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With over 75 million users, over 6000 photo uploads in the last minute, over 72,000 photos tagged with jump, and over 3 million photos geo-tagged this month. Flickr is quickly becoming an extremely important digital marketing tool because it allows your dealership to market your inventory and brand through a very visually attractive social medium. Flickr can help you generate more traffic you your website and guarantee that your dealerships website ranks higher on all the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Consider this when asking yourself if you should create a dealership Flickr account. According to NetRatings, Flickr is the fatest-growing photo sharing site on the web and it is the 7^th most trafficked social media site overall.

First and foremost Flickr is primarily a photo-sharing social media outlet, owned by Yahoo. You can simply create your dealership a Yahoo Login ID and password to log onto Flickr and start using your account to tag your photos, share them with your fans and participate in the Flickr community discussions as well. The photos that you post on Flickr, could leave a lasting impression in the minds of the 75 million Flickr users and some of them might end up being potential car buyers as well. By Networking actively on the Flickr forums, you can build fan base and build a greater awareness about your dealership and all the services that you offer. You can also use the links from Flickr to further your link popularity as well.

Photos are not the only media that you can upload to Flickr. You can also upload the videos that you create for your Youtube account to Flickr and upload presentations about your vehicles and your service department.

Try these 5 strategies to market your dealership on Flickr:

1.     Use your dealerships website name as your Flickr display name.
2.     Take and use creative/relevant photos to advertise your dealership.
3.     Actively participate in the Flickr forums. Find groups relevant to your dealership and join them.
4.     Tag your photos with search terms that are relevant your dealership and the services that you provide. Provide a link to your Flickr account on your dealerships website.
5.     Tether your Flickr account to your other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

If you don’t have a Flickr account, its simple to set up and will ultimately become a valuable marketing tool for your dealership. Get your employees involved too and they will have a blast taking photos and videos of your dealership to upload to Flickr.

What is an Automotive Internet Sales 20 Group ? (Part 1) from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.

http://www.internetsales20group.com

What is an Internet 20 Group (Part 2) from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. 
Thomas Jefferson 

True leadership isn't something granted with a fancy title. The privilege to call yourself a leader involves adhering to a model of intelligence, honesty, creativeness, confidence, drive, and courageousness. Take command with our 6 leadership aspects and commit now to a promise of true and generous leadership.  

There are times when you're going to post a piece of content that is too good to post in just one place. It could be extremely informative, very timely, majorly entertaining, or perhaps you just really liked it and want to post it in other places. There are times when you can syndicate the content, but when it's your own site, you'll want to "reblog" it.

This is different from syndicating. If you have places where you can post and it makes sense to let the original content stand on its own, then simply copying, pasting, and reformatting is just fine. There are three instances when you won't want to do this:

1. If you're posting on another one of your own sites where you control all of the content, reblogging can give you a reason for your visitors to one site to explore your other site.
   
   
2. If you're posting on one of your domains that is not "aged and weathered" - in other words, it's either a newer domain or does not index very well in the search engines - then reblogging like this will allow you to make sure the content is unique without having to start from scratch on the same topic.
   
   
3. If you have a topic that is extremely important and deserves more than one article to highlight it, reblogging is a fast way to write one long-form piece of content and then support it with other websites.

By reblogging, you'll want to do what is posted in the image above. We took a piece of content about Facebook pictures that we posted on Dealer Bar, then reblogged it onto the KPA Internet Marketing Blog. The original story showed five types of Facebook customer picture posts. The reblog focused on the reasons this is important. We put out three short paragraphs of original content, took an important excerpt from the original, and linked to it.

The easiest way to understand it is to start from the reblog and then follow it to the original post. You'll be able to get more mileage out of your content without having to come up with as many fresh ideas. You'll also be exposing your content to different sets of readers. It's a win-win.

This is Part 4 in a 5 part series. Please read the previous posts first or none of this will really make any sense.

• Part I: The Key to Search and Social in 2013 and Beyond
• Part II: Picking the Power Accounts at Your Dealership
• Part III: Building Your Dealership Power Accounts

As with most proper marketing strategies, it's time to plan. Your accounts should have a strong localized following by now. The names of both the dealership and the individual influencer at your dealership (preferably the owner or general manager) are quickly becoming very well known in the community. Like the Tracy Myers and Jeff Cryders of the world, the person who is representing your dealership should be out and about talking to customers at the dealership, outside of the dealership, and online.

