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Personal branding is no longer exclusively for high-level executives within a corporation. The tactic is gaining popularity among professionals across all industries, even making its way into the automotive sales industry. As an automotive sales professional, you may question why you need to establish a personal brand when you are part of a dealership. The answer is simple. When buying a car, people buy from people! The more comfortable you make a potential customer, the more they are able to relate to you on a personal level, the more likely they are to purchase a car.

A successful brand is about more than a logo. A brand is what people think and feel when they encounter you. Your personal brand should be an accurate reflection of you. It should be an indication of your performance, what you have to offer, and your overall value. Building your personal brand, and ultimately positioning yourself as an expert in the automotive industry, can mean success for you as a sales professional and your dealership as a whole. 

Not sure how to develop your personal brand? Here are a few simple tips to get you on your way. 

Create a video channel - YouTube is the second most used search engine. Starting a YouTube channel, and posting educational videos, is a great way to get your face out there, get noticed, and gain validity in the industry. Posting videos about your sales process will mark you as an authority, have your peers wanting to learn from you, and potential customers wanting to buy from you. 

Get published - Write a book, submit an article to an automotive trade magazine, or even start a blog! Sharing your information and gaining a strong network is great for building a personal brand. 

Speak at conferences - whether big or small having the opportunity to present to a group of your peers is something you cannot afford to miss. 

Personal branding is no longer just for CEOs. It is very important for automotive sales professionals to build themselves as a brand. The more personable you can appear, the more comfortable customers will be purchasing from you. 

What most people don't realize is that even a living person can become a brand. This is a basic staple of advertising and sometimes it needs to be asked: what exactly is a brand? In a nutshell, The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."

You don't have to be a genius to realize that Jay-Z for example, can attach his likeness or endorsement to anything and it will sell. What if a Jay-Z created cereal comes to market right now...would you buy it? Someone absolutely will. Let's really explore the basics of a branding campaign. Smart people know that if you have a product or offer a service, you must advertise. This is essential to building a brand and honestly, it's hard selling something you have if no one knows it exists. There's a great line from Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross where he states that sales is about "A.B.C. - Always Be Closing." In this case, we can go with "A.R.A - Always Run Ads". The main DNA for running an ad is composed of two elements: Frequency and Reach.

Frequency is based on your advertising schedule. Ask yourself: Are you going to run this ad every day? Four times a week? Only on Thursdays? When you can answer that question, move on to Reach. For example, I can create the most amazing, awesome, astonishing ad of all time. You've never seen anything like it before and It will blow you away. If I only show it in a five mile radius, then it's not worth a lot. There's no substantial return on investment (ROI). You must have the ads run repeatedly and cover as much geographic area as financially allowable. That’s how advertising breathes and more importantly, how building your brand really works.

As a former advertising executive, the HARDEST part of my job was convincing business owners they still needed to advertise. You don’t want your customers thinking you’re going out of business if they don’t see the ads you used to run. Business owners feel that because they've been around a several decades that running ads are not necessary. That's not entirely true but telling them in a delicate way that they're wrong takes a certain amount of finesse. On the other hand, there are some situations where running an ad campaign sporadically makes sense. Think about that really popular annual football game with the extremely expensive commercials? Those are all about reach and because of the audience it draws in, frequency is not a huge factor. Your message has impacted the masses on a global scale and the cost definitely justifies the motive.

When it comes to building a brand, I would say that one important step is to create a logo. A symbol that when recognized will tell a prospective consumer or client exactly what your company, products and services are all about. That same logo will eventually lead the public to your brand's awareness on a social level. People see your logo and will always recognize your company under any circumstance. Does it mean they will always to buy in that moment? Of course not, but they will always know your company and when they need what you have, they will come. If it still remains whether you should care about branding then you're asking the wrong question.

"Second place is a set of steak knives."

