FINALLY! For all you dealers fumbling around in the darkness that is Social Media integration, it seems like somebody may have found the light switch…or at least turned on a night light.

Yesterday bing announced they would integrate Twitter updates in their search results. And because search engine land is more competitive than the NFC East conference, Google announced the same day that they, too, would integrate Twitter into their search results.

All of this is in attempts for the search engines to move to more of a “real-time” display of search engine results. Meaning, instead of typing in “Malibu Surf Report” and getting a PDF from 2003, you’ll now get real-time results from Tweeters on the sand in Malibu putting on their rash guards (in theory). This is a huge movement in the Search world, which has been really floating by over the years tossing around ideas of local search, vertical search and real-time search. Finally.

So what does that mean for you as an automotive dealer? It means getting your inventory on Google and bing directly…and in real-time.

How does it work?  The engines are going to crawl Twitter data no older than a week and display them in order.  What order?  AHHH, therein lies the question of all questions.  How does any search engine rank results - relevance and popularity.  So if your Tweet is relevant to the keyword search, and Tom’s Ford has more Twitter followers than Bob’s Ford, Tom is going to get the ranking for “2010 ford mustang”.

I am very happy to see things come together considering my last post, “YouTwitFace”, had the theme of a big thumbs down to dealership Social Media integration.  So for now, what I would recommend is promoting Twitter on your websites.  Offer incentives, coupons, car washes..whatever to people who sign up to follow you on Twitter and also facebook, who’s integration with the engines is just around the corner.

We’ll do our part by getting your inventory to Twitter.

Stay tuned.

Tweet ya later.

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?   (more…)

Do you consider yourself a progressive dealer?  Is it something innate, or learned?  I consider myself a pretty successful guy…or at least strive to be one, but I know people who still sit around watching COPS all day playing the lottery and eating Long John Silvers.  With major companies crumbling because of bureaucracy, stubbornness, fat-dumb-and-happy-syndrome…or all of the above , wouldn’t you assume that dealers more than ever would focus on bettering their processes to push themselves out in front for the new generation of car buyers?  You would assume.  As do I.

I want to talk about my favorite dealer to-date.  His name is Brian Hoskins…from Brian Hoskins Ford in Pennsylvania.  Why do I like Brian so much?  Aside from the fact he’s a super likable guy, Brian Hoskins is Brian Hoskins, yes the owner.  And he is INVOLVED.  Brian Hoskins cares about his store and shows concern about the future, and has genuine ambition to be the best regardless of how big or how small his store is.

Before Brian came to us, he had one of those OEM “Here, Use This”  Dealer Websites.  The site was convoluted, hard to navigate, outdated, mundane…and worst of all it had zero rankings on Google - even when you searched for “Brian Hoskins Ford”. (more…)

New Ownership at North Texas Nissan Makes Reputation Cleanup a Priority

New ownership and management take over North Texas Nissan with a new attitude in efforts to regain customers and improve community presence as a Dallas area Nissan Dealership

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) June 4, 2009 — As of February 2009, new ownership and management stepped in at North Texas Nissan to rebrand the dealership and take control over their image in the community as the leader in customer appreciation. According to customer loyalty maps in the region, it appears the previous management did not make customer loyalty a priority as it showed most customers did not return to buy a second vehicle, and rather bought from the competition. New ownership and management believes the store is due for an overhaul.

North Texas Nissan is now committed to making every customer feel like they are family,” claims Wesley Spence, Dealer Principle and General Manager. “Our primary task is to provide the most enjoyable buying experience possible so that we may retain our customers for life.”

Spence comes to North Texas Nissan after 5 years of service with another large dealer group in Texas, and brings with him a team of experienced staff to help clean up the store’s reputation. “We hope to be able to reach out to our customer base and community in an effort to reestablish the relationship that had been tarnished. We will do this by reaching out to the community through mail and community involvement,” says Spence. “North Texas Nissan, unlike other dealers, is a non-hassle dealership who caters to the customer’s needs. There are never hidden or unwanted ads on our vehicles that surprise the customer once they arrive at the dealership. We are also committed to maintaining an ongoing relationship after the sale to insure that our customers have a positive buying experience.”

Considering dismal news in automotive including Chrysler ’s and GM’s recent bankruptcy filings and possible further bailouts and closures, it seems there is a lot more pressure for dealerships to create a pro-consumer environment. Spence weighs in on the current economic conditions by saying, “Although we do realize that consumers are concerned with the current state of the economy, in most cases we are able to take advantage of the aggressive lending and rebate programs from the manufacturer to lower a customer’s current payment in a newer model car.”

Some of the initiatives Spence and his team have put into motion to compete with other Dallas Nissan Dealers to increase sales are 100% guaranteed loan approvals, a no-gimmick $6.99 oil change, free AutoCheck and trade appraisal, and a guaranteed “apples-to-apples” price-match from their competition. Future plans include a car wash and body shop for customers and local residents. “North Texas Nissan is no longer a dealership who only looks out for its best interest regardless of the cost to the customer…” explains Spence. “…rather we are a dealership who realizes the satisfaction of its customer will determine its future success.”

When asked about the future of North Texas Nissan, Spence says, “In 2009 we have two priorities….first we want to build a dealership that people will be proud to buy a car from, and second we want to be the best and biggest Nissan dealership in Texas. We realize that it will take a lot of work to accomplish these goals, but with hard honest work and the help of our community we will be able to accomplish these goals.”

About North Texas Nissan:
North Texas Nissan, based in Corinth, Texas is a franchise Nissan dealership selling new Nissans, used and certified pre-owned cars and trucks to the communities of Dallas, Fort Worth and the DFW Metroplex.

I’m not here to preach one way or another about dealership microsites because if used correctly they can be very effective.  I’d rather tell you a story and let you decide for yourself on how best to apply them to your dealership (if at all).

I had a dealer in New York call me about two weeks ago inquiring into our dealer websites and SEO.  The first words out of his mouth were, “can you build me a bunch of microsites”?  My regretful response, “why”, led him into a 5 minute seminar on microsites helping with SEO, creating additional SEO rankings and hundreds of back-links to his website.   He also shared his theory on how automotive shoppers “hate dealers”, and that by taking the dealer’s brand away from a microsite makes the customer feel more comfortable to fill out a lead form.

My experience with microsites started in 2004 when I started an online marketing agency providing SEM/SEO services to Retail Automotive.  We were one of the first (if not the first) companies to market Search to car dealers.  Our core product was in-fact a microsite….we called it an “SEO sub-site”.  The SEO sub-site was born out of necessity because our first client’s website provider refused us access to the backend of the website where we needed upload our SEO code and content.  The client wanted SEO and we offered SEO.  Their website provider did not.  So we developed a work-around…

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I think I’ve been here long enough to post a disgruntled little blog.  During my time here at ecarlist over the past 4-ish months, I’ve spoken to a lot of dealers.  Many of them are engaging in SEO and/or SEM and many are not.  Usually I wouldn’t bash on the dealers who are proactively invovled with Search, but it seems that there is a major disconnect in regards to their spending.

I conducted my own little experiement in which I surveyed dealers who were using some of the more well-known SEM management firms which will remain un-named…uhhhreachlocaluhhhnmm.   Now this study was put together by a huge team of one with an enormous panel of 10.  Here are the results….

10 out of 10 dealers who were spending money on SEM with their “SEM Agency”  had no knowledge of  how much money was going to Google, Yahoo and/or MSN and how much was going into the pocket of their agency who was charging a percentage of the dealer’s gross monthly spend (usually with minimum spending requirements).

Does that concern anyone?  Apparantly not.  Because these firms are sending their weekly home-made Excel spreadsheets that show the dealer is getting “clicks” and apparantly that’s all that matters to the dealer.  They send nothing from the Engines themselves who have great reporting systems that show the actual spend, average Cost Per Click and Click Through Rates.

I’ve heard from some dealers who actually took the time to analyze their SEM campaigns directly with Google that the percentages their Agencies were taking were sometimes as high as 40%.   That means for every $1.00 you spend on Google, it’s actually costing you $1.40…assuming you are getting information on how much you’re spending per-click.

So anyway, for the dealer that cares about what you are spending these days I recommend going with an SEM management firm that either charges you a flat rate (i.e. ecarlist) or a  reasonable percentage with complete transparency.  In fact, I would call your SEM firm today and ask them if you can get a cost breakdown from Google - which they have readily available.  If they aren’t interested in showing it to you, you may want to reconsider who you are spending money with.

What is SERM?  Sounds like a bad case of the flu, but it’s actually a serious and rapidly growing segment of Search Engine Marketing.  SERM stands for Search Engine Reputation Management, and any company who struggles with negative PR online should get to know it well.

North Texas Nissan runs a very successful operation and uses ecarlist for Inventory Management and recently a premium website with SEM and SEO.   

Let’s just say the old management didn’t focus heavily on customer service.   North Texas Nissan suffers from serious negative online public relations just like many other dealers and companies online who may or may not be aware of it.

A Google search for “North Texas Nissan” brings up first page results for RipoffReport.com and Complaints.com that were posted by consumers (or bashing competitors)  from years ago during the previous management.

Many brand name companies suffer this same fate - Pay Pal, Bosley Medical, and countless dealers are losing an unforeseen amount of business from negative postings that appear in the search results.  And the worst part is that it’s near impossible to get these negative postings removed since they are protected under the 1st Amendment.

