Are Buzz Bands Better than Business Cards?

http://www.skanz.com

http://www.dealersynergy.com

Have you heard the Buzz? All convention attendees are getting a complimentary Buzz Band from Wizard Studios. This band allows you to share all your contact information and social media connections through your own QR Code on a wrist band. You can even create your profile prior to convention so it's ready to go as soon as you get your band! With your new Buzz Band you can wear and share your digital life with everyone you meet. To Get Started Before You Go: Go to www.skanz.com and click on the button "Get Started", then create a new account. Use an easy to remember email and password. Load your profile with, pics, social media, videos, links and contact info. Just scan the free Buzz Band you get at convention, enter your email and password - and it's all linked up! Share your scans with anyone you meet - take notes and save your contacts. Or Get Started When You Arrive: Pick up your free Buzz Band. Scan the QR Code. Enter your email to create a new profile. You can add your social media, videos and links on your phone. Start sharing scans, making notes and you'll have a database of everyone you meet.

( I am going to the http://www.nsaconvention.org this weekend with my wife Karen and the N.S.A. sent us this email about the Skanz product / service. I thought it was AWESOME and wanted to share with you all. Let me know what you think).

SVB-

Tired of watching your boss’s eyes glaze over every time you mention a “20% increase in likes?”

Depressed from hearing your colleagues report on revenue growth while you report on retweets?

Sick of people asking you what it’s like having “the fun job?”

This article is for you.

The truth is; most social media programs today are still lacking a true sales strategy at the core. We do have a social media strategy, you may say. On Mondays, we post a funny tweet, on Tuesday we post a car picture, and on Wednesday, we post statistics.

To this, I say, an editorial calendar is not a strategy. It’s a schedule. To take your social media to the next level, you need to start correlating it to true sales metrics. The good news? You totally can.

Here’s how to do it:

Example of a Social Lead Funnel

Step 1: Create a spring campaign for a free car wash for new Twitter followers (use a service like TwitHawk to geo-target.)

Step 2: When your followers come in for their free car wash, make sure they feel welcome. Have your staff go through shaking hands, handing out lemonade and cookies, and bringing around an iPad  asking people if they’d like to sign up for your social channels for more great offers and information.

Step 3: From there, nurture them with content marketing that balances car shopping best practices (How To Speed Through the Car-Buying Process) with marketing about your dealership (Why Lola’s Car Dealership is the Best).

Step 4: Once you’ve nurtured the relationship with about 3-5 pieces of strong content, it’s time to reel them in with some urgency. Send them a deal they can’t refuse: either a service coupon that’s only good for the next three days, or an LTO hefty discount on a car that only lasts for the next two hours. Take a cue from Groupon; the shorter the window, the more people are inclined to act, so don’t be afraid to add an element of adventure and excitement with a super-tight time frame.

This is just one example of a content marketing funnel, and there are many variations you could try.

My overall point is that it’s now fully possible to tie social media to the ROI metrics your Dealer Principal or COE actually cares about: leads and sales. You now have the means to up your game from marginalized maven to basking in the glow of revenue generation with all your digital marketing colleagues. Won’t that feel great?

What have you done at your dealership to help create a Social Funnel? Sound off in the comments!

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Source - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/likes-to-leads-creating-a-social-sales-funnel/#more-7844

Global Consumers Place Highest Trust in Earned Media

Online automotive consumers place the most amount of trust in earned media, and the least in ads served on mobile phones, finds Nielsen [download page] in an April 2012 report. An impressive 92% of automotive consumers surveyed around the world said they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family, an 18% increase from 2007. Automotive consumer opinions posted online (70%) was next-most trusted, outpacing other formats such as editorial content within newspaper articles, dealership and car company websites (both at 58%). Text ads on mobile phones are trusted by just 29% of automotive consumers.

This finding contrasts with April 2012 survey results from Ipsos, which found that while automotive consumers worldwide may turn to their friends for advice on vehicle purchases and repair services, only 38% will trust a dealership, make of vehicle or a service department more because friends recommended it.