When Alec Baldwin's character lectured the sales team in Glengarry Glen Ross, he made it clear that the winner was the one on top, that everyone else was lucky to have a job, and that if they continued to perform the way they did they wouldn't have a job for much longer. The same holds true in social media. If you're not winning, you're losing, and all too often the strategies used in social media marketing are designed to lose.

I'm referring to branding. It's become too apparent over the last couple of years that many businesses and the social media companies that support them have turned branding into the ultimate goal of social media efforts. They believe that sales cannot be attained, that leads cannot be generated, and that trying to define the benefits is best left with something intangible like increased exposure of the brand. While this isn't completely wrong, it's selling the industry short. Social media can do so much more than branding.

In the automotive industry, for example, the goals of social media marketing should be first to drive foot traffic to the dealership. The 2nd place prize of every effort would be to drive website visitors. When all else fails, branding is the tertiary goal, the consolation prize. When that perspective is taken and an understanding is had that so much more can and should be done, the branding actually has the opportunity to flourish even more as a result.

Focus on business. Do the right things. Hire the right agencies, the ones that can demonstrate tangible ROI from their efforts rather than falling for the pitch that exposure is the best thing you can hope for. When branding becomes the top level goal, it's possible for one to be convinced that they should be posting funny cat pictures in order to get the exposure they need on social media. That couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, the goal is to get tangible benefit. Cat pictures won't do that.

Here's a video I did that highlights this myth and demonstrates why it's possible to have a proper hierarchy of goals to achieve the fullest level of success.

Branding is important. It’s something that most businesses want but few do well enough considering the tools that we all have at our disposal through the internet in general and social media in particular. However, too many are starting to use social media as a branding tool only. The reality for local businesses is that it can and should be used to drive foot traffic and website visitors. Branding should be a secondary benefit, a side-effect of a proper promotional strategy.

Look at the image above. It’s compelling. It’s branded (though not by the company that posted it). It combines the power of the OEM’s brand (this is posted on a Chevrolet dealer’s Facebook page), the trust associated with a partner brand (in this case, Black Book), and the clever wording in the description designed to achieve a goal. In this case, the goal is website traffic to a form that is specific to the message of the post. Here’s how the message reads:

“First and foremost, check out that beautiful Camaro. Once you’re done reminiscing about a body style that didn’t really get the attention it deserved, look down at the bottom left corner. You’ll see a logo that you should trust. We trust it.

“Black Book is the most accurate way to get an idea of what your trade in is worth. Before you go shopping for a new car, prepare yourself with knowledge about your own trade in… http://bit.ly/13nyr5E“

At the end is the call to action, of course. Sometimes it’s good to make the link the focus of the post. In this case, because it’s a permanent page (a trade in evaluation tool) and not a time-sensitive landing page surrounding a short-term event, it’s best to hook the viewers with the image and description, then give them a valid and relevant reason to click through to the website itself.

After 18 hours and with the bulk of the Facebook advertising budget still available, it’s at 48 likes and has been seen by 1,300 people. Both numbers will go up in the coming days, as will the number of clicks to the link.

The challenge facing most who attempt posts like these is getting them enough localized traction. There are some posts that are good for branding that have no call to action. Even in those cases, the goal is to massage the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm to favor the page’s posts and display them in more news feeds. Those posts are primarily designed to enhance the success of the “money posts”, the ones with a specific promotional message designed to drive foot traffic or website visitors. If every post that goes up is a “money post”, the algorithm will start kicking the posts down on the feed. If all of the posts are “fun posts” designed strictly for branding and popularity, the point of using social media for business is lost.

Branding-only strategies are easy, which is why many businesses and even marketing agencies focus on them. It allows for intangible benefits. It also makes the success level much harder to track.

As you develop your strategy and campaigns, keep this post in mind. You can definitely have some fun and feel like you’re accomplishing something with a branding-only strategy. Unfortunately, it’s not the way to make social media really hum for your business.

