Car Dealer Blog

One of the questions that many dealers ask me when we talk about Web 2.0, social media, and the automotive industry is where should they start? If I could pick one type of site that is a "must have" for car dealers wanting to get started in social media, what would it be? My answer, hands down, is a dealership blog. Before Facebook, Twitter, or any of the others, a blog is the best place to get started.

This is one part of a five part series that will be posted on various sites. It covers the basics: a 30,000 foot view of the various social media sites as well as easy, practical ways that the sites can be used.

Why Do Car Dealers Need a Blog?

One of the primary reasons that dealers need to get involved with social media is to put add "humanity" to their web presence. Just about every dealer in the nation has a website. This website will probably have a certain level of personality and branding. They may also have an About Us or Why Buy Here page that goes into more detail about who they are and what makes them special.

It isn't enough.

A blog has 4 primary functions:

• Reputation Management - With 3rd party sites, directory listings, and competitors filling up searches for you by name or city, it's important to have an additional web presence to take up a spot.
• SEO - Fresh content is one of the keys to optimization. A blog offers a way to target specific keywords that are difficult to achieve on standard dealer websites. There is also the linking aspect - a blog linking to pages on your websites can assist in getting those pages ranked.
• Humanity - Consumers know you're a car dealer. They need an opportunity to know that you're more than that. A blog is the perfect venue to make this happen.
• Controlled Response - If they have something to say to or about you online, people want a place where they can be heard. Having a blog gives them a place to say good or bad about you. If you think that not having a blog will prevent them from saying bad things about you, think again. If they can't post a comment to your blog, they will find a place that you don't control such as RipOffReport.
  

Starting a Blog

If your website provider can set a blog up on your site, there are advantages and disadvantages. Having fresh content added to your primary site helps with SEO and helps to make the site more sticky, but it also weakens the influence of links to other pages on your site and won't be as useful in search engine reputation management.

If you have the time available to create a blog on its own domain and hosting, that is better.  Here is how:

1. Get a domain name. I use GoDaddy. It can be something simple like www.dealershipnameblog.com or something more creative like www.chicagohyundaitimes.com.
2. Get hosting. A shared hosting service is fine and normally less than $10 per month. I recommend HostGator as they have a simple interface that will allow you to install Wordpress blogging software quickly.
3. Pick out and install a theme. Simply searching for "Wordpress Themes" in Google will give you more choices than you can imagine. The process for installing the theme is more in-depth than this blog post can cover, but a step-by-step process will be available during the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp (detailed below).

From there, you're ready to get started.

What Should Car Dealers Blog About?

The simple answer is "everything". If it's associated with the dealership and would potentially be interesting to visitors, blog about it.  Vehicle reviews, employees of the month, special events at the dealership, customer experience stories, and extra special trade-in, factory incentives... everything is open game.

One thing that many dealers who are currently blogging often forget to mention is off-site events. Something as simple as sponsoring a little league team and posting pictures and recaps of the game will draw people in. Blogging about people or events in the community is an easy way to get people to direct others to your blog (and from there to your site). Nothing says "tell your friends and family" like pictures of little Timmy crossing home plate or a video of little Sally scoring the winning shot.

Use your blog to help support charities that the dealership sponsors. Remember, people often forget that car dealers participate in the community. If your dealership helps local charities or supports other events, putting that information on your blog can help with your reputation.

It's your blog. Publicity on it is absolutely fine.

So Much More About Blogging

This post barely scratches the surface when it comes to the art of effective blogging. Those who are concerned with the time expenditure should consider that putting together a good blog post can be as easy as an hour every week or two. The only thing that one needs to remember is that updating the blog regularly is important. Letting it go for months at a time without updates can do more harm than good.

Blogging will surely be one of the topics at the upcoming Automotive Marketing Boot Camp being held in Orlando the day before NADA 2010.  A comprehensive, step-by-step training session on blogging would help car dealers to determine how to integrate a strong blogging strategy into their marketing campaigns.

For now, you can continue to the next part of this series, Car Dealer Social Media Basics: Facebook.

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Read more about Automotive Blog Marketing on this site.

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TK Carsites

As the industry leader in Automotive search engine optimization, TK Carsites has long needed to freshen-up their own online presence. For years, they have been at the top of search engine results pages for nearly all of the major search terms associated with automotive website design and automotive SEO. Still, the site itself was not as user-friendly
as it should have been.

Now, the new website is geared towards true Automotive Internet Marketing for car dealers.

