When the topic of SEO comes up, many people envision HTML code and meta tag adjustments. They think of keyword stuffing. They consider the bounds set by the OEM of what they can and cannot do with their websites and how far they can push the boundaries to extend their market reach.

They don't usually imagine finding cool images and videos of epic cars or amazing places, but that's one activity that dealers and SEOs can do to affect their overall search rankings as well as reach out to their communities with amazing and sharable content.

Today, social has become a tremendous SEO tool. Content is the key to true social interactions. The best content is informative, fun, or both. You should see where I'm heading with this, but just in case...

Step 1: Find Content that YOU Enjoy

There are two connections between our virtual world and the real world that need to be noted. On one hand, you have the "sell sell sell" mentality that often prevents dealers from adding content to their website that isn't totally on point with the goal of the dealership: more sales. On the other hand, we're car people. If you're in this business, you love cars (at least you should). As such, thatconnection should definitely come through to the online presence of the dealership but it's often absent.

Above, you'll see an image of a 1956 Ford F-100. It's one of the coolest trucks (in my humble opinion) that was ever built. Why not pay tribute to it on a Ford website? That would be fun, right?

Perhaps more importantly, it can help your search rankings as well as your social outreach by doing so. Find content you love. Then...

Step 2: Put It On Your Website

The most important part here is attribution. I'm not a fan of stealing content. Whenever possible, use images that you've taken. If you must use the internet, there are sites such as Shutterstock that allow you to pay for content images and they have tons of pictures of both cars and locations. If you're going to rely on Google to get the images, be sure to attribute the source with a link to them. They are supplying you with content that will help your website. The least you can do is help them back by supplying them with a link.

With that out of the way, let's talk content. The reason that you're supposed to find content that YOU enjoy is because you'll be able to write much more easily about it. If it's something that you don't care about, it'll show in your writing. If you adore it (just as I adore the '55 and '56 F-100's I used in this project) then it'll show.

There doesn't have to be a ton of written content. If anything, that can be a detriment to have too much. Let the images or videos speak for themselves. With that said, you musthave some unique content on the page or it won't last. One, two, maybe three paragraphs is plenty.

Make it personal. This doesn't have to be the Wikipedia version. It can come from your heart. At your soul, you like cars, right? Let that shine through in the writing. Speaking of Wikipedia, you have to fight the urge to copy and paste. The content must be unique.

Check out the page itself on Holiday Automotive's 1955 Ford F100 page.

Step 3: Make a Couple of Quick SEO Decisions and Apply Them

It's great to have fun with your content, but you want to be able to get a benefit out of it without risking loss of a customer. The first benefit is to help with your search rankings. While it's possible for the page itself to rank for terms associated with F-100s, unless you're a classic truck dealer you're not going to benefit from this.

Instead, use the page to help your domain rank better in general and to help another page rank better for a specific keyword. In this case, we're going to work on getting the homepage ranked for "Wisconsin Ford Dealers", a keyword that they're currently not hitting with on page one. There are two other SEO benefits that we'll talk about below.

The other decision that you'll want to make is whether or not to include the page in your navigation. In most cases, one-off content like this should not be in your navigation. You want to drive traffic to a page like this through social media. No need to distract your normal website visitors with a "fun" page.

The exception to this rule is if you're going to create a lot of pages with amazing content. In such a case, you may want to consider having a section of the website dedicated to this type of content. It can be "Amazing Ford Vehicles through the Decades" with collections of pages similar to this one. It could be "The Best of the Best in Chicago" with pages dedicated to the amazing things and landmarks within the city. There are many options, but a time commitment is required. If you go with occasional one-off pages, you should probably keep them out of the navigation.

Step 4: The Social Buttons

Most pages on most dealer websites have social buttons. Some even go so far as to have toolbars at the bottom or "Share This" widgets. These are acceptable for most pages because, let's face it, nobody's sharing your site anyway. These toolbars and share widgets are smoke and mirror tactics used by some vendors to sell... nevermind - that's another blog post in the future.

The share buttons you'll want on a content page like this will be the ones supplied by the sites themselves. We recommend Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest, though some may want to include others such as Tumblr, StumbleUpon, etc.

This is the second (and arguably most important) aspect to helping your SEO. Both Google and Bing have acknowledged that social signals play a role in the search rankings of a domain. For the most part, the content on dealer websites is unsharable... until now. These types of pages can be shared if you have the right content and the right social accounts in place to share them.

This is where the disclaimer must be made. This isn't A Field of Dreams. Just because you build it, that doesn't mean they'll come. At KPA we have accumulated some incredible social media experts that give us the resources to make sure our dealers get the social signals they need for success. Some would say it's the unfair advantage that keeps us at the top in SEO. It's definitely possible to get social signals without the "power accounts" that we have in our arsenal, but that, too, is another blog post altogether. For now, do what you can and even "fake it 'til you make it" by having employees, friends, and even family share the page on social media. After all, it's a content page. It's not like you're asking them to spam their social friends with a car for sale. This is an epic Ford F100. Share away!

Finally, you'll notice the "Embed this Image" code. This is best for infographics but it works for images as well. This is to assist in helping to get links to the page, which brings us to...

Step 5: Get Links to the Page

The concept of "link bait" is still a valid play in the SEO world and this type of page qualifies. However, unless you're able to drive massive traffic to the page, you won't get a ton of links organically. It's time to share it yourself.

Find content sites that would like to see this type of content on their pages. You have blogs (even your own blog), Tumblr, and other content sites that love compilations. In this case, we used Buzzfeed as well as some blogs.

As you can see in the image, we link again to the target keyword and include the images as the content on the page. The text content is unique - no copy and paste here either. It will only take a couple of links to get this particular keyword ranked if you're using the right sites.

Google's Penguin update is looking for link spam, so don't participate in those types of tactics. If you're going to be building a lot of links, make certain that it's natural and organic. Building links that all have the same anchor text is one thing that can trigger the algorithm's filter.

Do it the right way or don't do it at all. To much is at stake. In this case, the handful of links that we built will not hurt the domain and will help to get it ranked for our target keyword. It will also help the overall link authority of the domain. Whenever participating in link-building, always think quality over quality.

Step 6: Social Outreach

Now that you've got the page and supporting pages built, it's time to share it. If your social media pages are strong, it's as simple as sharing it by creating an image gallery. Keep in mind - this will not count as a Facebook like or Google +1. You can share the link from the page itself on your social channels but they will not get as much exposure that way.

Photos rule.

I did, however, link to the page in the comments.

