Are you building value during your presentation/demonstration?

The first variable that I would like to go into is the matter of getting the consumer excited about making their next biggest purchase next to buying a home.  I've been studying the Ritz Carlton Gold Standards and I would like to place emphasis on one of the standards called the "three steps of service."  It's defined as follows: 

• A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest's name.
• Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest's needs.
• Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest's name

Imagine for a second if your dealership gave every customer a Ritz Carlton like experience.  Are you aware of the value that it would bring to your dealership!!  Equally relevant, imagine how much easier it would be to close the deal with this added value. 

Let's look at some issues that may start the buying process off on the wrong foot:

1.  30 people standing outside like a pack of wolves. 

2.  Putting your cigarette out as you approach the customer.

3.  The attire that you are wearing looks like it was balled up in the corner. 

These are things that one would never see at the Ritz Carlton and that is why people don't mind spending the extra money due to the fact that their is a perceived value.  You must separate yourself from the old way of doing business and let the customer know that you take the opportunity to do business serious.  This added value will be needed when you are $200 away in payment or needing a cash investment that he/she didn't consider prior to coming to your store.

Last but not least is be a professional!!  Act like you're at the Ritz Carlton when dealing with customers and watch how your numbers grow i.e. offer your customer something hot or cold to drink, give them a tour of the dealership, take them to the bathroom don't just point where the bathroom is located and if the owner or GM is walking around introduce your customer to those in executive positions.  We must learn that we are in the "Wow" business which means we must have a strategy in place to "Wow" the socks off our customers. 

I'll go over the other variables soon good luck and good selling....

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
Herm Albright

Change. Change can be a scary and powerful word. A word that many of us say that we embrace yet when it comes down to the brass tax we end up putting off the decision that brings about change. You often say, “I’ll wait till after the first of the year,” or “ We will try something different in a few months.” Does this sound familiar too you? Everyone sometime or another this year has probably made those statements or some form of those statements, I myself have caught myself making a form of those statements here recently.

So many times we often find ourselves reverting back to the old routine that has worked for us in the past. If you are a dealer and have not sold enough cars for the month, don’t you call up our local Radio and TV people and increase your ad spend, to drive more traffic? Of course you do, because in the past this idea has worked for you. Sure this may be a short-term fix to drive traffic, but what about a long-term fix? If you could change today and see increased results tomorrow, would you go ahead and make that change or set in motion for that change to come about?

By now we all know the importance of marketing ourselves online through our website and now through social media. If not, there are a plethora of resources made available out there to you, so you can make the necessary changes to not only finish 2012 strong, but start 2013 off in the right direction.

Here are some resources that are made available to you that you can explore to find new ideas to help your dealership grow into what you always envisioned it to be.

1. www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com
2. www.dealerelite.com
3. www.automotiveinternetsales.com

At any given time you can visit these three resources and connect with industry professionals that always ready and willing to help you explore new avenues to increase your dealerships market share. If you are looking for change and decided that you are ready to take the leap, please feel free to visit these sites. The information is there just waiting for you to discover.

This is for all of you leaders out there and all of you who will be leaders in the future. The way to measure a leader is by the people who follow them. If you are over others and you lead them to success, you are successful. If you try to lead people and they despise you, you are a tyrant. To be a truly great leader, learn who you are leading. Find out what motivates them, what drives them, and what breaks them. Be the kind of leader that people want to follow. Make them want to drink the cool aid. They say that some people are born leaders. I believe that leadership is a set of skills that must be learned, practiced, and cultivated. As a leader, you should also look for leadership qualities in others under you, and work with them to develop the next leaders.

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.