Traditional Media Takes a Fall
Data from Nielsen’s “Global Trust in Advertising 2012″ indicates that automotive consumer trust in traditional paid advertising messages has taken a significant drop. While close to half say they trust TV (47%), magazine (47%), and newspaper ads (46%), confidence in these ads has dropped by 24%, 20%, and 25%, respectively from 2009 to 2011, when the latest survey was conducted.

Despite this fall in trust, traditional media ads, particularly on TV, appear to have their intended effect. According to April 2012 survey results from ExactTarget, TV ads influence a larger proportion of online automotive consumers... a product or service than a variety of other advertising media. 53% of respondents said a TV ad had influenced them to purchase a vehicle or maintenance service in the past 12 months, putting TV ads far ahead of newspaper ads (32%) and magazine ads (30%). In fact, three times more respondents said they had been influenced by a TV ad than by a banner or other ad on a website (53% vs. 18%).

Trust in Online Ads Low, But Growing
The Nielsen study finds that trust in most online ads is relatively lower than on traditional media, save for ads found on OEM branded websites, which are trusted by 58% of consumers. For example, only 40% trust ads served in search engine results, while just 36% trust online video ads, or ads on social networks. These findings are similar to Nielsen and NM Incite survey results released in February 2012, which found more trust in branded website ads than any other form of online adv....

Despite low rates of trust in online banner ads (33%), this represents a 27% increase since 2007. Similarly, while the level of trust placed in mobile phone advertising is still low, at 29%, this is an increase of 61% since 2007, and 21% since 2009.

Attitudes Towards Relevance Mirror Trust
The Nielsen survey also asked respondents to identify which advertising and brand messaging platforms are the most relevant to them when searching for information about the products, finding that the relevancy results often mirrored the trust responses. Recommendations from friends and family again topped the list, at 90% of respondents, followed by consumer opinions posted online (75%), branded websites (59%), and editorial content such as newspaper articles (55%). The relevance of paid traditional media platforms ranged from about 40-50%, while many online platforms scored lower, save for ads served in search engine results (42%).

Other Findings:
Latin American consumers had the highest levels of trust across 17 of the 19 advertising methods identified, when compared to other regions.
Trust in mobile phone ads was highest in the Middle East and Africa, with 40% indicating trust in text ads on mobile phones. These consumers also placed more trust in billboard and outdoor advertising than the global average (59% vs. 47%).
Consumers in Asia Pacific reported a higher level of trust in all formats surveyed when compared to the global average. They also had the highest level of trust in earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family (94%) and consumer opinions posted online (76%).
North Americans and Europeans appear to be the most skeptical consumers, with European respondents reporting the lowest levels of trust in all but 1 format (consumer opinions posted online - 64%).

About the Data: The Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey was conducted in August/ September 2011 and polled more than 28,000 consumers in 56 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America. The Nielsen survey is based on the behavior of respondents with online access only. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% internet penetration or 10M online population for survey inclusion.

Source - http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/global-consumer-trust-highest-in-earned-media-21766/ 

The 7 Secrets to Ford's Social Media Marketing Success 

Last year I noticed articles and videos appearing online and on Social Media such as YouTube about the Ford Fiesta. So I decided to dig a little deeper to find out about what Ford were doing in Social Media to market their products.
Scott Monty is the Head of Social Media at Ford and has only been there since 2008 and put in place a Social Media strategy including multiple Social Media channels.

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr

Scott said that his “Jewel in the Crown” is the Ford Fiesta Movement that involved selecting 100 socially vibrant individuals who were provided with the European version of the Ford Fiesta 18 months prior to it being manufactured and released in the USA. These socially media aware fanatics were encouraged to share their experience with the Ford Fiesta over the 6 months on their Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube channels.
What were the strategies that Ford implemented to create viral awareness without one dollar of traditional marketing spend?

