I just got back from Digital Dealer 8 and almost every presentation was on Social Media. Many vendors were preaching why dealers should be doing something in Social Media, but there weren’t many telling their clients how to do it right. That’s mostly because many of these vendors don’t understand how Social Media truly works themselves.
Social Media is a platform where many people can communicate equally. It is really that simple of a definition. It is not just facebook, or twitter. Those sites have a lot of eyeballs, but the ones that really last forever and are more relevant are the blogs and forums – especially for our vendors. Blogs and forums index with search engines, and if your company is talked about on one of these blogs or forums (like DealerRefresh) those conversations are going to show up when a potential client searches for your name. I’m not tooting the DealerRefresh horn, or DrivingSales’, or ADM’s, or even David Kain’s platform; I’m just going to stress that these kind of places can make or break you. And this is going to become a bigger factor with time.
Here are some easy rules to live by: