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Stay Ahead of the Competition with Google's Latest Changes

Google has made more changes that affect how people find your dealership. The competition is getting tougher but Hard Facts is here to help. Watch now and discover why you need to step up your Google ranking to continue getting traffic.

As an SEO, I've grown accustomed to frequent news about updates and other changes made to Google's algorithm. But today's news from the world's leading search engine took me for a loop.

Here at Wikimotive, the idea of machine learning and AI as a part of future search results has been something we thought of as semi-futuristic. We knew Google was dabbling in machine learning AI, but assumed the technology was years away from being tested. But it turns out it's already here, and it's called RankBrain.

To quickly get you up to speed on this new search technology, we've put together five quick facts every SEO needs to know:

1. RankBrain is a Machine-Learning Artificial Intelligence System

We all knew it was coming. The robot takeover is here, and it's all Google's fault.

With the RankBrain system, Google has officially put search results in the hands of a machine-learning artificial intelligence system. Unlike the search algorithm it's a part of, which requires updates from Google's search engineers, RankBrain is able to learn and better supply results related to completely unique searches.

This means it's able to give users the best results possible for longtail and conversational search queries.
   

2. RankBrain Expands Upon Hummingbird

In 2013, the Hummingbird algorithm brought better conversational search results to Google. This meant you could ask Google questions and get accurate results instead of formatting your query to match what Google understood.

Hummingbird was able to better understand words and how they were connected in order to supply quality and relevant results for many longer queries.

RankBrain builds on to what Google started with Hummingbird, but is able to detect patterns and connect dots that were unable to be detected by the non-AI algorithm. Because of this, Google can now learn and begin to connect unique searches with others in order to provide better and better results for those that use long and conversational queries.
    

3. RankBrain is Smarter Than Google's Search Engineers

As a company, Google is made up of some of the world's best and brightest software engineers. You'd think that all of that time spent creating and tweaking algorithms and updates would give them the ability to outsmart a new AI like RankBrain.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

In one experiment, the company put its search engineers head-to-head with RankBrain. They were asked to look at certain webpages and make a guess as to which page would rank at the top of Google search results. The engineers were correct 70 percent of the time, but RankBrain was correct 80 percent of the time.

I'm sure they all had questions about job security afterward.
   

4. RankBrain is Used to Process a "Very Large Fraction" of Queries

While the exact number hasn't been made public, Google did announce that RankBrain is an active part of the process that serves a "very large fraction" of its search queries.

At this point, there's no word of any reported traffic effects from RankBrain, which has reportedly been going through a rollout process since early 2015. As we learn more about the technology, though, it's expected that SEOs will put together the pieces of the puzzle to determine where the changes are being made, as well as the fallout from said changes.
   

5. RankBrain is Now the Third-Most Important "Signal"

Because RankBrain is a part of Hummingbird, it acts as just another one of the hundreds of signals used by Google to rank pages and serve results. However, Greg Corrado, a senior research scientist at Google, told Bloomberg that RankBrain has already become the third-most important signal for serving search results.

So despite being new technology, it's clear Google is betting big on RankBrain.

There are still plenty of questions on the table about RankBrain, especially amongst SEOs. Wikimotive will keep a close eye on all developments involving RankBrain and report new findings as they come in.

Originally Published to Wikimotive.com on October 26, 2015. 

Women buyers have different reasons than men for choosing where they finalize the deal. Understanding the nuances of women’s buying habits can mean the difference of making a sale or losing it.

It's easy to make the assumption that price is the first priority. Price does matter, but it’s weighed along with more emotional priorities like trust and respect. When women are asked their reasons for purchasing at a particular dealership, price is the #2 factor. The top reason is a positive engagement with the sale associate.

Now, think about your car ads and commercials that run each week. How much focus is on the price? Remember women are buying over half of the cars today and influencing 80% of the deals! Be careful your advertising isn’t too slanted toward sounding like power tools from the home improvement store. Cars and power tools may be perceived the same by men, but women see more nuance in the car deal.

