For the past few years, I’ve been either a participant or an attendee in just about every automotive retail marketing conference.  There are a lot of great minds today helping dealers acclimate to the ever-changing world of Social Media.  The one drawback to all of this information that’s being thrust on dealers is that very little of it focuses on the core component to Social Media success.

I’ve seen countless dealership Facebook pages that have a steady stream of updates talking about themselves.  Users are bored with this.  They’re bombarded with so much noise already so it’s a challenge to get people to like your page and engage with your posts.  You feel it personally too, right?  It’s not very likely that you’re ever compelled to like or comment on some advertising message.

Technology is what makes Social Media available.
Strategy is what makes you successful.

Technology is simply the tools you need to build your Social presence.  Strategy is the design, chassis and the materials that get people to buy.  You won’t see much interaction on Social Media without a clear content strategy.  All the tools in the world won’t help you have meaningful conversations with your customers.  You cannot achieve full marketing potential (ie: sell cars, parts and service) without these 4 deliberate and strategic steps.  And they must be in this order:

Culture

The world of auto retail, like many other businesses, is shifting into Social Business. Customers are voicing their opinions on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Google Places about the products they buy.  In his book, “Smart Business, Social Business” Michael Brito writes that social business forces an organization’s cultural change.  We’re seeing now the increase in sales when a company truly cares about the community and wants to meet the demands of the customer.  Cultural change must come from the top down and meet in the middle from a bottom up approach.

People

Employees at every level need to change their thinking, embrace new technologies and shift their focus from traditional advertising messages to building relationships.  Of course there will be resistance.  Some will rush to defend the status quo, and this is normal.  The key is designing and implementing an internal process that welcomes feedback and rewards participation.  Social Media marketing cannot truly succeed without employee buy-in.  They are your conduit to your customer.  They are your first resource for awesome content.

Process

Get a system that works for you, not against you.  Provide targeted education so your staff feels comfortable about Social networks.  It’s revolutionary but so were the telephone and email when they first appeared.  Help your staff learn how to communicate with the customer on the platforms where the customer is.  Institute a process so front-line personnel understand 2 things:

• How to be aware of relevant content when it comes their way
• How to foster sales relationships by asking for online reviews and referrals.

In addition, implement a Social Media policy to ensure marketing consistency, employee  and protect the organization.

Technology

Now we can talk about the tools you’ll need to expedite your Social marketing campaigns. Here are a few I use:

• Google Reader helps you consolidate relevant, recent and local content to share.
• Bitly.com shortens URLs so you can post them on Twitter. (They provide QR codes and cool analytics too!)
• Hootsuite is a Social Media dashboard that allows you schedule out posts at optimal times for best engagement–freeing you up to devote your time to listening and interacting with your fans/followers and write blog posts.
• Post Planner offers a white-label Facebook App to schedule your posts right inside Facebook!  Your posts are branded with your dealerships’ ID, you can post photos, and they give you engagement-rich status update suggestions.
• Refollow is a tool to help you grow your Twitter following.
• TweetAdder also grows your Twitter following using more advanced automation tools.

You can’t automate conversations on Social Media.  Human interactions happen spontaneously. How do you want to be known online?  Your well-planned strategy carries out your mission.  Technology is only the facilitator.

Let’s talk about the unique challenges today for car dealers and other small businesses when it comes to Social Media.  Many still believe Social Media is “free”.  I don’t have to remind you that nothing in life or business is ever free.  Social Media takes all the time and money that other forms of marketing and advertising do, with the added layer of needing new skills and manpower to master it.

Facebook is one of the hubs to your Social marketing strategy.  You need these 2 basics in place to build your hub:

1. An in-house digital/Social Media manager.  Nobody communicates your brand on Facebook like your own staff.  Those dealers that have made the investment are seeing much higher engagement and closing more sales.
2. A budget for Facebook ads.  Facebook ads complete your strategy.  Your Social marketing manager stimulates engagement by curating valuable, relevant content for all your platforms.  Facebook ads amplify your reach and increase your sales.

These 10 steps will help you understand how it all works and if you need any further assistance, hire a Social strategy expert to guide you.