We have also integrated an official blog into the site. We have always used external blogs such as this one and Driving Sales to communicate with the blogosphere, but TK Carsites now officially has its own blog. With it being integrated with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, the blog should be well positioned to offer current and future customers everything they'll need as far as information regarding or from TK Carsites.

The automotive landscape is changing. Dealers need more than what the OEMs can provide to truly get the advantage over their competition. Using the tools offered by TK Carsites and the expertise in SEO, Social Media, and Blogging, TK clients are well positioned to excel in 2010 and beyond.

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Read more about TK Carsites on this Automotive SEO blog.

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For years, we've been deeply involved with social media, using it to enhance the traffic and search engine optimization of car dealers across the country. With the "boom" reaching a tipping point in automotive social media, we are seeing more and more packages popping up that are, without getting too insulting, limited and ineffective.

TK Carsites is entering the game. While we've been deeply embedded for years, it wasn't until now that we started offering social media packages directly to dealers. As with most emerging technologies, there will be those who jump in quickly and those who do it right. It is rare for those who jump on the bandwagon quickly.

Over then next several weeks, TK Carsites will be displaying our new automotive social media packages on various websites across the Web 2.0 sphere. The idea is that if we are going to sell a social media package, we should utilize our social media skills to market it. You won't see any pay-per-click marketing, banner ads, display ads, or any other form of "traditional" Internet marketing. We are taking this viral. We are using the same package that we are offering to our dealers to get the word out.

This blog post is the first of many. Blogging is one of the best ways to get a complex message out and falls well within the confines of social media marketing, so it's the perfect launching point.  Rather than have a traditional contact form here, I'm simply going to leave my email. If you are interested in learning more about it, feel free to contact me -- all of my information can be found here: JD Rucker.

Now, a little about us. We claim to be the experts in social media because we've been doing it for a long time.  Here are some examples from a survey done last month on where the different website vendors currently stand in their own social media:

Cobalt, BZ Results and ReyRey:

• http://twitter.com/cobaltmarketing
• http://twitter.com/bzresults - Banned
• http://twitter.com/reyrey
• Nothing found on Facebook for any of them

DealerOn:

• Twitter - Couldn't find
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/DealerOn-Inc/101876921115

ClickMotive:

• http://twitter.com/ClickMotive
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/ClickMotive/61927012782

Dealer.com:

• http://twitter.com/dealerdotcom
• http://www.facebook.com/dealerdotcom

Dealerskins:

• http://twitter.com/dealerskinsinc
• http://www.facebook.com/dealerskins 

TK Carsites:

• http://twitter.com/tkcarsitesinc
• http://www.facebook.com/tk.carsites

If you don't feel like clicking on all of the links, here is the breakdown. On Twitter, it isn't close. TK is approaching 19,000 fans. Nobody else is over 1000. On Facebook, Dealer.com and TK Carsites are the only ones who seem to be engaging their communities with over 200 fans.  Across social media, only Dealer and TK seem to be truly taking social media seriously in their own marketing efforts.

I head up the social media division at TK Carsites. On Twitter, I have 77,000+ fans. On Facebook, I have 2,500+ fans.

On the social news site Digg.com, I am in the top 50 worldwide and will be speaking about social media at upcoming social media conventions. As the video details, I was at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Scott Monty from Ford and I were the only automotive representatives to sit on panels.

This is not an attempt to brag or boost my own ego. It's important for people to understand that social media is not something that works without experience and a properly laid-out plan. The package that we have put together at TK Carsites appeals to both the "now" and the future of social media in a way that only those deeply embedded would truly understand.

More information is coming, but again I encourage you to contact me if you're ready to get started.

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Read more about Automotive Social Media on this blog.

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Getting ready to speak about Automotive Social Media as Sean "Jumps Live" - http://ping.fm/Ky76f

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One of the worst things that can hamper a car dealer's ability to market online is bad publicity. Negative reviews, bad comments through social media, and other things that appear on search results for a dealer's name can often cause a potential customer to never make contact with you.

Marlboro Nissan Social Media

In essence, you lose them before you even knew they were considering you.

There are things that a dealer can do to fight negative reviews.  TK Carsites offers a solution that does it for you, but if you're a do-it-yourself kind of dealer, here's how to do it:

Respond When Appropriate

Many of the review websites offer ways for dealers to fight negative reviews or contact the customers who left them. It's a challenge and often takes time, but it can be effective on some sites. Others don't care what you have to say - they are consumer generated and there's not a lot you can do about it.

Social media sites are another venue for negative buzz, but luckily it's easier to combat the buzz there. Negative tweets, Facebook updates, etc., can be combated simply by having strong social media accounts and responding when appropriate. Sometimes, having a strong enough account that focuses on positive buzz is enough to make this happen. Other times, direct replies are in order, but normally a response that is properly worded with both sincerity and search engine optimization in mind can take care of it.

Multiple Websites

One of the primary reasons we give our dealers 5 complete websites rather than 1 is because of the ability that they have to control the search engine reputation of our dealerships. Search Google for "Marlboro Nissan". As you can see, the first two pages are filled with properties controlled by the dealership except for 1. There is a DealerRater.com listing on the front page. It was left there intentionally and promoted because the rating is currently a 4.9 out of 5.0. People love seeing that others are happy with a dealership, so optimizing that listing is important.

Most of the listings are portions of the dealer's "Power of 5" website package through TK, but there are also microsites, blogs, and social media profiles filling the first 2 pages and pushing negative reviews off to page 3 where they belong.

Speaking of Social Media

The other easy way to control your online reputation is through social media itself. You'll notice on the search for Marlboro Nissan that page one and two include YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogs. These are properties controlled by the dealership through a proper strategy. Simply creating these types of accounts won't do the trick. They must be created, developed, and nurtured.

It sounds time-consuming, but it can be done in 30 minutes a day or less. We provide our dealers with a "playbook" and ongoing social media training and support that allows them to succeed without having to spend a ton of time on social media.

For those who want to spend the time, hire someone to do it, or outsource their social media efforts, our service can be fashioned to work with any degree of participation.

Don't Lose Them Before They Contact You

There's nothing wrong with losing a deal. It happens regularly. Whether through email, phone, or in person, it's impossible to make everyone happy.

The real shame is when you lose them before you have a chance to ever talk to them. If they search for your name and see something that turns them off, they may never make contact. Then there's the 3rd party vendors who rank for your name, generate a lead, and then sell that lead to you or a competitor. Or both.

Search engine reputation management is not hard, nor is it expensive. It is, however, crucial. In today's market, nobody can afford to lose a lot of opportunities.

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Read more about Automotive Social Media on this blog.

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Strategy

With Labor Day over, it's time for car dealers to get serious about their end-of-the-year push for Automotive Digital Marketing. 2009 will likely be the first year that car dealers focus a good portion of their marketing dollars on the Internet.

One of the keys to success is getting the right combined strategy between the 4 major aspects of online marketing for car dealers:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Lead Conversion Optimization
• Social Media
• Online Vehicle Listings

Most dealers are not thinking of a "strategy" right now. Rather, they are gearing towards ramping up their efforts in a way that will get the most bang out of their individual bucks.  For those reading this, I strongly encourage you to step back, look at the forest before going after the trees, and either put the effort into generating a unified strategy or hire someone who can.

The days of "throw money at it to make it better" are gone. It's through a combined effort on all fronts that car dealers' online advertising dollars can be best spent.

This isn't limited to but includes:

• Having a social media branding and outreach strategy that integrates seamlessly with the other 3 aspects of online marketing.
• Utilizing link-building strategies for SEO that will allow social media and online vehicle listings to help "kill two (or more) birds with one stone".
• Think along the lines of Lead Conversion Optimization so that it's not just a matter of driving traffic, but also making sure that the traffic is going to the right places at the right times.

Over the next several weeks, we will be covering each of the 4 primary marketing "disciplines" individually so that car dealers can understand how to start thinking along those lines. It cannot be stressed enough that having more is not necessarily better unless you take everything into account a develop a true strategy for rolling out and enhancing your marketing efforts over from now until the end of the year and beyond.

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Read more about Automotive Digital Marketing on this blog.

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Craigslist can be one of the most cost-effective tools that car dealers can use to improve the exposure of their used car inventory. Most car dealers take a stab at Craigslist manually or use a tool to get their inventory listed, but Paul Rushing has put together a system that can be very effective. It produces results.

Watch the video below to learn more about how to post your inventory to Craigslist or visit Paul's site, Automotive Craigslist Posting.

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Read more about Automotive SEO on this site.

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Bing

For the last 2 years, I've been preaching that car dealers must only optimize for Google and let the other search engines happen as a result. It has been very much like clockwork that if you can get your dealership ranked at the top for Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live search would soon follow (along with the other search engines).