Building Customer Relationships

Training Tips from Dealer Synergy

One of the biggest keys to remember about automotive sales is building the relationship with the customer. From the first email to the first phone call, to the keys in their hands...it all builds the relationship. We all know that buying a vehicle is one of the most significant purchases in a person's life. If we are going to get someone to buy from us, we must earn their trust. We could have the best prices, best service departments, earn more awards, and give away the most to charity, but if we don't work on building a good relationship with our customers, it all goes to waste. When you greet someone on the phone or on the lot, the customers tie you to the entire dealership. Treating customers with respect will go a long way. Think of them as family (if you get along with your family). How would you want your parents, grandparents, or siblings to be treated if they contacted your dealership? Would you want someone to answer the phone and rush to the next call...blowing off most of what they said to rush to make their quota? No. You would want their experience to be pleasant. You would want their concerns heard and addressed. You would want them to feel comfortable and know they are getting the best vehicle to fit their needs and the best deal on that vehicle. Think about these things on the next customer you encounter. What kind of impression are you making on them? What are they going to tell all of their friends and family about you and the dealership? 

Let there be absolutely, positively no mistake here. "Tags" have completely different uses depending on the platform on which they're used. We're going to take a look at three of the most popular platforms and how tags affect them: Wordpress, Ning, and Tumblr.

Before we dive into each, let's get one thing out of the way. Those who say that tags are old and no longer useful are simply being lazy and encouraging the same. It takes less than 30 seconds to come up with a handful of appropriate tags to go along with any blog post and therefore it falls under the category of "why not?" Nobody outside of Mountain View, CA, knows for certain how tags benefit search engine optimization. They do, however, definitely have an opportunity to benefit the reader. It's a best practice that is getting pushed aside by many. Don't fall into the laziness trap. Tag away!

Tags for Wordpress

Depending on how you have your site indexing set up in the back end, tags allow search engines to find similar articles. The two major types of taxonomy, tags and categories, are intended to help people navigate a blog. As a result, Google and Bing will follow tags and categories in order to see what level of understanding a blog has on each individual topic.

The tag pages themselves, once visited, will give the search engines a depth-of-content picture. For example, if you have a blog for a Nissan dealership that often uses the tag "Altima", the search engines will be able to see that you have written a good amount of content on the topic. Many would argue that they know this already and that semantic indexing is designed in part to replace tagging as a method of establishing authority, but again, "why not?" It definitely doesn't hurt to tag. It probably helps on Wordpress, even if only a little. There's not reason to skip the few seconds it takes to add them.

Tags for Ning

On the Ning social platform, tags work in ways similar to Wordpress, but with an added bonus. Blog posts on Ning do not have categories the way that discussions do. As a result, tags become the primary taxonomy that search engines and readers use to navigate a site when they want to see similar articles.

Some have also speculated that there is a direct SEO value to the individual post, that the search engines look at tags very similar to how they look at highlighted content and will give a post a lift in the rankings as a result. This is unconfirmed and I've never tested it myself, but I would speculate that it is true.

Tags for Tumblr

This is an entirely different ballgame. On Tumblr, tags are everything. The community lives off of tags in a way that is similar to hashtags on Twitter, but there are certain ones that are eternally "trending", so to speak.

Tags are Tumblr users' primary method of discovery. Tumblr has devalued them a bit in recent months and focused on "Spotlight" that highlights individually influential tumblogs rather than the community-rich "Explore" page that lets people surf tags, but they're still extremely important and can help a new tumblog get found by the community. Getting found on Tumblr is the key to both social exposure and search; reblogs by other Tumblr users are extremely important and can mean the difference between having an invisible tumblog and having an extremely popular one.

Tags for Humans

At the end of the day, the real benefit of tags should be for the readers. Google and Bing may or may not pay attention to them, but allowing your blog visitors to latch onto a particular topic and follow it all the way through is a way to make your blog stickier.

Again, it takes second. Why not?

“Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well.”
- Josh Billings

At Dealer Synergy, we stress the importance of learning the customer's expectations and then surpassing them. Sometimes our own personal expectations get a little lost in the shuffle. That is the focus of the 3 Minute book. Set your expectations for yourself. Make some of them wild and extravagant. You may be surprised how much you will accomplish when you start picturing yourself with that kind of success. It can happen. It can happen to you. Have enough faith in yourself to know that you, and your success, are worth the work it takes to achieve it. The only real limits to your success are the limits to your own imagination and determination.

