The other night, I’m watching the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien do his famous “In the Year 3000″ routine in which he and his sidekick, Andy, make ridiculously silly predictions about the future.  One of Conan’s predictions was, “In the year 3000, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook will merge into one massive time-wasting website called, ‘YouTwitFace‘.   Apart from it being hilarious, it got me thinking.  Is Social Media being taken seriously, or do we have just another Internet micro-bubble on our hands?

I personally believe social media used in the right capacity can be beneficial to you both personally and professionally.  I have a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account and I belong to a couple Automotive social networks.  I use Facebook on my iPhone when I find myself waiting for my car to get washed or my steak to get to medium-rare.  LinkedIn has done absolutely nothing for me, but I know people who rely on it heavily for business networking.  I don’t have a MySpace account…because, well I’m a male above the age of 15 and I don’t play in a band…yet.

Now what about car dealers?  Tweeting?  Really?  Let me emphasize that we offer social integration for our dealers.  My favorite, and in my opinion most useful application is being able to post a vehicle from a dealer’s website to my Facebook with a link back to the dealer.  It’s social network marketing at its finest, and I’ve seen real referral traffic to dealers from Facebook based on this app.

We can do anything for our dealers, and many of them are requesting Twitter.  I don’t Tweet and I don’t subscribe to Twitter because frankly there’s not a person or a business out there that I want or need to receive updates from.  Perhaps maybe my doctor or stock broker….maybe.

Celebs and Astronauts maintain decent audiences, and President Obama would probably create a nice sized Tweet-base (or Twit-base depending on what side of the isle you sit on).  But Bob’s Discount Auto Sales?  I didn’t believe it actually until this morning when my collegue told me one of our Porsche dealers has almost 400 people following their Twitter account.  Who are these people, and what are they wanting updates regarding?  Turns out most of them are other local business in the community also on Twitter, some spammers and I’m assuming a few customers.

I believe more than anything, engaging with Social Media fills a gap, provides some personalization between the dealer and whoever wishes to partake, and proves the dealer is ahead of the curve -  staying with the times…which these days could not be more important.  Twitter is actually considered a “micro-blog”, which makes it much easier for a dealer to maintain than an actual blog, which is the key to successful Social Network Marketing.  Maintenance.  It’s hard enough to come up with something to say monthly in a blog, so dealers must be able to find relevant or useful content to provide their customers with or else their Twitter”ees” are going to drop like flies.

So what’s next?

Twitter, Facebook, Google, BING, and the entire Internet are getting more personal and intuitive - it’s Web 3.0.  Or as Dave, our VP of Interactive, explains, the Internet will be coming to you vs. you going to the Internet - your own personal concierge so to speak.   In that case, I see Twitter getting more opt-in friendly which means if you want to receive Service specials from your local Porsche dealer, or want to receive a Tweet when they get in that blue GT3 you’ve always wanted -  then I can see Twitter for car dealers being realistically effective.  But isn’t that what texting and emailing is for?

I can’t predict the future like Conan can, but I’m assuming what works will stay and what’s novelty will fail.  In the meantime, my friends, keep Tweeting, FaceBooking and LinkingIn…because the bottom line is that these amazing and technologically resourceful programs allow you to reach out to people who opt-in to listen to you…no matter what you have to say.  Just keep at least 3 feet between you and My Space.