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I found this study about how consumers shop for cars from the AutoTrader Dealer Learning Center www.weworkforyou.com. Nearly a quarter of all new- and used-car buyers use multiple devices to shop. Indeed, there's a correlation between everyday device usage and shopping behavior, and it's a trend that's becoming a way of life. In fact, AutoTrader.com expects that 52% of all car shopping will be done on multiple devices within the next 5 years.This study reveals how consumers use their devices, and what you can do to ensure that you're delivering the kind of shopping experience they expect.

Click below to see the Entire Study:

AutoTrader.com Multi-Device Car Shopping Study: How Consumers Shop for Cars

Your website provider should be able to provide you with a monthly report that lists the number of hits your site has garnered, the sources of those hits, how long the average visitor spends on your site and what they are visiting on your page.

Most dealerships now have an Internet department. Some stores have gone full speed by appointing an Internet manager, hiring representatives to follow up on leads and creating an advertising budget. Other stores have approached the digital age more cautiously, just dipping their toes into the vast pool of online media.

I visit dealerships across the country, and there seems to be no similarity at all in how Internet sales are handled and accounted for. Some dealers think they are maximizing their online sales revenue just by answering every e-mail and chat request.

There is a lot more to it. It just depends on how much money, time and resources you are willing to commit to the project. Full speed or not, from an accounting standpoint, it may make sense to set up a separate department to manage the income and expenses you derive from online sales. Here’s a six-step plan:

1. Hack Your DMS

It should be very simple to set up a new department on your dealer management system (DMS). Assign your new department a number and name, set up income and expense accounts and assign them a factory financial statement line number so they show up on your monthly financial statements. This step forces you to decide how you are going to track your Internet sales, as most factory charts of accounts don’t have separate accounts set up for Internet sales, cost of sales and expenses.

2. Track Your Sales

To properly track your Internet sales, you must set up separate sales and cost-of-sales accounts for each model of new vehicles you sell. Do this for your used inventory as well. If you don’t track these sales, cost of sales and gross profits separately — whether on a spreadsheet or in your accounting software — so you can subtract them from your financial statements, you will probably not have a clue if the money you are spending for this department is worth it.

3. Establish Your Structure

Decide whether your Internet personnel should handle the lead all the way to the finish line or hand the lead over to one of your regular salespeople. If it changes hands, you have to decide how you want to record the deal on your books. If not, note each Internet sale on the deal jacket so accounting knows which sales account to record it in, where to post the commission and where to list other costs associated with the sale.

4. Separate Your YTD Expenses

Once you have the department and the general ledger accounts set up, you can move the year-to-date (YTD) expenses from the accounts you have posted transactions to all year to the new accounts. That will allow you to start your department analysis in the current month.

Once you begin posting the sales and cost-of-sales accounts separately, you can easily see whether your Internet department is profitable. Make sure you allocate the correct payroll costs for the personnel working in this department. It should be based on the percentage of time they are spending there. Now you can calculate the average gross profit per unit sold, the commission or cost to sell it, and the variable expenses associated with it — the same as you would with your new- and used-vehicle departments.

Make sure you have set up accounts for Internet-centric expenses such as website design, in-store Internet usage, monthly web hosting maintenance fees, search engine optimization and lead-management software costs, not to mention your manager and sales representatives’ salaries and commissions.

5. Separate Your Fixed Expenses

If you really want to do it right, you should be allocating some of your semi-fixed and fixed expenses to the Internet department. How much is up to you. This can be a real pain to analyze and allocate, so you may want to have the department up and running for a while before you take this step. Your office manager or accounts payable expert can probably tell you which expenses pertain to your new department.

For the most part, your largest expenses are going to be personnel and electronic media software and usage fees for each click, etc. These are the ones you need to pay the most attention to, as they are variable and controllable costs. If the cost of each sale is larger than the revenue you are generating, you will need to decide how to drive more people to your site that may buy, or start reducing some expenses so the department is not a drain on your dealership’s profits.

6. Order Your Reports

The profitability of any department depends on performance. Your Internet manager should track how long it takes to respond to a lead and how many leads are closing as actual sales. Your website provider should be able to provide him or her with a monthly report that lists the number of hits, the source (e.g., Google search terms), how long the average visitor spends on your site and whether they are visiting different departments.

