About to embark on a new journey in the Internet Automobile Industry. So before I leave Autoway.ca I just wanted to share some of the great auction sites I have used as a search engine for leads vehicle requests.
Dealermatch (Saved Search)
Adesa.ca (Notify me)
Onlane.ca
Openlane.com
Manheim.com
I am so excited to start my new job with.....
Look out for where very soon!!!
Enjoy your day!!!
When I was asked last year to develop a social media marketing service, the first question they asked was whether I already had software in mind or if it needed to be built. I told them that the software had already been developed and it was free. This didn't go over well at first; they’d always used premium social media software in the past.
“How good could it be if it’s free?” they asked.
I told them that it’s not only free, but it was also the best software available. I took the computer, typed in f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k-dot-c-o-m, and proceeded to explain why it wasn’t just about me being cheap, but that it’s also better to post to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest from facebook.com, twitter.com, plus.google.com, and pinterest.com.
Here’s why:
With search engine marketing, there’s an argument that can be made that pulling in third-party data is a benefit. The sheer amounts of data available through the search engines and from outside sources makes it conceivable that there are benefits to using software to manage campaigns, track keywords (particularly for SEO reasons), and monitor results. Then again, the Google Adwords UI has become pretty darn slick in recent months, so I don’t think I’d even use software for that.
At least it’s debatable with search and other marketing arenas. On social, there’s simply no debate necessary. There is no software out there that makes posting, monitoring, and reporting results easier than the actual websites and mobile apps themselves. Are there benefits? Sure. There are also major drawbacks and too much room for error that makes them worthless.
A couple of years ago, they were effective because Facebook and Twitter hadn’t matured. Today, they’re doing just fine handling their own data, controlling their own posts, and making it easier to monitor.
It almost sorta kinda makes sense with a taco.
Don’t get me wrong. I use tools. I love Buffer for scheduling posts on Twitter to keep them spread out and on Facebook when I won’t be available to post myself. I like the multiple views available through software like Hootsuite. However, there are too many high-dollar shells being put on top of the interfaces that do nothing more than make the reports look pretty.
What’s worse is that many of them attempt to prove their value by offering features such as content suggestions and automated posting. Scheduling and automation are two different things and there’s simply no need to take content suggestions from software (more on that later).
This one might make some software companies really upset with me, but it has to be said. You should never, ever, ever, ever, ever add plugins or wigdets to your website without two things: a really good reason and the backing of a major software company. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – their plugins and widgets aren’t perfect, but at least they’re safe. Everything else – dump them.
The native widgets are all you need. It always amazes me when I see Facebook plugins, for example, that weren’t built by Facebook. There was a rise in popularity of the little ribbon at the bottom of pages for a while. Thankfully, most realized that they slow the page load times down and can cause errors on certain browsers. They also realized that they didn’t do anything useful other than give the marketing manager at the company something to show the boss and put unearned cash into the pockets of the company that sold it to them.
They don’t work. They aren’t effective. They do much more harm than good. Unfortunately, those are the best-case scenarios. In some cases, they can actually do true harm to a site as can be seen in the image to the right.
There’s a reason that social media companies develop software. It’s less expensive for them to support software than to employ the people necessary to make social media actually work for their clients. It’s sexy because it’s visual, tangible, and seems to be sophisticated. In other marketing arenas, software is often all that’s needed. In social media, it does nothing other than make people feel good.
As I hinted at before, when software is used to find content or determine what to post, the battle is already lost.
I’d put my team of specialists up against IBM’s Watson if it did social media management. Until a piece of software is able to craft a Facebook post or Tweet that has the ability to reach the minds of the audience rather than just reaching their feeds for the sake of reaching their feeds, software is not the solution for this.
Some would argue that it saves time from having to look for content to post. I would argue that the technology to do that has been around for a while. It’s called Google. There’s also RSS feed readers (NOT to post automatically, of course) that gives any industry plenty of content in just the same manner as the social software provides. This isn’t new technology.
The biggest challenge with this is that it takes the human eye out of the equation in many circumstances. Software, for all the good that it can do, does tend to make us lazy. It’s laziness that turns good pages mediocre. Manual vetting of content and inspiration that only comes to humans can turn a good page into a fantastic one.
“But, it saves time!”
That’s what some will say. I would argue that the five minutes it saves a day isn’t worth being half as effective.