Did You Know?

Women rely on reviews and reputation 50% more than men. Showcase your stellar reputation in commercials so women "get" what a reputable, comfortable and trustworthy place your store is to do business.

Sell more than cars in your advertising. Women look at car ads, read dealer reviews and use social media to help make a car buying decision. Be the dealership that attracts women because they can get a great deal from a trusted, respectful sales advisor AND great service for the next five to eight years.

Show that your customers matter before, during and after the deal. Include reviews by women on your website and social media. Provide stories about happy customers. Show women that your service center is professional, fast, and trustworthy and provides amenities that matter to women, like a comfortable place to wait, service hours that respect her time and extras, like a courtesy car.

Have You Downloaded Our FREE Report On Millennial Women Car Buyers?

There’s a new marketing tool that pinpoints where your customers live and allows you to target them with specific ads. On this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, I cover this new technology and what it can mean for your business.

Digital advertising has definitely increased it's effectiveness since the days of untargeted spam pop-ups. Now, behavioral, geographic and demographic targeting have made digital marketing very effective - especially on mobile. While marketing that actually brings in conversions en-masse was confined for the most part to only the most affluent advertisers, thanks to higher levels of targeting, even small businesses can now benefit from precise marketing.

Granularity is key when building campaigns on a small digital marketing budget. Layering in multiple 3rd party segments helps refine customers down to only those that are most interested in a business' products or services. For example, an auto dealer could layer in 3rd party data to find in-market buyers, and target directly to those users to make the most of their digital marketing spend.

The challenge for small businesses is to make sure that they eliminate anything that makes buying something on their website difficult. Everything must load quickly and correctly, or the momentum created by digital marketing gets lost when the user hits a site or landing page. Calls to action must be obvious and easy to use, even on a mobile device. Businesses should have a click-to-call option on the mobile version of their website.

Digital marketing has areas where it is acceptable to have a longer message, but companies should be aware that this doesn't work as well on mobile, and that a concise version of their message might be a better way to gain conversions. Because most users browse and shop on mobile devices, campaigns should optimize for mobile first and work backwards to ensure a comparable experience on desktops and laptops, rather than the other way around.

Digital marketing is complicated, but with some targeting and mobile-optimized campaigns, a business can thrive regardless of advertising budget. What are some other ways small businesses can get ahead in today's marketing climate?

How Customer Reviews Affect You

Most consumers read local business reviews online before purchasing products, but do they actually trust the reviews? This week on Hard Facts, Samantha tells you how to engage audiences and earn their trust.

The web revolves around content. A lot of content. According to Internet Live Stats, there are currently around 200 million active websites. That's not individual pages, but actual unique websites that can contain millions of pages of their own.

Standing out from the crowd is a lot more difficult than it used to be, but not impossible. Using the information below, you can start creating better content that is more easily discoverable by search engine users and more easily shareable on the social web.

As the web grows even more in 2016, these five rules will help you create great content and stand out better than ever before.

Be Evergreen

The problem with most content is that it has an expiration date. Yes, just like your milk and eggs content can go bad. It won't start clumping up or develop a disgusting smell, but it will become worthless to readers after a certain amount of time.

Sometimes you can't avoid this. For instance, I would never suggest to a car dealer that writing about the current model year is pointless because the manufacturer is just going to create a new one the next year. No, I'd tell them they need to consistently be creating new content or updating existing content to reflect or keep up with changes.

Your ultimate goal, however, should be to focus as much of your time on content that does not become irrelevant after a certain time. Evergreen content allows you to grow traffic more consistently because this content doesn't lose traction as quickly as date-dependent content.

When done correctly, evergreen content can work wonders for your overall organic traffic numbers. By targeting popular topics, you'll find it's often like discovering oil on your property. Once you've finished the work, you can sit back and let the traffic flow in like checks from the oil company.