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that Facebook (and social media in general) is a communication tool. It’s a way for businesses to connect with customers and a safe venue through which customers and potential customers can interact with your business.

With that said, let’s look at the other two primary functions of Facebook: marketing and branding. Both are similar. Both are categories that can mean different things to different people and businesses. While it’s definitely possible to do both well on Facebook at the same time, the safer and less time-intensive strategy would be to pick one or the other as the primary goal (outside of communication, of course).

Here are the two basic options. There will be those who will say that it’s being oversimplified, but this isn’t a tutorial. It’s a way to distinguish between the two so that a business can make an intelligent decision about which mindset to take in their efforts. Once the mindset is established, the strategies can form.

Facebook for Branding

This is becoming the more common practice among businesses because it is more open in form and more singular in goal. More importantly, using Facebook as a marketing tool is considered by many to be harder (depending on your business type, of course). Many, particularly those who are engaged with individual customers on a daily basis such as car dealers and realtors will opt for this approach because it gives them the freedom to simply be entertaining or informative without having to put the time into crafting an appropriate marketing strategy.

It’s the easy road, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any less rewarding.

Using Facebook for branding is all about getting your name, logo, and general message out there. The general message is often abstract – it’s not talking about a sale or a particular product but rather trying to convey a company attitude with the message.

This strategy can use popular images, interesting (and sharable) facts, or funny concepts to will encourage liking and sharing. While some take the road of using ideas that are completely off topic, I’m a firm believer that it’s possible to stay focused on either the local area, the industry, or both with every post. In other words, a car dealer shouldn’t be posting pictures of cats. They should be posting pictures of cars, videos of cars, and images or discussions about the local area.

The branding message is easier to spread because it doesn’t involve marketing. There’s no goal of direct conversions or clicks to the website. It’s all about getting the brand out there as much as possible.

The downside, of course, is in proving ROI. Without direct marketing applied to the messages, it’s a leap of faith that by getting interaction and engagement around content that does not lead directly to a lead or a sale but that keeps the name and logo of the business in mind, that there are intangible benefits that are happening.

Facebook for Marketing

Unlike using Facebook for branding, the marketing strategy is trickier. It’s easier to mess up. There’s a risk of actually doing damage to the Facebook account by being too “spammy” with the posts. Those who are not ready to take a little heat on their path to get more conversions should not even go down this road.

However, if your goal is to achieve demonstrable ROI and take what you can today in a concrete manner, this is the right approach. It will rely on Facebook ads. There’s no way around it – unless you’re marketing something that resonates while also being productive such as a funny T-Shirt company, you’re very unlikely to get away with a hardcore marketing message without the use of ads.

Thankfully, Facebook ads are cheap.

Using a marketing strategy on Facebook does not mean that it’s all business. While some I have spoken to on the subject (including a VP at Facebook) have said that businesses can find success by only posting once or twice a week and promoting those marketing posts, I’ve found that a mix of interesting or entertaining content with the marketing messages can be beneficial.

People aren’t going to Facebook to see marketing messages, so yours has to be truly valuable. It’s not about putting up a picture of a car and calling that marketing. It’s about generating messages that they can only get through Facebook. For example, having Facebook-only sales events can be effective with next to zero risk. If people come to the store as a result, awesome! If they do not, then the expenditure was minimal. If they aren’t successful, you shouldn’t give up. You simply need to tweak the message, adjust the advertising, or go through a series of “fun” posts to set up the marketing posts properly.

Don’t Forget Communicating

Regardless of which path you choose, remember the number one rule: Facebook (and social media in general) is about communication. It’s about talking to your customers and having them talk to you. It’s about giving them a venue through which you can be completely open about your business and hold public conversations with unsatisfied customers as well as the happy ones.

Which way fits best with your business? That’s the only real question you need to ask to get started down the right path.