The data is there. Facebook Insights aren’t perfect, but they present the data in an acceptable manner. Dashboards definitely do make things prettier. They also speed up the reporting process for marketing companies. However, they don’t understand nuance.
I’ve seen both sides. I’ve seen gorgeous automated reports and dashboards that didn’t tell the whole picture and I’ve seen manually-created reports and native dashboards that deliver the real results. A dashboard doesn’t know that the picture of a local attraction that received 50 likes, 15 shares, and 10 comments is less successful of a post than an inventory item that received 20 likes, 10 shares, and 5 comments, particularly if that inventory item was sold the day after it was posted.
The information provided by the social sites themselves manually gathered and analyzed by humans gives a much more accurate picture of the effectiveness of a campaign than any dashboard or report. It doesn't matter how pretty the graphs are. It’s still only numbers being provided in a different format. Reports need to say more than just the numbers. They need to demonstrate success.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing when my General Manager, Danny Benites, took a sales call late one evening last week, after our receptionist had gone home. A salesman and myself were in his office getting some one-on-one training when he took the call. He asked us to excuse him while he answered the call. A young lady had dialed our dealership by mistake..yes, a wrong number! Here'e where it got interesting. Danny asked if she was sure that dialing our dealership was indeed a 'mistake' or was it meant to be for her to call us. He asked her what she was currently driving and then asked her if it met ALL of her needs. After a few minutes of light-hearted conversation, he actually set an appointment with her. As it turned out, she couldn't buy a hamburger right now, but I bet she never forgets the time she 'misdialed' only to run into someone who actually took an interest in her needs.
Seriously, did this really happen?"Hi, I'd like a large pepperoni pizza, extra anchovies...""I'm sorry, ma'am, but we're a car dealership. Wanna come take a drive in this new Buick we've got?""Uh, ok...can I still get that pizza....?"As for Danny, he is the type of General Manager that is willing to do exactly what he expects from his employees. He always goes the extra mile and realizes everyone is a potential customer. I truly appreciate working with someone who will actively get involved, lead by example, and take time to teach.We are a true team here at Greg Lair! So remember, next time someone is ordering a pizza, dialing wrong numbers, or actually showing interest in a vehicle, use this opportunity to book your appointment; they might end up in the car of their dreams... as long as you're willing to go the extra mile.
A father and son walked onto a car lot and started looking around. As the salesperson approached, the son, 14- or 15-years old, was clearly directing his father towards a particular new vehicle. They met the salesperson in front of a Chevy Cruze and told her that they wanted to take it for a test drive.
As car deals go, this one was a pretty easy one. The negotiations were tough – they were informed buyers who paid well under MSRP after discounts and rebates on a 2013 with 2014 models rolling out – but otherwise it was pretty quick. They knew what they wanted and didn’t need much convincing that it was the right car for them.
When asked what helped them make their decision, the duo surprised their salesperson. “I’ve been following the car for a while on Facebook,” the son said.
She was perpexed. “Following the car?” she asked.
Apparently, the young man had been “following” several cars on social media for a couple of months. He told her something that shook her up a bit, which prompted her to tell her general manager, which prompted him to contact me. The young man told her, “My generation doesn’t trust the ‘expert reviews’ as much as we trust each other. We trust other people. The Cruze has been getting loved on by people all over Facebook and Twitter, much more than anything else in my price range.”
“My price range,” his father corrected.
This was the younger buyer’s car, at least it was going to be if he got a scholarship when he graduated from high school. His father would be driving it until then but wanted his son’s input since it would be his (hopefully) in a few years.
This story sparked my inquiry into my 14-year-old’s social media activity. As a conscientious and terrified father, I keep tabs on my children’s internet activity, but I’d never done a deep dive into her activities. I was looking for boys contacting her, of course, but now I had a reason to ask her some questions. What she told me was somewhat shocking (a hard thing to admit considering the amount of time I spend researching social media).
On Instagram, she had friends at her junior high with tens of thousands of followers. Everything they posted would get hundreds of likes. On Facebook, it was much of the same. The funny part was that they weren’t just posting updates about Lady Gaga or nail polish. I saw posts about Chick-fil-A, the Nissan Leaf (one of my daughter’s friend’s dream car), Qantas Airlines (they’re already picking airlines?), and even a nice debate about which tablets are best to take on vacation when stuck with the parents for the summer trip.