With the right information at hand, you should be able to compute your cost for each lead and unit sale. Better yet, you can make intelligent decisions on how to improve your website, your inventory mix and your process for handling Internet leads.

Under Review

Once you have set up new accounts for the income and expenses generated by your Internet department, you can determine whether the department is profitable. If it isn’t, you need to act fast. Look at your site from the perspective of a potential customer and ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your site graphically appealing and easy to navigate?
• Does it look as nice as your competitors’ sites?
• Is your inventory easy to find?
• Are your vehicles listed with good photos, videos and descriptions?
• Are your online prices competitive for your market?
• Do you know how many of the same vehicles are for sale in your market area?
• Do you make it easy for customers to contact you?

Source - http://www.autodealermonthly.com/article/story/2013/10/a-web-of-lies.aspx?utm_campaign=Enews-20131029&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter 

Don’t get me wrong. There’s an extremely complex and effective methodology behind utilizing Facebook as a true marketing and advertising tool that requires some specialized training, a strong sense of creativity, a willingness to experiment, and an unrelenting focus on keeping up with the latest and greatest from experts and Facebook itself.

Then again, there’s a simple way as well. As much as I would love to turn this into a lengthy blog post, I would only be adding fluff. It’s too easy.

Here are the steps:

1. Post really amazing content on a regular basis
2. Do NOT post anything that isn’t absolutely amazing just for the sake of getting a post up
3. Support all of it with Facebook ads
4. Reply to everything that people post in reply or on your wall

That’s it. Sorry to disappoint those who specialize in social media as a career (I’m one of them) but those are the steps required to make Facebook sing for your business. If you do those steps, you’ll be doing better than literally 99% of your competitors.

With that said, there’s a caveat. This will get you to the top. It won’t keep you there. The truth about Facebook marketing is spreading and more people are starting to get it. This is why there’s hope for people like me. The next 17 steps in the process are much more complicated and result in a stronger Facebook presence designed to drive business. Thankfully, these are the steps to make clients stay ahead of the 99% now as well as next year when 10%-20% start to “get it” with Facebook.

Today, the best way to do it is to hire a professional or to diligently perform the 4 easy steps above.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/fords-2014-fiesta-the-most-fuel-efficient-non-hybrid-in-the-u-s.html/?ref=YF

Have you made the commitment that automotive sales is your career choice? Unless you commit, it’s impossible that you will take the necessary steps to create the business you desire. Long-term thinking in addition to short-term goals are keys to continued success.

When you first enter into a sales position, 80 percent of your time is spent acquiring customers and 20 percent of your time is spent maintaining those customers. Eventually, with the right efforts, that model should be reversed. Eighty percent of your time should be spent maintaining your customers and 20 percent to acquire new customers.

You face a paradox of time management in building your business. The paradox is that you must work in the business and also work on the business. When you are face-to-face with customers you are working in the business but no matter how busy you are, you must find time each day to work on the business, as well. Working on the business includes marketing, prospecting, follow-up, networking, delegating, automating etc.

Insurance sales people, real estate sales people and sales people from many industries continually think and act on building their business. However, in the auto industry the majority of sales people seem addicted walk-in traffic. Eliminating this addiction is the key to long-term success.

Lead Generation = Dollar Creation. Begin to build multiple streams of leads by building a marketing web. List every way you presently acquire leads such as walk-ins, phone prospects, be-backs, referrals, repeat customers. Then begin to list new ways you could begin to acquire leads and how you can strengthen or add to your existing methods of generating leads.

Do you presently have a software program for following and managing your leads? Not the dealerships program, your program? Don’t trust anybody or anything to manage your most important resource – your customers.

Secondly, do you have a set follow up strategy? How often will you follow up? How will you follow up. What rewards will you give, and what special offers will you provide to bring them in for service? That creates the Law of Familiarity and Obligation leading to repeats and referrals.