The goal here is to drive some traffic. It won't be much, but if your social media presence is strong you'll get some traffic to it, particularly from Twitter and Pinterest. The goal is to "double dip" with the content so that you're allowing it to help your social pages to flourish. It's great content. Share it!

Step 7: Rinse and Repeat

Set a schedule for yourself. It could be once a week, once a month, or once in a while, but be sure to set aside some time to creating these types of pages. A content-rich website supported by links and social interactions is the key to overall success on both the search and social fronts.

A final note - this is fun and once you get good it can all flow very efficiently, but it does take understanding. If anything at all in this was unclear, please reach out to me. This isn't one of those things in automotive internet marketing that can be done partially well. You either do it right or you do it wrong - there's very little grey area and there's even less room for error.

This is one of those topics in which everyone will have an opinion. Some will agree in part and disagree with other components, but the hope is to stir up some discussion on the topic. We've tested these ideas and continue the constant flow of more testing; social media is always changing.

Before going much further, it's extremely important to understand one aspect of this list that is universal, particularly in the automotive industry. Time is the primary factor. If someone came to me and asked me to devise a comprehensive strategy that a full-time social media marketing employee could implement and manage, it would be different from what I've put below. Blogging, for example, is an afterthought in the list below as it can be extremely time-consuming to do properly, but if there's a full-timer handling social media, blogging would jump from the bottom to the top.

Conversely, those who have no time at all and are squeezing in 5 minutes a day at the most would also need a more streamlined strategy.

These suggestions are for the average dealer who an employee such as the internet manager squeezing in 20 minutes to an hour a day into their social media strategy. Technically, this could fill up more than an hour a day if more attention is paid to vetting content on other pages, sharing, and commenting, but we'll assume those activities, high-value though they are, fall into the category of "if you have time between all of the other things you have to do every day."

Here's the hierarchy as I see it:

1. Facebook

This one is the no-brainer on the list. If you only have time to do one thing in social media, it would be Facebook. They have the traction. They have the attention of your customers. They have the exposure.

You should be posting 1-3 pieces of content at a minimum to your dealership Facebook pages, even on weekends. More is better but don't overdo it. Don't crowd your posts, either. In other words, don't fill the three-a-day requirement by stacking three posts on top of each other. They have to be spread out.

2. Google+

This is probably the most controversial positioning on the hierarchy. There are still plenty of dealership who don't even have a Google+ page. Some think they have a Google+ page because they have a Google Local profile that's tied into Google+, but if you're not posting content socially, you don't really have a valid business page.

Rather than explaining why it's important and so high on the list (that is a complete blog post of its own), let me explain why you should do it even if you're not a believer. It doesn't add much time. If you are posting to Facebook, posting the same exact content to Google+ adds a couple of minutes of work if you're slow.

3. Twitter

For most dealers going into 2013, Twitter seems to be a "check box item". In other words, if they have their Facebook and other social profiles feeding into their Twitter account, then they're Twitter is covered. This isn't exactly true.

Twitter should have the highest frequency of posts. You will want to post things to Twitter much more often than the other networks. Thankfully, you can use the other networks to streamline the tweeting efforts. One thing that very few dealers are doing well is actually engaging with others on Twitter. For the most part, Twitter is a defensive tool. You want your Twitter profile to appear active and engaging to those who visit it from your website. You want people with problems to hit you on Twitter for resolutions. It's the safest network from an exposure perspective to receive complaints, so encouraging interaction by simply engaging with others will make that possible.

4. YouTube

It's not for every dealer. There's no need to have an active YouTube channel just for the sake of having an active YouTube channel. If you aren't making videos, don't force it by simply posting other people's videos. An inactive YouTube account can do more harm than good. Either do it or don't. Nothing in between.

5. Tumblr

This is higher on the list than others for the same reason that Google+ is so high - it's easy. We did a webinar on Tumblr a while back and the reasoning there still applies today. It can help with SEO, reputation management, and exposure and does not require a ton of extra effort to make it effective.

6. Pinterest

Some say that Pinterest is on the decline. They are correct to some measure, but that doesn't make it less valuable (yet). Today, the passions of the users are still strong and having an active Pinterest presence can have an impact. Again, like Google+ and Tumblr, Pinterest is also too easy to skip.

7. ScoopIt

Many people are unfamiliar with Scoop.It now, but they won't be unfamiliar forever. It's the next big thing, similar to Pinterest in some ways but with a more business-oriented demeanor and functionality. Please contact me directly if you have an questions about Scoop.It - early adopters will be thankful that they did it.

8. The Others

Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Instagram can be valuable if they are worked in properly with the dealership's marketing efforts. They are "tweeners" in that they are really better applied by the advanced, time-capable dealership employees who can afford to take a stab at them, but if you're going to keep anything out of your social media strategy for the sake of time, it would be these three.
* * *

Again, there are plenty of perspectives that surround any list like this. I would love to hear your perspective or answer any question you may have about the individual networks or the strategy required to make them work properly for your dealership.

This is Part 2 in a 5 part series. Read Part I here. Now, Part 3is also live.

As we advance in social media strategies, one of the biggest challenges is getting traction.The rise of social signals in search marketing alone is enough of an incentive to make it happen even if you don’t believe in social media itself as a marketing tool. It is one, but now’s not the time to make that case. For now, the undisputed truth is that social media can help your dealership rank better in the search engines by sending social signals (Google +1s, Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, etc) to content on your website.

The quality of the content is important and you can check out some tips on quality content on Social Media Today. The challenge isn’t with building content. The biggest challenge facing car dealers is having the potent social profiles that are able to get the content blasted out there, to get the social signals flowing.There are companies (including ours) who have spent years developing and growing social media profiles, hiring experts, and enhancing content through the use of social signals. As a dealership, you will not want to rely on vendors (even us) to do all of the work for you. It’s your destiny. It’s your business. You need to have a hand in your own success. To do this, you need “power accounts”.

Warnings from the Experts

In part one of this series, I mentioned two of the strongest accounts in automotive: Grant Cardone and Louie Baur. I’ll be the first to admit that I am an avid fan of learning from industry experts, so I’m going to talk about what I learned from Ralph Paglia. My friend at ADM is the only guy in the car business that I know of who has been hacking around in social media as long as I have.We’ve had our share of clashes and disagreements but over the years I believe it’s a fair assessment to say that we’ve both been wrong and we’ve both been right, and at the end of the day our understanding of how social media can work in the automotive industry is fairly close to lockstep.

