Big Bill Hell’s Dealership Ad
January 5th, 2009
WARNING - This isn’t appropriate for work! But it is hilarious. An oldie, but goodie!
Archive
Archive for the ‘Random Thoughts’ Category
New Year’s Resolutions for 2009
January 2nd, 2009
- 2008 Motto: ‘Gain Weight in 08. 2009 Motto: ‘Look fine in 09′
- Blog more often to create a louder voice online
-Make it a point to golf whenever possible. Vermont is cold, I need to make sure I enjoy each and every sunny day
- Go on a 2 week vacation. I haven’t taken a vacation for a couple of years. Africa in 2009
- Read 2 books per month. I’m good at reading while traveling, need to adopt a stay at home reading style
- Get involved. With 40,000 neighbors in Burlington, VT, I need to participate more in my local community
My Predictions for 2009
December 31st, 2008
1. Barack Obama will change the way we communicate
- When I say ‘we’ I’m really speaking to those of us that aren’t blogging, twittering, and facebooking already. Change.gov represents an opportunity for our government to organize voices and movements utilizing Web 2.0. Should be exciting.
2. Online video will only get bigger
- Consumption of video content online will continue to grow. Advertisers will look to online video as an option that is on par (or better than) traditional TV spots.
3. The automotive industry will rebound in a big way
- 2009 will be a year of mass consolidation in our industry. By decreasing the number of dealerships across the country, strong operators that are able to weather the storm will see their sales and service business increase dramactically.
4. ‘Internet’ sales will represent the majority
- However customers are being classified internally, the Internet will grow to represent the majority of sales and service opportunities received by EVERY dealership. No market will be ‘different’. The entire industry will start to see that their is no difference between an Internet customer and a newspaper ad customer. (I know this might not sound like that far of a stretch for most of you reading this blog, but I think greater adoption throughout the dealer landscape will be evident in 2009).
5. The debate about Global Warming will end
- Our winters are colder, our summers hotter, our storms more powerful and regular than ever. I think the debate about global warming will cease and a greater focus on solutions will occur.
2008 has been a great year for myself and family. My beautiful wife and I moved from Seattle, WA to Burlington, VT to be closer to her family mid-year and the transition has been excellent. I feel fortunate to be able to work with such a great group of individuals everyday @ Dealer.com and to have the opportunities that our products, services, and culture have allowed me to experience. I foresee 2009 to bring even greater successes for my family and Dealer.com! We have so much to be thankful for and I look forward to the future!
Another Joe Webb Video - The Lot
December 30th, 2008
Joe Webb let me know that he’s got 8 of these completed. I’ll post more as I discover them!
Another Joe Webb Video - The Negotiation
December 30th, 2008
Top 10 People I’m Following on Twitter
December 28th, 2008
After turning down the volume of the Twitter account, below are who I would consider the Top 10 Tweeters I’m following on Twitter:
ScottMonty / Scott Monty
- Ford’s Social Marketing Guru
TechCrunch / Michael Arrington
- TechCrunch = The Authority on all things start-up
kevinrose / Kevin Rose
- Digg’s founder with 81,000+ followers strong
JasonCalacanis / Jason Calacanis
- Mahalo’s founder/globetrotter that posts a seemingly minute-by-minute account of his life
mashable / Pete Cashmore
- Mashable always has great tech-based articles to keep current with what is happening
darthvader / Darth Vader
- Always interesting to hear what the Dark Lord has to say about his life
- DealerRefresh posting updates and random thoughts from the mind of Jeff Kershner
- Self proclaimed ’super genius and mastermind of possibilities’ from Suzuki of Wichita with insight into the automotive industry
andwrig / Andy Wright
- VP of the Vinart Auto Group with a positive outlook into our industry
mattcutts / Matt Cutts
- Google’s SEO guy, although his posts have more to do with his cats than SEO
Who am I missing that you enjoy following and I should add to ‘my list?
Turning Down the Twitter Volume
December 28th, 2008
When I first signed up for Twitter, I didn’t have any idea how or why anyone would use it. Micro-blogging? 140 characters maximum? It seemed like another Web 2.0 fad, like podcasting, that I’d be skipping.
After discovering how many people were using the service, however, I got hooked. Twitter became a replacement for my Google Reader and I started using it to keep up with the blogs and articles that I fill my head with on a daily/weekly basis. I was following anyone and everyone in the automotive industry, seeking out OEMs, suppliers, and dealerships to see what they were saying and how they were using Twitter as a marketing tool. I’d get excited to login just to see if anyone had broken the Twitter code and discovered a way to maximize these 140 characters.
What I realized is that following too many people made it difficult to keep up with the people I genuinely wanted to follow. I was ‘following’ over 250 people/companies/blogs which made it impossible to read all of the content each of them were delivering. Some Twitters, like Guy Kawasaki, are following over 25,000 people, obviously not using Twitter the way that I like to. What volume of noise created by following everyone and anybody with a Twitter account became overwhelming and made the site not as useful and fun for me.
So…yesterday I turned down my Twitter volume and started to follow a key group of people whose opinions I value. After doing this, I’ve found that the quality and quantity of my Twitter conversations has increased. The Twitters I’m now ‘following’ are those that I can learn from and I feel this is why I’m going to continue to using the service.
A question was asked yesterday about ‘What is this Twitter thing all about?’. I think the answer is different for everybody. For me, it is an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with a large group of people (in 140 characters or less). For others, it is a way to listen to a peer group and generate ideas. Some people use the search.twitter.com functionality as a real-time IM/newscast with the world, as has been seen with a recent Denver plane crash and the turmoil in Mumbai.
What I’d like to know is how do you use Twitter?
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