I was inspired by a recent post by Paul Rushing regarding social networks in the retail automotive community. Below is a short list of these communities + my pages (in case you want to be connected through another social network):
DrivingSales.com – I’m Patrick Workman on DrivingSales (and in real-life). No direct links to profiles
AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com - My Profile: http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
DealerRefresh Forum – This is a new forum with loads of quality info: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/members/patrick-workman/
SellingIron.com – My Profile: http://www.sellingiron.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
AutoDealerPeople.com – My Profile: http://www.autodealerpeople.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
Car Dealer Social Network – My Profile: http://autodealers.ning.com/profile/3w0y42vn6avax
KainAutomotive Idea Exchange – My Profile: http://kainautomotiveideaexchange.ning.com/profile/PatrickWorkman
Are there any that I missed? If so, share!
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Here are some more ning based ones
http://mydealer20.ning.com/
http://autodealers.ning.com/
http://danation.ning.com/
http://imagiclab.ning.com/
Thanks for the additions Matt! I forgot about Shaun Raines’s Dealer Advisor Nation and appreciate the others.
What networks have you found to be the most valuable from an info gathering perspective? I like ADM because of the large amount of user generated content that seemingly pops up every hour. I think that Jeff and Alex’s forum will evolve into a great resource for dealerships once it gets off the ground.
I just tried to log-on to iMagicLab’s community and then remembered why I don’t go to that website. I have been banned. I don’t understand why I was kicked off the website because I never posted or participated in any forum. Oh well…
@Patrick – I got a chuckle when seeing that you were banned from the iMagicLab Community… We now have a unique experience in common! In late 2007 I joined Latham’s iMagicLab Community after receiving an email invitation. I thought it was pretty cool, so I invited several hundred of my automotive colleagues using a CSV file export out of Outlook. When I got to the iMagicLab Community, there were less than 50 members… After I invited about 2,500 of my Outlook contacts, over 250 of my associates joined, pushing the iMagicLab Community above 300 members. I was so impressed that I fully intended to keep recruiting membership for the iMagicLab Community. Then on January 2, 2008 I went to log into the iMagicLab Community but was denied access, seeing a message saying I was banned! Of course, I know that Mr. Latham had pulled a “Van Tuyl” on me… Since I work for a competitor, as soon as he got me to invite as many people as I could, he banned me, but kept the friends I had recruited for his so-called “Community”. That is when I got so infuriated that I researched the Social Network site platform he was using and discovered Ning. Using tactics that i do not like to admit I know how to do, I studied the iMagicLab Community, learned the site platform and decied I could do a better job. Within 72 hours of getting banned by the “iMagicLab Tar Pit” masquerading as a Professional Community, I had the now famous http://www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com Professional Community up and running… Within 6 months we went over 1,000 registered and active members and ADMPC.com now has well over 2,800 automotive social networked members, 14,000+ Unique Visitors each month, over 1,300 user written blog articles, over 650 Forum Discussions, over 1,200 automotive related videos and over 6,200 automotive photos and images have been uploaded…
It all started with me getting banned by the idiot that created, manages and claims the iMagicLab Community to be some type of “Automotive Social Network”. Just think, I would have put all that effort into the iMagicLab Community if they had not “banned” me… So, be thankful you have been banned, and thank you for your participation in the NON-PROFIT AUTOMOTIVE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY at ADMPC.com, because all 2,800 of us enjoy seeing, reading and interacting with your contributions!
@ralphpaglia – I got a chuckle out of your post. iMagic Lab had a good thing going with their social concept and then they decided to trash it in the name of…friendly competition?
In any event, I’m glad you were banned from Keith’s ‘community’ because http://www.AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com has become one of four venues (DealerRefresh, DrivingSales, and David Kain’s community being the three others) where individuals in automotive retailing can go to learn and meet one another online. That is why I included the ADM Community in my blogroll since day one of this blog (which I started in 11/2007).
Thanks for everything you’re doing for our industry and, most of all, thanks for participating in my small portion of the mighty Interwebs!
I am always amazed (in a good way) when professionals working for fierce competitors can each participate and contribute towards the betterment of our industry using online blogs, networks and communities. When The Cobalt Group first came out with their Nitra web site platform in 2000, I was working for Reynolds and Reynolds and was contracted by Toyota to write training and best practice guides for the Cobalt Nitra product. Half-way through the project I started to appreciate some of the features in that Nitra dealer web site platform… Then went to work with the Automark team to build something better. The lesson I learned was that the more we collaborate with the competition, the more we each learn and the more valuable our individual knowledge base becomes to our home team…
Good article. Social networking is an excellent way for auto dealers to build communities with customers, vendors and other dealers. Here is another website combining social networking and the auto industry, check out http://www.auttr.com.
Greg – Thanks for sharing! I wasn’t aware of this automotive social network. Is it new?
In any event, I signed up for an account and shared it with my automotive colleagues on Twitter.
Patrick – It is new. We haven’t even sent out a press release yet. Let me know what you think.
Greg – I’m impressed that you have 450+ members through organic efforts. Nicely played! I hope that we can send some additional members your way to participate in the information share.