Squidoo is a simple way to enhance your social marketing efforts. How simple?

Each Lens is built up of pre-designed and pre-formatted components called Modules. Each module provides you with a specific function or capability. Your Lens is built by combining the modules you choose.

The best way to understand modules is to log in to your Squidoo account, create a Lens, and then explore the different modules available.

We typically use the following modules for car dealers, and then customize each Lens with fewer or additional modules, depending on the needs and objectives of our clients.

Text Modules
Text modules make up the bulk of your content on your Lens. You will want to include several text modules to display a variety of information as featured vehicles, signup pages, blogs, etc.

Link List
Link lists are a great way to help your visitors navigate to various parts of your website or blog. Use more than one link list if you need to.

Google Map
You should always include a Google Map on your Lens with the dealership name and address. You can add a simple map for one location, or an advanced map for several locations or a dealership group.

Flickr Photos
Adding photos is a great way to get visitors to your Lens. You can let Flickr choose photos for you based on keywords and search terms that you choose, or you can point to your own Flickr photo album. Here is a great example of how to use Flickr Photos effectively on your Lens.

Blackbox
The Blackbox is a dark background-white copy graphic that you can use to display important information. It is eye-catching and really stands out on your Lens. It’s a great module for representing special offers or savings that you may offer. See an example here of how the Blackbox is displayed. Note also that the box can be changed to a range of colors … you’re not limited to just black!

The Most Important Thing
An excellent alternate option for the Blackbox is to use The Most Important Thing module. Use one of these modules or the other, not both. The Most Important Thing doesn’t use the dark background, so you may prefer it for design purposes.

RSS Module
You should almost always hook up an RSS feed from the blog. In most cases you want to do an RSS feed of the inventory as well. Use the Feedburner URLs for your RSS feeds and display somewhere between 10 and 15 vehicles, unless fewer or more is appropriate.

Putting together your Squidoo Lens couldn’t be easier. Choose your subject, select your modules, and edit the content (don’t forget to optimize with keywords!). With just a few clicks, you can build your Lens and boost your social marketing efforts.

If you have a website, a blog, own or run a business, or are an expert in anything, you should consider building a Squidoo lens! A Squidoo lens is a single webpage that can point to whatever you want it to.

This makes it a great way to build traffic to your site or blog, or to promote your product or service.

There are a few keys to making sure that your lens will help you with your social marketing strategy.

Lenses should have a clear objective, be brand commensurate, and have an SEO strategy.

We offer a variety of Lens types:

1. Company Lenses
2. Product Lenses
3. Event Lenses
4. Promo Lenses
5. Competitor Lenses

Company Lenses are representative of your business. The SEO strategy is for the Lens to appear in Search when people are looking for your company or for products and services you offer. Ideally, a company lens should drive traffic to your website and more specifically to your mailing list. Here’s an example of company lens: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/peruzzitoyota.

Product Lenses are representative of a single product or a group of products. The SEO strategy is for the Lens to appear in Search when people are looking for the types of products and services you offer. Ideally, product lenses should drive traffic to your Product Promo (Landing) Pages. Here’s a great example of a product lens: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/classiccarsnissan.

Event Lenses and Promo Lenses are representative of a one-time or recurring event/promotion at your business or associated with your business. If the event/promotion is recurring then your SEO strategy should be consistent with the long term interest of the event/promotion. If it is a one-time event/promotion then there may be no need for an SEO strategy unless it is several months down the road.

Competitor Lenses are representative of your market niche. The SEO strategy is for your Lens to appear in Search when people are searching for products and service you offer, or more precisely when search for a specific competing business to yours. A good way to do this is prepare the Lens to be informative and helpful for people researching things you and your competitors offer, but making it known that your company is the entity supplying the information. You do not want to be perceived as trying to deceive your audience, rather looking out for them.

Whether you use your Squidoo lens to build traffic, sell a product, or just share your expert advice, follow these few simple tips. Have fun with it! Remember to update your lens often in order to increase your lens popularity (called ‘lensrank’).

Search engine visibility is key to a great online presence, and Squidoo is a fun way to be able to present your expertise to the world and enhance your visibility in Search.