E-mail follow-up and marketing is essential. Automate your follow-up using technology. E-mail, Autoresponder e-mail and Sequential Autoresponder e-mail are all ways to follow-up and add value that can be done while you sleep or on vacation. Video e-mail and personalization are keys to making a connection, removing the impersonal nature of e-mail and adding the wow factor.

All sales people need their own personal Web site. The site should include sign-up forms that collect e-mail addresses. The site should be personalized with your picture, family picture, your own personal story, rewards for visiting the site and helpful information for the customer. Your Web site should include an audio introduction link.

Do your business cards look like 99 percent of others sales people’s business cards? Don’t use a picture of a car, use your picture or caricature. Business cards also need the sales person’s Web site, e-mail address and slogan. Put a call to action on your cards for the customer to come see you, call you or visit your Web site.

Maximize traffic by creating a be-back CD. Create a CD that you give each customer who does not buy and invite them to play it on the way home. The CD should include information about you, your dealership and product that would benefit the customer. Include testimonials and a reward for the customer if they come see you.

Create coupon swaps with businesses around you. Visit a local restaurant and offer to build their business on their worst traffic day of the week for free. You can build their business by creating a coupon with an offer they approve and then pass these coupons out at work from the cashier, receptionist, and all departments to every customer who enters your dealership. In return ask that the restaurant pass out coupons from you approved by the dealership with a special offer to come see you.

Once you start the marketing web it will grow and take on a life of its own. Building a business first requires long-term thinking and a commitment to the industry as a career. When you commit, you have already created a business, only its shape is unfinished.

Hi, my name is Johnny Dealer.  I spend my mornings listening to incoming sales calls from the previous day.  I then, go into a deep depression.  I guess I am like most dealers, but today, I'm going to do something about it.  I am going to create a system that will eliminate missing all of these opportunities.  I am about to create a Lean, Mean, Lead-Handling Machine.

Here is how I'm going to do it.

First, I'm going to TOTALLY commit to my new lead department.  I am going to commit finances, facilities, training, equipment, and most importantly, PEOPLE.  I am going to hire a real-life Manager to run this department and I'm going to pay this person just like the rest of my managers.  After all, this department is every bit as important as the others in my dealership.  I know that the future of this department is wholly dependant on MY buy in.  I AM IN!

What am I going to call this department.  BDC?  Internet Department?  I think I am going to call it the Appointment Department.  That is the most accurate name I can think of, plus, calling it the Internet Department only makes me feel more techno-ignorant.  I want these employees to know that the appointment is the objective.  We'll hand them of to specialists when they get here.

I want to make this Lean, Mean, Lead-Handling Machine to run smoothly and most importantly, be reliable.  I can't have it breaking down at inopportune times.  I think I'll begin with my people.  I'm going to take my time and only hire the best and pay them well.  Training?  Of course.  I think I'll do this in two stages.  First, I'll get my hands on the best phone scripts and email templates in the industry.  We will train them relentlessly until they can recite them in their sleep.  After that, I will teach them our incoming lead concepts.  1. We got what you want. 2. You got what we want. 3. You're special, we're special. (see my article, "Incoming Calls are as Easy as 1,2,3.)  I want my people to not only memorize the word tracks, but I want them to UNDERSTAND the content and CONVEY the motivation to the customer.

This machine is beginning to take shape.

Now, I must set up a process that works for everyone.  Everyone in my store needs to know this process, inside and out.  When a lead comes in, who takes it?  At what time do they turn it to a Manager?  Can they discuss price?  If not, who then?  How about follow up?  When and how often do they get back with a customer?  Do they do it by phone, email, video, or in person?  When do they stop trying?  I will make sure that ALL of these questions are answered in my process.....my WRITTEN process.  How can I expect my people to perform if they are not clear on my vision.

I spend a fortune on tools in my service department.  Every time I turn around, my manufacturer has generously shipped and billed a new piece of equipment that is now needed to work on the new models.  In my new Appointment Department, I'm not going to cut corners on their tools.  They are going to need their own area, with fast computers, great phones with headsets, and a great CRM.  The equipment and resources they have are a reflection on my commitment to this department.

How can I make this machine consistent?  If I dump a specific number of leads into my machine, how can I be sure of exactly how many car deals will come out the other side?  This will boil down to tracking and expectations.  I have learned over the last 30 years, that if you want to see numbers increase, simply track them.  What are my expectations?  I guess I will leave that to the experts.  I want to set appointments with 60% of my fresh leads and 40% of my leads that are a week old or more. 50% of them will show.  I want to sell 45% of the appointments that show up.  I know everyone has different numbers that work for them, but these work for me.....for now.  That leads me to "expectations".  I know that my people will perform to their expectations.  It is MY job to not just manage people, but manage their expectations.  I promise make my expectations so clear that they become their expectations.

When my machine is built and running effectively, I vow to soup it up.  You know, like a turbocharger.  I can start getting innovative with video appointment confirmations, fancy .pdf proposals, bringing in trainers, hiring phone coaches, data mining, lead screening, video search optimization, email marketing, social media promotions, and the like.  Heck, my new machine will even be able to handle service leads!

If is a big two-letter word.  But...

• IF I manage this department with the same vigor that I manage my Finance Department, Sales Department, or Service and Parts Departments, it will succeed.
• IF I dump 300 fresh leads into my new Lean, Mean, Lead-Handling Machine, then, it will produce 180 appointments, 90 of them will show up, and 40 of them will buy.  This does not even include re-hashing my lost opportunities from the last several months!
• IF I continue to commit to my new department, every time I dump 100 new leads into my machine, I will get 13 more sales.

My mission is simple now......Find more leads to feed the machine!

Who's Your Danny?

PS - My apologies if your name is, in fact, Johnny Dealer.  Any negative references to this name is strictly coincidental, especially if you actually live on 123 Elm Street, Anytown, USA. or work at ABC Motors.

If you wanted to build a new dealership, how would you do it? Would you just grab a bunch of nails, screws, wood and material and start? Would you just wake up one day and say, "Today's the day" and go to the home depot and start buying the materials? Would you search the Internet and figure out how to do it yourself? In truth, you know as well as I, that there are a ton of steps needed to make a new building project become reality. However, I want to focus on a very important step that is needed to ensure the final product turn out correctly and that step is the creation of, "The Blueprint!"

A Blueprint is defined as a detailed outline or plan of action. It is the model to follow in order to reproduce the final product. Anything created is created 2 times. The first creation is in one's mind, as a thought and imagination. The second creation is when it is a living reality as a finished product. The blueprint is the bridge that connects the idea to the final product. The blueprint contains the steps, the plans, the map, the processes, the details, the model and the directions to cause what is not yet to become into a living reality. 

So as a dealer, as a sale professional, What is your blueprint for your position? The builder of a building can only build according to what the blueprint says. If the blueprint is a small house, the final product will be a small house. If you expect a large house and the blueprint is only for a small house, you will be very disappointed because the blueprint determines the final product.

You see many times in this industry we become upset at the end of the month when we fall short of hitting our bonuses and different commission levels but if we would be honest with ourselves, we would see that what we accomplished is directly a result of the blueprint we had for that month. A detailed blueprint takes time, takes work and takes discipline to follow, but the reward far outweighs the work. Your expectations will be more likely satisfied when you create the blueprint rather then allowing the blueprint to take shape by itself due to the default of no plan, no process, no steps and no actions being recorded. When nothing is done then you really have nothing to aim for. When you have nothing to aim for and you blindly shoot into the future month with no target in site, you may or may not hit something. You may have good results but with a blueprint you could've had GREAT results! You may have no results but with a blueprint you could've have GOOD results! 

Put together a blueprint for this up coming month. Write out the details, set the goals and put together an action plan on how to build that house! If the blueprint builds a 30 car month, then what steps, processes, actions and plans need to be implemented to build this 30 car house? How many phone calls, emails and pro-active prospecting actions need to be taken to achieve this? Create the blueprint and you will create the outcome that lines up with it. 

Remember that your house is the result of your blueprints! In order to change the results you need to first change the blueprints! Happy Selling!

If there is one thing that you could do to increase your opportunities and profits, what would it be? What if this one thing was free and already available to you? That's this week on Think Tank Tuesday .

I wish that this was going to be a story about baseball. I really do. Unfortunately, it's a story about education and the art of the sales pitch as it pertains to vendors on the various automotive networks.