One thing that wasn't unfortunately omitted from the previous articles but that's a very important note is that this person should be there for the good AND the bad. They should be the name used when responding to online reviews whenever possible. This is one of the reasons why a person of authority is best suited for this role.

With that out of the way, let's talk about planning...

Proper Prior Planning...

...prevents poor performance. There are actually many "power accounts" that I've seen in the automotive industry that were either under-utilized or turned into spamming accounts. Your power accounts must think like Goldilocks - not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Every post should be thought out with precision. Posting at the right timesis extremely important. All of the major social media sites are driven by momentum to some extent; EdgeRank on Facebook, for example, gives prominence to posts by those who have had a lot of likes, comments, and shares on previous posts. The more you're liked, the more you'll be liked. Google+ is the same way. Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, and others work from a chronological feed, but the strategy remains the same for different reasons. You want to get retweets, reblogs, repins, etc, so that your posts are more visible to other people who may then choose to follow you. Same concept, different purposes.

Now that we understand that, let's talk about what to post. Just like when driving, you don't want to just look at the road directly in front of you. You drive by pointing your car towards the distant goal while keeping your peripheral vision on potential obstacles that may jump out at you. When you're in traffic, you switch lanes based upon your end goal as well as the flow of traffic in front of you.

Mixing up the proper types of posts isn't a random thing. You should know when to post for conversation and when to post for conversion:

• Conversation posts are those that are designed to appeal to people's interests. These are often images or text posts that are interesting, entertaining, or useful. The goal is to use these to get the interest of your fans and friends of your fans, to increase exposure, and to set up the conversion posts that follow.
• Conversion posts are the marketing posts. These are different from branding posts which we'll describe later. These are posts that have distinct goals in mind. It may be promoting an upcoming sale. It may be an especially intriguing vehicle that just came in on trade. It could be a contest, a charitable event, an interesting video advertisement, or simply a link to a landing page on your website.

This is where the planning comes in. You will need a calendar or scheduling software that allows you to get a bird's eye view of what your coming posts will say. Mix it up properly. Use conversational posts appropriately. For example, if you have a big sale coming up this weekend, you may have two or three really strong conversation posts that lead up to the first conversion post about the sale. This way, more people will see it when it does get posted.

Determining the personality of the posts is another important part of planning. There are too many "randomly interesting accounts" out there on social media. You are not George Takei, and but you can learn from him. He posts mostly geek-oriented humor posts. He stays within his niche and plays on it well. For your dealership and power account personality, you may want to lean towards being the ultimate vehicular genius in the area. You may want to start a mini-meme in the local area by taking pictures of the power account person taking a particularly awesome vehicle around to well-known places and businesses in the area. This part takes creativity and brainstorming, but here's a quick example of one that I truly enjoyed:

An owner would go to every baseball game when the local MLB team was at home. They would drive around and look for cars that were parking that had the dealership's branded license plate bracket. They would approach these people as they parked, ask them if they already had their tickets, and offer them use of the dealer's seats for the game. Season passes aren't that expensive, especially when they can be used for a strong social media marketing campaign. They would, of course, record the conversation with the happy customers and post it throughout their social profiles.

Remember, the goal is to make a plan that will help your dealership personality stand out. This isn't about post scheduling, though that's important as well. It's about putting together a strong action plan for today, next week, next month, and across the future. This is where the power accounts can truly start making an impact and exposing the brand to a wider audience.

I would be more than happy to consult with any dealership that wants to brainstorm some ideas and learn more about planning.

Once you have the plan, it's time to get your customers involved...

Getting Outrageous Support from Your Customers

Having a power account makes things easier, but it doesn't change one ominous fact about social media: "It's not what you're saying about your business on social media that's important. It's what others are saying about you."

Power accounts are the ultimate vessel through which to get the raving fans that can truly enhance your business. It's not about getting fans. It's about getting absolutely delighted customers who are not only willing to tell others about you but are excited about spreading the word. Another article can be written about the importance of making your customers ecstatic and how the owner or general manager are the most powerful people when it comes to making this happen, but that's not for today.

Your power accounts need to be interacting with as many people as possible. They need to be celebrities in heart and mind. They need to participate whenever appropriate with the most amazing customers. For example, a dealership I recently talked to told me about a 4th generation buyer. A great grandma, her daughter, and the grandson brought in the great granddaughter to buy her first car. They all came in together. They told everyone in the showroom about the multiple experiences they'd had at the dealership for 5 decades.