One of the things that Ralph has excelled at is building up social media profiles for dealerships. He’s the master of syndication and knows how to blast out content.Now, for the warning: don’t make the mistakes that both of us made early on. It’s easy to get lured into the “wide” approach to social, to start focusing on integrating every shiny new social program out there. If you’re a full-time social media marketer for your dealership, this isn’t a bad approach. If you, like most, are integrating social media into a diverse marketing strategy and can only put in a couple of hours a day at the most into social, stay focused on the networks that matter: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

A Dealer, an Internet Manager, and a Mascot Walk Into a Bar…

There’s no punchline. It’s a decision that needs to be made. If you’re going to build up power accounts, first and foremost you have to understand that business pages are not the solution.They are important; having a strong Facebook page for your dealership is a must. However, a business page cannot become a power account. To become a power account, you have to be human. The hardest part is getting the right human to be the power account.

That’s right – the owner or general manager is the ideal person to be your dealership’s power account.They are (or should be) respected members of the community. Just as their touch is often enough to make a deal go through, their social media touch is more powerful than that of anyone else at the dealership. This holds true across the board. One study showed that a company’s CEO could get more engagement on their Twitter account with 1/100th of the followers of the company account itself.

Take a look at Tracy Myers from Frank Myers Auto Maxx. You would be hard pressed to find an owner with more social media power than Tracy.It’s not just that he’s such an interesting guy (he is, but that’s not important). It’s that he’s the owner. He’s the decision maker. He makes things happen at the dealership. If he says it, they make it so. As a result, his social presence is stronger than the presence of the dealership itself.

The hardest part is convincing dealers that they can benefit from this.THAT is another blog post altogether. If he or she is willing, they are the right person to starting building the power account.

If not, you have two options. The internet manager, eCommerce director, or marketing manager could be the face. Jeff Cryder‘s story at Lebanon Ford has drawn attention across the country. Lindsay Lavery at Lavery Chevy is really starting to make a splash.

Notice something about all three examples: the profiles are named after the dealership but the individual is highlighted each time. On Twitter.com/LebanonFord or @LaveryChevy , it’s the faces of the individuals who are actually controlling the accounts that are getting the attention. Same thing with fb.com/FrankMyersAuto – Tracy is the account.

People don’t follow brands despite what any social media pro will tell you. They follow people.They don’t like logos. They like faces. They don’t want to talk to an entity. They want to talk to a human. That’s all there is to it.

The third option is for the few who simply do not want to participate in this way. If you absolutely do not want to be the face of your dealership, come up with a mascot.It could be a dog. I’m not going to go into details or offer examples because I really don’t want you to go down this path, but if you must, you must. Try to get the dealer first. If not, use the manager in charge of the social profiles. Avoid the mascot if possible, but it’s better than just pushing out the brand.

In the next part of this series, we’ll discuss how to actually build the prominence of your selected power accounts. Until then, get your pitch ready for your owner or GM about why they should be plastering their face all over Facebook and Twitter.

I ran across an obstacle with a dealer's Facebook page the other day. They were heavily supporting the local chapter of the March of Dimes and had some great pictures and videos compiled by the staff. None of this was on their website, Facebook page, or anywhere in their social media presence.

"We aren't doing it for the exposure. We're doing it for the charity," he said.

When we do good things, it's in our nature to want to feel like we're doing these things for the benefit of the recipient rather than for some self-serving reasons. Most do not like to "toot their own horn" about the good things they do in the community and within society in general. Doing so sours the experience and makes us feel like we're not properly motivated.

This couldn't be further from the truth within a dealership environment. Showing support doesn't end when the check is written. There is exposure for the charity, awareness of the cause, and the influence as a community leader that comes into play. For these and other reasons, dealers who "hide" their good deeds are doing a disservice to those they're trying to help.

Exposure

Sharing exposure is good for everyone involved. If, as in the case of the March of Dimes dealer described above, you're goal is to help raise money through an event, then the dealership and the charity benefit from getting the word out as much as possible. This should be put on the website, blasted out multiple times through social media, and be very visible within the store itself.

Exposure helps to get people to know what's going on. They can't help out by donating themselves if they don't know where or how to donate.

Awareness

After the event is over, some say that it's time to stop posting (if they were posting from the start). Posting pictures, videos, or stories describing the event and the charity around it seems like "tooting" since the time to donate is over. This couldn't be further from the truth.

There are two primary tools that charities can use: money and awareness. Just because you're done with the money component doesn't mean that you shouldn't participate in raising awareness after the event. Dealers should latch on and increase the publicity levels of the charity well after the checks are cashed and they've moved onto the next event.

Leadership

This is arguably the most beneficial of the three primary reasons to expose your dealership's participation with charities. If you're dealership is doing business right, you're already a leader in the community. If the dealership is new or hasn't done things right for the community in the past, these charitable events are a great way to get started.

As a dealership, your influence in the community can be strong. People can look up to you as a strong local supporter of the community. Businesses can look up to you as an example to follow. When you're leading by example and getting involved in the community or through charities, you have the opportunity to inspire others to do the same thing.

At that point, you're not just a business. You're a leader.

* * *

Post your activities regardless of how "self-promotional" they seem. If your dealership is operating from a sincere perspective, you're doing more harm than good by hiding what you're doing in the community.

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook started cracking downon fake accounts and false likes. The network is finally at the point to where they believe quality is more important than quantity for their advertising model to work and they're right. Dealers should do the exact same thing, maximize quality of the people liking their page, if they want to delve into the high-potential world of Facebook sponsored posts.

The last statement needs some qualification. If, like many, you do not see the value of Facebook sponsored posts, we'll start there. If you have seen the value and you're already playing with it, skip ahead and let's learn about pruning.

If You Do This, Facebook Sponsored Posts WILL Work

There has been an open debate for a couple of years now about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising in the automotive industry. The reality of it is that it will notwork for most dealers. If your Facebook page is weak, if your fans are not localized, or if your goals are not geared around branding and exposure, then Facebook ads won't work for you.

If, on the other hand, you:

• ... have a strong Facebook presence with multiple daily updates, an active community who like, comment, and share your content, and a strategy that is geared towards ramping up your EdgeRank before blasting out your "money shots", AND...
• 
  ... your fans are mostly localized, AND...
• ... you view social media as more akin to television advertising where you're getting your brand and message out to people when they're not necessarily looking for a car but when they are psychologically in a place of enjoyment and relaxation...

... then Facebook advertising can be of great benefit to you. The primary reason for this is the cost. It's cheap! You can blast out a sponsored story to be viewed by thousands of people for tens of dollars. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, a strong Facebook page can outperform television for branding and exposure as long as you understand that the goals are the same.