It is important to understand that every vendor in our industry has a responsibility. This is a tough business. Those of us who have been on the other side at the dealership level receiving pitches from vendors know that they come hard and they come often. It's part of the game. This is one of the most competitive industries out there from both perspectives - dealers competing against other dealers and vendors competiting to earn their business.

The internet in general and these networks, blogs, and webinars in particular are the tools we need to succeed at both levels. For dealers, it's an opportunity to learn ways to improve business, harness best practices, and bounce ideas against others in the industry. For vendors, it's a chance to hear what dealers think about certain topics, what they want out of products, and to what degree they want assistance versus direct help.

These venues are for mutual education. They're for dialogue. They're for ideas. They're not the place to pitch your products.

Some would say that education is worthless if it doesn't yield increased business at the vendor level. That's a different argument altogether, but I can tell you this much with a certainty...

If you help dealers by giving them tips, techniques, strategies, and advice that helps them with their business, they will be more inclined to look to you when they need your services.

It works. I see it every day. I don't have to pitch my social product to get calls and emails from dealers wanting to know how I can help. I simply post information as it comes to me that can help dealers succeed with or without my help. Some will do nothing with the information. Some will take it and apply it themselves. Some will take it and inquire about ways I can make it easier or do it for them.

As I said, it's the responsibility of every vendor in this industry to take the knowledge that they gain from their bird's eye view of things and translate it into ways that can help in the trenches at the dealership. The market is too questionable and the competition level is too high for anyone to hold their cards too close to the vest. It doesn't help the industry. It doesn't help dealers.

It doesn't help you.

The first step in advancing the productivity of your staff in using the phones is a better understanding in the importance that the telephone can play and how it affects your business. Often a lack of the right attitude is displayed in the treatment towards the receptionist position. The receptionist is usually hired without any guidelines that would be used to hire for an important position. In your dealership do you have personality profiles, set interview questions and guidelines to hire an exceptional receptionist? Do you have a formalized training process and performance based pay? Often the receptionist is the lowest paid person in the dealership but is often the person who influences the customer first. Why not pay the receptionist a bonus based upon various criteria such as average time to answer a call, average hold time for a customer etc.

The sales people also need training on the understanding of the importance of both inbound and outbound sales calls and how this can affect their incomes. A sales person can sit around all day waiting for someone to come in, but they can take incoming sales calls and treat them like they are not important. The average dealership will spend a fortune on advertising to get people to call and come in but not pay attention to what is happening when the customers call or come in. Call a competitor or call your own dealership and mystery shop a few times and ask yourself if you are impressed with the results.

Let’s talk about a few things to improve the importance of sales performance in utilizing the phone. First of all, the dealership needs a formal call tracking process. Many dealerships know their floor traffic but not their phone traffic. Why? This sends the wrong message. You must quantify to qualify, meaning you must know where you are at to understand where you would like to go. Have the receptionist use a call tracking sheet that they are trained to use. Example: On an incoming sales call, the receptionist should positively remark that they will be happy to get a sales representative for the customer and then acquire the customers name by asking “and your name is?” The receptionist can then list the customers name on the log with the date and time received and page for a sales representative. Now the receptionist can write their name on the tracking sheet as well. The sales representative is responsible for putting remarks of the results on the log after the sale. The above process can be altered according to the technology you have established in your dealership. Managers can now include a review of the phone traffic in their daily one on one coaching sessions.

Sales people must have a formal tracking sheet they use when taking calls to assist them in remembering the right steps and collecting the information necessary. The first step in changing the view of a sales person towards the phone is to show them how easy it is to pick up several units each month just by having better phone skills. The Internet has increased the number of sale calls and the quality of customer calling.

Sales people must be taught new techniques that match the marketplace of today. Sales people have been taught the importance of getting name and number so much so that they are jeopardizing the appointment and scaring customers away. Gone are the days of telling the customer you are out in service and not at your desk so you would like to get their name and number and call them back or that the customer just needs to come on down so you can show them in person. Customers are looking for ways to dismiss you as an option and outdated phone skills will make that happen quickly.

