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My latest infographic gives useful tips how to become more than just a better driver, but also a better person on the road. Feel free to share it on your blog, but please include attribution to Bryant Surety Bonds with this graphic.

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Car Sellers Refine Pitch to Women” revealed that more women are driving than men. In fact, there are 105+ million women on the roads today, as opposed to 104+ million men and more elderly women are holding on to their driver’s license (USA Today, Nov. 2012). As the relationship women have with their cars tightens, it’s time the industry takes notice and adjusts their pitch to reflect a more engaging “hello."

So how can a dealership make that emotional connection with women? Rattle off horsepower numbers? Well, sure that’s one way. Another innovative way dealerships can connect is through the discussion of UV damage through windows and the windshield. Melanoma is on the rise and women’s hands bake in the sun while driving. As Americans, especially Californians, spend more and more time on the road (up to 600 hours a year), that’s more time spent exposed to the deadly powers of the sun.

Did you know that skin cancers occur more commonly on the left side of the body because that is the “driving” side (www.skincancer.org). A woman’s left arm and hands are constantly exposed. With hundreds of hours spent in the sun every year, her skin is increasingly at risk for skin cancer. Additionally, her skin is significantly aging (and let’s face it, the hands always give away a woman’s age).

The Skin Cancer Foundation provides guidelines for preventing skin cancer. The first, and best, line of defense is covering up with clothing, preferably UPF-rated clothing—not sunscreen. While sunscreen is the second best alternative, it must be applied every two hours to work. Rarely is this done; sunscreen is messy and reapplying is inconvenient when a woman is driving to and from work, picking up the kids from school, or running errands.

Beyond health concerns, think of it from a marketing perspective. Your concern regarding UV damage shows that you care. As buyers, women want you to care about them as people, not just the safety factor of the car. They would love it if you left a pair of fashionable UPF driving gloves in the car as a “safety precaution” and thank you gift. They would tell all of their friends about that and you would have a friend for life!

This is why you should meet Sundriven UV Apparel. After having lost relatives to melanoma, the founder was determined to create safe, fashionable products for women that prevent against sun damage. The result was the perfect driving glove with a UPF 50+, the highest rating. There is no sunscreen on the market that can protect like these eco-friendly, sustainable, and luxury driving gloves can.

For more information to assist with information for your women clients, sharing more information on your social channels, or offering this innovative type clothing when driving, contact Sundriven. Women’s Month is just around the corner!

http://www.internetsales20group.com

The Alpha Dog, Jim Ziegler wants you to sign up now for the 4th National Internet Sales 20 Group, November 12, 13 and 14 in Los Angeles California BEFORE It Sells Out.

Jim even gives his personal phone number and invites Dealers to call him directly for details.

The Internet Sales 20 Group is going to be Epic!

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.

A car that drives itself? For the past few years, Google has been working on an autonomous vehicle. In other words, a car that can drive itself. As you can see in the video, they perfected such an idea. One of the first volunteers for Google's self-driving car was a man by the name of Steve Mahan, who is visually impaired.


The Self-Driving Car took Mr. Mahan to pick up his dry cleaning, to Taco Bell for a quick bite and then back home! It's absolutely incredible what technology can do in today's world! Additionally, this past week, Google was approved by the state of Nevada to work on testing several different self-driving cars on the road. And, the rumor is that Self-Driving/Autonomous vehicles could become a reality by the year 2020.



While everyone agrees that it's still a work in progress, the license that Google was granted in Nevada to do testing is certainly a step in the right direction. During their tests, they'll be monitoring the car's capacity and ability to brake, acceleration, and steering. According to Google, the car uses "artificial intelligence software, a GPS, and an array of sensors to navigate its way through traffic."


So, what's your take? Would you want to own one? Or, would you feel more at ease if you had full control of the wheel?

How Google Social Search Has Changed the Way Dealers Do Social

http://www.internetsales20group.com

Every few months, we see a dip in sentiment regarding social media. It's been going on consistently since early 2009 and we know that it will continue. Dealers try social, see little reason to continue, and set things on autopilot or abandon it altogether. Then, something changes that makes social media more important and the searches for "Automotive Social Media" spike again.

Get ready to do the search. Social just got more important again. A LOT more important.

During the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa last earlier this month, I gave a keynote that highlighted Google's commitment to social media (as soon as Jared, Bart, and Arnold send me the video, I'll be happy to post it here... hint, hint). Google reaffirmed that commitment in a big way earlier today that will change the way savvy dealers do social media.

Google Social Search is a game changer - even SearchEngineLand, a blog that is often conservative about the impact of Google changes, agrees. It will insert links into the natural search stream based upon social connections that share and produce those links. While social search itself has been around for nearly 2 years, it has always been a side-note buried at the bottom and likely unnoticed by most. Now, it has the potential to change the search results important to us with a single Tweet, review, or blog post.

With access to Beta, I did 2 searches for "Washington DC Chevrolet." The first, I did while not logged into Google, personalized search off and cookies cleared:

Then, I did the exact same search while logged into Google:

As you can see, a post by good friend Paul Rushing popped up at the top.

What does this mean for search and social? It means that social sentiment, which many dealers are paying attention to more regularly, just got that much more important. It means that dealers who are unprepared have the potential to see their search traffic drop, particularly if a competing dealer in the market is able to take advantage of this.

It means that YOU can beat them all to the punch and start getting prepared today before it rolls out fully.

I am in the middle of exhaustive research on the subject right now, but here are some key points to think about while you wait for our next version of the Automotive Social Media strategy guide:

• - Tweets Matter. A Lot. - Imagine a potential customer doing a search for one of your makes in your metro area (the most common new car search; "Denver Ford," for example). They under one of the results close to the top your dealership's listing. It's not at the top, but something catches their eye... Co-worker Debbie tweeted your dealership URL. They click through and see that 14 months ago, Debbie bought a car there and tweeted about how good her experience was. Bingo.
• - If You Thought Reviews Were Important Before... - As Google always does when they roll out new search features, we can expect expansion. While Facebook is almost completely out of the question for integration, reviews are definitely part of the equation. Same scenario as above, except replace "Tweet" with "RatePoint." Bingo again.
• - That Pesky Blogger... - Remember the guy who thought he'd wreck your business by posting on his blog about how you low-balled him on his trade? You were smart and covered your Google page one results to keep his post off, but now it's showing up again for hundreds, even thousands of people who are either connected to him or connected to someone who shared his post on social media.
• - Your Connections. - Now more than ever, having a strong and well-maintained Twitter account is important. Do you still have an RSS feed handling your Tweets, driving potential customers to unfollow you, or are you growing your account and being interesting? If the subtle, intrinsic benefits of Twitter didn't get your attention before, how about moving your website up to the top of hundreds of searches? Still want to automate?

I'm not going to sit here and say "I told you so." Not here. Not on Driving Sales. The dealers here represent the top echelon of automotive social media knowledge so you're probably taking advantage of social media in one way or another. Don't let up. Stay aggressive. Keep up with the changes.

And don't forget to bug Jared about getting me that video. It has some information that may further change the way you do your social media.