Comments on: Do Car Dealers Need to be Social Networking?

By: shawn foster

shawn foster — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:20:00 +0000

looking for some ideas new to this i have been in ford sales for about 15 years my top sales are over 200 a year top salesman for 13 of 15 years in the maine state

By: Social Networking: Should it be More About Relationship Building than Selling Cars? : Headlight: The Digital Automotive Blog

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:11:15 +0000

[...] Why aren’t dealers social networking?, [...]

By: Why aren’t dealers social networking? « Best of DealerRefresh.com - DrivingSales

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:41:39 +0000

[...] I wrote about 5 advantages to dealers for leveraging social media. Interesting enough, these same 5 advantages still hold true [...]

By: Social networking for dealers panel at 2009 Automotive Internet Roundtable : Headlight: The Digital Automotive Blog

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:45:30 +0000

[...] the 2007 Roundtable event, lots of folks were asking why aren’t dealers social networking. Two years later, there are now thousands of dealers participating in some type of social network. [...]

By: Nick Cybela

Nick Cybela — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:37:48 +0000

There’s huge opportunity for any industry to really develop thought leadership, networking, customer service, loyalty, collaboration, public relations and acquire customers through social marketing. I’m especially shocked that more dealers don’t enforce their reputation within the marketplace.

For those interested there are some managed solutions out there that do it! I manage a dedicated team of dealership evangelists through our program here at Cuneo and we’re seeing some spectacular results.

By: Curtis DeGroote

Curtis DeGroote — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:26:25 +0000

Great Initiative Dubis. This is going to be huge. Sales 101, people buy you (the salesperson) first and to date no one out there gets that as it is difficult even today to find a face and name on the web besides the Internet Sales Manager on 60% or more Dealer sites. The Hard working good guys get the shaft at the dealership because they have no competitve advantage to reach new prospects. http://www.carfolks.com (Social Networking for Autmotive) this is going to be huge! After all Social Networking is about people (folks) and relationships not about the object or vehicle.
Good luck Mark. If i sold cars, i would sign up today, to get my face and name in front of as many people as i could.>>>

http://www.dealerrefresh.com/my_weblog/2007/12/dealers-need-to.html#comments

By: Mark Dubis

Mark Dubis — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:08:23 +0000

Great comments and grasp of what it takes to succeed. As the feedback above states mypace and facebook are not designed to brand dealerships or sales people. CarFolks.com is going to do just that. It is an automotive social network designed to build brand recognition for sales people, their dealerships and the manufacturers.

Consumers can come in and search not for a vehicle, but for the best sales people in a given market. Now that’s building the brand. Consumers will also be rating dealerships, sale people and any other point of contact they had in the dealership.

Hard working and customer focused sales people, its now time to rejoice. Fast talking, “what’s it gonna take to put you in a car today” sales people. . . your days are numbered.

Sales people who want a jump start on their peers can pre-register now at http://www.bestcarsalesperson.com

More info at CarFolks.com

By: Alex Snyder

Alex Snyder — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:41:44 +0000

Sorry I got quiet on this thread. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the security side of the Google/FaceBook stuff, and it ain’t working too well. Some days I’m just a simple car dealer – lol.

By: James Nobles

James Nobles — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:10:02 +0000

Amen Tim to the point on branding….Now if we could get the garden variety dealer to accept it.

The artice from ABC spells out in better detail what the “programming interfaces” provide you the capabilities to do. Facebook, Google and others provide the technical details of how it could be done for free. This part is for your boss Alex, the cost comes from paying a programmer or company to take that knowledge and turn it into a working application. The costs can vary from minimal to “HOLY COW!”. Since you pay to for the development though, you get to brand it as your own.

I’ve have a Facebook account and the applications developed so far that tie into Facebook are branded by that company. A dealership that developed something that Alex described would be able to maintain and protect their brand while extending their marketing reach into various social networks. Try a Google search for “Facebook applications” to see some applications already developed using the API/ programming interface, most of the ones developed so far are geared toward teens/twenty-somethings. If your boss or co-worder asks what your doing…just tell them its “Marketing Research”.

Happy Holidays – James

By: Tim Morris

Tim Morris — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:07:44 +0000

Alex, I thought you in particular might find this article appealing: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=3994345

If I understood your goal correctly, maybe this is just the break you have been looking for…now all you need is someone to build your platform and you can run facebook style apps on it.

I also thought I would throw my two cents in on the subject as well. I think that any dealership or dealership employee who uses social networking tools are on the right track. Dealership employees, salespeople especially, seem to rely solely on the dealer’s efforts (I know this is a generalization, so I will tread lightly…certainly nobody paying attention to DealerRefresh is guilty!!!) to generate leads and sales. It is the proactive and the progressive ones who can be successful with this type of marketing tool.

There are only two reasons to advertise: to generate leads, and to generate brand awareness. Thats it. The salespeople who understand that building their own “brand: me” is important, will take advantage and be successful with these great new tools.