social networking

Facebook says ad spending is rocketing

The very same advertisers who were once skeptical that buying up inventory on social networks could possibly do any good are now, apparently, going completely nuts about ads on Facebook.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s most prominent liaison to Madison Avenue, said in an interview with BusinessWeek published Wednesday that the company’s biggest advertisers have boosted their spending on Facebook by tenfold, or even 20-fold, in the past year.

“Two years ago the big brands were experimenting with us,” Sandberg told BusinessWeek. “They started buying with us a year ago. Now, they’re going big.”

Via: CNET

CardStar connects loyalty cards to Foursquare check-ins

The check-in game as popularized by location-based services Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and others, desperately needs something more tangible than just the mere exclamation of a user’s location. One way to bring more value – and thus more interest – to the check-in is tying it to a real-world deal, like getting a cheaper beverage at a coffee shop in return for frequent check-ins. Now, a company specializing in digitizing the loyalty cards people carry in their wallets, CardStar, is integrating its service with Foursquare check-ins in an effort to make checking in more relevant.

Via: VentureBeat

Location based services are something every dealership should be exploring.

Product Announcement: Facebook Video App

Add Inventory Videos to Facebook Fan Pages

Putting your inventory in front of 500 million prospects is a no-brainer. With Dealer Impact’s integrated inventory video tool, you can turn a Facebook fan page into a second website for your dealership.

Make a basic fan page more comprehensive by adding inventory videos using Dealer Impact’s easy-to-use plug-in tool. Available as part of our Facebook Inventory App or as a standalone product, the video tool is specifically designed to work with Facebook’s interface.

The tool automatically integrates videos under a separate tab on your fan page. Users can quickly browse your inventory and click on specific vehicles to watch video. Each video page includes vehicle information, contact details for your dealership, and a request-information form to help you capture qualified leads.

Dealerships also have access to viewer statistics, showing which videos were watched and when.


Now is the time to use the largest social network in the world to generate leads. Learn more about our Facebook Inventory App and video feature by calling us at 877-334-9638. For an example of our Facebook Video App feature please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/karlchevrolet

5 Social Media Trends to Watch Right Now

“With social media itself an exponentially growing trend that’s here to stay, many companies both small and large are keeping tabs on new social technologies as they emerge. With new sites, services, apps and practices that help businesses connect more directly with customers coming online at a rapid pace, it’s often helpful to zoom out a bit and keep an eye on upcoming trends on the cusp or just over the horizon.

Whether or not particular individual services succeed, the following trends are likely to stick around in the near-term future. Some may not be immediately relevant to your company or industry, but being aware of oncoming movements in the social media landscape can help keep you and your business out ahead of the curve when a new trend holds promise for your organization’s growth.”

1. Location, Location, Location
2. Group Buying
3. Mobile Ads
4. Mobile Payments
5. Having a Social Media Policy

Source: Mashable

Let us breakthrough the social media barriers at your dealership give us a call at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com.

Don’t forget to follow us on:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dealerimpact

Twitter: @dealerimpact

Why Corporate Social Media Fails

“Here’s are five key reasons why social media failure is far more prevalent than anyone wants to admit to talk about.

1. The lack of a strategic plan. Far too many companies run before they walk. As a result, they jump into social media without a well-articulated idea of why they want to do social media, what they want to get out of it, what success looks like, and what rivals are doing.

According to a recent study by Digital Brand Expression, 78% of respondents said they were doing social media but only 41% of companies said they had a strategic plan.

2. The lack of a tactical plan. This is more than just knowing how to use Twitter, Facebook or a blog because they’re not that difficult to learn. Tactics has more to do about best practices, knowing when and how to engage with other people on social media, and using the best and most effective tools to be as productive and efficient as possible.

3. The lack of resources, or hiring people who lack the right skills or experience to get the job done. Too many companies get excited about a social media program but don’t or won’t allocate enough people to actually make it happen. Another mistake is they hire people who are too inexperienced but hope that their enthusiasm about social media will compensate for it.

4. The lack of content that is compelling, engaging, interesting or valuable. At the end of the day, great content and stories make social media be successful. Truth be told, social media services are simply tools to distribute content. In other words, content and stories and the ammunition that makes the weapons (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) effective.

5. The failure to build relationships. Social media is not a one-way street or a one-way conversation. For social media to work, you need to build relationships with people, have conversations, engage and connect. It’s work requires time and effort.”

Via: Sysomos

Dealer Impact can help your dealership take your social media strategy to the next level. For more information check out our Factor of 10 program. You can reach us at 877.334.9638 or email us at sales@dealerimpact.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @dealerimpact.

Social Media does not start with the question “How can we monetize our product via Social Media?”.

“…Social Media does not start with the question “How can we monetize our product via Social Media?”. It should start with “Let’s have some fun and speak to our customers in a whole new way”. How much can it cost? A Twitter logo to insert on your website that links to your twitter profile. Hardly rocket science.