Be Socially Shareable

If you're new to online content and digital marketing, the term "shareable" might throw you for a loop at first. But the concept is simple: shareable content invokes action from users. This is the type of stuff your mom used to forward you via email but now shares via Facebook to all of her friends and family.

How does it invoke action from users?

Shareable content can usually be described as funny, uplifting, sad, and/or informative. When you discover this content, it makes you think about other people and how they'd like it. Most of the time you also enjoy the content, but a lot of shares are for specific friends or groups of friends.

For example, I've made it public to my Facebook friends that I love my cat. Because this has become so tied to my Facebook profile, friends regularly share content about cats with me. Whether it's a funny video about cats vs. dogs or an informative article about how cats actually hate us all, it's clear people associate me with that type of content.

How do I create shareable content?

Do you want to make people laugh, inspire them, make them cry, or inform them? Answering this question is the first step. The next step is asking yourself if people care enough about this topic to share with their friends. You can make some niche content work, but the topic should be something most people can connect with.

Be Helpful

Content should always be helpful in some way, shape, or form. Even if your content isn't answering questions, it can still be helpful. Even an article with embedded videos of people scaring cats can be thought of as helpful if you're looking to laugh during a quick break at work.

Regardless of what your content is about, you need to ask yourself: will someone find this helpful?

Am I making them laugh? Am I informing them of an important development within their industry? Am I helping them accomplish something?

The more you think about ways your content can help people, the most success you'll have.

Be Specific with Intent

Content, especially content created for SEO, needs to have a specific intent. Just as search users present intent with their queries, you need to craft your content to match that intent.

The days of ranking content because you mentioned certain keywords are over. In order to rank well today, you need to have all of your ducks in a row. Keywords do still matter, but the intent of your content is even more important because Google is able to better crawl and rank content based on more contextual factors than ever before.

This means that if someone is looking for "iPhone 6S tips and tricks," you're providing them with exactly that. This content would describe things the iPhone 6S can do that aren't completely obvious or mentioned in the phone's manual. This content would be completely different from what you'd provide for "how to use iPhone 6S."

Going deeper with intent, if I search "buy a TV," Google provides results that match my intent. I'm not looking for information on TVs, I want to buy now.

On the other hand, if I search "buying a TV," Google provides results for TV buying guides and other informative content.

(Mentioned in previous articles, this is an example of transactional vs. informational keywords.)

When reviewing content, you can keep yourself on the straight and narrow path by asking yourself: what is the intent of my target keywords and does my content match that intent? It's that easy.

Spark Conversation

Unless your content is designed to help someone complete a simple task, one of your big goals should be to spark conversation.

But why is this important?

You want people to take action on your content! Whether that means they spend extra time on your site writing a comment, send it to a friend and have a private IM conversation about it, post it on Facebook, or write a reply and link to it on their own site.

I've found that if you can consistently write content that stands out, you'll attract more overall action around your content. All of these actions not only help your site's natural readership and social readership, but also affect SEO as well.

So the next time you sit down for a brainstorming session, start thinking of ideas that will get people talking!

While it's tough to create content that follows all five of these rules, your goal should ultimately be to nail at least three of them. If you're struggling to create great content, bookmark this page and read it before each writing session. I've found that simply reminding myself of these rules helps inspire me to write better and better content each day.

Originally Published to Wikimotive.com on October 19, 2015. 

You can't just run your TV commercials for video pre-roll. If you haven't secured the viewers' attention in the first five seconds, they will press the "SKIP NOW" button. Stop letting those leads slip away. This week on Think Tank Tuesday, learn how to create an effective pre-roll, and download our Video Pre-Roll Script template.

Cohesion among a business' digital marketing channels is very important. Now that customers are more involved and have more tools in researching their purchases, marketing strategies across various platforms have become increasingly more necessary. Cohesion among all the various marketing channels can create a synchronicity that is key for customer acquisition and retention.