Identify Your Goals. Do you want to grow your fan base? Are you promoting an event? Are you ready to make Facebook ads a significant source of leads for your business?  Define your goals first. You must have clear goals so you can measure your ad’s effectiveness later!

Facebook is Local.  Facebook is the place where you can build an online community that mirrors your offline community.  Facebook ads target your local area in ways like never before.  You reach those people who will most likely buy from you.

Facebook Ad or Sponsored Story? Sponsored Stories are about your Pages’ activities on Facebook. If you have a post with particularly high engagement, spotlight it with an ad. These types of ads reflect Social proof to other users; evidence that people are engaging with your Page.  Facebook Ads are more traditional.  You create a message you want to share and choose who you want to reach.

Landing Pages.  A staple of internet marketing, landing pages drive visitors to do what you want them to do. When used with Facebook ads, design your ad so that people will click and be taken to your landing page.  Once on that landing page, you have an opportunity to create more value and carry visitors further down the sales funnel.

Target the Right People.  Let’s say that the buyer demographic for one of your vehicles is women aged 35-54.  What are the interests of this group? Perhaps topics relating to family, work/life balance, shoes?  Facebook ads allow you to choose specific audience interests and target those people who are most likely to buy.

Design an Engaging Ad.  You’ll need a catchy headline, marketing language for the body of the ad and a compelling photo or graphic. I’ve talked about the misconception that, since Facebook provides free real estate to build your community, everything else is free and easy.  No dice.  Facebook ads take skill, training and money to develop and design.  Facebook is a new medium but the age-old components of successful marketing and advertising are still very much alive and kicking.  If you don’t have it, get help.

Connections.  It’s important to note that Facebook ads are Social.  Ads can be customized to reach people who are already connected with you or not at all connected with you.  You choose if you want to reach friends of your fans or not. Identify what kind of connection users have to your page so you can reach your optimal audience.

Location.  This is where you can laser target your surrounding community.  Choose a city, include surrounding cities, or target specific zip codes.

Objective. You have a choice now to reach people you want to “like my page” or “click on my ad or sponsored story”.  Page Like Ads are a great way to build audience size.  Page Post Ads will drive deeper engagement.  Your choice governs whether you’ll pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM) or per click (CPC).  CPM, according to Facebook, is the cost per 1000 times your ad or sponsored story is displayed.  In the past, impressions were not always effective.  Now, with Timeline stats showing higher page engagement, I’m seeing good results with CPM.

Manage Your Budget.  Set a maximum amount you want to pay each day and start off slow. $5-10 is plenty.  A daily limit guarantees you’ll never spend more than you want to.  If you’re paying per click (CPC), be sure to review the “bid price” regularly as it changes often (Yes, you’re actually bidding along with others, similar to Google pay-per-click).  Facebook ads are the most time-consuming ads you’ll ever run so set time aside everyday.  You must review and improve at least twice daily to make sure your budget is spent wisely.

Your Turn: I’m curious, have you used Facebook ads yet to drive sales or grow likes? What results are you seeing?

I suspect you’ve heard it’s a good idea to blog for your store.  Your SEO guy is bugging you.  People like me, Social Media coaches, tell you how valuable it is to become the “likable expert”.  Nearly every customer service evangelist preaches the value of blogging.  You see others blogging about their business and generating leads. So what’s stopping you?

The #1 excuse I hear dealers and their staff say is, “We don’t know what to write about.” Of course not, this is all new and writing witty content has never been in the job descriptions of any dealership personnel.  Grab a cup of coffee.  Let’s talk about changing that.

You have, at your fingertips, a gold mine.  An untapped reservoir of not only outstanding stories and content but people to do it for you!  It’s your own employees.  They’ve been right under your nose all along and it’s time to unleash the Kraken!

Almost no dealership has a shortage of raw material for blogs.  It’s channeling the material that’s the hurdle.  In the dealerships of the future (read: 2013), every front line employee will be trained and be regularly submitting blog content.

In this post from Marcus Sheridan, he spotlights US Waterproofing and their team of bloggers, otherwise known as their salespeople.  You think blog content is tough for a car dealership? It seems like a walk in the park compared to a waterproofing company!

In just a short few months, US Waterproofing, by using their sales staff, has produced more blog posts than most companies will produce in a year. Furthermore, their web traffic is spiking, leads and sales are up, and the blog has already become the most trafficked page of the website.  It’s hard to argue with that.

For automotive Social Media marketing to reach its full potential, there are 4 success factors (in this order) that must be present:

• Culture
• People
• Process
• Technology

In the dealerships of the future (read: 2013), I see every employee being trained on how to use Social Media, produce content and the importance of the two within the daily dealership operation.

Changing culture is hard work.  This shift began with the customer and we must adapt.  Some of your salespeople will love the idea of creating content and you’ll get major push-back from others. Many will say, “I can’t write.” but writing is actually just writing down what’s in your head.  Start with customer FAQs–each one is a blog post.

Help your people remain aware of content opportunities.  Stories happen on the front lines where the customers are–in your showroom and service drive.  Education and training are in integral part of creating awareness.  Knowledge helps your people recognize an opportunity and not be afraid to use the tools to publish it.

Capture content in their format of choice. Make it easy for your people to be inspired.  Some prefer writing, some prefer video.  Some might just want to write you a long email.  Along the way, they’ll get accustomed to searching for content and with so many of them doing it, your blog will soon be generating traffic and leads in ways you never imagined.

Your Turn: What’s preventing you from shifting to this “all in” culture and getting more participation and results from employees?

Awesome content is what drives engagement on Social Media.

I see a lot of emphasis on technology lately with Social marketing.  Putting technology before strategy is quite dangerous.  There are a lot of cool tools out there to manage your time.  However, automation is there to support your efforts, it’s not the guts of your campaigns.  You can’t skip planning, listening, education and go straight to engagement.  No one will connect with you if you’re not real.  Human connections are what drive sales.

Focus on your connections, not your network.  People buy from people.  Each Like on Facebook, every follower on Twitter, every reader of a Blog post is a person.  Social Media has connected us all in ways we couldn’t have imagined even 5 years ago.  Never forget that each connection represents many things to those who participate.  Providing great content that people want to engage with propels your connections (read: relationships) further down the trust road.

Social Content strategy is the act of designing, developing and managing the relevant information you produce on various Social platforms.  Do you have an on-staff content writer/strategist?  Those who want to succeed at Social business have created this position and tied it with customer service.  Hint: Your online reputation is part of your Social presence.

I hear many dealers asking, “How do I know what to post on Social Media to grow Likes, get people talking and sell cars?” You must start with a solid foundation. The only way to the goal is to build your house, brick by brick.  Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and the answers are your blueprints:

Who is my customer?

You won’t know how to frame your content strategy unless you understand something about the type of person you’re trying to sell to.  The more you know and understand, the better your content will be.  If you’re new, the answer here may seem elusive and you may not realize how well you know your customer.  The individual who drives an import compact car is far different than one who drives a European luxury sedan.  The F-150 driver has certain interests that the Nissan Juke owner would never be interested in.  Break things down by each model you sell.  Describe in detail who your customer is.  Never lose touch with the people who buy from you.

What is my customer interested in?

Start local. Think about your market area.  What are the communities and causes in your town?  Is your store near the wine country, a recreational fishing area, or ski resort? There are all sorts of communities already built for you.  Once you’ve identified your customer’s interests, you can find pieces of content (blogs, articles, videos and photos) based on those subjects.

What problems can I solve?

You’d be surprised how many questions people have about car dealerships.  Here’s your chance to be the “likable expert”.  Be as transparent as you can about the information you give.  What are your customers’ frequently-asked questions?  Ask your front line personnel to contribute.  One store I know has a gregarious master technician who likes to do short “how-to” videos.  Solving customers’ problems fosters loyalty and engagement.

What desires can I satisfy?

The great Eugene Schwartz, master copywriter said, “You can’t create desire, you can only channel it.”  Create content which serves that existing desire.  If you’ve spent time getting to know your customer, you understand what drives them to certain behaviors. Buying is sometimes an irrational process that meets a hidden desire.  People buy social consciousness, not the Prius.  People buy credibility and trust, not your service menu.