If your goal is to generate direct leads from Facebook, there are definitely strategies that can work for you but that's extremely specialized. It can be done, but it's not easy. It requires some commitments at the dealership that most are not willing to do and I could argue that the same amount of effort put into search marketing has a higher yield. That's a different blog post altogether, but if you're Facebook page is a strong branding and exposure tool, then you should...

Prune

Size isn't everything. It's important, probably more important than most would give it in today's cynical-towards-fake-Facebook-likes world, but it's not nearly as important as focus on the local market.

Facebook offers localized advertising options to allow you to grow your local market. That's what you use to get fans. Keeping them and actually appearing in their news feed is a function of quality and engagement, but getting them is done through marketing, Facebook ads, and in-store promotions.

Facebook sponsored posts do not target a geographical location. They work on your fans and friends of your fans. It's for this reason that you create your own targeting by limiting your fans to the local area.

You do this by pruning.

If you do not run sponsored posts and have no intention of doing so, there's no real need to prune. The distant likes aren't necessarily hurting you that much. Sure, it's a perception concern (another blog post altogether) but the real damage comes from affecting your sponsored posts budget.

If you go through and remove the fans that are not in the local area, you will be able to maximize the relevant exposure of your sponsored posts. Does that mean that all of your fans should be in our direct market area? No. Having someone in San Diego like your Los Angeles Honda dealer Facebook page is fine. What you don't want is that person in Dallas liking your page and taking up budget with her Dallas-based friends.

Even worse is the person in Indonesia who likes your page. Foreign likes, particularly those in east Asia, have friends who are much more likely that domestic fans to like your post. While this might seem like a good thing for artificially inflating your numbers, it's not. It's better to have one local like your post than to have 10 irrelevant likes. Yes, the exposure would go up with the irrelevant likes, but it would not be exposed to anyone you actually want to see your posts.

If you have enough fans, you can prune down to 1000+ local people. This is a great starting point and Facebook sponsored posts sent to those people would give you incredible exposure for very little money. It's true bang for the buck.

If you do not have enough fans, keeping domestic likes is fine but still get rid of the foreign likes. Build your page up with as many localized fans of possible until you're to the point that you can start hyper-targeting the locals only.

When you get to that point, the $10 here, $20 there that you spend on sponsored posts will get you as much (possibly more) quality branding and exposure than thousands of dollars worth of television advertising.

Social media is a visual experience. Sure, there are great links. There are insightful comments. There are cool videos. All of these are important, but for the most engagement, photos rule.

The video below is a short portion of our webinar titled, "Taking Facebook to the Next Level: Advanced Posting Strategies". We go into great detail about how to do Facebook the right way, but this simple tip from the video below should help you to understand why images are the kings of Facebook.

You can use images to set up your "money posts". A picture of a hot car is great but unless it's a unique vehicle that you have on sale at your lot right now, picture posts won't help that much. However, the engagement that you get through likes, shares, and comments on your interesting photos will help your important posts with links or messages to appear higher on your fans' news feeds.

At the end of the video, I mention that you can use images to help get exposure to your links. Facebook does not like links as much, but if you post an image, then include a link in the text above the image, you won't get the same news feed penalty that direct links get. The click thru rate is lower but the overall clicks can be higher.

There's something missing on most automotive mobile websites and apps. Everyone has "Get Directions". Most attach to the device mapping app to allow for navigation, though some still rely on sending people directly to Google maps, not navigation. The portion that's missing from many mobile sites and apps is the ability to get directions from device's current location.

This is an absolute must. You should demand it of your provider or move on. Here's why:

• There are statistics that show that people who visit mobile version of car dealer websites buy a car within 24 hours. This is due to being in "buying mode" when they visit mobile sites. They may be out and about. They may be on their way to a day of car shopping.
  
  
• They may be having a bad experience at a competitor's dealership. It's for these people that you want to make directions as easy as possible to get. They are less likely to ask their salesperson, "What's the address here?" Don't make them ask. Give them the option of getting directions to your store regardless of where they are. If they can be found on GPS, they should be able to get to your location.

Make it easy. Use an app or a mobile site that works directly with their GPS. You'll get more leads, visitors, and sales as a result.

There has been a lot more talk over the last several months about mobile. It has transitioned from a "check box" item where dealers ask their vendors the simple yes or no question, "Do you have mobile sites in your package?" Today, the questions are more along the lines of, "What makes your mobile websites better than my competitors'?"

That, at least, should be the question.

The world is going mobile. There is zero doubt that mobile is growing exponentially and the activities that many people perform on a daily basis are transitioning to mobile. When people watch television, they often have a mobile device at the ready. They talk about their favorite shows while they watch them. They curse at the cornerback who just intercepted their team's pass by posting their anger on Twitter or Facebook. They check out websites of things they see on television.

When your television commercial reaches someone who is in the market today to buy a car, do you think they're getting up and going to the computer? Some do. Some just grab their iPhone and check out your inventory from there. What will they find?

Last month our founder and VP of Internet Marketing Richard Valenta did a webinar called "5 Mobile Must Haves." The fifth component is about decisions rather than actual mobile websites, but here's a quick breakdown of the takeaways from the webinar:

1. Speed is Absolutely the Most Important Thing. Period

Nobody like to wait. Some of us have grown a little more patience in the last couple of years as we know that internet connections are slower through mobile devices, but we still want a site to respond quickly.

Mobile sites MUST load quickly. Inventory must load quickly. The site must flow properly and not skip a beat. This is the number one reason why we're still skeptical about adaptive website design. We know it's the future. It just doesn't work today for dealers on mobile devices because of the speed factor. The technology simply isn't ready for this industry.

Speed can help. Lack of speed can kill.

2. Easy Navigation

This should be a no-brainer. It's intuitively understood that the ability to quickly navigate through a mobile site is important in keeping people on your mobile site. The challenge is that even though everyone seems to know it, so many mobile solutions out there simply don't pay attention to this fact.

Get them from your mobile homepage to wherever they want to go (especially inventory) in a couple of seconds or less.

3. Strong Mobile Inventory

The screen is smaller. It's surprising that many mobile sites have such small images on them. That's just one point.

The bigger point is the idea that no matter where they are on your mobile site, whether on the homepage, the inventory listings page, or the inventory details page, they should be able to click to call. Again, it's a no-brainer, but so few have it.

4. GPS Integration

I'm not going to cover it again, as I wrote an entire article about it here. Bottom line - get GPS integration into your directions. If someone is on your competitor's lot, don't make them ask for the address if they want to come see you. Let them get to you straight from their mobile device wherever they are.