I asked about the videos. There were none. I wanted to cry.

This is one of those rare opportunities when the owner or general manager should have done everything possible to make these people special. It was a social media story that could have carried weight for months. It was multiple photo opportunities. It was a chance for the ultimate testimonial video. The power account person should have offered to take this family to a nice dinner. So many chances here, all missed.

On the other side of the spectrum, I was visiting a dealership earlier this year. The GM took my team and his internet department to breakfast. A man approached as we were at the cashier and thanked the general manager for helping his son buy a car a month before. The GM didn't think twice. He shook the gentleman's hand, then grabbed the ticket from his other hand and said, "We appreciate your business, my friend. Breakfast is on Holiday Automotive this morning."

Had I had the chance to do it all over, I would have asked them all at the moment if they would mind if I put the experience on Facebook. From a dealership perspective, there's a fine line between bragging and making a random act of gratitude like this resonate on social media. Here's what I would have posted:

"Ran into a loyal customer at Moe's this morning for breakfast. We picked up the tab - it felt good! I'd love to do it again. If you see me at Moe's, come say hi. I really appreciate our customers and would love to buy your breakfast as well."

You don't have to wait around for extraordinary moments. Depending on the personality you've chosen for your power account, you can turn the boring pictures that so many dealerships take of their happy customers and turn it into something sharable. For example, the power account individual can take pictures with the customers holding up a whiteboard while standing in front of their new car. The message depends on the personality and desired message, but here are some examples. Again, imagine the buyer holding a whiteboard with the message and an arrow pointing towards the power account person:

• "This guy just made me a deal I couldn't refuse for my new Altima."
• "Ask for Hank and he'll tell you a joke, then make you a killer deal."
• "The worst negotiator in the world just sold me this car. Ask for Hank!"
• "This guy just treated us with dignity and respect. Not your stereotypical car dealer. Ask for Hank!"

In the past, some dealers would try to get their customers climb into the trunk of a car they were considering. It was a demonstration of control; if you could get your customer to climb into the trunk, you had control of the deal. Today, we want to get people into the "social media trunk". This is no longer about control. It's about creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and harnessing this atmosphere to take advantage of the word of mouth that social media empowers your customers to wield. Getting them to post is much more important than what you're posting. The power account is best positioned to make this happen.

Getting Your Message Shared

The social media power account at your dealership gains a certain power when they reach the top level within the community. They have the opportunity to go from being liked to being shared. This is the hardest part. It takes time, creativity, and cleverness.

This does not mean posting things such as "Share this if you believe that..." Posts that ask for likes or shares are weak. They turn people off. Never ask for a retweet, a like, a share, a +1, or anything else in the post itself. That doesn't mean that you don't ask. It means that you don't ask within the post.

Where the power account can get shares is often with the interaction that they have with others both in real life as well as on social media. Before getting to real life share requests, let's first look at interactions. When your power account likes, shares, comments, retweets, reblogs, or any other interaction with other businesses or individuals in the area, they are more likely inclined to return the favor. Reciprocity on social media is common. The more you like, the more you'll be liked. The more you share, the more you'll be shared.

There's an art and a science to understanding who will reciprocate and who will not. On Twitter and Pinterest, it's really easy, of course. Just find people who respond or retweet. Those who are only broadcasting will likely not reciprocate. On Facebook and Google+, it's more challenging but can be done. Test it out. Dedicate a little bit of time every day to engage with local pages and individuals (especially customers). Don't spam them or stalk them, but engage. If they reply, keep note of who they are and check them out from time to time.

In real life, it's a matter of asking and getting your staff to ask. It starts with them. If they aren't following and engaging with the power account online, they won't be willing to ask others to do the same.

It's not just about asking. Advertise it. Make signs and put them up around the dealership. In service, it could be a sign that says, "Hank gives customers free oil changes on Facebook and Twitter from time to time. Follow him and get something useful from social media instead of just funny cat pictures (even though Hank loves cats, too!)."

It could be much more blatant as well. "Receive a 10% discount on your current service. Just follow Hank and share one of his posts on your Facebook profile and get the discount immediately."

Again, be creative. This is your time to make your power account shine.