The 7 secrets to Fords Social Media Marketing Success
People trust corporations less so with the rise of social media you need to allow other people through word of mouth create trust for you through Social Media (it amplifies your message)
Reached out to those who are listening and let them do the talking for you and to connect with people like themselves
Let them know that you are real people just like them and are passionate about what they do and the Ford Brand
Run a competition involving Social Media eg.. To be selected to drive a Ford Fiesta for six months – select 100 of those who are “socially vibrant” such as Michelle McCormack ..view her application on YouTube.
Aggregated the content on Fords Fiesta movement website (crowd sourcing content) without editing it!
Implemented multiple Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create digital buzz
“Get On Board” the executive team and the board of directors

The Results
11 million Social Networking impressions
5 million engagements on social networks (people sharing and receiving)
11,000 videos posted
15,000 tweets.. not including retweets
13,000 photos
50,000 hand raisers who have seen the product in person or on a video who said that they want to know more about it when it comes out and 97% of those don’t currently drive a Ford vehicle
38% awareness by Gen Y about the product, without spending a dollar on traditional advertising ( Fords model “Fusion” doesn’t have that awareness after 2 years of being out in production and yet it has received hundreds of millions of dollars in traditional marketing spend).
Following the Ford Fiesta movement the launch of the Fiesta Ford did run a traditional marketing campaign including TV, Print and and Outdoor advertising.

According to J.D. Power, about 9% of spending this year by automakers will be digital (Ford’s share spend is 25%.. and they were the only company not bailed out by the Federal Government), but that will rise to about 12% by 2012 as more companies embrace social networking, online gaming and rich media ads in place of traditional TV and print.
Scott Monty’s advice on whether Social Media Marketing is right for your company,
“If your customers are there you need to be there too” he also went on to say “You need to listen.. see how they behave and act similiarly”

Source - http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/02/18/the-7-secrets-to-fords-social-media-marketing-success/

‘KONY 2012′ Tops 100 Million Views, Becomes the Most Viral Video in History [STUDY]

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shWith more than 100 million views in six days, Kony 2012, a 30-minute documentary about Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, has become the most viral video in history, according to one researcher

In a blog post, Visible Measures found Kony outpaced other record-setting viral videos. For instance the video featuring Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, hit 70 million views in six days. Old Spice’s “Responses” campaign didn’t hit 70 million until five months after it launched.

Visible Measures got its figures by tracking not just the original Vimeo version of Kony, but also responses to the video. By March 8, three days after Kony went live, there were 200 such responses, which ran six minutes on average. The video has also netted more than 500,000 comments.

Despite the rapid rise of Kony 2012, the video has brought a shower of criticism to Invisible Children, the organization behind it. Many of the negative critiques have been targeted at Invisible Children’s practices as an organization, not whether Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is a war criminal.

In particular, a Tumblr blog called Visible Children, outlined how just 32% of Invisible Children’s money went to direct services, while the rest went to staff salaries and other overhead.

Invisible Children responded with a blog post outlining its expenses. The post didn’t dispute the 32% figure, but illustrated how another 26% went to “awareness programs.”

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

http://www.dealersynergy.com
If There is ANYONE who thinks Social Media is NOT Important, Valuable, Amazing, Useful, Needed - WATCH THIS VIDEO!

I was BLOWN away by this video!
If they can accomplish ALL of that... You can ALL leverage Social Media for your dealership(s).

*** PLEASE FORWARD THIS VIDEO TO EVERYONE YOU CAN!!

I Just saw this commercial on CNN a couple of minutes ago and it is EXACTLY the TYPE of Commercial that Auto Dealers should be doing on TV and online...

It seems that someone at Midas has been paying attention to Google's ZMOT Philosophy. People are talking about things they like and do not like on social media, on cell phones via a myriad of apps and sites. Dealers need to embrace this culture and reality.

With the rollout of the Facebook timeline complete for personal profiles, Facebook has now, quite brilliantly, pivoted their attention onto brand pages, which is why when you logged in this morning, you saw the little notice at the top of your Fan Page saying:

"On March 30, 2012, all Facebook Pages will get a new design. Preview your page now to see what it looks like and try out the new features."

Effective next month, your dealership's fan page will have a fundamentally different look. You see those cool tabs underneath your dealership's profile picture ("Inventory", "Welcome", "Photos", etc)? Those tabs will no longer be there once you activate the Timeline look. Your entire page will be rearranged. While this does sound a bit scary, especially to those who have put ample time into designing interactive tabs for pages, there is a distinct advantage. Of course, I'm talking about the Cover Photo. 