So when you still think that you need to have a Social Media strategy for your business, ask yourself this. Is it a strategy that I need or is it an excuse I must cook up cause I’m swamped with other more pressing matters. Cause 90% of the time, those that call the shots who are not social media savvy think and believe that they have more important things to do.”

Source: deblog

Those of you looking to take that next step into social media should consider adding your dealership’s inventory to Facebook. Dealer Impact’s Facebook Inventory App is an automated, turn-key solution. See an example at http://www.facebook.com/karlchevrolet.

To learn more about Dealer Impact’s Facebook Inventory App, call 877-334-9638 or email sales@dealerimpact.com.

You can also follow us at @dealerimpact on Twitter.

Post vehicle inventory out to Craigslist, get more links back to your site

Need more exposure for your inventory? Want more links pointing back to your site? Instead of just having one landing page (your website) why not have 10’s if not 100’s of landing pages? Social networking is making all of this possible and if you’re not participating then you’re falling behind.

In a recent blog post, we discussed the idea of putting your inventory videos out on YouTube. These videos each have their own URL with keywords which all link back to your dealer website. Along the same lines, Craigslist is another option for you to penetrate specific geographic markets. YouTube is an international sensation (as is Craigslist) but with Craigslist there are metropolitan networks where you can post an ad. Customers then search these listings by city/region to find local deals.

Dealer Impact has programmed the functionality to automatically generate a nicely formatted HTML ad with your vehicle’s information automatically populated into it – full of pictures, information, and links back to your site. Just like with YouTube, search engires are able to index each and every one of these pages for keywords. Even if a customer isn’t searching specifically on the Craigslist site, they could still find your ad by searching a specific enough phrase on a search engine such as Google.

For a sample Craigslist ad, visit: http://www.di-web2.net/craigslist/sample.html

From a marketing standpoint, notice how the branding of the dealer website is retained through to the ad. If you’re familiar with Craigslist, most ads you see have a plain white background, typically a lump of text that is hard to read, and some ads don’t even contain photos. With the thousands and thousands of ads posted on Craigslist, you only have those initial few seconds to grab their attention and get them to read on. We believe in branding your ads to your dealership, providing a professional looking landing page to convert more leads into sales.

For more information on listing your inventory on Craigslist, please call Sales at 877.334.9638

The Factor x 10 drives traffic from social media and video portals

The Factor of 10 increases a website’s chances of being found by a factor of 10. The program creates 10 Points of Presence (POPs) out on the internet to increase your chances of being found and at the same time increasing your current website’s popularity with all the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Each of these pages is specially formulated (SEO) for the search engine spiders to find and index their content, thus by creating these satellite websites out on the web we create a network of doorways for people to find you. These satellite pages can exist anywhere, even inside the Facebook network.

Factor x10 - Increase your website's searchability by a Factor of 10

The Factor x10 Examples:
Satellite Pages

Facebook Fanpages

YouTube Channels

Please contact us to find out more about the Factor of 10 and make it easier for customers to find you vs. your competition.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

The Power of Satellite Videos, the number one way to drive traffic to your virtual dealership!

Videos provide visual stimulation and an emotional response, however provoking an action from that response only happens when people can find them. Satellite Videos dramatically increase conversion ratios and time on your website, but the general population is not on your website day in and day out.

Dealer Impact believes your website presence should be in as many places as possible, all the time. We all know YouTube is the number one video portal on the internet, so if you export your videos, let’s say 100 for easy math, that is 100 more Points of Presence (POPs) you didn’t have before. The video player comes with an embed code that allows you to integrate these videos anywhere. You can embed them on Facebook pages, eBay, Cars.com, blogs, anywhere.

Each video acts like a satellite in cyberspace, a POP, for people to find you. Place them in popular social media sites or portals where there are hundreds of millions of potential customers giving them a direct link back to your dealership.

Let the power of Satellite Videos put your dealership on the screen of every computer on the planet.

Brian Cox

President

Dealer Impact Systems

www.dealerimpact.com

Social Media Crosses into the Mainstream

By Rich Cherecwich

Social media, once a place for early adopters, curmudgeonly blog critics and college students, has officially entered the mainstream. According to a poll from Forrester Research, 75 percent of internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

One area where Forrester noticed large growth was in blogs and consumer-written product reviews. Participation grew from 48 percent of internet users to 69 percent, undoubtedly spurred by difficult economic times and consumers’ desire to research potential purchases before buying. The number of critics, or those who write the reviews, also grew from 25 percent to 37 percent.

Social networks increased in popularity as well with a 39 percent growth in new profiles. As more proof that social media has gone mainstream, Forrester noted that the age gap in social media is quickly closing. Although younger demographics still rate higher, the 35-44-year-old demographic saw considerable growth in writing reviews and joining social networks.

Source