In the automotive industry for example, customers have a variety of needs, be it service, parts or purchasing a vehicle. A shopper's journey to a dealership is typically long and spans multiple channels, including using search engines as a base for research, looking up reviews about potential dealerships and vehicles, price comparisons across multiple sites, getting feedback on social media, etc. Thus, a one channel approach is no longer enough to guarantee a good flow-through of zero moment traffic.

As customers read reviews and shop around for a deal, PPC, SEO, email, social, display and others come into play, and often times these digital marketing channels are at ends with each other rather than cohesive. For example, when AdWords and SEO are done in combination, they can work together to help achieve a goal, rather than have an SEO page that cannot be used for anything other than SEO and provides no conversion opportunity for the PPC visitor.

It's not difficult to achieve cohesion across all channels. Businesses should start with the basic idea that multiple digital marketing channels should work together. This turns the focus on overall marketing goals rather than perfecting each channel as its own goal individually. In this way, marketing channels can support the overall goal rather than being at odds with each other. What are some ways you all keep your channels in alignment?

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said Friday what led him to leave the Detroit Red Wings after 10 seasons as coach was the need for a new challenge.

I love it here, Babcock said after cleaning out his office at Joe Louis Arena. But I http://www.hockeyicepractice.com/clarke-macarthur-jersey-c-1026.html also think that it was time for me I wanted a different challenge.

Babcock was hired by the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, signing an eight year, 50 million contract, according to TSN and Sportsnet.

Babcock said Friday it wasn t only the money that lured him to Toronto.

So in the end, is it about money, sure it s about money, Babcock told the Red Wings website. There was enough money in every place it didn t have a factor in any of the decision. I don t know if that makes any sense. Once you got to a certain point. I already have enough suits, I m good.

Babcock was believed to Alex Chiasson Jersey be considering coaching the Buffalo Sabres or staying with the Red Wings. Detroit granted him permission to talk to other teams before his contract expired June 30.

It s way easier just to get fired, Babcock said. You just get fired and you just find the next team to get going. You don t think about it, but when you re leaving unbelievable people. It s hard to leave. But I m excited for the opportunity and Bobby Ryan Jersey I m thankful for what they did for me here.

He became emotional at times thanking members of the Red Wings organization, from owners Mike Ilitch and Marian Ilitch to general manager Ken Holland to broadcaster Mickey Redmond and a number of his players.

I talked to [Henrik Zetterberg] and [Pavel Datsyuk], Babcock said. I http://www.hockeyicepractice.com/chris-neil-jersey-c-1018.html love those guys. I m going to be friends with those guys forever. When Pav goes home one day and sets up his sports school, I m going to go out. They re great men. You don t win as a coach without great players and great leadership. They provided me with an opportunity.

The Red Wings have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 24 straight seasons; the Maple Leafs have been there once in the previous 10.

Can we make it Hockey Practice go like the Red Wings? That s our goal and our hope, Babcock said.

Mike Babcock s good bye message to Detroit TMLtalk pic.twitter.com/TFa2u0Wlcb

David Bastl DavidBastlTSN May 22, 201

All of your advertising won't help you if your showroom and digital showroom aren't managed correctly. Too many dealers are ignoring two of their biggest points of sale. On this episode of Hard Facts, we'll identify potential mistakes and correct them today!

While SEO isn't new to those of us in the digital marketing industry , there are plenty of small and local businesses that are only now being introduced to the power of organic search traffic. Whether you're a salesperson for a marketing company who needs ammo to make the sale, or a local business owner looking for more reasons to invest in SEO, these statistics will help you better understand the overall value of search traffic.

Local Search Users Take Action

88% of consumers who search for a specific type of business via mobile call or visit within 24 hours. (Google's Mobile Movement Study, 2011)

By now, every local business owner is aware of the importance of local search. It can make or break your business today because customers are on-the-go and want to save time wherever they can. Gone are the days when you looked up a business in the White Pages or drove around town blind looking for a specific shop. Our phones not only give us that information in a matter of seconds, they can lead us there quickly so we can get more done. If you want those 88 percent of consumers to be able to call you, make sure you have a local SEO strategy in place so you can be found above your competition.