SERM is the process of achieving additional rankings for certain keywords in efforts to push down any negative PR websites “below the fold” or to the 2nd or 3rd page of the search results - or at least out of the way of it interfering.

As ecarlist strives to bring our dealers cutting edge online technology,  we are proud to launch a SERM program for North Texas Nissan and will be posting the results soon.

As most of us say ‘good riddance’ to 2008, it seems everyone has a heightened sense of awareness going into 2009. In regards to strategy, Dealers are making more careful choices and wiser decisions.  Ambiguity has been replaced with accountability, trust is synonymous with proof, and vendors are being audited.  But above all, the dealers who will survive in 2009 and beyond will be those who fundamentally shift their beliefs about the Internet.

During the housing boom, money was flowing.  It seemed one out of two vehicles on the road had paper plates.  Meanwhile most dealers were still trying to figure out the Internet with many refusing to believe it was a lucrative means of reaching existing and potential customers because..well, they were selling cars.

Also remember, the tech bubble had burst shortly before the housing bubble began…so the theory of the Internet taking over our daily lives was in question.  But what emerged from the tech implosion was a leaner, more viable Internet.  The fat fell off and the Internet was exposed for its most essential offerings - email and search.  And with more data showing Internet usage increasing and car shoppers looking online to start their research, dealers started moving their Internet efforts higher on the priority list.  Yet although dealers were starting to embrace the Internet, they were still unwilling to relinquish their old habits.  According to NADA - in 2005 dealers on average spent $177,992 on newspapers, $72,821on radio, $58,631 on TV, $30,132 on direct mail, and $25,844 on the Internet.  As the old saying goes, “I know my advertising budget is working…I just don’t know which part”.

So now that 2008 has proven that over 90% of people planning to purchase a vehicle start their buying cycle online, what do you plan to do with that information, and are you thinking of reallocating your budgets according to proven user behavior?

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As a dealer vendor in the online advertising/marketing sector, it is your innate duty to justify the money your dealer gives you.  That’s what makes online marketing different - the accountability.  It’s easier to take radio or newspaper dollars and chalk up the lack of accountability to “branding”, but with the Internet it all comes down to Cost-Per-Lead and the ability to match leads to vendors.

Yet there are many vendors competing for the same justification of the same existence. An example - my previous company sold SEM/SEO services…but we didn’t provide the actual website. So we built “microsites” in order to segregate our leads and say “look at these great results…we deserve what you pay us for”. No harm done, but in theory why would a dealer want two different websites and who were we really helping by separating SEM visitors from the dealer’s Direct website visitors? That’s right, ourselves. We needed to justify the money our clients spent with us regardless of the TRUE value to the dealer. Allow me to be clear – I’m a huge fan of accountability…but at the end of the day, SEM visitors ARE Website visitors, and with proper analytics a dealer has the ability to track and separate out SEM visitors from their Direct or Organic visitors. But…we felt good about telling our clients they received X many leads because of us, and in the end our dealers wanted to know their ROI specific to Search.

So let’s look at a deeper-routed problem, and the real reason for this post. There are plenty vendors out there that seem to be riding coattails and molding data solely to justify their existence no matter the true value of their product. Online chat, sweepstakes providers, certain media services, talking avatars and even pop-up lead forms are all giving the dealer a report back that says “hey look what I brought you…now pay me”. Frankly some of it is just plain insulting, and below are a couple enlightening examples.

A) There’s one very large SEM provider whose sole responsibility is to manage their clients’ Paid (more…)

Hello and Welcome from the new Search & Media department at ecarlist!  I’d like to use my official blog entry here as an introduction to the department, why I’m here and what I’ll be posting about on a (hopeful) regularly scheduled basis.

About the new Search & Media department:
Search - Search Engine Marketing  -  made up of Organic Search Engine Marketing (“SEO”) and Paid Search Marketing (aka “PPC”, “SEM”, “CPC”).  The automotive industry has somehow likened the term “SEM” to Paid Search, which I fought for years but have relinquished my effort.   Regardless our new Search & Media department will be providing our dealers with a higher level of SEO (contact me for an explanation), and Paid Search Marketing management.   That explains the Search, but what about the Media?

As we bring our dealers up to maximize their efforts and market share through Search Engine Marketing, there remains a constantly evolving online marketing medium with countless opportunities to promote your dealership, engage your potential buyers and develop a synergistic online marketing presence.  Programs such as contextual ad buying, social networking, online display, sponsorships, email marketing and affiliate marketing program are just the tip of the iceberg.  Did you know that you can buy your Radio, TV and even Print advertising through Google’s adwords program on the same auction-based model as their adwords (PPC) program?  This is what ecarlist is about – thinking beyond.

Which leads me to why I’m here.
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