BlogPro Automotive » Social Media

Jay Wolfe Toyota Race for the Ride with SCVNGR

Ryan G — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:37:43 +0000

On July 11, 2010, Jay Wolfe Toyota built the “Jay Wolfe Race for the Ride” trek on SCVNGR all through downtown St. Louis. The trek had people going places, doing challenges and earning points on the mobile system known as SCVNGR. The challenges asked people to solve location-based riddles, take photos and more! The top scorer at the end of the day came away with a brand new 2010 Toyota Corolla!

The video below shows pieces of this trek in action with participants wearing as uniforms red t-shirts printed by Jay Wolfe Toyota and local sponsors. Those participating can be seen scavenging around the city of St. Louis looking for clues and reporting their findings using their Droids and iPhones, the two platforms designed for use with the SCVNGR system. In the end, the event drew in about 500 participants.

Jay Wolfe Toyota Race for the Ride from SCVNGR on Vimeo.

This type of marketing is certainly new to automotive in that Jay Wolfe Toyota was the firm’s FIRST retail dealership to sponsor such an event. SCVNGR has been doing similar events with other businesses throughout the U.S., primarily with jewelers.

Some of the key elements to this type of marketing are:

The Build Up: Everyone is talking about participating in the event to complete for a NEW CAR.
The Action: Players interact with the dealership’s sales and service departments in a truly fun and engaging way.
The Result: Acquisition of new customers to the service department as well as car sales from qualifies buyers.

The investment for this is comparable to a traditional low-level advertising campaign with your local newspaper or television station for a week or two, plus the dealership must co-op with its OEM to give away a vehicle.

Some might argue that the ROI is not there, but this could be a cop-out for not being familiar with such a marketing initiative. Dealers are still dropping similar amounts of coin on traditional advertising initiatives and are unable to gage their successes in most cases, so you can’t put much stock into that concern. In no case are dealerships able to achieve the deep levels of brand recognition and engagement that a SCVNGR treasure hunt can achieve. Plus, the end result achieves far more value to everybody involved, including the local community, plus you get a nice vide that can be used in the years to come.

If you are interested in exploring SCVNGR for your dealership, call us at 877-873-0583 or fill in the form below to request a free consultation to see if this is something for you and your dealership.

Examples of how online marketers are using Twitter lists

Ryan G — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:52:15 +0000

In a recent study by Arbitron and Edison Research, which you can see in detail on the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog in the post titled, 5 Twitter Charts For Marketers, Twitter was deemed equal to Facebook in awareness with consumer audiences but lagged far behind Facebook in terms of actual usage. While marketers can speculate on what this means, there are a couple insights you can take away from this research:

a.) Twitter users are actively discussing products and services
b.) Twitter is growing rapidly and driving consumer awareness

Because of this, B2C and B2B marketers continue to incorporate Twitter into their digital marketing strategies and as a marketing tool you want to maximize its potential. But in its simplest form Twitter, which is a lot like SMS text-messaging from your mobile phone, can be limited and time-consuming.

So what are some ways to better leverage the power of Twitter?

One option is with the use of lists. Twitter lists are a feature that enables you to create lists under your account and add other Twitter users to them. By doing this, you essentially create filtered views of messages being published to Twitter which helps you keep a watchful eye on people important to you, be it personally or professionally.

In March we explored ways to utilize the software TweetDeck to manage multiple accounts on Twitter. Our guest presenter for this session was Ryan Taft of Catalyst Marketers who is back with us this week to show us how to create and manage lists on Twitter. In this live web cast, Taft will be covering:

What is a twitter list?
Examples of Twitter Lists
How to create a Twitter List
How to use a Twitter List

To attend this webinar you must be registered with the AC List Builder series which you can do by clicking button below. By registering you will receive an email notification from GoToWebinar reminding you of each webinar within that series. If you are not able to or are not interested in attending a specific webinar within that series then there is no obligation to attend. You can disregard the notification.

Likewise if you have an interest in attending webinars from another series we run then you can register with those from the training page too. By subscribing to our website then we can notify you of our upcoming events and webinars plus we can share information like this that you can utilize on your own time.

How auto dealers can use Foursquare to drive showroom traffic

Ryan G — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:50:19 +0000

With the advent of Foursquare.com this year, auto dealers have a new game to tackle in the digital age, literally.

Foursquare.com is a location-based social networking that requires the use of your mobile phone or device to check in to venues. To “check in” requires you load and log in to Foursquare from your mobile device, pull up a list of places or venues that have been added to foursquare.com by other users, and then use the Check In button. If the venue does not exist then you can add it by entering the name and address.