For the past several years, content has been a component of search engine and social media marketing that fell far below the tricks and techniques that helped achieve business goals. It was possible to be successful with limited or low-quality content. In fact, there are those who were able to succeed with no content at all, fooling the search engines and social media sites with methods that proved to be more fruitful than actually creating content that the audience wanted.

Those days are finally behind us. It has been a long time coming, but now that search engines, social media sites, and people themselves have seen through the tricks, it's a whole new world in marketing. Today, content rests at the top of the marketing funnel with search engine optimization and social media marketing reduced to components of an overall content marketing strategy. Here's what it all means:

Why Content is Finally King

Despite the proclamations of many marketers over the years, content has not been "king" until very recently. It was always useful, but great content without supporting inbound links would not rank and great content without strong social media promotions would not go viral. Things have changed.

Amazing content that is useful, entertaining, or both now has a better opportunity to be seen through both search and social. Google is finding the content more easily, making it possible for it to be found without having to artificially inflate the inbound link count. Today, link-building is still an extremely important component of a proper search strategy, but it must center around quality content rather than boost up poor content.

Good links are still powerful and high-quality content can help to generate these links. With a little seeding, the links can come in more easily than in the past when most of the links that marketers created were bulk rather than quality.

From a social perspective, there's still a distinct need for some promotions. Unlike Google, Facebook and the other social media sites will not actively find your content. However, by getting it a little promotional exposure by sharing it and focusing on it from the website homepage or landing pages, the content can be found. From there, it's a matter of allowing the content to be easily shared.

Rising social sites like Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal for seeding the promotions of content. It can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ as well, of course, but the tighter communities on Pinterest and Tumblr actually create an easier path to take content viral on social media than the larger sites. There's a need for a strong account or two to promote them, but it's not as involved as building power accounts on Facebook or Twitter. One can be exceptional at Tumblr and Pinterest very quickly.

Content is at the top of the marketing food chain. It's the spark that generates search marketing links and social signals. It's also the source of social media sharing. Rather than use content for SEO or social media marketing, smart marketers will switch it up and use the content as the central point through which search and social marketing can flow.

There will be complaints. I can already smell the onslaught of, "what about Blogger" and "Typepad is much more powerful". There will be others that say, "but Tumblr's not really a blogging platform". Let's put all of that to rest quickly...

For business blogs, Wordpress and Tumblr are the best options out there. I'd add "in my humble opinion" but that would detract from the absolute force of my opinion.

Google's Blogger has made some amazing changes recently and I would not argue against it as a decent platform, but it lacks the plugin compatibility of Wordpress and isn't quite as easy to use as Tumblr, so it doesn't fit into this particular argument. We're going to focus on the two extremes - those who want the most powerful and those who want the easiest. Keep in mind, today's blogging platforms are all easy to some extent as well as powerful. The most important criteria is access and comfort. In other words, if you're doing well and posting consistently with Typepad, for example, don't go changing because some guy says Wordpress is more powerful or Tumblr is easier. If it works with you, keep at it.

Wordpress is Powerful

For those who want the most gadgets, plugins, and flexibility, Wordpress is the hands down winner for business blogging. It can act as a full-blown content management system for those who know how to use it, or it can stay true to its original calling and act as the premier blogging platform. There are so many themes available and dozens more being created every week. Perhaps most importantly, its PHP base allows it to works seamlessly with modern concepts such as adaptive website design and HTML5.

If your goal is to be a "power blogger" and post regularly, Wordpress is ideal. It isn't hard but there is definitely a learning curve associated with it. One does not simply start blogging out of the gate with Wordpress. Here are some of the benefits of using it, particularly as a self-hosted installation rather than by adding a free blog on Wordpress.com:

• It has massive collection of plugins. The only bad part is that one must be careful not to install too many as it can slow down the site and bloat the code.
  
• With caching, Wordpress is practically indestructible. You could hit the front page of Yahoo with a story and still stay online with a decent host and the stories cached.
  
• Google and Bing love the code. Between the instant pings once a post is published to the clean way that the code presents itself to the search engines, those who want to rank with their blog posts must use Wordpress. It ranks better than Blogger, a Google property.
  
• Decent access to social media through the right tools makes it one notch below Tumblr when it comes to true social media integration.