Search Leads to Sales

Leads from search engines close at a 15% rate. Higher than referrals, paid search, and outbound.

When you get a call from a telemarketer, you're more than likely not looking or interested in the product or service they're pitching, right? It's probably also annoying getting a random call from someone trying to sell you something. If you were interesting in their products or services, you'd search for it! This is the ultimate example of why leads from organic search traffic is so valuable. Instead of being pitched at a random time, consumers are seeking out your business. No one searches for "car dealers in NH" unless they're in the market or soon to be in the market for a car in New Hampshire. So if you're the car dealer at the top of this SERP, you're sure to be raking in leads after ready-to-buy customers click through and view your inventory.

Page 1 is Where You Want to Be

75% of users never go past the first page of search results. (HubSpot)

Businesses cannot afford to be on page two for keywords related to their business because most people will never get past the first page. They're likely to find exactly what they're looking for, and then they're gone and out of the market. You didn't even get a chance to gain their business because they won't even know you exist. No amount of paid search or traditional advertising can make up for the value that being on the first page (hopefully near the top) can have on your business.

Paid Search is a Distant Second to Organic

79% of search engine users say they always/frequently click on the natural search results. 

Paid search is a great way to supplement your organic traffic, but it can certainly not replace it. Most users understand paid results are ads and instead choose to focus on organic results. Organic results are trusted as being the most relevant, so users understand what they're clicking on more than they do with paid results. This is why leads from organic search close at 15 percent, compared to paid search's 4 percent.

Originally Published to Wikimotive.com on May 18, 2015.

You don’t need a BDC, for sales or for service, so get rid of it. Instead, you need a fully-staffed TDC. Traffic Development Center.

What?? Why?

Because we forgot something in all these years of confusing "BDC, what kind of BDC??" mishmash: Traffic--floor and also service lane traffic--rules our business. Traffic. Period.

And this is proven in a very simple way. Ask a room full of GMs and owners this question:  If they had $4,500 to spend on ONLY one of two things this month, training their staff or getting more store traffic, which will they choose? Inevitably, the crushing majority will say “get more store traffic”.

And repeat this experiment once or 100 times, and it is always that same answer. Store Traffic.

Advertising, location, reputation, Yelp, Internet, websites, leads, pay-per-click, SEO, direct mail, tent sales, and so on and so on. ALL these are about traffic. And thus the TDC.

Sean V. Bradley is absolutely right about the importance of the BDC in the way he means that term, so why a new thing like “TDC”? Because as Sean points out it is not, nor has it ever been, “business development” in a single, successful meaning in far too many “BDCs”.

Not only is “BDC” a very tired acronym, what exactly it means is very fragmented: Does BDC mean salespeople trapped in cubicles an hour a day, rowing through their contacts with the flat mind set of galley slaves? Does it mean sales only and not service? Does it mean actual BDC reps who take calls and leads and convert them to appointments? All? None? A mix of all this? What? This confusion is a strong part of the problem with many dealerships and their "BDCs", because it means so many things. And some of them not as successful as others..

Well, Traffic Development Center means only ONE thing, which is proven successful: Trained TDC reps (NOT salespeople) in place during open hours, taking and making calls, getting and responding to leads, and making the strongest floor traffic and service lane traffic ever happen in a totally accountable way.

Which leaves YOU with just one thing for your sales people to really do: Sell the ups from the floor traffic. Something they are very good at, and something they can now better achieve for themselves and for your sales.

Realize that any other arrangement makes salespeople schizophrenic: Answer the phone? A lead? Sell the customer in front of them? Answer a call or text on a test drive? Make an appointment? Make a follow-up? Which BDC? What BDC? Is there a BDC? Does it matter? What is the best way for success??

