What are the key areas you’d suggest they use? Which of course is my leading question into recommending the right resource (like Cuneo’s team) for developing those KPI’s, processes and goals as well as reporting and analytics to develop ongoing initiatives. Are there other vendors or consulting agencies you’d recommend?

I often find that dealers can be too focused on direct sales. Social is less a prospecting tool as it is a retention. Would you rather have a customer that knows and loves you, or have to spend the advertising to get a new one? Would you rather be an expert in the field, or a reactionary?

It’s worthwhile to mention that dealers really don’t need to be on MySpace anymore because it’s changing from a social network to a media portal. Also, Facebook has made some updates to business profiles and pages to be more engaging.

I’m always curious how dealers remain socially savvy, ensure their efforts are maximizing their SEO potential, and considering the best practices and processes for encouraging their customers to submit positive reviews on the sites like Edmunds.com and DealerRater.com with everything else going on. Those will be increasingly important both as Gen-Y ages and as more maps/GPS begins to take reviews into account.

Social is definitely not something that turns around overnight. There are several components in my mind.

1) Social monitoring– finding the advocates and haters and addressing them as appropriate.

2) Reputation management– making sure your identity is positive: in search, reviews, and on the niche forums

3) Customer loyalty– ensuring you keep top of mind with your current customers

Note that prospecting really isn’t in there. You could certainly do service specials and hope to grab a few new customers but there are far more efficient ways of gaining new customers.

In my experience, it takes much effort and persistence to truly engage your dealership audience in social media, but I think that is because it is so new not only to dealers but also to customers as well.

Any insight would be apprciated.

http://www.MyJeepCommunity.com
http://www.FordCommunity.com

And, we have about a dozen more prototype installations. Basically, we use database mining to generate the invitations after we flush out the sites with content, most of which is automatically updated daily via OEM provided asset distribution widgets, RSS feeds and Photo Galleries and slide shows. We also have developed some great inside tracks to OEM supplied Video content that is hosted within the Hub Community and then fed out to the various “name brand” social media UGC sites using as much automation as possible, but often times requiring some level of human interaction… I guess that’s why they call it “social”!

Whether you like it or not, your customers now discuss, review and share your brand with each other and it will continue to become more prevalant. Simply put, your brand is now in the hands of your customers, not you.

The goal with social media is to be part of the conversation. Having your dealership engaged in conversation that is open to the world provides alot of credibility and trust. Something that will ultimately result in more sales.

As Alex stated above, it’s proactive and free PR. Those that take advantage of it today will see it pay dividends tomorrow.

Social media tools are easy enough to master. Knowing how to respond to a critic with a blog, whether it’s okay to jump into a conversation about your brand, and whether it’s okay to ask for someone’s business on Twitter is the tough part.

The best dealers take the time to listen first, and to have a well thought out plan for engaging with customers, critics and enthusiasts.