Today’s youths, tomorrow’s buyers, are turning to social media to learn more about brands than any other medium. They aren’t researching cars on Edmunds or KBB. They’re checking them out on YouTube, tracking them on Facebook, and following them on Twitter. They’re savvy enough to find what others are saying about them.
This is all fine and dandy for the future, but what about today? Then, my daughter pointed something out. Many major decisions are made by the family rather than just the parents. It’s more common today than ever before. Teen children are often major influencers when it comes to buying decisions.
Does this mean that businesses should turn their social media attention to be more like Justin Bieber or The Hunger Games? Of course not. Still, it’s important to know that it’s not just the direct buyers that are watching businesses on social media. It’s also important to note that tomorrow’s buyers are more connected through social media than today. This means that every day, as kids enter the buying market, more consumers are influenced by social media. It’s an important part of marketing today. It’s growing to become even more important over time. In the future, one might make the connection that social media could be the most influential component of a buying decision. That may be hard to imagine today, but the trends are clear.
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“Tomorrow’s Buyers” image courtesy of Shutterstock.
If you own an automobile, it is imperative for you to buy auto insurance policy. There are two main reasons as to why you need it. First of all, it is helpful in case of emergencies. The second reason is that, most of the states require an auto driver to secure an auto insurance policy. Therefore, if you are planning to buy an automobile, you will also be required to consider the cost of buying the insurance policy for your automobile. However, the cost of auto policies are quite high. This is the main reason due to which most of the auto owners avoid buying a policy.
Auto insurance shopping ideas that help save money
Below are some of the ideas for insurance shopping which may help you save money on a policy:
Ask for discounts - You will never get good discount offers if you do not ask for it. Thus, you will have to ask for certain discounts. Even if an insurer is offering a particular kind of discount, there can be various others which you are missing out on. So, ask if you are eligible for other discount types.
Compare different offers - You need to compare the offers you are browsing through. It does not mean that you will have to buy a policy, just because that particular auto insurance offer looks to be a cheaper option. There are various other factors which you will be required to consider. So, it would be better to use an auto insurance calculator, which can help you compare all aspects of the different policies.
Opt for higher deductibles - This is mainly for those who have enough funds which may help manage an emergency situation. If you opt to raise the deductible amount, you will see significant reduction in the premium amount. This is quite a common strategy followed by many, but can be risky too. For, if you can’t cough up money during an emergency, you may end up in hot waters.
Get insurance packages - It is important for you to buy insurance packages as these may help get extra discounts. If you buy a home insurance policy along with auto insurance and some other type of policy from the same provider, you may get huge discounts. This is commonly known as the multi-policy discount.
Drop coverage - Before you buy a particular policy, check as to what are the types of coverage offered. In addition, you will have to make sure that you are aware of your requirements. Based on that, you will have to choose the coverage. You should never make the mistake of adding together all of the coverage types, even if you do not require the same. In case, you already have a policy and there a few coverage types which are of no use to you, do away with those. This may help lower the monthly or the yearly premium amount.
The above are some of the insurance shopping ideas which can help you save lots on a policy.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
General Manager Says His Dealership Uses Skype To Sell Lots Of Cars... Does Your Store?
I am a creature of habit. For the last 10 years during the last week of the month, as a manager, I would send out a bulk email asking our internet customers if they are still in the market and if there was anything I could do personally to help put a deal together. I only go back three months, and I do it EVERY month. This morning I had 42 emails in my inbox. Here are the results:
BOTTOM LINE: Let those statistics sink in. If you handle Internet leads, you are dealing with BUYERS. Either you will sell them a car or someone else will. If you are a manager trying to hit your goal, spend some time going over your internet leads and you will find those extra deals are sitting in your CRM. Sometimes you just have to dig a little!
Automotive Internet Sales May 2013 "Dealer Of The Month" Andy Mohr - Chevrolet
Wanting It Bad
It's hard not to get discouraged by the impact of Global Drag, the term coined to describe the psychic state of business. Fear and uncertainty will not relinquish their grip. With a few notable exceptions, the recovery is anemic. We wake up in the middle of the night wondering what the heck we are doing wrong.