How can I help them buy? 

Start conversations.  Social Media allows you to keep in touch with your customers regularly.  Keep awesome information coming their way and over time you cement a relationship for all future sales.  People buy from those they know, like and trust.  The content you post everyday should engage your customer.  They buy from those who helped them the most.

The answers to these 5 questions lay the groundwork for your content strategy.  They’ll help you identify the goals of your Social marketing campaigns. I’ll cover what to do from here in another post. Until then, will you let me know how it’s going for you?

The majority of what I hear from car dealers and their employees on the subject of Twitter is: “I don’t get it!”  They say, “I don’t understand why Twitter is so valuable.  Isn’t it enough to be on Facebook?”  As marketers, we have to communicate with the customer where they spend their time and many would-be customers are on Twitter.

Of the dealers that I see on Twitter, many of them are just broadcasting.  Their strategy is to shout things out to the world where someone will hear it… and that’s a big mistake.  Twitter is conversational. It’s person to person.  It may be a brand that people follow but they want to know there’s a real person behind the brand.  Any chance you have to be closer to the customer, to help them buy from you, is pretty awesome.  Shouting marketing messages will not bring the customer closer.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had a few dealers reach out to me asking questions about Twitter.  That tells me more are warming up to it and they’re ready to join the biggest conversation in the known world.  Participating in these conversations establishes credibility and trust with customers.  Once you have that, you can comfortably reach out to others in the community with marketing messages.

Establishing credibility and trust must happen first.  There are many pitfalls that Twitter “noobies” can avoid once they have the lingo down.  Twitter is like going to a foreign country: you have to learn the language in order to not look like a doofus.  Twitter has it’s own language: @mentions, #hashtags, RT (Re-Tweets), shortened URL’s and, of course, fitting everything inside 140 characters.

The thing that keeps many dealers from using Twitter is the fear that they’ll “do it wrong”.  Let me help by showing you what NOT to do.  Here are 10 sure-fire ways to #fail on Twitter:

1. Chasing the Numbers. It’s much better to have 300 engaged followers than 3,000 who will never speak to you again. Use tools like Refollow and TweetAdder to help you find those you want to reach.  Locate accounts whose customer is your customer and follow their followers.  It grows organically and you capture a much more interested audience.

2. Only Tweeting a URL. If you’re sharing a story, you typically have something to say about it. At least include the headline of the story and give credit to the author.  Only tweeting a URL looks like spam (because that’s what spammers do!) and no one will click on it.

3. Tweets longer than 140 characters.  I can’t tell you how many posts I see that aren’t 140 characters.  Some apps will allow you to post more that 140 but 140 is all your audience sees.  Please oh please, use a URL shortener like Bitly.com.  Tweet posts in less than 140 characters if you’d like them Re-Tweeted (we all do).  You gotta leave room for the Re-Tweeters’ ID, right?.

4. Talking about Yourself.  Posts like “Check out the new body style of our 2013 model” is not compelling enough for people to click on. It’s not about you, it’s about them.  Focus your efforts and content on what’s interesting to your network.

5. Automating Facebook posts to Twitter (& vice versa).  Twitter users recognize these posts when they see them and it feels like a robot talking.  The same goes for people on Facebook.  I’ve seen people get downright indignant.  It’s okay to post similar content on Twitter and Facebook, just do it separately and “speak the language”.

6. Posing questions to “everyone”. Unlike Facebook, asking open-ended questions doesn’t work well on Twitter.  A better strategy would be to follow someone you want to reach.  If they follow you back, thank them and ask them a Social question like “How’s the weather in San Francisco today?” They may not answer but they’ll remember you were speaking to them and not the crowd.

7. Not conversing (@mentioning). Twitter is conversational.  Mentioning people drives those conversations. Don’t broadcast tweets without interacting, sharing and mentioning other Tweeps.

8. Using Spam words like “win” & “free”.  On Twitter, spammy words attract eyeballs for the wrong reasons.  Save them for your ads.  PS: If you use those words regularly, Twitter (or a follower) will mark you as Spam.