Here's the webinar itself:

Most dealers know what to do. Get testimonials. Get pictures of happy customers. These can be turned into Facebook gold.

The problem is that the pictures of happy customers are often about as boring as a picture can be. There's a customer standing in front of their new car. Sure, they look happy, but is it going to get anyone's attention? Is it going to get comments from local prospects, even the friends of the person who is in the picture?

Usually, the answer is no. Thankfully, there's an easy fix to this. Make the pictures fun!

Advantage Autoworks does a great job at getting (or making) good pictures of their customers. Here are some examples:

The Connected Customer

Nothing says "I trust them" like interaction between the customer and the salesperson. When it's genuine, it allows your dealership to highlight the personal attention you give your customers. This is a differentiator as most car buyers are not used to working with people they can truly like at the car dealership.

The Style Shot

This is an exciting moment for your customer. Encourage them to express their real feelings, their real style. Automobiles embody moments of pride. Let them show it.

Feature Highlight

If they bought a convertible, this is the right shot to take. If they bought a truck, don't get them standing in front of it. Get them in the truck bed leaning over the cabin. Moonroof? Get them to stick their head out. There's a ton of options to make the photo fun.

Action Pose

This is the hardest one, but can be very fun. In this image, they have a Jeep. Where does a Jeep belong? Yep, climbing rocks. If they bought a sports car, get them to do a quick burnout (with permission from the GM, of course) and snap the photo with smoke coming off the rear tires.

A Different Angle

You won't always be able to get a customer to do much more than pose in front of the car. If that's the case, make in interesting with angles. Shoot from the side. Shoot from the ground. Shoot from up above as with the image above. It's not ideal, but at least it's not a straight-on shot of the customer and their car.

It took listening to my own words in a Twitter conversation for me to realize that I had barely brushed over the most important aspect finding the right times to post on social media for business.

This is Part IV of the series on timing. Please read Part I, Part II, and Part III first.

That's how the conversation started, but in my head I took it further. How would time zones affect timing? Audience type clearly affects it, especially when considering local businesses versus worldwide businesses. It's easy to simply say, "test it out," but are there best practices that can streamline the process and come up with conclusions faster? These questions led to these ideas...

Establishing a Baseline

Technically speaking, "test" shouldn't be the very first step. You must first analyze what's happening with current posts before trying to improve on them, so analyzing to create a baseline is an essential start. Social media analysis comes in many forms for brands, particularly on Facebook where success can manifest in different ways. Likes, comments, and shares are one measurement. Reach is another, and while it's often affected by the comments, likes, and shares, there are other factors that come into play. Those using Sponsored Posts, for example, may find that their ads perform better at different times than non-sponsored posts.

Facebook allows you to look back at the posts that were most popular. If you're using static posting times, it's possible to look back. You will have to count the posts to determine the exact times; for example, if you know you post at 5:30am, 10:30am, and 7:30pm, then you'll have to isolate the three posts during a particular day to know which was posted at what time since Facebook only shows you the date they were posted once it gets beyond 24 hours.

There's good and bad to the way that the Facebook news feed and advertising algorithms work. Because your past influences your future, it's often hard to go back too far to find success because the influencing factors have changed. You have more or fewer fans, you have been removed or added to news feeds, and the way that you posts become popular is in a constant state of change. Still, you'll need to start somewhere.

Once you have an idea of both the type of content that was most popular as well as the times that they were posted, it's time to make your first adjustments and start...

Testing

This is the easy part, actually. Start posting at different times and see what works best at which times. Keep track of your results, of course, and keep in mind a few factors:

• It's not just about times but also days. Posting times differ from day to day, between weekdays and weekends, etc.
  
• Take note of external factors. For example, if there are large trade shows in your industry at the time, it can affect what people are seeing and talking about on social media.
  
• As long as the external factors are minimal, use a week for each test component. For example, this week you can post at 6:00am and 2:00pm. Next week you can try 5:30am and 2:30pm. Then, the following week you can go back to the initial 6:00am and 2:00pm, but this time you'll flip-flop the post types such as posting images in the morning and links in the afternoon.
  
• Avoid analyzing in real time. There's no need to monitor your stats constantly. Wait for the week to be over before looking back at the data.
  
• Stay consistent with your use of Sponsored Stories. The test won't work if you're promoting the Monday morning post one week and not promoting it the following week.

This isn't very hard. It just takes patience and persistence. It's your business. They're your customers. Focus on your goals and let the data guide you. If it works, stick with it. If it can work better with some adjustments, try them. Analyze your results regularly and you'll have a much better understanding of how to reach the most possible people.

There's a trend in the automotive industry that is alarming. We hear this scenario played out almost every day and it normally manifests itself into one of two stages:

• Stage 1: The Fresh Tech Hunter - When a dealership is tired of the limitations of their various vendors, they often go hunting for a replacement that has the latest and greatest automotive internet marketing technologies at their disposal.
• Stage 2: The Better Treatment Hunter - When a dealership is tired of slow response times and vendors pointing their customers towards tutorials about how to fix their own problems rather than fixing it for them, they go hunting for a vendor that acts like it wants to keep their business by treating them better through customer service and tech support.

Why can't it be both? What happened to the days when vendors were forced to have strong technology and amazing customer service rather than today's trend which seems to force dealers to choose between one or the other?

Here are the descriptions of both types of vendors:

The Technology Trendsetter

It's the nature of the beast. Search, social, lead generation, website design, mobile, CRM - it seems like the technology is advancing too fast for most vendors to stay fresh. As a result, the bigger vendors are the ones who have the resources to keep their technology at the top. Unfortunately, they fall into a catch-22; by being large enough to have the resources to stay ahead, they are also faced with the big-boat-syndrome of not being agile enough to make swift adjustments when major changes occur in things such as the Google search algorithm or website coding advancements.

Having proven technology that works today and that will continue to work tomorrow is the only real solution for dealers that want to stay ahead of the curve.

The Customer Service Company

Technology is great, but it comes at a price. All too often, the vendors that are large enough to have the resources to develop the best technology have not been able to scale their customer service and keep it personal. Moreover, the trend towards the coveted big contract changes the focus of the vendor; when they land an OEM contract, their client is no longer the dealer. They now answer to the OEM. This is bad news for customers service at the dealership level.

Smaller companies tend to hold each individual client at a higher value than larger ones and must do whatever they can to keep their customer service at its highest level. Dealers might love technology, but if you can't fulfill their needs at a personal level and treat them as more than just a number, they'll still leave.

