and quite frankly some of it should be.

Download Free White Paper

Details can, should, and do not need to be outsourced by dealers that want to blog are outlined in my White Paper Blogging 101 for Car Dealers. In this white paper we explain the role that content marketing plays for auto dealers and we introduce 5 different types of content that auto dealerships can produce to promote their blog and website. We also dive in to why auto dealerships want to have a blog marketing strategy and which parts make sense to outsource.

The challenge dealerships face today is how to form a process around blogging that produces all this type of information in a way that is profitable for the dealership by being efficient and effective at selling cars and driving new business from current and non-existent customers. Blogging does not close deals and sell cars, but it certainly contributes to the process of driving the best traffic to your website and building trust and loyalty with potential and existing customers.

Download your free copy of our white paper by signing up for our site. If you are already a free member and have not received your copy then contact us at 1-877-873-0583.

You can see it in the data when you do your research. You hear it at conferences you attend. You see when you watch peoples’ presentations. You see it with those around you, and most likely you see it in your own behavior as it too is shifting towards mobile.

This natural evolution of how we access the Internet and communicate has been prophesied in sci-fi stories for decades. The “future” that we have always anticipated really is here and it is drastically affecting each of us in how we live, shop, share, and conduct business.

Evidence of this trend was revealed this Fall during conference season when Dataium co-founder Jason Ezell shared slide #20 of his presentation deck called “Betting on Your Future Business Using Predictive Analysis”. In this presentation you see that the trend towards mobile began around April 2011 and that it shows no sign of leveling off or declining. Logically, why would it?

There is also evidence of this in the data that was accumulated by Shopper Sciences while performing the now infamous Google ZMOT study. In their research, mobile use, while not yet a leading stimulus or communication source for auto shopping is clearly a growing trend that experts do not disagree is on track to be so by the end of 2012.

The significance of this information was supported at this year’s JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable (#JDPAIRT) where Tier I organizations participated in numerous sessions and breakouts on the subject, and industry vendors are scrambling to respond to this quickly growing need.

The question for me isn’t whether mobile will be embraced by auto dealers, but how will it be embraced and will it be implemented effectively.

Early on, that is the past couple of years, the most effective way for dealers to utilize mobile marketing was by sending coupon and specials alerts via SMS. But now, people are being inundated with specials and savings on their mobile phone, so it is likely that the game will have to change.

Some companies, like AutoMotion TV for instance, are banking on people embracing the dealership experience by installing a mobile app for the dealership. I personally am skeptical that this use of technology will be accepted by people, but the mobile app provider has proven success with auto dealerships that you can read about on their site.

The philosophy behind AutoMotion TV’s dealer apps is to make them part of the shopping experience and to communicate with them via push messaging. Most mobile apps I have seen offered by automotive website providers fall short on the vehicle and inventory front, with limited or minimal ability to experience virtual vehicle tours or browse inventory with rich media. This is one are where AutoMotion TV stands out.

More importantly is AutoMotion TV’s push messaging, which is their ability to send messages to users via SMS that have their dealer apps installed. The question is, what is the right information to push? Is it coupons and special offers? Is it service reminders? Or maybe it’s more engaging content such as questions, surveys, polls, or even contests?

These are all important things to consider. There is no doubt you want to have a mobile strategy. In my opinion I would be less concerned with what and how you do it and more concerned with just doing it. From this you will find what works best for you, your team, and most importantly for your customers.