Tumblr is Easy

Don't get me wrong. Tumblr does have some robust features that allows it to be a strong platform for even the most active power bloggers, but that's not the reason that you use it. It's possible to post as quickly as you can type (or copy and paste in the case of image or video posts). The platform makes it super-easy to instantly format. For example, Wordpress out-of-the-box requires the embed code plugged into the HTML to present a video. You have to know the dimensions of your blog and use the old embed code from YouTube. Tumblr, on the other hand, only needs the URL. It auto-formats it to the right size - no embed code needed.

If you are more concerned about the ability to get content posted easily and quickly and less concerned about whether it's perfectly formatted, Tumblr is the right platform for your business. Here are some of the benefits:

• A strong built-in community allows for instant visitors to your site through proper tagging.
  
• Reblogging makes posting content easier than even posting the unique content. Unlike Wordpress, Tumblr actually encourages reblogging and tracks it for the source.
  
• Direct integration with Facebook and Twitter is native to Tumblr; there are Wordpress plugins available, but native is always better for integration.
  
• There is nothing wrong with using a subdomain on Tumblr.com. It's just as robust as putting it on your own domain, whereas Wordpress.com is a symbol of weakness.

Are you building value during your presentation/demonstration?

In the automotive industry we must learn the difference between building value versus just giving the car away.  We've all seen the sales professional that sells 15 cars for the month and makes $1,500 i.e. 15 mini deals.  How demotivating to spend an entire month putting in 60+ hours and then see a less than average paycheck; I truly believe the solution to this problem is one must learn how to build value and hold gross while your presenting your four square.  I've heard too many people complain about not making any money and at the end of the day he/she must look in the mirror and analyze themselves. 

Here are a couple things that I believe will help end this epidemic:

• Stop letting the sales manager/closer close 99% of your deals i.e. become a closer not a order taker!!
• Get the consumer excited about making their next biggest purchase next to buying a home
• Spend some time outside of work perfecting your closing skills
• Get better with product knowledge
• Always assume the sale
• Don't wait until the first pencil to close the sale ask closing questions during the sale

There are many more but I just wanted to point out a few that I believe will help with helping people get better with holding gross.  Good luck and good selling..... 

As the convergence of search and social continues to become a reality, it's important for dealers to understand that they need content on their websites that can be shared. People will not share inventory on Facebook. They won't tweet specials out to their followers. They won't click the Google +1 buttons on your pages unless you specifically ask them to, and there simply isn't enough people to ask to really have an impact.

For the social signals component of SEO to work properly on a car dealer website, there has to be content that people are willing to share. This is a challenge because it goes against everything we've learned over the years about staying focused and posting only what is relevant to selling more cars, getting more people into the service bay, or increasing parts and accessory sales.

First, let's get an understanding of how social signals work for your websites.

What Are Social Signals?

There are certain tiers of social signals that may or may not affect search rankings. At the top level, we know based upon testing and SEO industry insights that Google+, Facebook, and Twitter all have an influence on Google rankings while Facebook and Twitter have an affect on Bing rankings. Anyone who contests this isn't paying attention to what is happening in the outside SEO world or they don't have a solution to account for it so they're sticking their heads (and the heads of their clients) in the sand in hopes that it will go away.

The next tiers of social signals are debatable and it's best (for now) if dealers only use them if they have the time and manpower to dabble. If you are pressed for time and need to focus on what definitely works, the big three listed above are plenty. If you can mess around with Pinterest, Tumblr, Foursquare, Instagram, or any of the other emerging social sites, go for it. They do not have tested and proven affects on search rankings but many believe they do.

Why Are They Important

Google and Bing are both heading in a relatively new direction with their algorithm. For a couple of years now they have been more focused on the idea that social signals give their insight the human-curated they have always craved, but this year the dabbling into social signals has emerged into something tangible.

For Google in particular, the results have been dramatic. We've been able to move extremely challenging keywords up in the rankings quickly using just social signals and proper internal linking structures. With some attributing up to 1/3rd of the tangible algorithm influencing factors to social signals (with inbound links and onsite content accounting for the other 2/3rds), not having a social signal strategy means you can get, at best, 67% of the optimization potential if you do everything else perfectly.