* * *

In the final part of this series, we will bring it all together with real world examples of power accounts in action. Your social media reputation can become the hub through which you dealership's entire reputation stems. When this happens, you'll have much more control over what people are saying and hearing about you. More importantly, you'll have an opportunity to gain benefit for your dealership in an arena where your competitors are likely failing miserably. As social media continues to grow, there are only a few who will truly succeed and a vast majority who will not. Which side of the fence will your dealership choose?

How important are scripts? 

Any time I hear a sales trainer, manager, or a rep demean the use of scripts, they lose credibility with me. Sometimes the problem is in their definition and perception of a script, which usually has more to do with the delivery, such as reading something in a monotone voice. In that case, I agree. Kids like to be read to, adults don't. 

I suggest you look at a script like an actor, and deliver it the same way. Otherwise, "winging it" and generally being unprepared usually yields horrible results. It's actually kind of a contradiction. Many people who don't like scripts feel that way because they say scripts cause a person to sound like a doofus. Well, what happens when someone gets on a call, unprepared, rambles, stutters and stammers? What exactly do they sound like? Really. If you are able to prepare for what you'll say, and then edit, practice, and fine-tune it, why wouldn't you? 

You wouldn't turn in a rough draft if you were going to write a very high-profile article in your industry publication would you? Well, a rough draft is precisely what you deliver when you aren't totally prepared on calls. Every day, salespeople insist on diving blindly into calls, and puking all over themselves with the first words that come to mind. Would a surgeon walk into an operating room, slap on the gloves and say, "OK, give me the knife. By the way, what are we doing with this guy?" Would a lawyer dash enter a trial, pop open a briefcase, begin an opening argument, then turn and whisper to the client, "What are we working on here again?" In either case, I hope not.

Let's grade your level of preparedness as of right now in each of these areas.

Screeners and Assistants

Can you instantly provide a response to the question, "What is this in reference to?" And I mean a good, results-oriented answer, not one that gets you screened out. 

Opening Statements and Voice Mail

These most certainly need to be prepared, word-for-word.

 Early Resistance

Ever hear, "I'm not interested," at the beginning of a call? Are you able to breeze past this reflex response--which isn't a real objection, by the way-- and engage them in conversation, moving them to a state of interest and curiosity? 

Unexpected Answers to Questions

We're all able to build sales momentum when they follow the script we'd like ... answering questions with the positive, interest-filled responses that lead to our objective. But what about the ones we DON'T want? The ones that resemble a hard-drive crash, wiping away all of your memory. 

Real Objections

Too many sales reps dread objections because they feel that to deal with them they must "overcome" them with a canned, argumentative answer. Those types of "rebuttals" actually throw gasoline on the fire. Instead, we must be prepared with questions.

In each of these areas, I recommend the same prescription for excellence: work and preparation. There's no easy way to sound smooth. It is said that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" well..."Scripts are in the mouth of the deliverer". James Earl Jones could deliver a script and Earl James Jones could deliver that same script and you'd experience totally different effects. A sales rep told me at a recent training seminar, "You make it look so easy, coming up with quick answers. How do you do it?" Oh, it was easy, I told him. After almost 700 sales training presentations, thousands of sales calls, and thousands of hours of writing, reading, and practicing, it just comes naturally. See? No one is naturally smooth, although almost everyone can sound that way. But we must be un-smooth and uncomfortable first. 

What baby do you know that comes out of the womb walking and speaking as you have the ability to do now.  It takes most of them about a year or two or three just to get down the basics. If you want to raise yourself to the next level, go back to the basics and beyond. 

ACTION STEP

Lock yourself in a room with a pad of paper. Begin by writing out the headings above, and any other difficult situations you encounter. Then, stretch, knead, and rack your mind until you create word-for-word statements, responses and questions you're comfortable with. (Members, go to the archives of www.AutomotiveInternetSales.com to get examples to work from. Not a member? Sign up for a test drive.) Then, go to the next level. Like a military strategist preparing for all possible scenarios, brainstorm for their possible responses. Keep repeating the process. Then practice it out loud. Role play with a partner. 

Recite--don't read--into a recorder.  

What's great about this is that the more you practice, the better you become, which means better results. Which means you have more fun on calls. Which also means you're more confident. And people will be saying about you, "You sound so smooth! You're a natural." Thanks to your scripts.  

Remember, neither Roam or Beyoncé was created in a day. 

Continue having your best week ever!

LA Williams launches a brand new Internet Sales Team at Clift Auto using the Dealer Synergy process.