The TDC is your answer. TDC reps in your store gather all the inbound inquiries (phone, form, lead, email, etc.) for sales and service, and also make unsold follow-ups and declined service calls, for just one reason: Getting more traffic for sales and service. That’s what you wanted from your BDC, anyway. If you knew which one you had. Or knew what it really did.

Keith Shetterly is Vice President of the Engage Call Center Division of Autoloop, LLC (www.autoloop.com). He has ten years of retail and auto group eCommerce Director experience, and is a former BDC and Internet Consultant for Dealerships. Keith may be contacted via keithshetterly@gmail.com or by cell/text 281-229-5887.

http://www.BradleyOnDemand.com 856-546-2440 

http://www.DealerSynergy.com 

The "Internet Sale" is REALLY A "Phone Sale"

If you are one of those Internet sales managers or business development center agents who takes pride in their email templates and spends a ton of time reading and writing amazing emails, you are not going to like this article.

Emails suck! That’s right, I said it. Emails suck. They have the lowest percentage of engagement and conversion of virtually any form of communication. And yet untrained Internet sales representatives spend the majority of their time playing the email game and wondering why they are not crushing it online.

Let me break down the reality for you:

The average email open rate is 2% to 4%
Only 7% of all communication is text (emails, chat or text messaging)
Nine out of 10 people on the Internet prefer to communicate via the phone
Tone and inflection is 38% of communication
Visual perception and body language is 55% of communication
For the readers out there who might not know me, I want you to know that, before I became a consultant, I ran an Internet department that sold more than 110 units per month online — and that was way back in 2001–’04, when it was all brand-new. I have since trained more than 13,000 automotive sales professionals in more than 900 dealerships, and I have been able to identify what actually works, what doesn’t work, what sometimes works and what works all the time. And one thing I know never works is relying on email to sell cars. The Internet purchase request may start via email, but it almost always escalates to the phone.

The Philosophy of Communication

There are clear rules of engagement for communicating with prospective car buyers. Email sells the phone call, the phone call sells the appointment and the appointment builds the relationship. That relationship is what leads to the product presentation, the demo drive and, ultimately, the sale.

I am not suggesting you shut down your email server. I am merely asking you to prioritize your follow-up. Focus your attention where you are going to have the maximum effect. As Stephen Covey of “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” fame says, “Put first things first.”

I suggest you create an amazing email template library. If you do not have one and feel you are not skilled enough to create one, find a consultant who is and hire them. Here is a snapshot of three types of emails you should create and the strategy you need to use each one effectively:

1. Traditional email: Create an email for every one of the first 31 days of contact. Make sure each one articulates what is different and what makes your dealership a better choice than your competition — both local and national. Remember, price only becomes relevant when there is an absence of value, so the goal here is to create and build your dealership’s value proposition.

2. Video email: Video has a click rate that is 53 times higher than standard email messages. People prefer to watch videos to get the information they need in a single viewing. This is so much more effective and compelling than emailing back and forth with every customer. Videos allow you to ensure your message is clear and concise and conveys exactly what you want car buyers to know. It also cuts down on the confusion and misunderstandings that occur when someone misreads an email.

3. Client reviews and testimonials: One way to add value to your emails is to include current and past customer reviews. Even better are video testimonials that allow your potential buyers to hear directly from those who have already purchased on why your dealership is the best. You should also look to incorporate Google and Yelp reviews of both your dealership and salespeople to help build your reputation as the kind of person and place buyers want to do business with.

Create a powerful email library that incorporates all of these techniques and integrate it within your overall CRM strategy, then forget about it. That’s right: set it, forget it and let the CRM do what it is designed to do: deploy an automated email action plan for fresh leads, dead leads, sold leads, engaged leads — everything! With your email template library and automated action plan in place, you can now focus on dialing the phone. That is where the money is.