9. No gratitude.  Spend time everyday to thank those that have Re-Tweeted your posts.  Either reply or RT what they posted.  Please and thank you are part of the Twitter lexicon.

10. No authenticity or transparency. People follow you because they want to get to know you.  I have a dealer client who lets his personality shine.  He’s named Tang as the “official drink” of the dealership and he has many conversations with folks on Twitter.  Decide how you want to be known and keep your message clear and consistent.

Your Turn: What would you add to this list?

One of the first rules they tell you in sales training is it’s a numbers game.  You gotta throw a lot of spaghetti against the wall to have some stick.  Last week I blogged about using Social Media to foster long-term sales relationships (not one-night stands).  Instead of looking at each prospect you meet like a lotto ticket, use Social Media to touch people’s lives.

Word of mouth is universally acknowledged as the most powerful and effective marketing force there is. In their book, “Go Givers Sell More”, Bob Burg & John David Mann write, “From Hollywood executives gambling hundreds of millions on the latest Summer blockbuster” to a car sales professional trying to fill his or her capacity of a few hundred clients, “everyone in business knows that their trade ultimately rises or falls on the quality of the word of mouth it generates.”

It’s not that other forms of advertising and marketing aren’t effective.  They are but only to the degree that they emulate or reinforce the effect of word of mouth: human beings communicating the impact that a purchase experience has had on them.

In this numbers game, Social Media allows dealers and salespeople to harness that impact.  I always hear, “Social Media doesn’t make me money!”  Money is not a measure of goodness or worthiness.  It is a measure of impact.  You want more income? Have more impact.  What would your world be like using Social Media to impact so many people on a regular basis?  That’s the power we have today.

Impact takes hard work.

Start with a solid foundation of masterful networking techniques.  Keep in mind, Social networks are not replacements for your normal networking activities.  If you suck at networking then you’ll suck on Social Media.  You must identify:

• Who you want to meet–who is your customer?
• Who do you know who can get you an introduction?
• Where do these people like to hang out?
• What problems can you solve for them?
• What desires can you satisfy?

Your impact is directly proportional to how many people you serve and how well you serve them.

Is Social Media your Digital Mask?

Authenticity and transparency rule when engaging on Social networks.  It’s time to get yourself (your store, your brand) detailed and ready for the front line.  What communities are you already part of that can vouch for your credibility? How many people in your circle of influence know that you’re the #1 Salesperson at your company?  It’s perfectly fine to talk about yourself as long as you’ve worked to bring value to your relationships.  If you haven’t done that, take action now using Social Media.

Too little, too late.

I have a friend who recently lost his job as a GM of a dealership.  Like many other dealers and business owners, he was not using Social Media himself or as a marketing platform for his store.  As we’ve all seen in this new economy, it takes a wide array of marketing and advertising to fill the pipeline.  The majority of that has to be digital because that’s where people are.  Now that my friend is looking for a job, he’s had to scramble to build his network.

Whether you’re a salesperson, a family-owned legacy dealership or a massive publically-traded auto group, your sales depend on word of mouth. Even if you think Social networks are a fad, you HAVE to present a positive experience on ratings sites.   Are you guilty of ignoring the advantage you have over your competitor by not building a network of fans?

Don’t be another leg-humping salesperson who dwells in old school tactics. People buy from people. It’s not simply to sell something now.  It’s about creating an experience of value that has a positive impact on people’s lives.  That’s what they tell others about!

Your turn: How have you capitalized on word of mouth for your business?

It’s 1998.  You scan your inventory for the best cars to put in the ad.  You pay the local newspaper and cable company huge sums to run the ad.  Buyers show up on the lot with their checkbooks in hand.  The focus then was meet, greet, sell, then next up.  It was the equivalent of 50 first dates.

We’ve come a long way, baby… or at least the customer has.

My hero, Carl Sewell speaks about the $517,000 customer.  The average person buys 12 cars in their lifetime and the tab for those, including service, equals roughly $517K.  Establishing a long-term relationship with that potential repeat customer ensures you’ll be there for every one of those purchases.  The top salespeople know this.  They treat every customer as though they were going to do business with them for the rest of their lives.