It happens on two levels: the page and the domain. Each page that gets social signals has an opportunity to rank better, period. That goes without challenge. The second component that some would debate but that testing has proven to be correct is that social signals affect the overall optimization of a domain. In other words, posting great pictures of an individual car and getting a good amount of Google +1s, Facebook likes, and Tweets can help other pages on your website rank better as well.

The Examples

Now that you hopefully understand what social signals are and why they're important, let's take a look at the four things you can post on your website today that can bring additional social signals. First, here's a portion of a webinar we did on the topic. It's not the entire webinar, but it covers the four examples we talk about here:

1. Great Cars

You are a car dealer. You have great cars. Post them on your website! I'm not talking about pictures of your Ford Focus inventory. I'm talking about the cool, sharable cars that you have. Most dealerships have cars whether hot new vehicles or cool trades that grace their lot. If you run out of those, find images. A Chevrolet dealership could find a handful of cool pictures of the 1973 Chevy Camaro, for example.

2. Local Images

Every dealership in America is surrounded by interesting places. If you're close to a major metro, there are probably landmarks or skyline images that people in the area would love to share on their social media. In the example in the video, a Seattle-area dealer had a page dedicated to the Space Needle.

If you're not in a metro area, you likely have wonderful natural settings that can make for a great image page. These images can be loosely relevant to your website because it focuses on the local area that you are targeting, but the most important thing to remember is that these images, once shared on social media, help your website increase its overall social signals for the domain.

3. Local Organizations, Events, and Charities

This is where videos can really make a difference. Your dealership is likely associated with some local events, charities, or other activities that are relevant to the local audience. Getting the locals to share these activities as they're posted on your website is much easier than getting them to share your inventory or specials.

4. Infographics

Social media is a visual realm. With thousands of infographics easily available to post on your website, you have an untapped source of content that people will be willing to share. The key is finding the right ones and writing up some quick but thoughtful text about it.

A Tree Falls in an Empty Forest

It's not enough to post the content. You have to be able to get it shared. For many, you'll have to rely on your employees, friends, and even family to get the signals rolling. The more it's shared, the better. Unfortunately, this is a "fake it until you make it" strategy, but it works.

Over time, you'll be able to either build up your own clout in social media to get it out there or you may want to consider promotional teams to get the word out. Either way, it starts with the content. Once you have the content that is worth sharing, getting it shared is possible. It's not easy, but you've done harder things than getting something popular on social media.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”
-Calvin Coolidge

Days like yesterday are the reason we have score cards to track how we're working towards our goals. We've been keeping a great pace and setting a lot of appointments and those appointments we've set are now becoming sales (3 yesterday, 2 the day before, 2 the day before that). We set about half the appointments we've been trending to set yesterday (7 set, average is 12.5). When we drill down to see why it's very obvious: we had 2 coordinators working yesterday and barely had 80 attempts collectively. We have to police ourselves and make sure we're doing the job day-in and day-out, regardless of what's happening outside our office. We all know yesterday was Black Friday, but looking at our performance, do you feel like you gave the same level of performance yesterday that you have been giving for the past week and a half?

We have to pick ourselves back up and be persistent. Especially now, when we are reaping the fruits of our labors.

120 Attempts each, every day, without exception is how we reach the goals we set for ourselves. Press on and we will realize those goals.

Purists will say that using apps and dashboards like Hootsuite or Buffer take away the fundamental interpersonal relationships that are built through social media. By scheduling posts or sending them through these tools, users won't be able to see the person behind the message, they say.

Marketers find other reasons to avoid dashboards, particularly with Facebook. The posts often do not carry as much weight as ones posted directly through Facebook, making it convenient but less effective to use tools. Both purists and marketers may be correct, but there's one major advantage that dashboards give us: statistics.

In this infographic by Hootsuite, we explore the usage trends of one of the biggest dashboard companies out there. The focus is on Twitter, but expansion into other apps and services allow these companies to start consolidating the overall posting process, particularly for businesses. Click to enlarge.

