All Blog Posts (40)


First Class Educators has announced a NJ date in the 2012
 Pit Stop Marketing tour. The Pit Stop automotive marketing conferences offer hands on workshops, demonstrations and thought provoking dialogue by marketing experts, trainers and vendors to help dealers operate more…

Dealers have embraced social media to sell more cars and generate more business in the service drive but most lag in using social media to hire the best employees. The very same things that drive customers to your site and "close" the deal can be used to bring in higher quality applicants for your open positions.

1) The average career page on dealer website is buried and if an applicant does manage to find it the content is less than compelling. Update that page with a video of real…

Is your dealership blocking access to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites?  If this is the case, are you frustrated with your Dealer Principal's decision to block access?

I recently came across a situation where a large dealership group was…

Is it OK to Pay for Play?

A lot of fuss is being made of late, of Search Plus Your World and for good reason: love it or hate it, this is going to make a huge impact on Automotive SEO now and for the foreseeable future. This is great and there are some great simple steps you…

It’s no secret that auto dealerships have frequently been forced to defend themselves against discrimination claims by employees and agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As a result, many dealers have instituted comprehensive human resources programs to avoid potential problems. However, new technology brings new challenges.

As the use of social media grows, more and more dealerships are using the internet to screen potential employees. Many managers…

Caring: The Lost Art

Recently, I had a BAD experience with my long time vendor partner: TK Carsites while launching several new web sites for one of my clients: Jeff Batta owner of Marlboro Nissan and now the proud…

Opportunities Begin with Problems

When considering from where the next big media spike will occur one simply needs to look for a big glaring problem. For it is where problems are created that new opportunities emerge. It seems clear to me now that it is the growing paradox of social networking that will spawn the next genius multi-$ billion giant. So what is the…

Facebook announced updated privacy settings today and for the first time one might actually consider them impressive. I mean after years of menus and menus and more menus filled with menus of drop downs with menus...(you get the point) - they have simplified the process with privacy options right at the wall page level. Of course, I expect people will still bitch and complain because hey!…

Chances are, since you’re reading this post, your dealership or company is involved in social media. That’s good - it’s hard to imagine how difficult it will be moving forward for organizations that have not embraced social networking. Although Social Media is relatively new (and certainly exciting), its meteoric growth has unfortunately caught the early attention of the legal powers-that-be.

Despite the widespread use and misuse of social networking at work, 45 percent of all…

It was bound to happen. The tremendous growth of digital marketing and social media was an invitation for government regulation. For instance, the Federal Trade Commission recently updated its truth-in-advertising guidelines, which were last revised in 1980, to address the commercialism of the Web. Federal and state regulators are taking the position that social media is not a loophole for deceptive marketing practices and are actively enforcing and cracking down on social media deception.…

I recently saw a vehicle advertised on a dealer website that caught my attention. This pre-owned car was advertised as a “CarFax One Owner”.  Upon further investigation, I discovered that the “one owner” was a rental car company.

Even though the “one owner” statement may have been technically true, the description of the vehicle blew my mind: “With just one previous owner, who treated this vehicle like a member of the family, you'll really hit the jackpot when you drive home…

There are a number of good reasons for operating an ethical and legally compliant dealership, not the least of which is staying out of a courtroom.  Perhaps the most important - and most often overlooked - reason is increased customer satisfaction.  There are times when an employee may feel that he or she came out the winner by bending the rules a little, but what about the dealership’s reputation?  What about the customers who were mislead?  It seems like there might be…

The vast majority of dissatisfied customers who threaten to call an attorney never do. For the few that follow through, the results can be devastating. While it’s true that many customers’ complaints have little or no merit, there can be a real danger if the wrong plaintiff’s attorney gets involved.

You may be thinking “we have lawyers of our own and insurance for that sort of thing, so bring it on”. Well, here’s the problem: many lawsuits that stem from seemingly…

One observation from the NADA Convention was the number of website vendors that were integrating social media monitoring and reputation management tracking tools into their client dashboard. Two such companies I had a demo with were @utoRevenue and Dealer.com.

The shift to integrate social media tracking and reputation management alerts will eventually limit the business upside of stand alone reputation management software companies and social media syndication…

Now that the 2011 NADA Convention is over, our industry will set its sites on upcoming educational opportunities. I would like to remind members of ISM of two special opportunities that need your attention to lock in savings on registration fees.

Automotive Marketing Boot Camp

The much-anticipated 2011…

The Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) held this year in the Napa Valley is sold out as a direct result of strong dealer participation.

DMSC Napa has attracted dealer principals, general managers, and ecommerce directors from the US and Canada to discuss leading…