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I singed up for Friendster when it launched in 2001. Friendster was the first social networking website, launching months before MySpace and years before FaceBook and Twitter were even registered domain names.
Friendster has randomly been sending me SPAM since I signed up. I think this is one of the reasons the service failed to ever catch on. Recently, Friendster has received a major makeover and is in talks of being acquired for $100M according to TechCrunch.
Having read the TechCrunch article, I was interested in the new and improved Friendster when I received an email from them this afternoon. After opening their message, which is the first time I’d opened their SPAM in years, I found an email that was full of broken links. Not a few broken links, 100% of all links inside the email went NOWHERE!
Friendster SPAM
You’ve got one chance to succeed with email marketing. Once your customer shows interest, make sure their experience is world class. Don’t be like Friendster…#EPICFAIL!
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I set out on a quest this week to discover who in the dealership website space had blog or online community for customers and prospects. We all know about DealerRefresh.com (both the blog and forum, DrivingSales.com, and AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.com, but what about the people that are trying to sell you the ‘best websites in the business’. Some of the blogs I found have some awesome, current information. Others obviously hopped on the blog train when it was the thing to do haven’t yet left the station.
Below is what I found and have added to my Google Reader (excluding VINSolutions NING community). Did I miss any?
Cobalt: http://digitalmileage.com/
TKCarsites: http://blog.tkcarsites.com/
AutoRevo: http://blog.autorevo.com/
DealerOn: http://www.dealeron.com/blog/
ClickMotive: http://clickmotive.wordpress.com/
VINSolutions: http://community.vinsolutions.com/
Liquid Motors: http://liquidmotors.ning.com
DealerFire: http://dealerfire.typepad.com/
Search Optics: http://blog.searchoptics.com/
eCarList: http://www.ecarlist.com/blog/
Dealer eProcess: http://www.dealereprocess.com/blog/
DealerImpact: http://dealerimpact.com/blog/
XI Group: http://blog.xigroup.com/
PureDealer: http://automotiveseoblog.com/
Higher Turnover: http://onlineautodealer.blogspot.com/
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Nobody’s perfect. We all mistakes. This is just human nature. How we let others know about these mistakes is the opportunity!
If something has gone wrong, explaining the bad news over email is a bad idea. I’ve yet to see a positive response to a negative email…via email. Usually the email delivering the bad news turns into a rant of disappointment and frustration by the party that has been effected. This turns into negative reviews online and eventually to less leads, sales, and referrals.
If you’ve done something wrong or if you have to share an unpopular message, pick up the phone and have a conversation about it. Sure the recipient will be pissed off and take their anger out on you, but it’s better to let someone vent vs. stew in a digital tirade.
Delivering bad news sucks. If you have to do it, make the delivery as painless as possible over the phone.
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The holidays are quickly approaching and you know what that means…time to plan for 2010. Before you start making decisions about where to spend and where, think about how you shop:
- If you want to buy something, where to you go?
- If you want to learn about something, what sources do you turn to?
- If you didn’t know you needed something until you heard about it, where did you hear about it and what were your next steps?
When I want to buy something, Google’s search bar is my first stop. Once I identify what I want, I usually search for product reviews (once again using Google) to confirm I’m making a solid choice and not missing out on the next best thing. Then I turn to Google’s Shopping feature to compare prices and get the best deal. Brand recognition plays into my ultimate decision. I’d rather spend a few extra bucks through Amazon vs BestDealsOnline.com in order to know that what I’m buying is through a legit service. Normally through my buying process, I discover things that I didn’t know existed and add them to my future wishlist.
How do you shop? Follow your path as an advertising roadmap because chances are, your customers are like you.
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Part of my daily online experience is visiting Automotive-Internet blogs and online communities. I’ve been doing this since joining Dealer.com 3 years ago to keep up on industry related discussions and understand what new shiny toys dealerships are using to produce results.
This year, participation in these forums by dealerships has been minimal at best. After trolling through DealerRefresh, Automotive Digital Marketing, and DrivingSales this afternoon, the posts and comments have been dominated by vendors in a seemingly never-ending back-and-forth battle of who is the king and the court jester in their respective markets (whatever those markets might be, primarily SEO services). Whenever I see these posts and want to comment, I wonder what audience is going to see my thoughts. Someone @ a dealership? An OEM employee? Nope. I’d bet that a majority of these website’s visitors are the same guys and gals working for our competition that I shake hands with at industry events and after presentations at dealerships.