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

This is where the advice comes into play. Don't get wooed by technology alone. Don't settle for second-rate technology just for strong customer service. It's challenging to fill both shoes, but for a dealership to be truly satisfied with their vendor, they must take the time to find out how both sides of the coin work for that vendor.

This is where vetting comes into play. When taking a pitch from a vendor, be sure to write down all of the things that impressed you most about the technology. Test it out by finding dealers that are using the technology. Don't find 3 or 4. Find 20. Then call them. All of them.

When you call the other dealers, be certain to focus on the customer service component. The technology is important, but if their dealers have to waste too much time trying to get changes done to their website or are unable to have consultations on a regular basis with an expert at the vendor, they're probably not the right vendor for you.

Dealers no longer have to settle for anything less than the best of both worlds. For too long, they've trusted their vendors up until the point that they get fed up with the technology not working, the customer service falling short, or both. If you truly vet each potential vendor partner for both criteria, the result will be much better in the long term. It's not an easy process, but nobody likes switching vendors all the time. Find the right one right now and enjoy a long and mutually beneficial relationship with them.

There as been a major shift in digital marketing that has been building up for a couple of years now. Content was once a tool used for search engine optimization and social media marketing, but today and in the foreseeable future content will be the most important (and easiest) way to advance in search and social. We discussed it in detail on ADM last month.

One of the advantages of working for an automotive SEO company is that we get to play with the vast majority of content management systems and back end tools that dealers use today. Some are very good at allowing page creation and management, including Vin Solutions, Dealer.com, and, of course, KPA Connect. Others are awful. If you're using a platform that has limitations on content creation, it's time to consider a change.

This isn't a pitch for our website product. It doesn't matter as much to me that you have our product or another product that allows you to easily create and distribute content from your website. It only matters that you have the ability to build two or three pages a month with content that comes from the dealership itself. Where to find and who can create this content is another discussion, but for now, it's imperative to gain the understanding of where content stands in the present and future of digital marketing.

Unique, high-quality content is the source of your digital marketing. It's where the magic can happen. You have to think along the lines of offering resources and points of interest for your local customers. Your standard website content cannot accomplish this. It requires the creation of content that people can find. Remember, it's not just about getting in front of the people who are interested in buying a car today. It's also about building your base, exposing your brand, and being at the top of mind for those who may be interested in buying a car in six months.

This is why "new" marketing trends like retargeting and video pre-roll require codes on your website to make them work. Getting these codes onto your potential customers' computers requires content. To make it happen, you must have a website platform that makes it easier.

Build pages. If you are limited with your backend, make a change. You have the potential to get a dramatic advantage over your competitors, but you simply cannot if you don't have a flexible system to make it happen.

Content marketing is internet marketing. It has been for a while (which I'll discuss below) but in 2013 content management will emerge to become the "must have" component of automotive digital marketing strategy.

It was during a discussion on ADM where the venerable Ralph Paglia brought up a great point. In regards to an article about using your website as the content hub for both search and social, Paglia posted a comment pointing out that not all web platforms, particularly those in the automotive industry, give users the ability to post content as easily as they can on Wordpress, Tumblr, Ning, or any of the other platforms specifically designed as content management systems. Many automotive websites (and business websites in general) trap users with content restrictions. This has been an annoyance for years. Going into 2013, it will be a major drawback.

Content Has Been The Key Forever, But...

This isn't anything new. Content marketing has been a component of search engine optimization, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, and just about every strategy that relies on driving traffic from one source to another. The difference now is that it's going beyond the status of being a "component" and becoming the heart and soul of these various types of marketing techniques.

SEO for years has been a function of appropriate keyword-rich content, keyword-rich title tags, and powerful inbound links with keyword-rich title tags. There was a time when you could have next to zero content on your website and still rank well for challenging terms. Those days are behind us. With the Penguin update in April and the Panda update last year, Google forced search marketers to shoot for quality, to draw in the links based upon organic prominence. For this reason, content truly has become "king" even though it was really just a queen or a jack in the recent past.

Social media marketing can always relied on content as the driving force, but one could easily center the content on the social sites and still benefit from it. This strategy is still in play, particularly for big brands, but smaller or localized businesses (such as car dealers) should rework their social strategies to include the content that appears on their website.

The reality of the trends is this: content marketing was a part of larger marketing strategies before. Now, those other marketing strategies are easier to manage if you make the content aspect the central activity that bleeds over into search and social. It's a paradigm shift in many ways and is the reason why changes should be coming for many websites in the coming year. Some would argue that they shouldn't even wait for 2013, that now is the time to act. I tend to agree.

Post It or Move Along

There's an episode of Seinfeld where Cosmo Kramer starts receiving phone calls at his home from people wanting to get movie times. He tries to become Movie Phone. Unfortunately, he runs into some roadblocks.

Embedding is disabled, but watch it anyway.

This is sort of what's happening for many business website providers, particularly in automotive. "Why don't you just tell me what content you want on your website?"

They (dealer website providers) don't offer the tools that allow users to log in, post a piece of content, and make it live immediately. For some, you have to send them the HTML itself. Others tell you to email them the words and pictures and they'll post it for you. Some let you build a page, but won't allow it to go live until you call them.

Call them? Really?

To be able to perform the basic marketing techniques required for success in 2013, you must be able to post your content how you want it and when you want it without constraints. You must have the ability to put the right social media buttons on your content; that doesn't mean a blue "F" in a small box that links to your Facebook page. You need true share buttons. Social signals are becoming the most important tool in both search and social marketing. If your website platform breaks the codes, you need to make a change.

If you are unable to post content easily without putting a ticket into tech support, you will fall behind your competitors. If you cannot make your websites socially engaging, you will fall behind your competitors. People are really starting to "get it" when it comes to content marketing. Some of these people want to succeed over you. Will you let that happen?

In May, 2010, Matt Cutts denied that social signals had an effect on search rankings. In December of the same year, he declared that they were actually starting to work in the buzz and signals they were able to get through social media into the site authority factor of their ranking algorithm. Six months later, Google+ was born.

The Penguin Update and subsequent tweaks to it have changed the way that search engine marketers approach aggressive optimization. The days of running rampant and blasting out bulk links are gone. Today, quality finally trumps quantity and the playing field has been leveled in a way that in essence puts a "governor" on how quickly they can ramp up the rankings on their domains.

Or has it?

As social signals grow in their effects on search rankings for both Google and Bing, the ability to create amazing content and promote it on social media is quickly becoming the most important technique that internet marketers have in their arsenal. In 2013, it will likely eclipse link-building as a ranking factor. Here are three things you must understand to make it work for you today and to be ready for what lies ahead.