Review the telephone operations in your dealership and take steps to increase the skills of everyone using the phone. Better phone process and skills uncover hidden wealth.

For a long time, I assumed that this was a well-known technique, but after talking to some clients I realized that it’s not as common as I thought. If you have a Pinterest account (you should) and you don’t mind using it for business (you might), then you should definitely be mixing in some business-relevant posts.

Here’s the basic idea – your personal Pinterest or other social media accounts may or may not be off limits. It’s totally understandable to not want to mix them with each other. Many people hold their personal accounts as, well, personal, and therefore are unwilling to pollute them with posts about business. There’s nothing wrong with this. If you aren’t one of those people, chances are you don’t use your account very often or you don’t even have an account to begin with. If you have the time and the energy, go ahead and build your very own Pinterest account now. It takes no time at all.

Once you have an account, the fastest way to use it for business is to not use it for business at first. I know it’s counter-intuitive, but if you dive in and start talking business, business, business, you won’t be able to get a following at all. You need a following to make it effective.

The ways to get a large following on Pinterest would encompass at least one full blog post of its own, but the basics are these: be friendly, repin others, follow boards of like-minded people, and post your interests. It could be cars. It could be celebrities. It could be religious. It doesn’t matter, really, as long as its something that at least loosely represents you.

Once you have a following, you can now start pinning stuff from your own website or supporting sites. An example of this is above. In this case, it’s a cool car (I love cars) at an interesting angle that will play well on Pinterest. I gave credit to the business page on which I found the vehicle and added a couple of relevant hashtags to the mix. That’s it!

Pinterest is more than just a social site. It’s also one that transmits strong social signals to Google to be used for ranking in the search algorithm. Most dealers don’t get a lot of pins, Tweets, likes, or Google +1s to their website, so this is a definite bonus. It takes very little time and can be effective to get you that little boost you need.

Did I mention that Pinterest is sort of fun as well? More bonus!

http://www.automotivedigitaltraining.com 856-546-2440
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - Have Passion In Car Sales

What is hidden wealth? Hidden wealth is an unused, dormant or under utilized part of your business that contains great value. All businesses have at least one hidden wealth. Even the best businesses in the world contain hidden wealth. The key is to determine your hidden wealth and begin to mine the potential gold that lies therein. All businesses are different. Each business should require their leaders to conduct a concerted effort of introspection and egoless honesty to determine what their hidden wealth may be. One way to begin is to ask deeper and better questions about your business than you ever have before. What is the story of your dealership? How is that unique and more importantly, how does that benefit the customer?

Begin a journey to determine what your business does best. What does your business do better than anyone else? Then ask yourself these questions about that one thing, “How”, “Why” and how can I prove it to my customers in a way that benefits and motivates them? Once you determine the one thing that you do better than anyone else, then ask your customers why they think you do it best? See if what you feel and they feel are the same. If your business does something great but your customers don’t know, it won’t matter. If you customers don’t hold the same value in what you think you do great, it won’t matter. Better questions lead to better answers and better businesses. Ask yourself, what do you have that others don’t have? What do you have that is better than what others may have? Is your sales staff better? Is your service better? Is your location better? Is your inventory better? Is your pricing structure better? Is your process quicker? Is your facility better? When you determine what you have that’s better, you must ask yourself, why is that true?

You must also ask yourself, how can I explain what we do and how it’s better in very specific terms that the customer cares about? You can’t say you have a large inventory. It doesn’t mean anything. But you can say you have 500 vehicles worth ten million dollars in inventory and that no one comes close to your selection and because of that it takes the hassle out of shopping. What ever you decide is your strong point, ask yourself this question, “Who cares?” If you can’t tell your customer in a way that benefits them, they won’t care.

Some dealerships have a large database of untapped business. Some dealerships have a great location with many possible synergies with other local businesses that could be explored. Many dealerships have community relationships that could be utilized. Many dealerships have talented but untrained people. Many dealerships are either sending the wrong or mixed message to the market or sending a good message to the wrong market or utilizing either the wrong medium or not enough mediums to reach their market.

Each dealership has assets that contain vast riches if they can be explored and tapped.