Even if you are the kind of person that reflexively refers to problems as "challenges," laughs loudly, cherishes the good times in life, and takes an optimistic view, it's hard not to succumb to doubt. From time to time you can get discouraged. You cannot control your circumstances.
J. Paul Getty once said the formula for success is:
1. Rise early.
2. Work hard.
3. Strike oil.
We can't control circumstances. We can't fix global drag. We can only control how we react to conditions. It would be a mistake not to remember the want-it-bad feeling that allows us to overcome the odds.
With all due respect to JPG I offer this revision:
1. Rise early.
2. Work hard.
3. Want it bad.
I was having a casual conversation with a counterpart at a different automotive social media company yesterday when he asked, “Why do you guys monitor on the weekends? The dealer doesn’t care and as long as we reply on Monday, they’ll be fine.”
The discussion that ensued was long and nearly got heated. Thankfully, cooler minds prevailed and I let him go about his business believing that 5-day/week social media was acceptable for his clients.
It’s not.
Despite the fact that you definitely do have more time on social media to reply than on something like chat or even phone, it’s unacceptable to let it linger for too long. The opportunities for sales are missed when days pass. The opportunity to make an upset customer happy can be missed in minutes sometimes. Take a look at this exchange:
The customer replied to a post on the dealer’s Facebook page at 8:26 on Sunday. The reply came in 5 minutes later, personalized and willing to make things right. The customer replied 5 minutes later. Then, the person who could make things happen, in this case the service manager, was able to call the customer on Monday and turn an unhappy customer into a happy one. This may not have been possible had they waited to make first contact the next morning rather than while the customer was still online.
This is just a single example, and it’s the reason that we’re adamant about monitoring clients’ pages seven days per week. The weekends are when the majority of potential social media interactions occur. To take the weekends off is a poor practice, especially considering the ease in staying connected with smartphones.
Obviously everyone needs a break. We don’t monitor on the seven major US holidays (despite my objections to that, the company I work for has a bigger heart than me), but otherwise it’s important for dealers to stay on top of what people are saying to them every day of the week. Hook up your smartphone and make it happen or find someone who can do it all for you.
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Sean V. Bradley, Training The Bleecker Auto Group Automotive Internet Sales Process - Car Sales
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Make Money Mondays With Sean V. Bradley - Perseverance - Automotive Sales Success
There are those who think that Facebook and Twitter are the only relevant social networks when it comes to business. There are those who go so far as saying that Facebook is all that you need. In truth, both may be right, but that’s strictly from a social perspective. Once you throw search into the equation, Google+, Pinterest, and Tumblr start having a bit more relevance than before.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s definitely social benefits that can be acquired through the “three lesser social networks”. It’s not all about search, but if for search and search alone you’re able to find value, at least you’re in there and participating.
These sites (and others, of course, but we’re going to focus on these three) are able to improve social signals to your website. These social signals, a mysterious but undisputed component of the Google search ranking algorithm, can help your pages get indexed more quickly and demonstrate popularity in the social sites that would normally not be achievable. This is not a license or recommendation to go and spam these sites by any means. At the end of the day, the quality of the content must still be high.
Let’s take a look at the quick and easy process. If you do it once a day, every day at a minimum, you will get benefit sooner rather than later.
You can’t just start spamming pages that are important to you like contact forms. There needs to be a social component of some sort with the links. You have to find or build the right pages that can resonate. Sometimes, that means finding pages that we want to rank well in search that can also play well in social. At other times, it means using pages that don’t really benefit us from a search perspective. Some would argue that there’s no reason to share this type of content, but they don’t understand social signals. While posting the direct page itself that you want ranked, there’s a flow of “social signals juice” that flows from a page that does well in social signals to the other pages of your site.
In other words, promoting a strong piece of content that can get more social signals is better than promoting a page that won’t do well in social media but that you would love to have ranked. Focus on the quality of the content and the social signal juice will flow across the board.
In this example, we’re going to use a pre-owned Mercedes. It’s pretty low hanging fruit – people love luxury vehicles on social media – so we’ll be using the vehicle detail page itself. It’s good social content and useful for business – perfect.
This will work nicely. Now, let’s get it some social signals…
As with anything that you post on social media, you have to have a story behind it. Just saying something like, “Check out this Mercedes,” that won’t work. There needs to be something socially compelling about it to put it up anywhere.
In the example above, we see the story. It’s a compelling plea to touch the desires of the audience. Once we’ve laid the groundwork in the text, we want to be transparent about what the link is going to do. There’s no need to try to coax people into clicking on the link. Say what it is – “we want you to buy this car”. Note the hashtags – important on every social site except for Facebook (for now).
Now, let’s take a look at Pinterest and Tumblr.
There are a few different options here. Mix them up. Try a little of everything.
Option one is to post directly from the page itself onto Pinterest and Tumblr. Option two is to post the Google+ post to Pinterest and Tumblr. Option three is to mix it up – put the source on Pinterest and the Google+ post on Tumblr, for example. By mixing it up, you’ll get variety on your Pinterest boards and Tumblog. Also, the signals, when followed, do have a certain level of flow from domain to domain. It’s not as powerful as it is with inbound links, but it’s there nonetheless.
Here it is on Pinterest taking it directly from the source. You’ll note that the text associated with it is shorter, though still includes the hashtag.
On Tumblr, let’s post from the Google+ post. Keep in mind that all three of these sites are relatively interchangeable. In other words, you could post from the source on Tumblr, then pin it and post it to Google+ from there. Of the social signals, Google+ is the most powerful so you won’t want many of those to be from other sources.
Here’s the Tumblr post:
In this case, we posted as a Tumblr link. It could have also been done as a Tumblr image with a link to the post in the content, but then it’s not a social signal but rather an inbound link. No need to go into details about the difference here – as long as you’re getting it posted, that’s better than nothing. You’ll also note that the content itself is duplicated from the Google+ post. I never, NEVER recommend using duplicated content anywhere, but because we’re trying to make it easy enough for you to be willing to do it, I took the lesser of two evils. It’s better that you do it rather than skipping it because it was too hard to do it the best way. The benefits are there even if it isn’t perfect in this scenario.
* * *
Once you get used to the process, it takes about 5-10 minutes. Do it every day. Not everything should be a link to your site. In fact, you should mix in other content regularly. A good mix (despite the fact that I don’t like giving formulas) would be to post 1-2 links to your site per week and fill the other 3-6 with outside content. Mix it up. Have some fun. Get the benefit. Take over your market.
Sometimes, social media seems to be integrated into every part of the day. But, are companies reaping rewards or return from the social-media campfire conversations?
That would be a NO.
There are plenty of conversations that power a business to stand out from the competition, but for many, deducing all the fodder into financial gain is not easy.
The number of small businesses that have increased their social-media budget has quadrupled, and 43 percent of small businesses now spend more than six hours each week dealing with social media.
In the near future, I’d hedge to bet businesses will discover that online reviews provide more conversation in fewer places, and reveal the invisible customer – the one that got away (and launched an online review assault against the company).
Our research suggests Facebook is not the first stop when people want to check out a business; they often go to review sites beforehand.
The VerificationMy team at eReputationBUILDER recently did a study on two dealerships, one with high-end buyers and the other with mid to low-end buyers. We analyzed sentiment and patterns in both review growth and customer perception.
The two departments that benefited the most with this game changing insight into customer preference and behavior were operations and marketing.
Here are our findings: Despite differences in target markets (upper-middle incomes vs. middle to lower incomes), both dealerships experienced a growth in reviews. No matter how much or how little a person spent on a car or service repair, no matter regional differences, people still wrote reviews.
Brand association was stronger for lower-mid car buyers, but upper-income buyers cared more about luxury features. Dealers can leverage this research by making changes internally and invest dollars in marketing and operations. Propelled from the customers voice, reviews are measurable and certifiable.
The lower to mid-market company should link the brand name with its amenities (e.g., "INSERT DEALERSHIP NAME offers..."), while the higher-end business should advertise the luxury attraction ("Vehicle comes with push button parallel parking”).
Online review sites are a game changer, no doubt. But they are the dark horses in this race, at least in terms of where businesses are currently putting the most focus. Companies need to use these reviews to better their business practices and improve satisfaction and acquisition. Listen to what your customers are saying; and refocus according to your target market. You are sure to reap the benefits.
Jerry Hart
President
eReputationBUILDER
Be sure to check out the Internet Sales 20 Group in November to learn more about this topic...
