September 30th, 2011 - The discussion taking place regarding social media is fascinating. It’s a very predictable conversation as a business jumps into this new exciting media channel.
It goes something like this.
“WE HAVE TO GET INTO SOCIAL MEDIA!”
“I agree we can’t be left behind and it might be a silver bullet!”
“HOW DO WE DO IT?”
“I have a friend who’s into social media or we can use our internet guy.. he’s a wizard on Facebook. Let’s get one of them to set it up and run it.”
“HAVE WE SOLD ANYTHING?”
“No not yet. I’ve been posting deals of the week and nothing sold. But, I haven’t looked at it in a few days.”
“HOW COME WE ONLY HAVE A FEW LIKES?”
“I don’t know. I told you this was a waste of time!”
This scenario has taken place thousands of times. All you have to do is look and you’ll see Facebook skeletons littering the internet. All the sights look the same, very few likes and no post for months.
Here’s the problem! Narrow thinking and a lack of social media knowledge. It’s not the media! It’s the driver. It’s a new media AND very few people understand how to make it work.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS
1) Review your social media platform.
2) Integrate your blog into digital and traditional media!
- The blog gives you great content every month for an e-newsletter. Put 4 blogs into the newsletter and send it out. Add fixed ops offers and encourage them to engage your social pages.
- Each blog you publish enhances your Organic search rankings. You’re becoming more relevant!
- The blog gives you editorial content to run in local newsletters for churches and other local organizations, community newspapers, and internet sites. Everyone needs free content!
3) Integrate Social Media into your sponsorships!
- Don’t sponsor one more event or organization without creating a social media event out of it.
- For the first time you can actually get value out of every donation you make. In fact you’ll see returns you never thought possible. When one of these opportutinites goes viral look out. The added exposure of TV, radio or newspaper exposure can be significant.
4) Integrate Social Media into your media negotiations.
- Social Media should be apart of every media negotiation you do in the future. Look for opportunities to tap into the media’s social networks. Ask how do we create a dynamic social program with this promotion. If you really want some added value out of your next media buy include social media.
OK… Social Media WORKS! The problem is the discussion is usually centered around the wrong topics.
You shouldn’t be asking is it working. You should be asking…..
”How do I Integrate Social Media into everything we do?”
Last thought>>> Stop thinking of Social Media as a stand alone media. It’s a critical communication channel for your customers. Make it a big part of yours. Integrate!
September 7th, 2011 - 
If you’re one of thousands of dealers who think they’re on top of Google, Bing and Yahoo Adwords, you may want to revaluate!
Give yourself the ad word dummy test:
1) Is your ad word copy over 90 days old?
2) Do the majority of your ad words have the same copy?
3) When you click on your ad does it take you to your home page?
4) Are landing pages something other guys are doing?
If you answered yes to three of these questions you’re a card carrying member of the ad words for dummies club.
Don’t feel bad, it’s a very big club. Many top dealers can be found in this club.
Ad Words For Dummies was created years ago when the entire concept of ad words was born. It was a quick and easy way to get dealers into the ad word game. I like to say it played to the lowest denominator. The dealer who wanted in but didn’t understand it.
The problem today for these dealers is they haven’t realized, relevance now trumps participation. Your ads must be time and product sensitive. You must give the consumer the feeling their search will be rewarded with relevant information.
Static ad copy that directs the shopper to a home page is not relevant.
- A used truck ad shouldn’t go to your new vehicle inventory!
- A new car search shouldn’t go to the home page!
- A make and model search shouldn’t locate a different make and model!
It’s time to wake up. The most successful dealers are running customized, accountable and effective ad word campaigns. The old school approach of just getting into the game isn’t personal or relevant enough.
It’s time that you integrate customized copy, customized landing page, and customized offers to your ad word campaigns.
Let’s face it! The people conducting searches are pretty good prospects. You need to recognize the importance of being relevant. Do your own trial and error searches. I dare you!
Dealers have fallen behind. Think relevancy and integration!
If you’d like to discuss how to turn your ad words campaigns into effective money makers drop me a note.
Your automotive ad agency really should be all over this!
April 13th, 2011 -
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Business Owners!! Is your business keeping up with the latest digital trends? If so then you know about QR codes, Right! Are you using them to your advantage? If you don’t know what they are, they resemble bar codes (only difference is 2-dimensional pattern) they  can be scanned with any smartphone with a QR reader. When the QR code is scanned the person will see a coupon, website, video, or whatever the business would like to promote. The opportunities for using social media with QR codes are endless.
Some businesses might write off QR codes as a fad and just stick with traditional advertising. Whether they know it or not QR codes are everywhere, from movie posters, bookstores, to your Starbucks cups. Using a QR code on a flier, window sticker, direct mail, computer screen, or anywhere offers the ability to engage consumers beyond getting a passing glance of your ad.
It’s only a matter of time, just like Facebook, before QR codes become so widespread that everyone knows about them and are engaging in them everywhere. Businesses would do well to step out and get ahead of the game. QR Codes will have an impact on your dealership traffic. If your automotive ad agency is not on top of this give us a call.
March 13th, 2011 -
Everything will have an impact on dealership traffic.
Last year, when Facebook purchased its defunct competitor Friendster, some questioned the wisdom of such a seemingly frivolous purchase. After all Facebook has 500 million active users around the world and Friendster, couldn’t buy 500 likes if they tried. However, the ever clever and forward thinking Mark Zuckerberg has chosen now to show his hand to Google and the world.
A patent granted last month to Facebook describes an approach to search that combines any type of search engine results with the popularity of each result among members of a user’s social network. Although some social media gurus thought the patent was on photo tags, it isn’t. The implications are much broader and could affect searches for special interest topics like travel, publishing, online selling and more!