Yes, It Really Works

Calling Internet prospects escalates the level of communication, reduces the confusion and miscommunication inherent to email and helps establish a personal relationship.
Calling Internet prospects escalates the level of communication, reduces the confusion and miscommunication inherent to email and helps establish a personal relationship.
I know I am going to get some pushback on this article. I can hear it now: “But, Sean, what if someone says, ‘Email only, do not call me’?” I don’t care. I am still picking up the phone and calling them. “What if they say, ‘Just email me the bottom-line price’?” I don’t care. I am still calling. “What if they say they want the information on a specific vehicle in stock and provide the stock number?” I don’t care. I am picking up the phone and calling them, period.

This might sound archaic, but it really isn’t. The reality is that the average prospect is going to find and visit 10 dealership websites before they ever set foot in a store. I want to escalate the level of communication as quickly as possible so I can sell an appointment. The average (qualified) prospect visits less than two dealerships in person before they purchase a vehicle. The game is won or lost on the phone.

When dealers hire me to consult for them and I evaluate their current process deficiencies, one of the most common time-wasters is Internet managers and reps spending excess time reading each individual lead, looking at what the prospect is asking for and then writing a custom response. Or worse, actually creating a custom video response way too soon. The reason this is actually counterproductive is that Internet teams are spending too much time reading and creating emails versus actually connecting with prospects. Remember, the email open rate is only 4% at best! It truly does not make sense to look at each individual Internet purchase request, read it, respond to it and then decide whether or not to make a phone call. This just wastes time.

You want to make sure your Internet or BDC team is trained on phone sales. The average connection on phone calls is 11% to 14%. If you condition your sales reps to make at least 120 outbound calls per day, in an eight-hour day, on average, they will connect with up to 17 potential buyers — every day.

Keep in mind, these are the Internet sales coordinators or BDC reps. They are not doing product presentations, demo drives or deliveries. Their whole objective is to establish connections with prospects. Why waste time manually reading and responding to every email possible when it will only result in connecting with an average of a maximum of five potential buyers out of that same pool of 120 prospects?

Use email to set up the phone call and get customers engaged at a high level. That is the true path to Internet sales success. If you disagree, let me know — or better yet, try it and see the results for yourself.

Sean V. Bradley CSP is CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized digital marketing expert and author of “Win the Game of Googleopoly,” a No. 1 Amazon bestseller.

SOURCE - http://www.autodealermonthly.com/channel/internet-department/article/story/2015/09/internet-leads-are-phone-leads.aspx 

If you are active on Twitter, you might have already noticed the addition of a tiny lightning bolt icon up in the menu bar where you can find your mentions or direct messages. Last week, Twitter launched Moments, a new feature that makes it easier for users to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world.

Basically, Moments makes it so that you do not need to filter through personal tweets or follow individual news platforms in order to keep up with current events. Instead, by visiting the Moments tab, you are able to see articles, photos, and videos about the biggest news stories all in one place.

Of course, a new venture for Twitter also means a new way for advertisers to get noticed. Twitter will soon start testing for Promoted Moments, where a few lucky companies will have the opportunity to place ads within the Moments feature. While advertisers are normally stuck working with Twitter’s signature 140-character limit, Promoted Moments will allow them to build a complete campaign rather than just a sales blast here and there. It allows companies to be more creative and really set the tone for their brand.  

Over time, there is a chance Moments could expand to cover not only national and international news, but local news, as well. If that is the case, advertising would localize along with it. At that point, smaller companies would have the ability to place their ads amidst local news stories relevant to people within their target audiences.

So what does this mean for the future of advertising? Well, at this point, unless you are a multi-million dollar corporation, probably nothing. The companies with opportunities to take advantage of Promoted Moments are few and far between, and it is still too early to tell whether or not Moments will really take off. However, as is true with most social media platforms, things change over time. As of right now, with Moments in its preliminary stages, the only people with control over its success are the approximately 300 million people who use Twitter each month. 

To hear about our social media strategies and more, contact us today!

The key to continued growth and success in business is simple: evolve. This week, I'll demonstrate the importance of evolving your business and yourself to keep the money flowing and new business expanding.