There are many mistakes made by dealers on Facebook. We detail the most egregious ones here from time to time in an attempt to help others not make the same mistakes. There's one mistake in particular that is almost unforgivable for the simple reason that it's so darn easy while being pretty darn effective. Dealerships are so focused on their own pages that they often neglect to take their pages out into the rest of the Facebook world and interact there.

Here's the short version of what you should be doing with your page: log in as the page (top right arrow next, "Use Facebook as:") and go like other pages and posts. Done right, it should take no more than 5-10 minutes a day. Like your local newspaper. Like local charities. Like other local businesses. Like the posts that are on those pages that you truly enjoy (more on that later). It takes a certain creative and professional personality to comment appropriately as a dealership on other Facebook pages. It takes the ability to read and click buttons to like things that others post.

Here's the longer version...

Interacting with the Community by Pushing the Like Button

Facebook gives you the ability to humanize your dealership. That's one of the most important attributes of Facebook as a marketing and public relations tool. It's great for communicating and most dealerships are starting to be more active on their Facebook pages when people seek them out and talk to them there, but so few are going out into Facebook as their pages and doing the interacting there.

This is way too easy of a task. It's so easy and so potentially effective that it's shocking so few do it.

Here it is, step by step:

1. Using Facebook as your page, find relevant local businesses, charities, organizations, and publications to like.
2. Be open but vet your selections. Make sure the pages are active, posting content that your business would agree with and that your fans would also enjoy, and have a real following. Avoid pages that are too big - your likes will not be seen if their page has hundreds of thousands of fans and each posts gets hundreds of likes. Think Goldilocks - not too big, not too small. If they're getting 1-10 likes per post, that's perfect.
3. Like content on their pages that you enjoy. This is important - don't go through "blind liking" things on others' pages. Only push the like button if it's something that you would want to be associated with online and in real life.
4. Check your news feed daily while using Facebook as your page. Again, be selective. The urge to save time and start hitting the like button a lot is strong for many, but be certain that you really like what you're liking.
5. Set a schedule to vet the pages that you have already liked as well as finding new pages to like. I do it once or twice a month.
6. Rinse. Repeat.

Why this Helps

This may seem like a frivolous activity. It's not. It works.

Every time you like something on another page, your business name appears on the post. The branding implications here are clear - repetition and reinforcement are keys in this uber-competitive auto sales environment.

More importantly, it's not just how often people see your name. It's where they see it. There's a certain level of goodwill associated with a like. This can register on a conscious or unconscious level. Either way, your brand is associated itself with worthy causes, other local businesses, and stories posted on publications that other people agree with or enjoy as well. When they see that you liked a recent post by the local March of Dimes chapter, for example, it shows that your dealership is potentially involved with good things happening in the community.

There's also the return-reaction factor. Let's say a car dealership likes a post by a local restaurant. The restaurant's Facebook page manager will likely see this. They might "return the favor" and go to your page to like something there as well. That's the minor benefit. The major benefit comes into play during those rare but real moments when an actual sale is made as a result. There's a dealership that recently liked and commented on a post by a local college promoting their book sale drive that was going to benefit the math department. A math professor at the university bought a car from the dealership a week later, noting that they were "in the market anyway and was pleased that the dealership was supporting his department."

A $35,000 vehicle sold as a direct result of clicking a button and writing a nice comment - it doesn't get any better than that.

Cases like that are ideal but obviously very rare. People are normally not so easily swayed. While the direct benefits are often never seen, the indirect benefits of branding, exposure, and goodwill are easy to understand. Remember, it takes 5-10 minutes a day at most. Some may do it less often and still find success. The key is to do it. If you don't have the time to be engaging with your local community by clicking the mouse a few times a day... who am I kidding. You do have the time. You just have to make it a priority.

Some people have a misunderstanding about what is seen and heard through social media. It's happening on two major fronts: personal communications and business communications. Both are completely separate, but the fact that the same basic premise popped up from both angles made picking out this blog topic a no-brainer.