The patent is called Visual tags for search results generated from social network information. Here’s the premis:
Search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query, and are marked based on frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The markers are visual tags and comprise either a text string or an image.
In other words, Facebook knows that recommendations are key tools in marketing. This is the automated version of word of mouth that is supposed to sit atop search engines.
Much like LinkedIn shows potential connections, Facebook would combine search results for a user with how others connected to the user in a social network responded to the same search results. If most people clicked on a handful of results, the user could see those links with some visual indication of their relative popularity. The system would work either fielding requests from third parties or for with the social network creating or obtaining the search results and delivering them to users.
Powerful, I think so! What do you think? Could this be the game changer Microsoft and Google have been afraid of? If your Automotive Ad Agency is not providing you with the tools you need give us a call.
800-678-7822
February 28th, 2011 -
Facebook is the biggest Social Media tool around. People from all over the world use it to meet, connect and keep friends updated to what is going on in there lives. But with all this sharing of information, it is necessary to know how people can access. This situation got a little trickier recently with Facebook’s new photo viewer. Previously people were able to view your photos, but not download or print them for themselves. This was a nice little safeguard to keep people from stealing the pictures off your page. Now, however there are a bunch of new rules in place that users need to be aware of. Here is a quick list of some of the new features.
- The name of the album and who created it is located under the photo on the left side.
- You can “Like” a photo or leave a comment under it.
- You can tag, share, download, or report the photo.
- You can look through the photos in an album by either clicking on the photo or using the forward and backward arrows.
- When you’re finished looking at photos, click the white X located in the upper right corner of the photo viewer.
What this means is basically if someone can see your photos, they can print them. This may be a little bit of a scary thought, but let’s take a collective sigh of relief for a second. You might in fact have to change the way you post pictures online, but for the most part you should be OK. You just will need to be a little more prudent in handling pictures. Before you hit UPLOAD on the screen, think about who might see it and want to keep a copy.
There are some precautions you can take. Luckily Facebook has extensive privacy settings that can assist you in feeling comfortable about who you can and cannot see your photos. Below are the comprehensive instructions for controlling these settings.
Photos You Post
- Go to “Account” in the upper right corner of Facebook then “Privacy Settings”.
- Click on “Customize Settings” in blue in the middle of the page.
- Beside “Posts by me” under “Things I share” click on the drop down menu where you can choose from Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Photos You Are Tagged In
- Go to “Account” in the upper right corner of Facebook then “Privacy Settings”.
- Click on “Customize Settings” in blue in the middle of the page.
- Beside “Photos and videos I’m tagged in” under “Things others share” click on the drop down menu where you can choose from Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Your Albums
- Click on the album and under the photos click “Edit Album Info”.
- From there you can click on the drop down beside “Privacy” under “Edit Info”.
- Choose from Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Hope everyone found this useful. Just beware of what you put on facebook!!
Facebook is the biggest Social Media tool around. People from all over the world use it to meet, connect and keep friends updated to what is going on in there lives. But with all this sharing of information, it is necessary to know how people can access. This situation got a little trickier recently with Facebook’s new photo viewer. Previously people were able to view your photos, but not download or print them for themselves. This was a nice little safeguard to keep people from stealing the pictures off your page. Now, however there are a bunch of new rules in place that users need to be aware of. Here is a quick list of some of the new features.
- The name of the album and who created it is located under the photo on the left side.
- You can “Like” a photo or leave a comment under it.
- You can tag, share, download, or report the photo.
- You can look through the photos in an album by either clicking on the photo or using the forward and backward arrows.
- When you’re finished looking at photos, click the white X located in the upper right corner of the photo viewer.
What this means is basically if someone can see your photos, they can print them. This may be a little bit of a scary thought, but let’s take a collective sigh of relief for a second. You might in fact have to change the way you post pictures online, but for the most part you should be OK. You just will need to be a little more prudent in handling pictures. Before you hit UPLOAD on the screen, think about who might see it and want to keep a copy.
There are some precautions you can take. Luckily Facebook has extensive privacy settings that can assist you in feeling comfortable about who you can and cannot see your photos. Below are the comprehensive instructions for controlling these settings.
Photos You Post
- Go to “Account” in the upper right corner of Facebook then “Privacy Settings”.
- Click on “Customize Settings” in blue in the middle of the page.
- Beside “Posts by me” under “Things I share” click on the drop down menu where you can choose from Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Photos You Are Tagged In
- Go to “Account” in the upper right corner of Facebook then “Privacy Settings”.
- Click on “Customize Settings” in blue in the middle of the page.
- Beside “Photos and videos I’m tagged in” under “Things others share” click on the drop down menu where you can choose from Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Your Albums
- Click on the album and under the photos click “Edit Album Info”.
- From there you can click on the drop down beside “Privacy” under “Edit Info”.
- Choose from Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Customize.
- If you don’t like any of the other options, click on Customize where you can choose to whom to make photos visible and/or who to hide them from.
Hope everyone found this useful. Just beware of what you put on facebook!
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Ron, Wheeler, Founder/CEO, Wheeler Advertising, Tel-Edge, and the Wright Edge Advertising.
The Integration of today's marketing channels is the single most important task you have as a retail marketer. This blog is designed to assist you in discovering ways to integrate traditional, digital and social media into a dynamic free flowing marketing program. Up Your Ups is "An Integration Think Tank" and we look forward to your interaction with us.
If you have questions or if you have suggestions on how I can improve this site, please don't hesitate to email them to me at rwheeler@wheeleradvertising.com
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