Look, I get it. I understand that it’s hard for vendors and OEMs to produce a social media solution for their dealers that scales properly while still bringing in good content. I do not, however, understand the concept of not even trying to mix things up. There’s an easy road and a hard road for automotive social media, but there’s also the right road, the one that scales properly while still maintaining individuality and creativity at the core of the service.
I know this for a fact. I’ve developed it.
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard, either. It took some time, plenty of planning, a ton of testing, and an unyielding principle to do for clients what I would want done if I were at a dealership, but the results have been astounding (beyond my own expectations) and the effort is exactly as it should be – enough to make a strategy that helps dealers sell more cars but not so much that it become cost prohibitive. Every dealer and vendor should examine what they’re doing in social media and decide whether or not it’s worth risking your dealership’s reputation by reposting content from someone else.
Keep in mind, sharing is perfectly acceptable. If you see something on a different Facebook page that your audience will enjoy, share it! Don’t do it too often – it’s not algorithmically viable to have shared content filling your page – but it’s better than grabbing it and reposting it. What’s worse is to grab it and repost it on a bunch of other dealers’ pages as well.
I first noticed this during the Toyota Corolla launch a couple of weeks ago. We posted an image of the new Corolla and it did very well for our client. Minutes later, it was posted again. And again. And again. There’s no telling how many Toyota dealers had the same content posted almost simultaneously, but it wasn’t a case of imitation being the best for of flattery. It was ridiculous, but I let it go. Maybe someone was in a hurry. Maybe our post was just that compelling and needed to be shared. I didn’t think it was a standard practice, but now I know differently.
You deserve better. Your content should be unique regardless of how widespread your marketing company is. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, it’s scalable and extremely effective to post 100% unique content on Facebook for hundreds, even thousands of clients. It’s not acceptable to take shortcuts for the sake of a vendor’s bottom line. It shouldn’t be this way. There’s way too much potential with social media done the right way to allow laziness or cost savings to supersede a client’s needs.
That’s it. Sorry for the rant. This stuff gets me riled up.
There’s a challenge associated with Facebook advertising that isn’t as important when it comes to Google Adwords or similar advertising platforms. With Adwords, as long as your ads match well with the page that you’re advertising, you can maintain a high quality score and keep your ads working well. On Facebook, there is a much tougher audience than the Google algorithm that you have to win over. With Facebook, your ads fall under the scrutiny of the audience and if they don’t like what you’re advertising, they can hurt your current and future exposure.
When you advertise on Facebook, your posts get much more visibility. If the content that you’re advertising gets a good amount of negative sentiment in the form of reports and hides, it isn’t just the post itself that gets hurt. Your future posts will feel the wrath of the algorithmic damage that you do. It isn’t just negative sentiment that hurts, either. If your post is viewed by many people in their news feed and gets ignored, that too is damaging. When people see your post and don’t engage with it, Facebook’s algorithm recognizes that and will be less likely to present future posts to them.
Thankfully, the opposite is true as well. Facebook ads can be used to help future standard posts find the light of day by accumulating a high percentage of positive engagement. In the balance between conversational and conversion posts, focusing some ad dollars on the former can help the latter appear more prominently in news feeds. One of the easiest ways to do this is to highlight what the company is already doing in the real world – helping in the community.
“It’s important to keep a mix of community posts, conversation posts, and business-relevant posts,” said Louie Baur, social media manager for KPA. “The only thing worse than fan fatigue is spam.”
At first glance, the image above would appear to belong to a horticulture page or perhaps an arboretum. It’s a bonsai plant, something that you don’t see every day on Facebook but interesting enough nonetheless. When people see it in their news feed, there’s a good chance they’ll look at the description to see what the post is all about. That’s when it hits them. This is a post by a car dealer. They are supporting an event in the local community by posting it on their Facebook page. They even sponsored the post.
This does a few things. First, it does the most obvious thing – helps to promote a worthwhile community event. This is the most important thing it does and as long as the intentions are sincere, the benefits will be real. Second, it gives a piece of content that will resonate with a different set of people than standard content posted to the page. They are a car dealership and they post a lot of information about cars, of course. Mixing in a picture of a bonsai and connecting that to the community and the dealership itself is a strong maneuver from a strategic perspective.
Finally, it is a strong aid for future posts. Fans will interact. The beneficiary, in this case a local arboretum, will likely interact. As people like, comment on, and share the content, more local people will see it. This is where the magic can happen. The combination of strong organic interaction, paid views, and viral views can combine for a very powerful little campaign.