How does this benefit auto dealers?

Well, it may be too soon to tell however Eric Miltsch from AuctionDirect USA is doing it and he is going to share some of his experiences in this on our next AC Social webinar Thursday May 13 at 11:30am EST.

Sticking with our tradition of keeping AC Webinars simple and useful for applying at your dealership, Miltsch will be covering the following topics:

New-school engagement using “location-based marketing” concepts
Creating memorable, interactive experiences for guests
Leveraging our networks w/regards to surrounding businesses for promotions & the breadth of our personal networks
Improving brand recognition
Driving traffic
Creating sales opportunities

Join us on Thursday May 13 at 11:30am. We will begin with a brief orientation of the AC Webinar series and registration process before handing the controls over to Eric for his presentation which should last about 30-40 minutes.

To register for this event use the button below. If you are already registered with the AC Social webinar series then there is no need to re-register. Likewise if you have an interest in this topic but can not make this particular webinar, click here to view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars.

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi.

Using Foursquare.com to better understand your customers

Ryan G — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:11:20 +0000

With the advent of Foursquare.com this year, auto dealers have a new game to tackle in the digital age, literally.

How does this benefit auto dealers?

Sticking with our tradition of keeping AC Webinars simple and useful for applying at your dealership, Miltsch will be covering the following topics:

New-school engagement using “location-based marketing” concepts
Creating memorable, interactive experiences for guests
Leveraging our networks w/regards to surrounding businesses for promotions & the breadth of our personal networks
Improving brand recognition
Driving traffic
Creating sales opportunities

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi.

GOSO President’s New Book Sheds Light on Social Media in Auto Industry

dragonfly — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:02:05 +0000

Social Media can be a powerful tool for auto dealers. Today, more and more dealers are turning to progressive internet marketing techniques such as Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about the latest news regarding their business. These techniques, if used properly, can dramatically affect a dealer’s sales and web presence. As new information becomes available regarding automotive internet marketing, the industry continues to thrive. A previous article, Internet Marketing for Vehicle Sales, discusses some of the advantages to utilizing Social Media for marketing purposes.

In a new e-book, Social Media Best Practices for Automotive Dealers, GOSO president Adam Boalt explains why social media has shown such quickly mushrooming growth and what the implications are for auto dealers in this environment.

He delves into how social media can be beneficial, brand reputation, word-of-mouth or referral marketing, as well as best practices and the best channels to auto branding and reaching shoppers.

The book also includes a special section devoted to social tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging.

Additionally, Boalt touches on questions that dealers commonly have when it comes to social media. For example, he addresses how dealers can measure progress, keep customers and build a plan for the content they include on social-media channels.

Continuing on, Boalt is offering his insight as a panelist at the Direct Marketing Association of Detroit’s 14th Annual Automotive Integrated Marketing Symposium on April 20. He will be joined by Michelle Morris, automotive industry director at Google; Larry Bruce, vice president of managed marketing solutions for Reynolds and Reynolds; and Lonnie Miller, vice president of marketing and industry analysis at R.L. Polk & Co.

During the Symposium, Boalt is also offering the “Integrating Social Media with Marketing” session.

Boalt is also presenting at the 8th Digital Dealer Conference and Exposition in Orlando on April 21. His presentation is titled “Evolution of a Social Media Dealer.” This will feature a performance of YouTube celebrity Judson Laipply, who will share his viral video “Evolution of Dance” that has generated more than 140 million views.

View the original article here.

How automotive digital marketing professionals can benefit from TweetDeck

Ryan G — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:22:31 +0000

Twitter is a great tool for reaching customers and prospects, building relationships with folks, educating your followers on your business values, products, and services, and ultimately for driving sales. If you have been using Twitter then you know that success is directly impacted by the amount of time you spend using the tool.

Fortunately there are ways to make your Twitter efforts more efficient. One of these ways is with the use of TweetDeck.

TweetDeck is a browser for select social media networking sites allowing you to manage information on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. In fact with TweetDeck you can even manage multiplate Twitter accounts, plus any facebook pages to which you are an admin can be managed from TweetDeck too.

For example, we recently launched a new Twitter account for BlogPro Automotive and are using to TweetDeck to manage it along with other Twitter accounts we have in addition to customer Twitter accounts.