Things have changed. With Yahoo! now planning to integrate Microsoft's Bing search technology into their website, they have essential evened the field a bit.  Google still owns 65% of the search market and is trending to increase, but now that the Bing/Yahoo! combo represents around 30% with a potential to grow, it must be taken seriously and become integrated into a proper automotive SEO strategy.

At TK Carsites, we've been following Bing since it was introduced and have been testing different strategies. The results have been surprising - it's nothing like Google. The difference in what Bing likes and what Google likes are not major, but each has its own strategy that must be applied so that you can go after 95% or more of the people doing searches for your cars in your area.

I would love to go into details about our findings, but instead I will demonstrate the results. We're working on case studies that show where we have had success and where we have fallen short, as well as the things we're doing to correct the short areas. We aren't too concerned about falling short at this point - as you will notice if you search for your dealership, chances are you are ranked well on one or the other, not both.

I'll keep you posted on what we find. For now, it's important for dealers to ask, "What is my website provider or SEO firm doing for Bing?"

Hopefully, they aren't saying that they have it all figured out. They don't and should be willing to admit it.

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Read more about Automotive SEO right here.

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Nissan-gtr-h[1]

Is it possible to rank well with a simple blog post? That's the question of this particular story. We aren't going to talk much about the dealers, nor are we going to discuss tactics to help sites rank for keywords.

Simply stated, we want to see how well a simple blog post about Worcester Nissan Dealers does through Internet marketing.

There are many dealers in the area competing for this lucrative market. Bancroft Nissan is in the city of Worcester itself. To the easy, Glick Nissan is just a few minutes away.

Go a little further and you get to Marlboro Nissan.  They are well positioned between Worcester and Boston.  As Worcester Nissan Dealers go, Marlboro is a valid choice.

To the south you can find Bertera Nissan. All 4 of these dealers is within close enough driving distance to allow consumers in Worcester to have a choice and not be stuck with a single dealer.

For information about these dealers, simply leave a comment here and we can arrange to contact them for you.

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Social media starfish

I know most are used to catchy titles and snippets of secret wisdom flowing from this blog. Today, we're going to keep it simple. Car dealers, you need social media.

I could end the post there and we would be okay. The question, of course, would then become "How does a car dealer use social media?"

That's not such an easy question to answer.

For the most part, car dealers have rightfully embedded the mentality of advertise and promote to the public while building relationships face-to-face at the dealership. It just makes sense to be in "promotion mode" during commercials, in newspaper ads, and on their own websites and microsites.

Social media is a completely different beast. This is where most dealers (and most business altogether, for that matter) miss the boat. Social media is all about building relationships first, then promoting oneself second.

I'm going to (reluctantly) use myself and my own branding first as an example. Right now on Twitter I have just over 75,000 followers. I interact with them when they interact with me.  If I see something in my public stream that someone else posted that I like, I'll respond to it. I engage those who follow and converse with me and therefore I am in a constant state of building relationships.

When I tweet a link out that I want people to see, anywhere from 300-3,000 visitors check out that link depending on the title and how often it is "retweeted" by my peers.  I can do that because I have built relationships. I have not spammed the network from the start by telling my followers to go visit this link or look at that image or check out this video. Instead, I engaged. I listened. Over time, I was able to build up a strong following.

Car dealers (and most business altogether, for that matter) need to do the same thing. This is just using one microcosm of a network in Twitter to demonstrate, but it can be said pretty much across the board. If you engage, you are doing it right. If you build relationships and have an interest in what others are saying, you're doing it right.

If you join Twitter and start posting your inventory or specials, you're doing it wrong. People don't go to Twitter to find a car (yet).  They go because they want to engage. Participate. Play the game. Enjoy.

Now, the big question comes up, "But when do I get to talk about my dealership, my cars, or my specials?"

Once you've established some credibility by being engaged with your followers, talking to local Twitter users about local things, brand enthusiasts about brand related things, and everyone else about everything else, you are ready to start letting a little "self-promotion" seep into your stream. Keep it interesting. Posting your special on a 2005 Ford Focus isn't going to do the trick. On the other hand, if you get in a 2000 Ford Focus with under 10,000 miles, a 2009 Ford Focus with over 100,000 miles, or a lime green Ford Focus, you might want to tweet about it. These are exceptions. They are not available at anydealer, anytown, USA.

This is just the beginning. With more social media products rolling down the pipe, it's important to understand what to get involved with and what not to. We will be covering it more in-depth here, but in the meantime, feel free to contact me.

jrucker@tkcarsites.com

Talk to you soon!

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Read more about automotive social media on this blog.

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