In this case, the total cost of the campaign will be $5. The value of the thousands of views of the message and branding (for both the beneficiary and the business itself) will be priceless.
I’m always hesitant to talk to people about the wonders of Facebook advertising. It’s the most cost-effective way to get the word out to the right people. The targeting capabilities make Google envious and the effectiveness, when done right, is nothing short of a work of art for driving business.
The hesitation comes with the major caveat that surrounds Facebook advertising. It can be both a wonderful thing and a terrible thing because, unlike Adwords or other forms of digital advertising, you can actually do harm to your page and your future posts.
Facebook is governed by one of the most fickle algorithms ever created. It works in real time and has a long memory, making it like walking on eggshells when trying to promote a business. There are strategies for content posting that are specifically designed to play up to the algorithm just as there are strategies for playing properly with search algorithms. The difference is that there’s no attachment between paid and organic in search while paid and organic promoted posts on Facebook are connected at the hip.
Here is an example of the “Boost” options on a Facebook page that we manage for a client. It has around 1500 fans and thankfully we were able to build it nearly from scratch – they had 26 fans when we took the page over 4 months ago.
The numbers represented here show the estimated reach for the different numerical values available to be spent. These are stereotypical numbers of a well-managed page of this size with a history of posting strong content. It’s lower than what a fresh page can expect; Facebook gives first-time advertisers a wide range of people who can like their posts before reducing it down based upon successes and failures. The reduction is inevitable because as people see posts in their news feeds and do not interact with them, they become less likely to see the next post you put up. Unless you’re posting Shakespeare-quality unique content that is driving your audience to become mad fans, you will certainly see a major dip in reach potential.
The numbers go up and down, but as long as you can keep them reaching the total number of fans you have on the page with the lowest denomination of spend, you’re in a good place in the eyes of the Facebook algorithm.
Now, here’s an example of a different page. Same industry. More fans. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have nearly the reach potential.
Sometime in the past, they burned enough people who saw their posts that they’re having challenges reaching them a second time. It could have just been poor content, but a scan of the page doesn’t lend to this theory.
The only other explanation is that they’ve used Facebook ads in the past and butchered them. They posted content that was deemed spammy and then promoted it to a ton of people.
It would be like picking up a bullhorn and screaming fowl language at people as they walked by the store.
The damage is done. It’s reversible, but we have a pretty long road ahead with this much damage to correct. If the offending post or posts was so bad that a lot of people reported or made their posts hidden, it might turn out to be a better idea to start over from scratch.
Facebook is an extremely powerful advertising tool, but there are right ways and wrong ways to harness that power. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use it for business-relevant posts. It just means that you cannot use it to spam the wrong messages. Before posting or promoting anything, ask yourself if you would want to see something like it on your news feed if it was from a different industry. In other words, if you run a car dealership, before posting this week’s newspaper ad and promoting it to 50,000 people, ask yourself if you would enjoy seeing a newspaper ad selling furniture popping up in your news feed between posts of little Timmy sliding into third base and your hilarious co-worker’s hilarious rant of the day.
Bill the Butcher was one of the greatest characters in movie history, but Bob the Butcher (you know, your Facebook ad guy) isn’t going to win you an Oscar for best Facebook post if he’s promoting content that doesn’t belong on Facebook.
Dear Friend,
Having been part of several very effective mastermind groups, my friend Troy Spring and I are firm believers in the power of the mastermind to help business owners reach new levels of success.
However, we’ve also discovered that mastermind groups do not always deliver the desired results. They have to be set up and run in the right way and – most important – they must have the “right” people in attendance.
So, when we decided to create our own automotive mastermind group, we started by listing the top automotive professionals we know – from Dealer Principles to General Sales Managers to used Car Managers to Internet Sales Managers to Sales Professionals to Vendors – and we sought to identify the key characteristics that made them stand out from the rest.
Having identified those two factors, we agreed that a successful group from the auto industry would have to build around people like that.
It would be made up of people who not only had great ideas but who also had practical experience – people who had actually done the work necessary and were ready to implement what they learned as part of the group.
Success breeds success and a good mastermind group multiplies success many times over.
You have to decide if you are ready to take action and if you are willing to take the steps necessary not only to ensure your own success but also to contribute to the success of everyone involved.