The only community that is ‘keeping it real’ is DealerRefresh’s Forum. I think this is probably by design with the forum’s moderators each being from dealerships, not auto vendors.
My question is, where are the brightest minds on the frontlines of automotive retailing? I want to see what they have to say and learn from their experiences. What am I missing?
Where have all the car dealers gone?
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Anyone the attended the recent JD Power Conference took away at least one concept. Social Marketing is big. Not just a little bit big and something you should be dabbling in, but KING KONG big. Changing the world big. Did I mention it is big?
Seemingly every panel and discussion throughout the 3 days revolved around, in some capacity, social marketing and how companies are reaching out and having conversations through these new channels of communication. The thing that was lacking from a majority of these conversations are how companies are executing social marketing strategies as part of their overall marketing mix.
Below are some examples of OEMs and automotive retails that understand how to participate and don’t have a clue.
THE GOOD
Honda Social Marketing
Honda Facebook Page
If you haven’t been living in a cave over the course of the past 2 weeks, you’ve seen Honda’s happy go-lucky TV ad with smiling happy people proclaiming their overwhelming love for all things Honda. At the end of the ad, consumers are directed to the company’s Facebook page @ Facebook.com/Honda.
Have you checked this website out? 132,300 people have become fans posting over 1100 photos of their beloved Hondas. The wall posts are a never-ending waterfall of people screaming from the Interwebs their appreciation for Honda. Want rapid fans? Lead them to the trough and watch them lap up the waters of the social web. Truly remarkable stuff.
Ford Social Marketing
Jim Farley delivered a tear jerker during his presentation @ JD Power. I’ve never experienced a speaker that was so well received at a conference. 100% of the people I spoke to after his delivery were impressed enough with Ford’s future that they were talking about buying a Ford or applying for a job.
The Ford Story Screenshot
Ford ‘gets’ social marketing and has executed multiple channels for their customers and fans to participate. The Ford Story is an example of how they are providing content to their customers in order to allow them to be a part of Ford’s past, present, and future. This is the only example I’ve found online of a corporation granting access to a warchest of content to be shared freely across The Web. The result? The hottest brand in Automotive with the most online buzz…go figure, right?
AutoNation and Checkered Flag Automotive Group
I was asked by an eCommerce Director of a Top 10 automotive group yesterday, ‘What dealer group or dealership is doing social marketing well?’. This is a tough question to answer. Over the past few months, I’ve compiled a list of car dealerships using Twitter through @sellingcars and have become a Fan of 100s of dealerships and dealer groups through Facebook. I’ve searched far and wide for auto retailers that get it, hoping to uncover some gems of information that I could share with our clients and prospects that I’m working with.
The result? Of the 100s of dealerships that are ‘doing social marketing’, only 2 stand out, AutoNation and Checkered Flag.
AutoWay Twitter Page
AutoNation has launched a social presence through an AutoWay campaign. Being a national brand in virtually every market in the US, they aren’t targeting a local following, but instead offering value-added tips about car maintenance, car repair, how to buy a car…basically everything and anything that has to do with a car dealership, without being a car dealership.
Checkered Flag Screenshot
Checkered Flag took the concepts of Web 2.0 and executed them on their website. Utilizing high-quality video content and an on-site blog, they’ve created a way for their customers to connect with their dealerships in a way that is truly unique in the automotive space. Recently, Christine (who I met @ JD Power) has become the face and spokesperson for the group, updating their Facebook and Twitter pages with content you would expect from an employee of Checkered Flag. Alex Snyder and his team is doing some revolutionary stuff for our industry and I’m glad he’s on our side!
THE BAD
Toyota
Honda has a happy go-lucky advertising campaign and over 100,000 people raving about their product on Facebook. Toyota? They last updated their Facebook page on June 26, 2008…seriously.
Toyota Facebook Page
Why Toyota has been so reluctant to participate in social marketing is beyond me. Having cult-like brands such as the Prius, you’d thing they’d be all over this space. This is not the case.
Astro Planet Twitter Page
Put yourself in a customer’s shoes. You decide you follow your favorite car dealership on Twitter. You’re excited about connecting with them and learning more about their culture and people. Your reward? 100s of random tweets with inventory that they just received. OF COURSE a car dealership has inventory, why do they need to automatically update everyone with this information. This is an example of social media fail in my opinion.
As our industry progresses of more OEMs, dealer groups, and dealerships participate in social marketing, I hope that we take queues from the current leaders of the space and also learn from the mistakes of those experimenting with new ideas.
If you have any examples of companies in automotive that are doing a good job with social marketing, please share!!
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