Do you ever feel this way? Especially at work? Do you have a boss who is constantly asking you to do things that seem impossible? Are you a coordinator who sees making MORE calls every day as though you are being asked to climb Mount Everest using only a licorice rope? I love this quote! Can you imagine trying to slam a revolving door? The reality is that even though that task seems impossible, it is possible with the right tools. The next thing you are asked to do that seems impossible, take a deep breathe and see if there is a way. If it still seems overwhelming, break it down. Don't think of how many calls you need to make each day. Think instead of how many calls you need to make an hour. Keep breaking it down until it is manageable. Look at it from a different perspective.

Most people say that practice makes perfect. This is not completely accurate. It only makes perfect if you are practicing perfectly. If you have word tracts or scripts to use, the only way to perfect them is to practice them as they are written. Repeating the same mistakes over and over in practice will guarantee perfectly mistaken habits. You learn what you practice. Take your script and read it verbatim several times daily.  Even if you think you already know the words, read it again. As we go through our days and months, we all tend to get lazy. We change things a little. Then we change a little more. The next thing we know, we may only be using one or two parts of the actual script. Use the scripts you are given. They are proven to work. Believe in them. Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you never get it wrong. Try it for the next couple of months. Watch your numbers increase! Just remember to practice perfectly.

Ralph Paglia Posted This on ADM and rather than build a separate post, I wanted to create a "Hybrid Post"... Share my thoughts as well as his thoughts and some of the ADM community's thoughts...

My heart goes out to his family and friends for their personal loss. To lose a loved one is a terrible thing. He was an icon, yes but he was a Husband, a Father, a Friend etc... first. 

I personally never had the honor of meeting Zig but I, like most of us in this industry was very influenced by him. I have read his books, studied his philosophy, watched videos of him and was completely enthralled in all that I was able to absorb! It is crazy how people influence other people. I remember reading a Zig Ziglar book when I was first started selling cars on the showroom floor 14 years ago! I remember being so excited to get to the next chapter because his information was so awesome! 

There are little things that I do to this very day that I got from reading a Zig Ziglar book. For example something simple with negotiating I learned from Zig was that in ANY transaction (And I mean ANY). Simply asking "Is that the best you can do...?" to the person trying to sell you something and then waiting for them to respond IS AWESOME! You have to ask it VERY non hostile or aggressive. Almost, "tossing" the question out there...  For example: If you were about to buy something from 9almost ANY sals person),  and they quote you the price. Just pause for a second, take in the price you have just been quoted and then ask them gently... "Is that the best you can do...? People, you will be SHOCKED at the responses you get LOL! I know I was :) People, almost fall over themselves changing it up, cutting their own prices, saying things like... "well, maybe I can do this or maybe I can get you that" :) 

Bottom line, I can go on and on about some of the brilliant strategies and philosophies of Mr. Zig Ziglar! 

Here is what I will say people "Cherish every second of life", it is gone in an instant. Be cognizant of who and what you are. 

Let me tell you what the BIGGEST "thing" I got from Zig Ziglar... His life as a whole, his legacy, his impact on the world, his influence. That is what is truly awe inspiring! 

It is surreal this last year. Zig Ziglar just passed away, recently Dr. Stephen Covey passed away and a close friend of mine (and a friend to a lot of you all) Karry Moore, Co-Founder of Car-Mercial. So, what have I taken from all of this? Well it is a sobering reality that life is a precious gift as is time and we have NO IDEA how much of it we will have. So, what is our purpose? Or what should our purpose really be while we are here for a short stint? 

PLEASE watch this quick video from FranklinCovey, The "80th Birthday"

Wow! Dr. Stephen Covey nailed it with this video! This reminds me of Zig Ziglar. This is what I one day aspire to. I am ONLY 36 years old and I have a long way to go but I am inspired to inspire others. 

Thank You Zig, you have been an inspiration to me on my journey teaching others-

Here is Ralph's Post:

ZIG FANS... HERE IS The ZIG ZIGLAR OFFICIAL COVER PHOTO. If you are a fan feel free to USE THIS AS YOUR COVER PHOTO in honor & memory of Zig. 

Our Friend, Mentor to Millions and Master Motivator Zig Ziglar passed peacefully from this world this morning. Angels are rejoicing and he is now speaking with Jesus. Please leave your favorite Zig Story or message to family at www.facebook.com/ZigZiglar

Zig Ziglar passed from this world today after a short bout with pneumonia. Though his time on earth has ended, he is speaking with Jesus now in his heavenly home. The angels in heaven are rejoicing and his family is celebrating a life well lived. 