The Cover Photo is the photo at the top of your current Personal Facebook page (assuming your page has the Timeline feature). Essentially, the cover photo is replacing your welcome tab. It will be the first thing everyone sees when they visit your page. You'll have your own virtual billboard. A billboard with no limits, except for size :) You can play around with the cover photo until it suits your dealership's needs. You can design one in which you're Thanking your customers, or one in which you featuring a quote from a satisfied customer, and or just a simple variation your current Profile picture. There's so much you can do with it to benefit your brand. 

The Facebook Timeline manager, Sam Lessin, had this to say regarding the new rapid change, "Organizations have identities too." And, he's completely right. Thanks to the implementation of the Timeline for Brand Pages, you'll be able to distinguish yourself from your competitors. With the cover photo (billboard!), you'll be able to brand your dealership in a much more effect way.

What do you think of the Timeline rollout for Brand Pages? Are you on board with it? Or, still partial to the traditional Fan Page?

Source: Facebook Timeline Brand Pages are Here [Mashable]

The trend for the last 3 or 4 years has been for businesses to try to tap into social media as a broadcasting tool. It's not universal, but many (most) see social media as a place to post their messages to prospective clients in hopes of switching on the social media faucet that touches a billion people worldwide.

The promise of social media for businesses, particularly local ones, has only been seen by a small percentage. Most believe there's something there, but they aren't certain that their efforts are going anywhere. In many cases, they're not. It's not that social media is so challenging that only the select few can get in, nor is it that there's no value in it.

It's about intention. Those with the intention of sheer marketing with social media will likely be met with limited rewards. People don't go to Facebook or Twitter to see what they want to buy or which services to select. They go to engage, to have fun, and to experience the virtual filter on the real world that social media has to offer them.

In other words, they don't want to see marketing. If and when they're ready to interact with a business through social media, it's because they have questions or needs that can be fulfilled through easy-access communication. This is the part that most businesses are missing.

The real promise of social media is not just to business, but lies an the center between business and consumer. More internet time is spent on social media than any other category; in fact, it's equal to the next three on the list (games, email, and portals) combined.

Businesses want to take advantage of this fact and many are trying, but customer service management is still 3rd on the list of initiatives they perform on social media with brand reputation management and driving promotions above it. This is backwards. Most businesses can achieve their top two goals by focusing on the customers themselves.

It comes down to a lack of understanding. Those who are able to focus their attention on their customers through social media will gain a better reputation and find it easier to broadcast their promotions as a result. It's counter-intuitive to all other forms of interactions with customers, but it makes sense once one realizes the true capacity of the medium.

 (Click Link for InfoGraph) http://www.tkcarsites.com/support-gets-social-pid21494

A few weeks ago, I came across a study titled: "Social Media Data Stacks" sponsored by the folks over at Hubspot. Now, as a social media analyst, I thought it was worth taking a look at, since social media is always changing and evolving. Instead of boring you with each detail and statistic, I just want to touch on the few that caught my eye and how these stats can you help form and enhance your social media strategy. 

1) Females 18-34 are most active on social networking sites

This is marketing 101. You need to know your demographic. Who's navigating the social media universe? Well, according to this study, women are more active on Facebook, twitter. Not so much Google+, though. Regardless, if you've been posting content mostly directed towards men, then it's time to rethink your strategy. Now, this does not mean throw your entire strategy in the trash and start posting whatever appeals to women. Not exactly. It's a balance act. If you continue to ignore such a large demographic, chances are your social media efforts are going to fail. 

2) 29% of social media users seek purchase advice

This boils down to ZMOT. To the T. People have such an inventory of feedback and reviews today, it's almost comical. Before calling a dealership, people are GOING ONLINE to research a vehicle. This doesn't only include hitting up Google reviews or sites like Edmunds and MotorTrend. No, this entails logging into their social media sites (Facebook and Twitter) and asking their friends and followers for advice/help. 

"Hey guys, currently looking to replace my beat up car, can anybody recommend a fuel efficient sedan?"

Comments: "Can't go wrong with a Toyota Yaris" "Toyota? Buy American!" And, so forth. 

29%. You have to take into account this study was only for one month. People are going on social media and asking for purchase advice much, much more. So, this is where you come in. You need to be IN the conversation. You need to engage. Sounds simple enough, but the bottom line is: You need to be social. 