I was talking to a family member who made a surprising statement. "I wish [redacted] was following me on Twitter so I could tell him how I feel about [redacted]."

Now, those of us who use social media often realize the error in this statement. Twitter allows for communication with anyone. Facebook and Google+ can allow for communication with anyone who has their settings open to receive communication from strangers. Many of us have had conversations on social media with celebrities and businesses that weren't following us, but who were open to receiving and responding to these communications.

They don't have to follow you to be listening. More importantly, just because they are following you doesn't mean that they're listening. It's a minor point but we have to get that out of the way before moving on to the business reason for this post...

Customers See Your Business Social Profiles and Pages without Following You

Wrong.

I had her show me her website analytics. They, like many websites, had links at the bottom of their homepage to their social profiles. The number of clicks from the page to the social profiles wasn't large, but I pointed out that the people doing the clicking were potential customers. Why would they want potential customers to see a lack of efficiency and follow through? Some people hold Facebook and Twitter as important communication tools and when a business demonstrates a lack of interest in social media, it can speak poorly about the company's willingness to listen to and communicate with their customers.

She quickly understood the point and declared that she would have the links removed immediately.

I literally "facepalmed".

We went to Google and looked up the business by name. Facebook was ranked #3. Twitter was #7. She started frowning.

If you're going to have a social media presence, you must either keep it up to date or declare very clearly that you're not active on social media and offer an alternative method of contact. I've never seen it done before (I always push for option 1, of course) but I have heard of businesses leaving their top post as "This is our Facebook page, but we prefer talking to you directly. Please contact us at..."

It's not ideal, but it's better than letting your social presence be an embarrassment.

As social media continues to expand, understanding that your lack of involvement does not mean that your customers aren't looking at you is a must. When you stick your head in the sand, what are you presenting to people looking at you? Your tail end.

YouTube keeps adding cool stuff out of nowhere and not announcing the changes. I get this odd feeling that the YouTube staff gets very excited about releasing a new feature and taking bets on how long it takes before someone notices. Within the last 24 hours, YouTube has just added a feature called "InVideo Programming" under the Settings tab. Clicking on it gives creators two options. You can now "brand" all of your videos by uploading an icon that represents you, and you can also "feature" a video on all of your other videos, giving creators the chance to push a video across their entire catalog.

InVideo Programming: How It Works

Here's what you do:

Go to your Video Manager and click Settings.
Underneath Channel Settings, click InVideo Programming.
When you click that, you see this:

InVideo Programming – Feature Channel:
Feature Your Channel allows you to upload an image, whether your channel's avatar or a custom image, and you can place it in the top/bottom, left/right of the picture. You can keep the branding throughout the duration of the video, or you can customize the length that it lasts:

So this gives you the chance to "brand" your channel much like a TV network does with their logo at the bottom of the screen. Branding like this is a good way to give viewers context: if they are specifically looking for your videos, a logo like this ensures that what they are seeing is yours, and if you happen to have a lot of entertaining/informative videos that keep coming up during a viewer's stay on the site, seeing the brand over and over gives your channel great recognition while people browse YouTube.
Here's the latest ReelSEO Creator's Tip, with our icon showing up during the last 15 seconds (top right):

InVideo Programming – Featured Video

The other feature is Feature A Video. With annotations, you can direct people through links to videos, and you have to go to each individual one to create them. With this feature, you can push a video of your liking across every single video you have in your catalog. It places a thumbnail of the featured video into the corner of every video so that no matter which one a viewer is watching, it's there, ready to be clicked. You get to push a video that you think either represents your best, or you can push one you don't think got the attention it deserved. Now, it's way more dynamic than having a little text link show up. Hopefully, they'll make this more customizable in the future so that you can feature a number of different videos across different areas of your catalog. But for now, this is a nifty feature.

Source: YouTube Quietly Launches InVideo Programming: Apply In-Player Branding Across All Your Videos, Instantly http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-invideo-programming/#ixzz28s1pkETZ
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