I absolutely love the video below. It isn't that it's so useful that people will love it; as used car buying tips go, it's rather light on real zingers or anything outside of common knowledge. It isn't the production quality; this is a well-made video, but nothing outstanding compared to other motion graphics.

The thing that makes this video stand out is that it's a branding and marketing machine that will keep on giving for years to come. First, it's very sharable. It's not quite good enough to be a viral video, but it will do its job and get some views. Second, it's a search engine golden ticket. It will be visible on searches for terms like "buying a used car" and "used car buying tips" and will stay visible for a long time.

Finally, it's a strong branding message that has very little to do with the brand itself. It's loosely related, of course, but the relationship is not a part of the story. The company will reap the benefits of being found by new people for a long time.

Here's the video itself:

Attention email composers, bloggers and content writers (just about all of us):

Unfortunately, credit issues are playing a bigger role than ever in the Automotive Industry. I have seen countless Internet leads labeled as "Lost" due to credit issues. The reality is that most consumers have credit issues in today's market. Let's face it...no one has perfect credit any more. In the dealership, this should be a window of opportunity. The F&I department needs to have a strategy in place to help the customers and, in the end, help the dealership. What do you think would draw more present and future business, turning away every prospect who is struggling with credit issues, or taking the time to help them set a financial plan in place to buy the best vehicle for them? If we start helping our customers to find a financial plan for themselves, they will come back. They will spread the word. I'm not saying to put your neck on the line for every prospect. If someone just turned 18, has no job, and has no credit or co-signer...I wouldn't touch that deal either. That is a bad risk. If someone walks in who has steady income but damaged credit, there is probably a way to work them into a vehicle. Be their solution. They already know before they make a call or set foot on your lot that their credit is damaged. They probably aren't expecting anything. You have the chance to make the ultimate impression on them for your dealership if you find a way, even if that means a plan for the next few months...they will return.

Robert Gruen, CEO of Higher Gear Speaking At The Internet Sales 20 Group In Chicago On CRM Best Practices from Dealer Synergy on Vimeo.

The title of Lynne Truss’ runaway bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Gotham Books, 2003) illustrates the impact of a wayward comma:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air.

“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

Although Truss’ anecdote is humorous, poor writing by employees is no laughing matter, and in fact can cost your company millions—or billions—of dollars in rework and misunderstanding. A 2008 white paper by International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom were losing an estimated $37 billion as a result of “employee misunderstanding.” The term is defined as “actions or errors of omission by employees who have misunderstood or misinterpreted (or were misinformed about) company policies, business processes, job function or a combination of the three.” The authors wrote,

Employee misunderstanding is a very different proposition to a deliberate disregard for the rules or a plain mistake, whereby an employee simply does something that they didn’t mean to (like forgetting to back up computer storage or putting a decimal point in the wrong place)…. The financial cost of employee misunderstanding is immense…. Of the industries we researched, banks suffer the greatest losses and transportation the least. Loss of business due to unplanned downtime was the largest area of loss attributed to employee misunderstanding.

What causes employee misunderstanding? Poor, unclear, or no communication, leaving employees without the knowledge they need to do their jobs correctly.

There is more evidence. An SIS International Research study prepared for Siemens Enterprise Communications in 2009 explored and quantified communication difficulties experienced by small to medium-sized businesses, up to 400 employees. The researchers concluded that waiting for information, unwanted communications, inefficient coordination, barriers to collaboration, and customer complaints caused productivity losses estimated to be $26,041 per knowledge worker per year.

Unfortunately, even college graduates are not getting the preparation they need to communicate effectively in writing. In Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press, 2011), authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa concluded that 45 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” after two years of college; and that 36 percent “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” after four years!

In an article about the book, Scott Jaschik of the Chronicle of Higher Education wrote,

[The authors] review data from student surveys to show, for example, that 32 percent of students each semester do not take any courses with more than 40 pages of reading assigned a week, and that half don’t take a single course in which they must write more than 20 pages over the course of a semester.

What are employers to do?

Clearly, there is a case for businesses hiring for potential and training for skill in writing. But do you know what you are getting? Does your company administer a writing test to job applicants? You should, says Kyle Wiens, chief executive officer (CEO) of iFixit, the world’s largest collection of online repair manuals. In a July blog post entitled, “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why,” Wiens wrote,

Everyone who applies for a position at either of my companies, iFixit or Dozuki, takes a mandatory grammar test. Extenuating circumstances aside (dyslexia, English language learners, etc.), if job hopefuls can’t distinguish between ‘to’ and ‘too,’ their applications go into the bin.