3) 50% Twitter users discuss TV Shows

This is where social plays a huge part as well. If you see a few tweets in your timeline discussing last night's episode of Glee or CSI, you're not going to tweet back "I missed it last night, but you know what you're missing? A brand new Ford Focus!!" No, that's just ridiculous. You join the conversation, you engage with them. They'll remember you trust me. 

Other Statistics that Interested Me:

-9 out of 10 parents seek friends, family

-7 out of 10 parents seek "LOLs"

-People are spending 53.5 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Overall, when it comes to developing and implementing a social media strategy, you must do the research. There's no getting around it. (Side note: I write fiction in my spare time. I'm not going to try to write about a secret spy without doing any research on espionage, now am I?) Anyway, once you know your demographic, you can start implementing your strategy and targeting your specific demographic. In the end, we must not forget to always keep one word in mind: SOCIAL! 

Nissan enthusiasts are invited to vote on modifications and follow the construction online through Facebook.com/nissanperformance. The finished vehicle will be revealed May 17 at the annual ZDayZ gathering in North Carolina.

“Think of Project 370Z as a factory project car built in a non-factory way,” explained Erich Marx, director, Social Media & Interactive Marketing, Nissan North America. “Nissan Z® owners are among the most active of all on social media. We can’t wait to see how the finished vehicle turns out.”

At the show’s social media day, in the second year it has been held, Nissan also hosted a Google+ Hangout, and made sure the bloggers were introduced to culinary delights provided by a Southern Mac & Cheese Nissan NV food truck. Guests were also treated to Nissan’s new “virtual new car experience” using Microsoft Kinect technology.

The last 3 years, infographics have grown as one of the most effective marketing tools available. They're easily sharable on social media, can offer tremendous SEO benefits, and can help your dealership offer content that people enjoy seeing.

Still, it's also the most underutilized tool by the automotive industry. A lot of it is our fault; vendors in the automotive space have seen infographics as too challenging and too expensive to bring to market. We've had a handful of forward-thinking dealers take advantage of it, but there hasn't been nearly the adoption that has occurred in other industries.

Even at the OEM level, Ford is the only company that has dipped their toes into infographics and found success.

First, let's look at what they do for dealerships:

• - They give content to visitors of both their websites and social media profiles an item will be shared. People share good content on Facebook and Twitter. They don't share new car specials pages. Some have asked what the benefit is. We've seen that when people share content on Facebook, a good percentage of it is localized. Friends, relatives, and coworkers that see a nice piece of content from a friend will visit the link and land on your site. If you're running remarketing campaigns or simply going for social media exposure, landing them on your site is an opportunity to generate a lead. Don't forget, every Facebook user has 8-9 Facebook friends who are in the market to buy a vehicle in the next 30 days.
•  - Powerful inbound links are the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Having graphics that can be embedded on other sites is an opportunity to use this "link bait" to generate free links to your site.
• - Infographics that portray useful information such as proper SYNCing on a Ford or localized information such as a crime-rate map of the area positions the dealership website as a resource on top of being a place to look at cars. Whenever you can become a resource for people, they are more likely to want to do business with you.

Once you know what they do for you, let's take a look at the most successful infographic that we built in 2011. This particular one was generated for a non-automotive client but it will be easy to see why it was so successful. Here are the stats:

• - Posted on over 400 websites that linked back to the source, including high-value websites that included the New York Times, Mashable, TheNextWeb, and TheAtlantic.
• - Shared on Facebook over 17,000 times with Mashable having the highest share-rate of nearly 10,000.
• - Tweeted over 25,000 times with Mashable again leading the way with over 6,000 retweets.
• - Estimated 2.3 million views of the infographic.
• - Made the front page of Digg, Reddit, and went viral for 3 different sites on StumbleUpon.

Now, here's the infographic. If you have any questions about why it worked so well or how it translates in the automotive industry, please feel free to email me or ask in the comments.

http://www.twitter.com/seanvbradley

http://www.twitter.com/dealersynergy

Twitter Announces NEW Re-Design, New Features and Promises An Easier & Better Tool