It’s 2012.  Buyers aren’t showing up on the lot like they used to.  Some dealers are more concerned with wishing it was 1998 than reaching today’s customer with Social Media marketing.  Some on Facebook are more concerned with getting Likes on their Page than getting their message out to their existing fans.  It’s important to grow your fan base but only if those fans are potential buyers.  Buying Likes and running meaningless contests to get Likes will never increase your sales.

Facebook marketing has never been about getting in the face of a million strangers in hopes of landing 50 first dates.  It’s about building an amazing Page and giving your fans a reason to talk about your store.  You build an online community to mirror your existing offline community.  You want your message to reach the fans who already love you, engage in your content, and want to share how cool you are with their friends.

I hear a lot of GMs asking, “How can we get more likes on Facebook?” Whether you have 100 fans or 10,000+, your message will never reach your fans’ newsfeeds if they’re not engaging with you.  It’s never been about the number of fans you have.  What matters is the actions they take.

Social Media is an action-based medium.

You have to listen, talk and converse to get noticed and be remarkable.  A successful Facebook Page does not happen overnight.  It’s not  “build it and they will come”.  You can’t lurk and expect to close sales.

So which will it be:  50 one-night stands with people who don’t trust you, who may or may not buy from you again?  Or will you focus your efforts on cultivating those repeat buyers–the people who already know, like and trust you?  Social Media helps you turn one-night stands into long-term sales relationships. Everyone wants repeat buyers.  After all, Facebook is a referral-based platform and those existing fans are your best salespeople!

We talk a lot about Social Media as a marketing platform.  One of the cheapest, most effective forms of marketing is called extraordinary customer service.  When you combine Social Media with customer service, you create an environment where customers want to share their story.

Social Media done right is like a supportive cocoon enveloping your customer during every stage of the sales process.  You serve your customer in ways they never expect.  You develop and manage long-term profitable relationships on a scale larger than ever before.  You create a personal connection with your customer throughout their life.  They emerge from their cocoon as butterflies, free to spread the good word.

Your employees are an integral part of your customer service process.  They’re on the front lines interacting with your customers every day.  You can mirror this in the online world.  With guidance in Social Media best practices, employees can be outstanding advocates for your store!

Social Media is a valuable resource to listen for sales opportunities.  When you spend the time and effort to build your online community, conversations arise that bear fruit.  Social allows you a glimpse at where each fan/follower is in their sales process. From the very top of the sales funnel (not necessarily interested in buying) to the bottom (ready to buy this weekend), you are privy to each person’s needs and wants.

Here’s how mastering Social Media can help you facilitate the sale from top to bottom:

Before the Sale

This is where Social content marketing is vital.  Ask yourself, “Who is my customer?” Once you know what they’re interested in, once you’ve defined where they live, what they like and how they buy, you write and publish content relevant to them.

Think about it locally.  What’s happening in your surrounding area that means something to your audience?  What problems can I solve?  This is how you strategize for the customer who’s either not ready to buy right now or is just beginning to research their next purchase. Once this customer becomes a fan, you can keep them engaged in conversation while they are in the market.  The added benefit to you is each fan/follower has a trusted network themselves.  In social situations, online and off, your fan/follower will only think of you when someone they know is ready to buy.

During the Sale

What a fantastic time to use Social Media!  Make sure your Community Manager acknowledges each sales transaction and creates content that engages your customer and your fans.  During the sales process, your salespeople get to know their customer very well.  Make sure they know how to spot the right opportunities during that process.

Take the time to find out which Social platforms the customers are on and ask them to become part of your network.  Video testimonials are awesome, give great Social proof to others, and can be recorded right there in the moment with a smartphone.  Are they a repeat customer?  Ask them what it was that brought them back.  Are they new?  Ask them why they chose your store.  Social Media allows dealerships to interact with more people on a broader basis more regularly.  Use Social Media to communicate everything that’s great about the purchase process.