Admittedly, he says, he and his colleagues “write for a living.”

But grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re.*

Writing skills are important now more than ever in this age of digital communication, says consultant David Silverman, contributing editor to the Guide to Better Business Writing, 2nd Edition (Harvard Business Press, 2011). “With text messages and emails, most business communication nowadays is written,” he says. “Unfortunately, our reliance on written communication, which is increasing, is inversely proportional to our abilities and our willingness to learn.” Yet written communication, he emphasizes, makes up the private and public faces of your company.

Silverman helps employees in government agencies and corporations of all sizes develop better written communication skills. The worst mistake we all make? Writing too much. “Being succinct requires time and effort, whereas including everything under the sun seems safer,” he says.

Many companies see good writing skills as an indicator of leadership potential, Silverman says. So what should knowledge workers be able to do?

“Tell a story that people will remember,” Silverman says. “Tell a story with pictures, and remove extraneous information.” In other words, think about what will be in your reader’s mind as you write. Is it cluttered, or is the path to the crucial information straight and clear?

Naturally, the rules for good writing depend on your goal, Silverman notes. Are you striving to instruct, or just to entertain? “The only viable reason to send a business email is to request action,” he says. To write emails that people will read—and act upon—use clear subject lines and include your call to action at the top. “Your messages must answer the reader’s questions, ‘What do you want me to do?’ and ‘How will I know I’ve done it?’” Silverman emphasizes.

We all make mistakes. So for critically important email messages and other documents, Silverman recommends these three steps:

Proofread carefully.
Have someone else read your work.
Wait an hour and read it again before pressing Send.
As you prepare your training budgets for 2013, consider devoting some of your expenditures to developing your employees’ writing skills. After all, even if you only cut that lost productivity of $26,000-plus in half, that is a pretty significant return on investment (ROI).

*Although the word “grammar” may seem yawn-inducing to some, it is a hot topic: Wiens’ post has generated more than 3,200 comments since it was published.

Source: http://www.clarityconsultants.com/learning-resources/poor-writing-is-no-laughing-matter/?bms.tk=BzAEqwsEk20Fk21Vr30Wp33Rr26Js17Ek20BvfrFtg

I know it's the heart of football season and the beginning of basketball season, but baseball is the sport that truly helps to illustrate this particular post. On social media, not all times are created equal. It's important to know where and when to place your pitches to let your fans and followers hit home runs for you.

There have been much more scientific studies that detail this. I have to disagree with most of these because they ones I've seen have missed an important aspect or two. For the most part, they're basing their research on when people are most active on social media and the volume of posts happening at that time. Unfortunately, this is an incomplete data set. I've based my research strictly on business engagement - when are people willing to interact with the companies they like and follow.

Also, I've taken into consideration the science behind the Facebook feed itself. For example, one of the "sweet spots" that nearly every study I've seen skips the dead zone of 5:00am-5:30am. Fewer people are up and about checking their social media at this time, so it's not on the list. This is a huge mistake. Getting in line to appear on Facebook and Twitter feeds means posting at the moment or right before people pick up their smartphones, flip open their tablets, or switch on their computers to hit social media. Posts in the dead zone performed exceptionally well for businesses as they weren't shoved down on the feeds by the ever-important friend posts.

In other words, people saw and engaged with these posts first thing in the morning, setting up a nice day with quick likes, comments, and shares. This helps with posts throughout the day.

It's important to understand where this data originated. Since May, 2012, I've been researching with actual business pages about times, content, tools, etc. This has been a real-world study based on trial and error as well as result tracking. I've read the studies. I've guided my research around them and improved on them with months of testing. These aren't theories. I've seen it all working in action.

With that out of the way, let's go straight into the sweet spots:

• 7:30pm-8:00pm - While most studies considered 5am as too early to post, most of them also considered 8pm as too late. Data shows differently. This wasn't the case in the beginning of my research; the times when people are engaging with businesses on social media has elongated. On 37 of 42 pages posting at this time, we received the highest number of likes and comments as well as retweets and reblogs for posts that happened between 7:30pm and 8:00pm starting in August. Prior to that, the numbers were better from 7:00pm to 7:30pm. This is contrary to daylight trends and did not see a change after the most recent clock change, so I can say with a near certainty that the change is based upon people either staying on social media longer or starting later in the evening. Either way, this sweet spot is a must-time to post, particularly with messages that are either not time-sensitive or relevant for the following day.
  