This week we are holding a webinar dedicated to the use of TweetDeck and Twitter as part of our AC Social Webinar Series. Our guest presenter will be Ryan Taft from Catalyst Marketers who assists us in managing information on Twitter and facebook for some of our customers. Taft posted to his blog recently offering some extended uses of Twitter and TweetDeck in the post No time for Twitter? Use TweetDeck to save time, but you can benefit from this information first hand by attending this week’s Webinar at 11:30 am EST on Thursday April 1.

In this webinar Taft will be exploring the following topics:

Quick Twitter for Business Intro
TweetDeck Overview
Download for computer & mobile phone
Add Twitter account
Add Facebook account
TweetDeck helps maximize your time on Twitter
TweetDeck helps show activity at a glance
TweetDeck recap & summary

As with all our webinars we aim to make them useful and applicable in the real world, this way you can walk away with new skills that can be applied to your endeavours on the web right away.

To attend this webinar you must be registered with the AC Social Webinar series which you can do by clicking here or the button below. By registering you will receive an email notification from GoToWebinar reminding you of each webinar within that series. If you are not able to or are not interested in attending a specific webinar witin that series then there is no obligation to attend. You can disregard the notification.

Likewise if you have an interest in attending webinars from another series we run then you can register with those from the AC Webinar Series page too. Additionally, by becoming a fan of our facebook page or by subscribing to our website then we can notify you of our upcoming events and webinars plus we can share information like this that you can utlize on your own time.

a getting started guide for car dealers on foursquare

Ryan G — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:59:08 +0000

When I first heard about foursquare it did not strike me much and looking back I think it was because there was already a sense familiarity about it.

It’s not the name foursqaure but rather what foursquare brings to the playing field – a way for consumers to express their interest in local businesses by sharing daily lives.

See, facebook has limitations when it comes to marketing your business. Facebook was not built to serve as a business marketing tool. It was meant to be a place for young people to connect. Only as these folks became working professionals in the business world did facebook evolve to serve the needs of businesses and individuals. The underlying architecture is flawed from the get-go as a business marketing tool, and so businesses are forced to work around that.

foursquare on the other hand sprouted from a different seed. It is based on the readiness and handiness of the Internet, mobile technology, consumer interests, and business possibilities. With foursquare, consumers can choose to give your business credibility by sharing their association with your business. And unlike in facebook where the business can manage its persona, on foursquare, businesses have no weight. The popularity and interests of its patrons do.

So for car dealers, where does foursquare fit it? Well, try this for starts…

Go to foursquare.com and create a profile for yourself. This takes about 5 minutes.
Then do a search for your dealership. If you can not locate your dealership on foursquare then add it as a new venue.
Now, each time you go to work (at that dealership), check in. By checking in, you are taking the first steps towards becoming Mayor of your dealership, unless of course someone else at your dealership has already begin doing this. (No worry. If you can’t become Mayor there are other awards available.)
Remember to “check in” each time you go to work at the dealership.
Now, in your dealings with people, be it on your blog, on Twitter, on facebook, wherever, let the people you know see that you are on foursquare. Do everything you can to get people checking in to your dealership on foursquare. This can be done by including a link to your foursquare account in your email signature, displaying it online, in your phone conversations, etc. Probably the most important place to do this is in a text message you send customers. Point is, advertise the fact that you use foursquare.

Here is what you can expect. The Internet-savvy prospects and customers you come in to contact with will connect with you on foursquare, Twitter, and on facebook. All three of these will come in handy through time on Google Search. More importantly, if you engage with these folks via Twitter you can establish a more useful communication with them than you can on facebook. But on facebook you can have a more entertaining and multi media experience with these folks.

On foursquare, you can help them earn savings and incentives by getting them to check in, create to-do lists such getting their vehicle serviced, and adding tips such as, “Talk to Davey Jones he will take care of you”.

Unless you are on foursquare, facebook, and Twitter now it will be difficult to see the value in these simple yet essential acts. But as you learn to embrace these communication tools you will find that cultivating and driving leads onto your desktop is truly attainable even with such new technologies as these.

Using Social Media for Vehicle Sales

Ryan G — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:17:13 +0000

About three years ago before we had any official products on the market, a lot of time was spent trying to find ways to use a blog to display inventory. But after a short while I put that effort to rest because it did not make sense to try to re-invent the wheel of displaying inventory online since so many other companies and websites had already essentially perfected the art. It was like trying to find a technology solution for a problem that did not exist. In the end, we stuck with using dealership blogs strictly for SEO purposes which quickly became the norm in the auto industry.