After the Sale

The period directly after a purchase is the best time to get your customer talking about it on Social Media.  Online ratings sites give them a megaphone to speak from. People spend huge sums of money on their vehicles so why not help them acknowledge what they’re spending so they can appreciate it even more!  Social gives your customer a way to tell others why they bought from you and what’s great about the car.  Help them recognize and respond to the experience they just had by providing the platform for them to speak.

And what better way to “stay in touch” than on Social Media!  Anywhere in the sales process, if you can stay connected, you increase your chances of top of mind awareness.  The more they hear from you, the less prompting they’ll need when it’s time to consider a purchase.

Dealerships and manufacturers have always made customer service a priority.  There are winners and losers in this race.  I know you want to win so take advantage of the power of Social Media to listen, converse, prospect, and sell.  No matter where your customer is in the sales process, whether you’ve sold to them or not, they’ll remember those conversations and come back to you every time.

I love stories that live and breathe and carry on, long after the original one is told.

Last August, Joel Ewanick, GM’s Global Marketing Chief, declared, “It’s time to clearly differentiate our brand and align closer to a true global brand like an Apple.”  He said, “It’s time for an automotive company to step out and address consumers and their needs in a way that’s never been done before.”  Advertising Age covered this story well and they interviewed me back then asking if I thought GM could pull off being “The Next Apple”.  Sure, I said.  “If GM can capture the same feeling that customers get when they purchase and use an Apple product, they can succeed.”

Has Chevy been able to succeed with the Volt?  Clearly not.  In Automotive News today, I read a reader’s comment in response to the latest political bruhaha surrounding the Volt. (Yeah, like they needed something else to keep people out of showrooms!).  The reader says, “There are two things wrong with the Volt: It’s ugly, and it’s priced too high.  Fix the ugly, and people will forgive the price.”  Amen, bothah.

This week, Klout, the go-to place for measuring online influence announced they’re offering a Chevy Volt to a selected number of influencers to drive for 3 days.  The “Plug In with Chevy Volt” promotion is Chevrolet’s third by way of Klout. The automaker previously loaned out Volts to 20 consumers in the Chicago-area, and later provided 130 people with Sonic loaners. Chevrolet has dubbed its prior campaigns a success, and said that it knows of at least one instance where online mentions of its perk led to a new car purchase.

Lending cars to influencers can have a valuable effect on sales.  Just like years ago when dealers used to give cars to employees and civic leaders to drive as demos, visibility is crucial to generating leads and closing sales.  I have a dealer client who loaned a car to an influential local blogger and her readers heard all about the great benefits of that vehicle.  This Klout campaign could turn out to be a bonanza.

Who wouldn’t want to drive a free car for a few days.  But is this enough to motivate car buyers?  We’re all influenced by our Social network, online or off.  My friend Calvin Lee is one of the influencers offered the Klout perk.  He is a major Social influencer but is a good word from him enough to sway someone to pay $40K for an “allegedly” ugly car?

GM has shortened their “hiatus” from building the Volt by one week due to strong March sales.  I suspect the sales spike could be due to the jump in gas prices.  Meh.  The root of this sluggish sales problem isn’t that people don’t know about the Volt, it’s that they know and they aren’t fans.  Polk just released a study saying that hybrid-owner loyalty is only 35%.  2 out of 3 are not repeat buyers.  While there are many factors driving this, one is that paying premium prices for hybrids that get close to the same mileage as some regular gas-powered vehicles doesn’t make the most sense.  Make the Volt stunningly beautiful and it might just change that.

What if the Volt was as beautiful as say an iPad or MacBook?  I applaud Mr. Ewanick for having such a grand vision to be the next Apple.  Apple products are gorgeous.  You feel good using them because their esthetic design is flawless.  Cars are still part of our identity in this culture so how ’bout we give the design guys a crack at making the Volt gorgeous?