Related articles

• Conversations have been added to Hootsuite
• Why I Use Buffer More Than Hootsuite
• HootSuite expands App Directory with reddit, StumbleUpon and other social media apps
• HootSuite Partners with Webtrends to Track Social Media ROI
• Social Dashboard HootSuite Hits 4 Million-User Mark [Infographic]

Email Customers - Hot or Not? Earning the right to the phone number.

I decided to write this as soon as the deal ended while it was still fresh on my mind. I've noticed in my personal department that over time email customers become looked upon as dead or cold leads before they have even been touched. I was recently reading an article about a very successful Internet Department that explained how we must "earn the right" to have the phone number with many customers. Dealer Synergy has taught the same principle on the phone through their phone scripts that enable the coordinators to earn the number. The same goes for email only leads. Hopefully this short example will remind us to work email customers just as hard as phone customers.

The customer submitted the lead this morning, it was an email only lead. Right off the bat my coordinator was upset. I stated this is a hot customer, but instead of sending an email template as usual, send the Value Package followed by a personal email to start the trust building process. The customer replied within a few minutes wanting price, like most. From this point I personally took over the customer and worked the customer. We emailed over price, trade value, and financing options. In each email I was very personal and expressed my confidence in the dealership, the product, and in myself. Not in a single email did I ever give the customer an exact price whether it be on trade or on the vehicle he was interested in. Rather I continued turn the customers focus from absolutes to the value of our dealerships. I did give the customer a range to keep him confident. After about 4-5 emails the customer said "outstanding" and emailed me his number. I immediately called the customer and was greeted by a happy customer. He was excited and enthusiastic about the deal and set the appointment. In the end the customer wanted all the paperwork done before he got here so he could sign and drive.

The conclusion is this "Email Only" customer turned into an easy sign and drive customer. This deal might have even been easier than a simple phone up appointment. Through building value, gaining trust, and gaining confidence, the customer bought. Not every deal turns out this way, and this is in no way an attempt to blow smoke. I am sharing this to remind everyone that every lead is considered hot. Buy or Die right? Remember to treat every type and source of lead equal, you just might not know which one is ready to buy today.

There was a time not too long ago when it was hard to get dealers to post enough. The mythical beast known as EdgeRank (which Facebook technically hasn't used in a long time, but that's not important now) compels people to want to maximize the exposure of their posts by keeping a constant flow of positive engagement going towards their Facebook page. More on that in a moment.

Before we get into the numbers surrounding posting, let's look at this from a human perspective. Facebook is the venue through which people are able to communicate in their own way with their friends and family. By "in their own way," I mean that not everyone makes it a two-way conversation, but they're still receiving information through Facebook. Those of us who are avid users couldn't imagine not liking, commenting, or sharing, but there is a large chunk of active Facebook users who rarely interact on it but who still log in and check it on a regular basis. These people are important, but again, more on them in a moment.

From a human perspective, most people are not interested in what a dealership has to say outside of ways that it can benefit them directly. Coupons, specials, events, etc - they don't mind seeing these for the most part. That's what they were likely expecting when they liked the dealer's page. It's not like Skittles; some brands are able to gather a following based upon simply being utterly entertaining. With car dealers, it's possible to be like that but extremely difficult. It takes time, effort, money, and often a willingness to drive away from the direct business needs into a realm of branding that is risky.

Now, let's get an understanding of the math, as promised.

The Algorithm: Why Posting Often is Good

We won't get into a lengthy discussion on the intricacies of the Facebook news feed algorithm - I'm not sure that a single blog post dedicated to the subject would be enough to do it justice and it's changing so rapidly (a big change just yesterday) that it would be outdated in weeks at best. There are, however, a few basic underlying premises that are important to understand today and that will likely stay in effect in one form or another for a long time to come.

Every time you post something to Facebook, it will be exposed to certain people in different ways. This exposure does not necessarily mean that they will see your post. It just means that they have an opportunity to see it in their news feed. The age of the post is one criteria that determines how high on the news feed they'll see it. If you post something and someone starts looking at their news feed right afterwards, that person has a better chance of seeing it than someone who checks their news feed 5 hours later. Where your posts stand from an engagement perspective with each individual person plays an important role as well. If someone has liked, shared, or commented on some of your posts in the past, Facebook will push your posts higher in their news feed. Yours might show up higher than posts by other businesses whose posts the individual has not liked.