Today, Social Media sites such as facebook and Twitter are known for their growing benefits in Search Marketing, but I don’t see blogs receiving the hype that these sites are receiving, despite the proven track record that blogs have as a tool for Inbound Marketing. And now with companies like GOSO offering an inventory solution that integrates with facebook, or MediaRevo which manages transaction-geared landing pages for auto dealer sites that are advertised with paid placement on facebook, it seems that the turbines of automotive online retail remain steadfastly drawn towards vehicle sales.

Is this the right approach for auto dealers, to be using Social Media tools such as facebook and Twitter to push their commodity?

Studies and statistics show that Social Media is more about content, conversation, and relationships and less about conversion and transaction. So how will using Social Media to solicit vehicles bid with customers in these marketplaces? Does it not seem that these communication channels may be better utilized by auto dealers to concentrate on other areas of their operation such as service, parts, & financing?

It may be too soon to say what the best practices are for auto dealers when it comes to Social Media. And I am not suggesting that the display of inventory there is a bad or good practice. Dealers respond to this type of marketing because they are accustomed to it. Dealers always want to sell more cars…TODAY.

In today’s economy, new possibilities are opening up. One of those possibilities is for this new marketing medium to offer dealers not just another place to sell autos, but also a place to expand all aspects of their operations.

What the Google-Microsoft decision to include Facebook and Twitter means for Car Dealers

Ryan G — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:27:39 +0000

This month for our AC List Builder Webinar we are shifting focus to the latest announcements by Google and Microsoft about including Twitter and Facebook fodder into their search results. This is major news in the online marketing realm because it effects every business and online marketer pursuing a search marketing and social media strategy, so we have decided to dedicate this week’s webinar to this topic.

Earlier this week we posted a video about this to our blog which you may want to watch as well. It’s in the post labeled A Big Bang for SEO and Social Media.

For the webinar we will start by going through a slide show that was put together by Peter Caputa over at HubSpot. It’s a short slide show so we will also journey through his commentary of the subject on the HubSpot blog. All-in-all we expect our webinar to last about 20-30 minutes but we may open it up for discussion if there are not too many people attending.

To register for this webinar, click here (or the button below) for the AC List Builder series, fill in the required information and then expect to receive instructions for connecting to the webinar at 11:30 am EST on Thursday November 12. By registering you will automatically be included on all future AC List Builder/Social webinars (once a month) plus you will receive access to our webinars archive where you can watch and listen to past webinars at your leisure.

Using Facebook to blast a car dealership

dragonfly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:26:55 +0000

It has been said that the Internet affords regular folk the opportunity to speak out on issues and situations, and with the advent of blogs and social media, getting your voice out can be a lot easier than ever before. I guess it was only a matter of before Facebook became a venue for tarnishing the reputation of an organization.

One such instance has occurred which I came across today by happenstance, and it affects one of my clients. I came across a Facebook profile yesterday by the name of Holbert Dealership-Story. My initial thought was, “cool”, my client is taking a proactive stance using Facebook to communicate a non-solicitous message, something we preach over here at AutoConversion. But then this morning I receive an invite to a Facebook group that made me realize this was not so cool after all.

The Facebook group is called Dealership Experience Repository. As I read it it became clear this was a group created by a disgruntled customer, the one whose profile originally reeled me in.

I am not one for complaining, especially digitally or in print. It usually bites you in the ass down the road. So regardless of this dealership being a client, I don’t like the vibe of this group and the agenda behind this person, but I understand his frustration.

Last year I had a major setback with Verizon and wanted to denigrate them to the highest degree. However I refrained and took my beef to the top, and I mean the very top, to get things resolved with them. I just didn’t want to be another winey pest using the Web to retaliate against Verizon.

But now Holberts has a dilemma on their hands. If you look at the 42 friends this disgruntled Facebook user has you may notice a lot of them are other dealerships. I would not hold it past these dealerships that they chose to be Facebook friends with this profile with the hope to further expose this customer’s beef with Holberts. You know the old adage, “look good and make others look bad”. So I imagine this person will get plenty of buy-in from other dealerships.

What I am most curious to see is how this holds up with the Facebook user policy. It is against their policy to create profiles, pages, and groups posing as other business or misrepresenting others, which I think their profile does, but not necessarily the group. This is one of those uncharted areas of the ether web that we lack on in policy.

My guess is that Facebook will frown up on this. The last thing they want is for Facebook to become a haven for complaints and denigration on businesses and individuals. That’s what sites like DealerRater.com are for.

Anyhow, it will be curious to see where this goes, if anywhere. Regardless the circumstance definitely poses new questions in the use of Facebook for automotive SEO.