Ugly is ok if it’s “quirky”.  The Volt is not quirky.  I followed Bob Lutz’ vision of the Volt from the beginning.  The original design was super cool.  Here’s what it used to look like:

As you can see, something got lost in translation.  So did this: now that Mr. Lutz has come out publically proclaiming that global warming is a hoax, it puts an ever darker pall on the whole Volt brand.  When the guy who championed the brand admits he doesn’t support one of its customers’ core beliefs, that makes everyone wonder how authentic the brand really is.  As I’ve said before many times, today’s customer wants to align with a brand’s values and perspectives.  People no longer buy what you sell, they buy who you are.

There are so many moving parts here with the Volt’s rise and fall, but one thing’s for sure: you CAN fix ugly.  GM, please figure out a way to give your customers the feeling they get when they hold their iPad, iPhone or MacBook.  Figure that out and they’ll pay what you’re asking.  Apple does it every day.  You can too.

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” ~Mitch Kapor, Founder, Lotus Development Corp.

I’ve spent the last few weeks training a dealer group and their employees on Social Media content strategy.  It’s quite a leap for most employees as their job has never required them to consider how they want to be perceived by the buying public.  As a matter of fact, it gets overwhelming for most folks.  In this age of Social Business, it’s more important than ever to be a savvy content publisher.  It’s harder than ever to filter out all the noise to find what your brand and your audience is looking for.

It’s important that when people Google your business, you’re not the only one talking about it.  You do this by developing a process to foster “evangelists” for your store.  Good news!  You already have part of that in place through CSI and your front line personnel.  The next step is to utilize Social networks to get customers to talk for you!

Think Reputation Not Ranking.

How do you want to be known? What makes your store different in the market place?  Maybe you’re a legacy dealer who’s 4th generation.  Perhaps you’ve won the President’s Award for the last 6 years.  Those are examples of great achievements.  But how does your customer talk about you?  What do they say to their friends and family about their experience with you?  Achievements are always great but what matters more is a solid online reputation.

Think Connection Not Network.

Putting technology before strategy is quite dangerous.  There are a lot of cool tools out there to facilitate a better network.  However, you can’t skip planning, listening, education and go straight to engagement.  You’ll come up empty handed.  Automation is there to support your efforts, it’s not the guts of your campaigns.  No one will connect with you if you’re not real.  Human connections are what drive sales.

Think Loyalty Not Proclamation.

When you proclaim yourself the “biggest and best”, you better deliver on that promise because your claims mean nothing when customers have friends and family who’re telling them otherwise.  Find out who your loyal customers are and reward them.  Get them involved in telling your brand’s story.  Show the world how loyal customers are treated and you’ll have many more coming your way.

Now let’s talk about 3 key strategies to grease the wheels of those conversations.  We talk a lot about engagement in Social marketing.  What that all boils down to is providing super-interesting content on each platform where your customer spends their time.

Think Consistent Not Arbitrary. 

Is your content consistent with your brand?  Recently Coca-Cola did a very controversial guerrilla marketing campaign where they paid people to stencil Coke’s logo all around New Orleans during the Final Four.  Many questioned the sanity of a big brand defacing property in and around the historic French Quarter, especially when it was later revealed they didn’t even have permits to do it.  What’s disturbing for me is that the stunt wasn’t really consistent with Coke’s brand.  It sounds like something more consistent with Red Bull.  Your content is YOUR message.  Be consistent, be remarkable.

Think Assurance Not Panic.

Block Out Time.  Content curation takes time.  Anyone who’s had to create something knows that it has it’s own time schedule.  Devote a minimum of two hours per day to trolling for content.

Do Your Homework.  Spend time reading blogs on Social Media marketing and topics that are important to our industry.  Read blogs on subjects that interest your customer.  Add those blogs by RSS Feed to your Google Reader so you’ll have a treasure trove at your fingertips.  The time you spend now will ensure your success later on.

Think Smarter Not Harder.

Brainstorm with a Coach.  Marketing content creation should never be done alone, especially if you’re new.  The collaborative process with a content strategy coach works quicker and is more effective at reaching your sales goals.  An experienced Social Media content strategist will get you up to speed and on your way to self-sufficiency.

Reputation, connection and loyalty spurs conversations.  Be consistent, self-assured and smart in your Social Media content strategy.  Get people talking about you.  There’s no better way to the sale.