The key thing to extract here (IMHO) is “…maximize your opportunities on your own website…” The deeper and deeper I get into this thing the more I am convinced that everything starts with the dealer’s website – and that 99% of them fail at the mission they are tasked with accomplishing. But I’m sure this topic is already a thread somewhere on the forum, I just haven’t taken the time to find it. We could go on and on….

Lighten up a bit…

I think you are WAY too myopic in your vision.

Social Media if used PROPERLY. I REPEAT…USED PROPERLY…can, will and has proven itself over and over and over again.

I really just don’t understand how dealers, assuming you are a dealer…(considering you didn’t put any hyperlinked info when scrolling over your name), like yourself, can just with a wave of the wand just dismiss an entire INDUSTRY within an INDUSTRY…just like that.

Devin…here is a cold hard fact:

Almost every single person that walks INTO your showroom or lot has visited your site at least once if not twice. Oh and yeah they are checking out your competition literally at the same time. Some people even have spilt screens opened and view the sites side by side.

Bottom line is that a dealer wants to stay relevant for the next 5 years…this is what they need to do.

A few years ago very few dealerships were doing anything remotely close to Social Media. Even still today, many like yourself, are reluctant to do anything that DOES NOT bear fruit IMMEDIATELY.

Why are you guys so impatient? Search Engine Marketing, when done correctly, takes up to 1-3 months to show up by Google. With Social Media, you’re impact is immediate. You are showing your clients that you are with it. That you are forward thinking. That you actually want to evolve with the times as opposed to being a relic of the past.

Will someone join your facebook page to read over and over again? No. Will they read your Tweets? No. Will they pay attention to anything at all? Probably not, BUT…and here is the HUGE BUT. By keeping your name and reputation out there and being in the forefront of your competition you are engaging your customers as they read their email, read their tweets, or check their updates. Your name stays out there. Think of it as viral advertising.

There are a million and 1 ways to do a successful Social Media campaign. The first step to making it happen is visualization of what is possible.

And now I get to pick apart your examples:

1) Train the salespeople, service writer, and parts guy to have a great attitude, smile, be fun, and LISTEN to the customer. (Think Southwest Airlines)

[Wait a minute...did you just say TRAIN your SALESPEOPLE? What planet are you on? Have you spent time in most dealership? Not going to happen. No incentive.]

2) Obtain info from all your very expensive sold and UNSOLD leads. Setup a great promotion that everyone will want to sign up with. Mandate the name, address, and salesperson name to be eligible.

[of course...EVERYONE...will just sign up. Poof! just like that. Wow, incredibly realistic scenario there.../sarcasm off]

3) Get everyone of your salespeople to send out monthly personal mailers that say something other than a sales pitch. (this is not impossible!)

[Get the salespeople to send out ANYTHING...good luck with that one. THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! I've been around many, many, many dealers and sales people from different parts of the US. There is one common theme: least flow of resistance. Whatever is the easiest way around doing ANY work is chosen. That goes for any job BTW, not just the auto industry.]

4) Mandate that every salesperson sign up for Facebook. Train them on how signup, search for all their friends, and tell them to not actively try to sell something.

[Ummm...most of the salespeople are ALREADY on Facebook because their kids that are in college are on there or their wife is on there, etc. FYI, people don't use facebook like that. Facebook is a bit more organic in the respect that most if not all the people that are your friends on there are indeed your real life friends and family. Twitter is anyone from Romania to NYC to Timbuktu. LinkedIn is in a sense the formal version of facebook, but for business.]

Devin, I am sorry if I have come off as semi-crass, but you can’t just knock an entire sub-industry that is literally changing the way business is done all over the world. I’m sorry, you just can’t.

The proof is in the pudding, just open your mind to what is possible rather than what’s in front of you.

When it comes down to it, nobody cares about your business. They only care about and relate to the experiences with the people of your business.

For example, I just had some service work done to my Subaru. The dealer is part of a large dealer group. I was treated like a number instead of a person I will not be taking my car back to that dealer next time because of one person. I made a decision to not do business on the entire group because of one person.

There will actually be a time in the future where you won’t have many marketing choices. The newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and even email are slated for extinction. (Did you know that many colleges around the country have stopped handing out email addresses to incoming freshmen? Have you seen the demo of the future Google Wave?)

I believe that it is very easy to have a profitable dealership these days.

1) Train the salespeople, service writer, and parts guy to have a great attitude, smile, be fun, and LISTEN to the customer. (Think Southwest Airlines)
2) Obtain info from all your very expensive sold and UNSOLD leads. Setup a great promotion that everyone will want to sign up with. Mandate the name, address, and salesperson name to be eligible.
3) Get everyone of your salespeople to send out monthly personal mailers that say something other than a sales pitch. (this is not impossible!)
4) Mandate that every salesperson sign up for Facebook. Train them on how signup, search for all their friends, and tell them to not actively try to sell something.

It is only after these four steps that I would even consider a “company” social media effort.

Imagine how powerful it would be if your sales staff treated all your leads like Southwest Airlines treats their customers.

Imagine getting the mailing information from every one of your leads and hitting them with a totally personal message from the face of your dealership.

Imagine every one of your salespeople just getting in touch with their 150 friends and the sphere of influence that your sales staff now wields.

Here is a question for you.
Why are 90% of the sales people in the country NOT promoting themselves persistently?

The fact is that out of the dozens of dealers I get to speak with every week, it is now the exception to find one that has not had an employee or the dealer principal create some degree of social media presence with at least a blog, a Facebook profile and or Fan page, a YouTube Channel and maybe a MySpace account. To reiterate Joe Webb’s point, and capitalize on the issues raised by Joe Pistell’s hiring criteria, the real question in my opinion is how to create some sort of cohesive social marketing strategy supported by tactics that do not use more dealership resources than justified by the benefits received. I have implemented what has become an ongoing series of social marketing strategy pilots in over 20 Dealerships since June 2008, with each one a little more effective than the previous one as me and my colleagues get to cull the chaff and focus on what achieves objectives. At this point we are working with dealers who are selling cars daily to people whose relationship with people at the dealership was created and fostered via social media channels. The early dealers we first started with have become the new sales volume leaders in their respective OEM regions. Bottom line is that we don’t know all the answers, but now have a pretty good idea of how to recognize and measure success indicators long before people start coming in to buy cars.

I will present details and KPI’s during the Tuesday morning general session at Digital Dealer 7 in a couple of weeks. Yes, Alex, that is an intentional “plug” for Digital Dealer 7 in Nashville… I have also published a virtual social
media implementation guide via dozens of articles and file uploads at http://www.AutoDigitalmarketing.com that are free to use. We are all learning how to leverage social media and the lessons will continue to be learned for a long time. The key, this time is to pay attention to lessons already learned by others and then buildvupon them for the benefit of your dealership.