• 5:00am-5:30am - Again, this time is contrary to other studies, but as I mentioned above it's shown to be an amazing time for businesses to post. Strangely, this was not the case for my personal posts; things that I personally post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and my other individual social networks do not perform as well as the business posts.
  
• 5:30pm-6:00pm - Depending on the study, this is either too late or right at the end of the best times to post. Engagement was high for these posts and helped to set up the engagement on the later post.
  
• 10:00am-10:30am - This falls well within the recommended posting times on most studies I've read and performed better than posts done earlier or later in the morning. Videos did better at this time than other times, something that makes one wonder what people are doing a couple of hours after they get to the office.

* * *

This post has been coming for a long time. For the sake of transparency, I should note that I've been "sitting on it" for a while and relishing in the poor data and bad studies that are guiding many others in the industry, but guilt won out and it became time to come clean.

At the end of the day, the best thing to do is to find your sweet spot. Just like in baseball, not every batter likes it right down the middle. Some like it high and inside. Others go yard to the opposite field when they get pitches low and away. Your business, your demographic, your fan base - those are the things that should determine when you post. This is only a guide.

In the next part of this series, we'll discuss ideas surrounding the types of things to post at different times as well as the importance of understanding the days. The weekend can be a flurry of activity for your business profiles, while Wednesday in general is awful - surprising facts when you consider that businesses generally post more on Wednesday than Saturday and Sunday combined. Stay tuned.

* * *

Aspen Photo / Shutterstock.com

(I just had this video from AutoUSA sent to me from Ralph Paglia)

Greg Coleman, Director of Business Development and E-Commerce at Lexus of Lexington and Toyota on Nicholasville, shares tips for formulating effective pricing strategies for vehicles.

Comment by Ralph Paglia 5 hours ago
Greg Coleman's description of how his dealership has been proactive on pricing transparency as a consistent strategy around building value on what the dealership provides car buyers is strong... Great message delivered by somebody who has done it and seen the results.

If you're a retailer of items that are often purchased as gifts, holiday advertising makes total sense. You're competing for a portion of the most lucrative sales season and getting the word out about the deals, products, and sales that you have going on at your store is important.

If you are not a retailer with holiday items for sale, don't try to take advantage of it all by getting "in the spirit" of the season. You can do more damage than good.

There's an anti-holiday sentiment that has been growing for a few years. Consumers are getting tired of the mess that Christmas shopping has become. It has always been stressful, but now the increase in communication and marketing styles has put it front and center whenever we're connected to media. Television, internet, mobile - all are being bombarded with holiday messages.

This negative sentiment is a dangerous realm if you aren't bringing anything real to the table. You might be having a holiday special of some sort, but if it's not directly tied to something of immediate interest - gifts, food, or travel - you're just participating in the noise.

Instead, take a different approach this year. There's a difference between being "jolly" and trying to capitalize on the season by offering trumped up specials or events that don't directly influence how people will celebrate. Here are some ideas:

• Give - The one noble aspect of the season that most people don't mind is the need for giving. There are plenty of those who could use the help of your business and by participating in local causes and encouraging others to do the same, you'll be doing good while improving your brand image. Be careful not to latch onto the guilt notion - all too often we're bombarded with messages that are supposed to make us feel guilty for having more than others. This is another type of message that gets overdone around the holidays. Give, support, promote, but do it in a celebratory manner.
• A Message of Relaxation - A couple of years ago I saw a car dealership create a "Holiday Triage Center". They set up their service center waiting area with snacks, drinks, comfortable chairs, and a very prominent "no holiday music allowed" atmosphere. They then advertised it as a place to get away from the holiday hustle and bustle for a while, a pit stop to recharge and relax.
• Focus on 2013 - We might not be done with this year, yet, but it's not too early to start pushing out a message of what's to come.This is particularly effective when reaching those who are beyond their holiday hysteria, who have already done their shopping and preparing.

Just because the holidays are upon us doesn't mean that your message has to center around it. Today, there are plenty of holiday messages that are both relevant and irrelevant. If you aren't selling something that goes under a tree, into an over, or that gets people from here to there, don't get sucked into the abyss. Be different.