Finally, there is the "friends who liked it" factor. If Bob likes a picture of himself that a dealership took and posted on their page, Bob's friends will be more likely to see it in their news feed as well.

This is just a basic overview and there's a lot more that goes into it, but it's enough to discuss why frequency and timing of posts is important.

The Humanity: Why Posting Often is Bad

Little Timmy sliding into third base. It's for pictures like these that the majority of pure Facebook users visit the site in the first place. They want to see what their ex-boyfriend from high school is doing. They want to see videos of their cousin at her recital 1400 miles away. They want to see if the guy in the accounting department is finally single again.

For the most part, they don't want to see what new trade in a local dealer just got on the lot. That's not to say that they won't interact with it if they do see it. Heck, there's a chance (a very good one if done properly) that this might spark them to want to see what else the dealer has since their car started making a weird noise on the way home from work today, which is why we continue to believe in the promise of social media. However, it's not the intent. They didn't check their Facebook feed in hopes of seeing a car. They wanted little Timmy.

This is especially true for the people I mentioned earlier, the ones who do not interact often but who check Facebook regularly. For these people, cat pictures will not be effective.

It's the human factor that makes it the most challenging for businesses to get a foothold in social media. Some have tried to "blend in" by posting funny cat pictures to their feed. They believe (in many cases, rightfully so) that they can get into the mix of their fans Facebook feeds by entertaining them. While this strategy can be effective, it's also very challenging, especially over time as fatigue sets in.

There's only so many funny cat pictures you can post before you start annoying people. They might like it. They might appreciate your funny cat for a time, but in the end they came for little Timmy and if you can't deliver him, you're not going to stay high on their list forever.

To Overpost or Not to Overpost

That is the question. Hopefully you're not totally confused at this point, as I've basically said there are advantages and disadvantages to posting often. The reality of the answer comes down to your dealership and which social media personality you want to hold. There are two primary extremes: the business-only infrequent poster and the community-engaged frequent poster. In between, there are more complex strategies that I'm not going to go into directly, but here's a breakdown of the two ends of the spectrum:

The Infrequent Poster

• Posts 1-4 times a week
• Posts only relevant business posts such as offers and customer testimonials
• Takes a big risk of never being seen without paid Facebook promotions
• Stays on point and has a lower chance of being unliked or removed from the news feed

The Frequent Poster

• Posts 1-4 times a day or more
• Mixes in relevant posts with engagement-driven posts
• Takes a big risk of being unliked or removed from the feed for fatigue
• Has the opportunity to play the EdgeRank game and get their brands exposed to the broader community

My advice: if you are not absolutely sure your strategy of frequent posting is going to work OR if you are not keeping up to date (3 major changes in the last two weeks) with the Facebook algorithm OR if you're not investing money into Facebook ads, than you're better off toning down the posts. This goes contrary to what I have said as recently as three months ago, but that's the nature of this game. It changes so rapidly that someone like me who isn't knee deep in trying to run a dealership, who spends several hours a day exploring, practicing, and staying on top of social media, still must make adjustments to recommended strategies on a regular basis.

Be the best or play it safe. Don't overpost unless you're positive you know what you're doing. If you think you're on top of it enough, take a look at the related posts below. These all discuss a few major changes that Facebook has made in the last week.