"Quality" is a Function of Usefulness and Entertainment Value

Make no mistake. Google and Bing understand the difference between content that is heavily promoted using spammy techniques and content that is truly high-quality. They are employing criteria into their algorithms that mean Tweets, Facebook likes, and Google +1s are not created equally. They are engaging trust factors into the way they understand social signals and they can see right through manufactured results.

In short, they're not stupid. They know that retweets can be bought for pennies. They know that there are rings and networks of people and bots that are designed specifically to beef up likes and +1s. A share from a trusted account is much more influential than a share from one that has been deemed as spammy.

Much like the way they understand the quality of links, they are learning the quality of social signals.

For this reason, quality of content is (finally and thankfully) at the top of the list when it comes to using social signals for both search rankings and social media marketing. One must understand the criteria surrounding what makes something high-quality.

There are multiple types of content and styles of delivery that make the overall equation challenging, but just as one can get close enough in math by substituting pi with 3.14 in their calculations, marketers can get close enough to achieving high quality content if they focus on bringing one of two components to the table when putting their content on their websites.

Usefulnessis the easier of the two. Whatever your business or brand is doing, there's a good chance that you or someone in your company has an expertise in it. You know the tools. You understand the resources. You know what works and what doesn't work.

Apply it. Make content based upon your expertise. Who better than a Ford dealer would know the proper ways to make SYNC work best in a Ford Fusion? People are often baffled by the technology. Ford and Microsoft do what they can to put out resources, but it's the people on the ground at the dealership who deal with it on a daily basis that can offer the real help.

They're the ones who can be useful.

As such, a savvy Ford dealer may write up an article called, "12 Hidden SYNC Options that Aren't on the Menu". In it, they could detail some of the things that SYNC can do that few people know about. It's a sharable piece of content that people can appreciate and that can bring lasting value.

The other easy option for content is the entertainment valueyou can bring to the table. You see things in your business that the average Joe does not. You see things that are amazing, funny, clever, or downright spectacular that have relevance to your brand, products, or services.

If you start thinking along the lines of capturing this content when it happens, you'll find that it's pouring out at you at rates much higher than you could possibly imagine. Let's look at the Ford dealer again. On the surface, one might think that there's not a lot of entertainment happening at a Ford dealership. Dig a little deeper and you'll find that there's plenty. Here are some quick examples:

• A showcase of local Mustangs that come into the shop or even drive around town
• Even more unique than the Mustangs, a showcase of modified Fords - lifted trucks, modded Focuses, restored Fairlanes, etc.
• A video of the service manager playing in her country band at the local bar on Saturday nights
• An image gallery of the abused brakes that happen in hilly places like Denver or San Francisco
• A video of a new Ford vehicle hitting up the local attractions

These are just quick brainstorms based upon real content I've seen, but with a little effort and a watchful eye, any business can find and post things with entertainment value.

Individual Content Affects the Domain as Well

This is the hardest transition in understanding for most marketers, whether they come from the search side or the social side. Your content and the social signals that go to it affects the entire domain. Technically, it always has just as link authority was affected by links to individual pieces of content, but going into 2013 there is a stronger focus on showing sharable content within the domain and allowing it to affect the search and social rankings across the board.

This actually makes things easier because the need to force manufactured content upon the visitors is much lower. You don't have to drive links and social signals to a page that was created to rank for "2013 Ford Fusion Los Angeles". Few will organically link to such a page and nobody will organically share such a page on social media. It has no value to anyone other than those looking specifically for the vehicle and none of them will share or link to it.

Going forward, you can create such a page and then support it on search and social by creating quality content pages. Nobody will link to or share that page, but if you create a piece of content called "The Short but Eventful History of the Ford Fusion" and then link to your target page from there, people will be willing to share and link to it. It's an indirect value being added, but in 2013 indirect value through links and social signals will be enough to improve your search and social marketing dramatically.

It isn't just about linked content. By creating a constant flow of quality content that gets shared well on social media, the entire domain itself gets a boost. In testing over the last few months, we've found that this boost can be significant and can improve search rankings across the board.

Moreover, social widgets and apps are being built regularly that help to attribute extremely sharable content within a domain. The "more content from domain.com on this social network" widgets are popping up and helping people explore websites based upon their social value rather than just visiting the site and surfing through the navigation bar.

Think of it as two forms of content - the "money" content that can lead to improved business results and the "sharable" content that can support the money content by improving rankings and social traffic.

Highlight Your Content To Ambassadors and Influencers

If a tree falls down in the forest and no one is there to hear it...

The other two concepts were easy. Understanding how to find and create content and understanding the importance it all has to search and social marketing are things that anyone can do. Making it happen from a sharing perspective is the hard part.

Once the sharable content is up and running, you have to get it shared. It's not "A Field of Dreams". Just because you built it doesn't mean that the people will come. You have to highlight it. You have to get people to share it. You need fans.

There are several ways to do it, but here are a few:

• Become an influencer yourself on social media. Make friends. Post often. Engage in conversations. Most who are influential on social media didn't start out that way. They built their influence by engaging with others. You can guest blog, comment thoughtfully and regularly, and build up your own clout to the point that people see whatever content you post.
• Use your email lists. If you have a newsletter or other form of bulk email marketing happening right now, get people to share your content. It's not as hard as it may sound. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. "We posted this article about SYNC tips that we think can be very useful and we would love for you to share it on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ if you agree."
• Find an ambassador. One of the most successful ambassador campaigns I've seen so far is what Terranea Resort is doing. They brought in local influencers through Klout to spend a weekend at the resort. They then held a contest to see who could share their experience during the weekend to the largest audience. The winner received the title of Ambassador and stays at the resort once a month for a year. During that time, the Ambassador tries out the various room types, restaurants, and amenities offered by the resort for free. In their case, they don't need to create content. They ARE the content.

Be creative. Find ways to promote your brand and the content on your website on social channels now. As search, social, and content merge in 2013, you'll be glad that your strategies merged as well.

* * *

This article was originally featured on Social Media Today.

I vividly remember a conversation I had with Wikimotive's Tim Martell back in 2008. Even four and a half years later, the conversation has remained in my mind. We were discussing the rise of social media. We both agreed that Facebook would be the big thing, but he told me something that surprised me.

"I actually get more traffic from my MySpace page than Facebook," he said.

We knew it wouldn't last, but it was hard to let go completely. His team maintained the strongest MySpace page in automotive for a long time until the social network stopped really being a social network. He then started focusing on the world of Facebook and the rest is history.