The Unfair Advantage Mastermind is a group for people who are already top performers or who are ready to take the action needed to become one of the best in the industry.
If you can’t make an additional $100,000 in the next 12 months from what you learn from this mastermind, the chances are you won’t be invited back the following year.
The success of any group depends on the members so we are serious about ensuring it is made up of people who share the same commitment to results.
One of the keys to a good mastermind is that all the members should feel able to share their worries, their ideas, their successes and their disappointments.
That’s not usually possible when close competitors participate so the group is restricted to on dealer per marketplace – though the mastermind member in that marketplace can choose to make an exception.
However, the benefit of being part of a group like the Unfair Advantage Mastermind is not only what you learn from the other participants but also the connections you make through time. Often one of the biggest challenges in implementing something fast is that, once you have learned “what” needs to be done, you need to know “who” can do it for you.
We have focused attention on that and you’ll find that other members also have proven and tested connections. Those may be great sales trainers, fixed ops specialists, website designers, SEO experts, Pay-per Click specialists, marketing distribution houses, branding gurus, software creators and many, many more people offering the skills, expertise and resources you’ll need. In addition, we’ve arranged for mastermind members to receive substantial discounts from the connections.
The secret of reaching the next level is discovering something new and then knowing precisely how to implement it effectively in your dealership. You can achieve both of those fast by surrounding yourself with the right people. The Unfair Advantage Mastermind will introduce you to the right people!
There are several benefits included if your membership is accepted:
Finally, we are as passionate about enjoying life as we are about building your business so you’ll find the meetings highly enjoyable as well as extremely profitable. All LIVE Unfair Advantage Mastermind events in 2013 will be held in Charlotte, NC.
You have the chance to be part of this unique group of industry leaders where you will have access to the latest and best money-making and money-saving ideas before your competitors.
you can be confident that the innovative ideas shared in the Unfair Advantage Mastermind Group will change the automotive industry and your dealership forever. Are you ready to be part of it? Do you have what it takes?
If you are ready to get an Unfair Advantage in your business – and you feel you meet the criteria to be an effective, participating member, the first step is to complete an application form.
As you’d expect, the number of memberships available in the Unfair Advantage Mastermind is extremely limited and not everyone who applies is accepted.
Nevertheless, we are open to receiving application from potential automotive industry leaders who feel they could contribute to and benefit from membership of the Unfair Advantage Mastermind.
Please note that space is limited so you may see a message indicating that no places are currently open. Check it out today to see if places are still available.
Thank you for taking the time to read this personal letter… & … GET READY for the ULTIMATE #1 BEST Automotive Mastermind Group in the WORLD that CAN help you obtain an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE over your competition!
Apply for Membership TODAY before the deadline because we expect this event to be packed!
Your Friend,
If you would like to register by phone, or have additional questions, contact our Team at (888) 699-5718 or info@unfairadvantagemastermind.comStep 1: Apply For FREE Membership TODAY (Before we’re at capacity. Space IS limited)
Step 2: Put The Date On Your Calendar (Just in case your membership is approved).
Date: October 13-15, 2013.
Step 3: Wait For Your Official membership Request Email To Arrive. (You’ll know whether you’ve been approved or not in 2-3 weeks of applying).
Step 4: If Your Membership Is Approved, Reserve Your Hotel Room ASAP
Step 5: Arrive in Charlotte, NC on October 13, 2013 ready to learn!
The Unfair Advantage Automotive Mastermind will be held at the Embassy Suites Charlotte in Charlotte, NC. Located only 6 miles from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and located minutes from Charlotte Motor Speedway, Carowinds Amusement Park, Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and Bank of America Stadium (Home of the Carolina Panthers).
We have arranged for a special rate block of rooms.
If and when your membership is approved, call to make your reservation: (704) 524-8400
Group code for your discount is: UNFAIR ADVANTAGE AUTOMOTIVE MASTERMIND
http://www.internetsales20group.com
Sean V. Bradley's Presentation For The Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association "Keeping What's Yours & Taking What's Theirs!"
The San Antonio Spurs played not to win and wound up losing. The Spurs gave the power and control of the game to the Miami Heat and Miami took the power and control of their destiny and won. The Spurs will forever regret the position they took. Business lessons learned: Play to win instead of not to lose. Never give away your power or control of your destiny to the competition.