Related articles

• Facebook News Feed Placement Is All About Relevancy (allfacebook.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: Facebook: Yes, We Changed Your News Feed (FB) (businessinsider.com)
• Facebook Clears The Air On News Feed, Promoted Posts (forbes.com)
• There Are Now 4 Ways Facebook Determines What To Show You In Your News Feeds (businessinsider.com)
• This Facebook "All" Link Lets You See An Unfiltered News Feed, But It Might Get Shut Down (techcrunch.com)
• New Facebook Option Can Help Brands Regain Fan Engagement (news.terra.com)
• Facebook reveals the 4 factors that determine News Feed content (prdaily.com)
• Why Facebook Won't Give You a Straight-Up News Feed (mashable.com)
• Getting "Liked" Was Tough Enough, Getting Notified... Is a Whole New Ballgame (business2community.com)
• Facebook Adds a News Feed Option: 'Pages Only' (mashable.com)

Photo sharing has been around a long time now and though the modes of capturing and sharing a photograph may have changed, the idea behind photo sharing still holds true. Photos spark an emotional connection in a way that text cannot. How many of you remember your family’s old photo album? It either lived on your living room table or resided on a shelf next to some other forgotten books, but always seemed to make an appearance on holidays or special occasions. Do you remember how your Mother or Grandmother would fumble through the album recounting the good old days when you were a child or when your parents were children? Do you remember how emotional she would get when she would pull out a photo and pass it around for everyone to relive that forgotten memory? Odds are you know what I am talking about and by now you are probably gazing over the photos that are on your desk or the photos that are saved in your smart phone, which in-turn has sparked your own emotional response. The point that I am getting at is that photos are powerful and if used with your social media can spark an emotional connection with your dealership, photos can make your dealership and your dealerships brand more relatable and lets not forget how fun taking photos are and how those photos can engage your customers on your social media outlets.

In the past few months we have seen the emergence of a new photo sharing, platform with the introduction of Instagram. The Instagram platform has become immensely popular over the last few months garnering a user base of over 100 million users and these users love sharing their photos with their friends and followers, because Instagram gives them the option of altering their photos with special effects and cool filters.

Your dealership can start using this new type of social media photo sharing as a way to market your dealership and use side by side with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to build upon the following you already have. People love strong visual photos, so posting photos of your dealership, your vehicles, your employees, and customers will make your followers feel closer to you, as if they are apart of your dealerships family photo album. Ultimately, its photo sharing marketing that will help your dealership build brand awareness and have a social media program that is engaging.

How can your dealership use Instagram for marketing?

Geotagging

With one of Instagram’s latest updates, your dealership now has the option to tag a specific location with their images, which are saved to a personal photomap. These can be shared with your followers. This is great because your dealership has a physical location and say your dealership is having an off-site sale, or some of your employees have volunteered to do work for the community, then you can snap a photo and tag your location to let your followers know where you can be found.

Behind the Scenes Look at Your Dealership

The meat and potatoes of social media is sharing. Your fans and followers are giving your dealership a chance to reach them on a more personal level so make sure your dealership is reciprocating. Take pictures of your sales staff in the dealership. Take photos of upcoming vehicles to give them a sneak peak. If you’re on the road promoting your dealership, or volunteering to do community service, take photos along the way and share with your followers. Give your fans and followers a real sense of how things are behind the scenes at your dealership and help them to feel apart of the family.

#Hashtags

If your dealership uses Twitter, then you probably know how effective hash tags can be when sharing content. You can use the same hash tags on your Instagram photos. Use hash tags that are relevant to your dealership and the auto industry as a whole to make it easier for people to find you. For example, if you have a Ford dealership you could use hash tags like #ford, #newmustang, #fusion, and #focus.

Encourage Fans and Followers to Post Images

Fans and followers who have already purchased a vehicle, purchased parts from your parts department, or gotten their vehicle serviced at your service department should be encouraged to take a photo of themselves with their new vehicle, or at your parts and service departments and tag it with one of your hash tags. This will introduce their friends to your dealership and show them how happy they are with your dealership. This is powerful!

Hold A Contest

Everyone loves a chance to win a prize and using Instagram to hold a photo contest is a fantastic way to give people what they want and to create some buzz about your dealership. You can ask your fans and followers to send in their best picture of them with their new car or a picture of them at your parts department or service department. Have them not only post to your social media pages, but to their own as well. Then the photo that receives the most comments and likes will win the prize. This is a great way to not only create buzz for your dealership, but to encourage engagement on your social media outlets.

If your dealership has not signed up with Instagram yet, there is no time like the present to get started. It’s very easy and I promise your employees will want to take part by taking photos and uploading them.