Today, Google+ is a "player" in the automotive social media field, but very few are sure how to use it properly. Some would say that at this stage it's a ghost town and isn't a valid part of the social media strategy. My argument to the contrary is similar to my argument against abandoning Twitter: it just doesn't take a lot of time to keep it ready.

Even if you don't believe it will materialize into anything, get these words stuck in your head: "Just in case."

There are reports of it helping from an organic search ranking perspective. These reports are confirmed, then unconfirmed, then refuted, then reconfirmed. Google has said that it is important. Then they've said it doesn't have an affect. What people often don't realize is that they're masterful at spin, particularly when it comes to their search algorithm.

In mid-2010 they vehemently denied that social signals had any effect on search rankings before stating for the record later the same year that they definitely had an effect on search rankings and had been having an effect for nearly two years. It's no coincidence that they made the latter statement six months before launching Google+.

With Google Local having a direct impact on business and being tied in with Google+, you can't afford to think that it will fail. Assume it won't. Assume it will be a thing. Here are three things to do to make sure it doesn't die on the vine.

1. Post on it Like Facebook - Whatever you're posting to Facebook, post it to Google+ as well. It's an extra step that takes about 2 minutes if you're slow and requires nothing more than copying and pasting.
2. Use Hootsuite - This shouldn't be your only method of posting as everything comes across as links (even images) but it's a good way to keep the page scheduled and going strong.
3. Manage Your Page Weekly - Posting is quick. Managing takes a little more time. You don't have to do it daily like you do with Facebook, but once a week check out your new followers, follow the appropriate ones back, and go through your feed (logged in as your page) giving +1s to good content. Total time: 10 minutes.

Nobody worth their salary has a ton of time to waste in the automotive industry, but it's important to keep this high-potential network from dying on the vine.

It may be the biggest change in the Google algorithm that very few people noticed. The reason they didn't notice is that the change has been slowly happening since February, 2011. Between Panda, Penguin, and the rise of social signals, word count of content is not something that you should ever focus upon when writing content for search engine optimization or social media marketing purposes.

Here's a quick breakdown of the loose timeline. One of the first changes that happened when Panda, Google's low-value content algorithm change of 2011, rolled out was that the total number of unique words in stories had a predictable affect on SEO value. Stories with fewer words were deemed less valuable. This lasted for about a month. I cannot say for sure how the conversation went at Google, but at some point in the early days of Panda Google noticed that there was some great but very short content that was being hurt, while low-quality content with a lot of words was getting favorable treatment. This is where links and social signals started making a quick comeback into the realm of understanding the importance of a piece of content.

The example in the image above is what Google likes today. That's not to say that they don't like long, comprehensive content, but in the case above an infographic with a coupe of paragraphs of content but strong social signals to the page was able to easily trump much longer pieces of content on the same subject. It ranks exceptionally well for the target keywords despite the lack of words.

The content that you post should have a purpose. It should then fulfill this purpose in as few words as possible. This is a dramatic change from the days of old in SEO where more was better. Now, quality trumps quantity (as it does in so many other ways and in other arenas) to the point that giving your readers what they need without loading it with fluff is ideal. They will be more likely to share it, to link to it, and to interact with it if it's something that fits into their schedule. That's not to say that you should only write a couple of paragraphs on any subject and call it a day. It simply means that you should write your content to fit the need, to fulfill the goal, and to become a resource for your readers.

It's quality that makes the difference. You're better off focusing on a topic that is important and of interest to your readers, then bring the value to them quickly.

I do not want to be misunderstood on this: if a topic needs 1500 words to cover it properly, then write 1500 words. The point is that if a topic takes 300 words to cover it, don't think you have to fluff it up to any of the "magic numbers" like 500 words for it to be valid to Google. It doesn't. They know. It's better to have a short, concise, and valuable 200 word article with a graphic that gets shared on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social sites and that people are willing to link to from their websites than to have a piece that's fluffed up to hit a particular word count.

Write what you need to write, no more, no less. Focus on quality and get the concept of word counts out of your mind for good.

There are tools. Tools are great if used properly. The biggest challenge with tools is that they can be turned into a crutch that actually takes away from the exposure of the post. In other words, you can "tool yourself out of the message" by overusing them or by using them improperly.

Today's webinar was about tools and we discuss many of them, but I think the big takeaway for dealers is the portion around the middle where I go through the actual posting process. Here's what I do, step by step:

Find the Content

First and foremost, you don't have to post cats. I know that there is a strategy that involves posting funny pictures and trying to be entertaining, but the internet is loaded with many people and businesses more entertaining than you or your social media provider. It was a semi-effective strategy a couple of years ago. Today, it simply isn't necessary.

People want experts. You're probably not an expert on shaved dogs or hipster fashion. You're an expert on cars. Post cars. Lots of them. Old cars. New cars. Concept cars. Take what you know as a car dealer and apply it to your social media.

With that said, finding the right content can be easy. You probably have something really cool on your lot right now. Nissan dealers, for example, have a huge advantage if they have a GT-R on their lot. Social media LOVES the GT-R, particularly Tumblr and Pinterest. This translates nicely on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter as well. Instagram can go crazy over it.

Use what you have, but you don't have to stop there. Services like Shutterstock are excellent for finding images of particular vehicles, skylines of your metro, or interesting events in the local area. Taking pictures is best, but if you are constrained on time (who isn't?) then the good ol' stock photo works just fine, particularly if you have some interesting information to go along with it.

Post to Facebook and Google+

Once you have your content, get it up on Facebook and Google+. Try not to use a posting tool whenever possible - Facebook gives preferential treatment to posts from Facebook.com itself and Google+ tools like Hootsuite post the images as links, not images. If you've already posted or it's not the ideal time and you have to schedule it, that's fine, but avoid whenever possible.

Post it on Tumblr

If you don't have a tumblog yet, you should. It's super easy to post to Tumblr and we've covered it in past automotive webinars.

Get the image up on Tumblr as an image; too often I see businesses posting as links or text and adding the image which doesn't get the same amount of coverage. You have an option to include a click-thru link. If the image is on your website, you can plug that page in. You can also plug in your Google+ post. Neither is required but it's a benefit to do so.

Take it from Tumblr to Pinterest and Twitter

Go to the post itself (not your Tumblr homepage) and Pin it onto your Pinterest board. While pinning, be sure to select the "Post to Twitter" option so that it goes onto Twitter as well.

That's it. Four minutes. Quality post created and shared. Time to get back to other business. Here's the full webinar...