And since no one else seems to be saying it I’ll go ahead and break the ice: Facebook isn’t as important as you think. In fact, most social media really doesn’t help drive sales at all.

As the Ecommerce Director for a large, Ohio-based automotive group, I’ve found putting more time, money and effort into the SEO side of things has helped our business expand more rather than spending all day checking and updating our Facebook page. While Facebook can benefit your business’ reputation, traffic comes from SEO.

If you’re trying to increase sales, then tackle the SEO side of things first. Providing useful, meaningful content on your website, strong backlinks and an easy-to-navigate web design can go a long way.

It’s why I can’t for the life of me, figure out why so many of our competitors are paying thousands of dollars to third-party groups to manage their social media, especially since Social Media is free to use.

On a monthly basis, I receive phone calls from Social Media groups giving me the same spiel:

We see you’re on Facebook and we can help send more traffic to your website. All you have to do is purchase [insert shiney doodad here] and give one away each month in a contest. If you do this the traffic will start flowing in!

My rebuttal:

So what happens to our fans once we quit giving away [shiney doodad]?

Silence

Rather than try to bribe people to like us on Facebook, I’ve found simply offering worthwhile content can go a long way. After all, we want to build a reputation of delivering great customer service; not prizes.  Create a promotional video that drives the right kind of Facebook traffic.  Don’t forget Facebook is free for everyone to use so have some fun with it.

I’m just curious, but why would you pay someone to run your own personal Facebook page?

Share the wealth!

Do you know what “Perpetual” means?

per·pet·u·al

1. continuing or enduring forever; everlasting.
2. lasting an indefinitely long time: perpetual snow.
3. continuing or continued without intermission or interruption; ceaseless.

Edmunds legaleeze:

#7.  Dealership hereby grants to Edmunds a royalty-free, nonexclusive, non-transferable, PERPETUAL license….

Are you fully understanding your contracts?  Have you fully understood what Edmunds and TrueCar are asking of you?

Share the wealth!

Dear Mark O’Neil,

You are the Chairman and CEO of DealerTrack with a fascinating bio that includes being President of an Auto Dealer Group, you’ve worked at Intel, you co-founded CarMax and you’re Director at DealerTire.com. It’s quite clear you have a nose for opportunity and with your Harvard MBA, you know how to leverage it.  I hope this information finds its way to your desk.

I would like to present to you comprehensive report of a gigantic opportunity that resides inside one of your existing companies.  It is an undiscovered jewel that’s waiting for you to roll it out.  Once you do, your data marketing partner will become Google…Yes Google.

I have better news. Google’s management team needs you and is looking for CHROME.

What is this Google Opportunity and what does this have to do with DealerTrack’s CHROME?  Google has a new  product search feature called Google Products, and it requires extremely detailed product data that CHROME specializes in.  Let’s see how it all fits…

Share the wealth!

Don’t know about you but when I saw this headline quote “I don’t like to look at a screen. I like to look at a face”, of the latest Automotive News issue and its article NET LOSS : Few dealerships master the art of handling online leads – I almost lost it.

The article written by Donna Harris reflected on several dealerships around the nation and how they handle 3rd party leads and incoming flood of Internet generated leads through other venues. It was a well written piece and gave a very good glimpse on the current Status Quo in our automotive Internet Sales World. Everything was fine until I “stepped” on the quote of a sales person, a sales veteran for more than 20 years of domestic brand.

“I don’t like to look at a screen. I like to look at a face.” is telling me as a leader of several Internet teams, that this Gentleman should definitely not receive any leads. Why – because of his preconditioning and seeing the Internet as the reason (and I quote) “online price competition has slashed his pay in the last few years in half…the Internet has created a cold sales environment”. Wow, and I thought that “off-line marketing oriented sales pro’s” from the past have learned something in the last 7 years.

Share the wealth!

Recently I was in a plumbing supply store.  I needed a small, custom part for my kitchen faucet.  This is what greeted me:

That’s right.  A bunch of white guys in dress shirts and ties, answering phones at desks with paper catalogues, and wood panels on the walls.

Seriously.  I had to check my phone to make sure it wasn’t 1980.

Wait.  It gets better.  After being gruffly greeted at the counter, my helper spent 20 minutes asking 3 different guys before finding the reference to the part I needed.  Then he went in the back of the building to their warehouse only to return and declare that the part wasn’t in stock, had been discontinued, and couldn’t be acquired any longer.

Now that’s extreme, but it got me thinking:  Surely we’ve done a better job in the car business keeping up? In my days back in the late 90′s I remembered the end of the parts microfiche days.  Don’t know what that is?  Go on a quest to find out.  I always find the exploration of the technological or cultural references backwards to be insightful.

Think your dealership is up to date?  Would your customers say so?  Consider:

Share the wealth!