The only way to become better is to practice. It never hurts to practice the most obvious and the things we know until they become perfected. Dennis explains which words to use and how to use them to increase sales from your website. Check out this week's Hard Facts about selling with text. 

http://www.internetsales20group.com 856-546-2440

The Internet Sales 20 Group's VIP Networking Party Will Be Held In Hollywood's #1 Nightclub, The Emerson Theatre

The 2013 Internet Sales 20 Group in Los Angeles California will have its VIP Networking event in Hollywood's #1 Nightclub, The Emerson Theatre!!

The VIP Networking event is being sponsored by TrueCar & Trade-In Velocity

In addition, DealerTrack will be GIVING AWAY $1,000 CASH for the "Best Idea Contest"!!

You do NOT want to MISS this event!!!

There's a trend on Facebook that simply won't die. Many dealership pages continue to offer giveaways, contests, and even "exclusive" games on Facebook in order to get more fans. It has been proven over and over again to be ineffective at getting targeted, high-quality fans but there seems to be an insistence on continuing it in order to bulk up the numbers.

The problem with this is that it actually hurts a page more than it helps, especially for localized businesses.

The example above demonstrates a "popular" dealership page that has over 250,000 fans. In 14 hours, it's been able to accumulate three likes and likely a handful of clicks, but the important thing to note is that it leads to an app that forces people to like the page in order to play the game and have a chance to win a million dollars or an iPad Mini. This cannot be stated more clearly - you do not want people to like your page because they think they're going to win something or get to play a game. The people that like the page for these reasons will not be engaged. They're not interested in your content. They aren't there to buy a product. They're on you page to try to win something or to play a game.

It's important to understand what this does to the page. The Facebook algorithm is very picky when it comes to presenting business page Facebook posts on news feeds. Every negative action as well as non-actions count against your posts' likelihood to be seen. It's not just the people who hit "hide" or "report" on your posts. They are bad enough, but the people who simply pass over your posts are also counting against your future posts' abilities to be visible on news feeds. Every time someone sees a post and scrolls right passed it without liking, commenting, clicking through, or sharing the post, they are less likely to see future posts... as are their friends.

The Facebook algorithm is designed to reward authenticity. It's made to allow their users to be presented with the content that they are most likely to enjoy, which means that for a business page to "coax" people into liking their page is a localization disaster.

Posts should be real. They should be designed to encourage engagement and to offer people what they expect to see. If they like a business page because they want to see things that the business knows about (such as information about their business and industry) as well as special deals that can come to them as a result of being a fan, then that's exactly what they should be delivered. It's the type of content that will get them more engaged and help them to spread that engagement to their own friends. Using contests or giveaways to bribe people into liking a page demonstrates an obvious misunderstanding of how the algorithm works and how Facebook itself can be useful for a local business.

There is, however, one type of contest or giveaway that can be effective. It's the type that rewards local people for visiting the business itself. These types of giveaways and contests can be golden. It would take a couple of blog posts to go into details about how these types of contests and giveaways work, but the important thing to remember is that a giveaway or contest should be an incentive for physical visits, not to try to accumulate worthless Facebook fans.

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Internet Director / Internet Sales Manager Responsibilities Part 4 - Automotive Sales - Car Sales

It's not for everyone. Some people just don't like to hear their voices played on audio or video. I know. I used to be one of them.

If you can get over that fear and if you want to get your YouTube channel some watches while helping to get your content seen and heard, it's a quick and easy way to kill a couple of birds with a single stone. The concept is pretty simple. Write a blog post, then read it off while recording a video. Attach the video to the story and now you have an easy way for people to either read your blog post or watch it.

Perhaps more importantly, it takes the art of writing and allows you to get creative in the fastest growing medium. Remember, everything is going mobile. While it can be annoying trying to read a blog post on a smartphone, listening to it on YouTube is often much easier. If you get good at recording the audio from the posts and applying it to either a visual of yourself reading it, a slideshow, a scrolling transcript, or other images that are pertinent to the video itself, you can make for an alternative experience for your content.

Some people are readers. Others are listening. There's even a few people that like to do both. I tend to listen to a video or podcast playing in the background while reading something else. Here's an example: