Aim before you Fire – Proven tactics to attract more Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers (Vol.I)
Shooting from the hips most likely works only in Western movies with John Wayne or Yul Brunner, but never when planning your digital and social marketing mix in your dealership(s). Therefore time for preparing the “perfect shot” is necessary, stand back, breath-in, breath-out, AIM and ….hold on. There are more factors to consider, so why don’t you follow me?
Throughout my sessions – all over the United States – one question surely always comes up from my attendees, when talking, discussing and promoting Social Media Marketing – “VJ, how can we measure if our Social Media we are doing on Facebook and Twitter is actually working and most important – How do we attract more friends and followers?”
Well first at all Social Media alone is not just your Facebook Fan Page and/or the Twitter stream you have created so far. Please do not forget that a Social Media Strategy should in my opinion also include engagement on automotive car enthusiast forums, YouTube and Flickr, the photo sharing website, where you can show off sponsored community events or your owner’s club meetings in form of a photo series and later on photo year book.
Now back to the question in the first chapter. If you are wondering about the ROI in Social Media Marketing -“Congratulations” – you are on your way in becoming a Progressive student and to unveil the power of the Social Communities and their Networks. You know that Measurements is the key to relevance and future successes, just as you have had demonstrated, when measuring your metrics of your regular Internet Sales Process.
K.D. Paine revealed in her research post “K.D. Paine’s Measurement Standard” that different companies are using different methods! So there is actually “NO SIZE FITS ALL” to measure your success with a standard formula or rule. It is depending on your set of Goals you hopefully have determined, when you’d decided to join the Social Media Party. Paine explained in her findings that Sea World’s objective was looking into one particular niche. Sea World picked out their Roller-Coasters enthusiasts’ and looked in particular into their responses, when promoting discount codes. The comparison showed that through lower outreach costs (Twitter, Facebook) more tickets were sold and the Marketing costs savings were enormous compared to their “old” approach to send out mailing, which
a) were costly, and
b) had an open rate of less than .01 percent.
How can we now transfer this scenario similar into our operations?
I am sure you all know the little coupon books your local printing company was dropping off every 6 months; a small sized 10-15 pages strong booklet with your Service Department’s specials in it. I am confident we all agree that this is a costly path to promote your specials – months after months. Offers expire, print costs are expensive and to have a smart geo-targeted snail-mail strategy seems to be a “mission impossible”. We the dealer personnel in the trenches all have at least once experienced it: Customers just love to stop by at the dealerships, the offer or booklet in their hands, and demanding the Winter Tire Sales “4 for the price of 3” even so we are just celebrating Memorial Day. These scenarios are the perfect storm to provide you with splitting headaches. And not even talking about your frustration level and the upcoming bad CSI from the customer whostill thinks she was right and you were wrong.
Get instead onto the band-wagon and encourage your service customers to follow your department and dealership on Facebook and Twitter. The announcement of extra savings should be presented when your customer is picking up their car from the service. Attach behind the service bill a bright yellow or bright pink (yes pink!) page with your information that you have more “Coupons-codes and offers on your Facebook Page, and you frequently post special promo offers on the dealer’s Facebook fan page and during special Twitter events. Build this “Facebook friend and Twitter follower acquisition” process into your existing operations and processes and make everybody from your staff “buy into it”.
Let me know please how the idea with the “PINK” page behind the service invoice works out. I can guarantee you; the customer will automatically flip to the second page only to see are there any more Dollars to pay, but instead will see an invitation to save more money with you in the future.
Next “The curse of Firing before Aiming – Part 2” will reflect on K.D. Paine’s finding how Best Buy is working their Social engagement with their “Blue Shirt Nation”, and how a smaller Chevrolet Dealership in the Tennessee area saved $5,000 in Marketing expenses in a time frame from less than 72 hours and instead let Facebook do the same work for free.
10 undeniable signs that you are indeed addicted to Social Media
Day in – Day out. Like clockwork – tic, tac, tic, tac. Little voices already in your brain whispering “hey……hey…..do not forget to check in….and it has been already 12 minutes that you have had changed your status on Facebook……hey……hey…..and don’t forget see that you finally hit the 1000 followers mark on Twitter….hey…..” -Okay, when you are reading these lines here and you feel like “hmmm, sounds familiar, and you got by they was sweaty hands and a nervous twitch in your eyes – Houston we have a problem.
It appears to be you are definitive a candidate for the next show intervention, where we are trying to cure your addiction. YOU ARE INDEED ADDICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA. Because I do not want you to suffer longer and questioning yourself, I have created my first 10 rules which are showing indicators you are in danger being hopelessness addicted to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other drugs provided to us at no charge.
This phenomenon discribed above almost appears to be too real, when hearing about a new study out of the University of Maryland. The Center of International Media & Public Agenda asked 200 students of the University to “abstain for just one day” from all media. They were further asked then to describe their experience by blogging.
Outcome:The students particpating in this study wrote more than 110,000 words right after the experiment. 100,000 words equals an amount of a 400 page novel! The professor [Susan D. Moeller], who conducted the study said: “I was struck by how the short media blackout personally and emotionally affected the students.” So I conducted my own “non-reliable” study, just looking left and right (and into myslef) to come to following “VJ’s Conclusion”:
10 Reasons showing: You are indeed addicted to Social Media, when…
10.) you are flipping through the Cable channels to find the latest episode of ”Intervention” and hoping for that the topic is “FACEBOOK” and not Cocaine
9.) your vanity license plate says TWIT FACE
8.) you tell your spouse on your 10th wedding anniversary ”I LIKE YOU”
7.) you are coming home and the first thing you do pulling into the drive-way is making sure you are still the “MAYOR” of yor home
6.) you are checking John Walsh’s show on Twitter and hope that the authorities of “America Most Wanted” will ”FOLLOW” you, too
5.) you “SHARE” the birth of your 5th child from the surgery room via Live Podcast and YouTube stream cast
4.) you believe that Global Warming will indeed shrink the “TWITTERSPHERE” instead the Atmosphere
3.) you are sitting at the airport and scribble down on a napkin you found in your pocket ”10 Reasons showing: You are indeed addicted to Social Media”
2.) you are setting “HASHTAGS” (#) in front of each post about your spouse and refer to her or him as “#THE OTHER ONE”
and finally the number one of 10 reasons showing that you are indeed a Social Media addicts is,
1.) telling your psychotherapeut during your session “Doc, I always feel like being followed by strangers and people I don’t even know.”
Any other suggestion which defintive will reveal you are a Social Media addict as well? Post them as your comments. Thank you for reading.
VJ (a.k.a. Twit Face)
How attract more potential customers? Poll on usage of digital marketing platforms
We, the automotive industry professionals have learned by now that Social Media – The New Media – is becoming more and more a Toddler and is no longer an infant. When in early 2007 a few automotive dealerships started out to put their dealerships on MySpace and later on became friends with Facebook, nobody really had at this time in mind that Social Media will become an essential Marketing Tool, which would create Buzz, WOM and invite potential customers into our Social-Living room also known as “Facebook Dealer Page”.
Even though the economy suffered around the world in 2009, one market showed resistance during the recession: The Online Advertising Market. With a drop in total media advertising spending, the online ad spending increased by 2% which resulted into $55.2 billion. Okay, these numbers are promising – for marketers and ad agencies, but what should you do when you are a recession rattled dealer or dealer group, which is NOT looking to increase marketing dollar spending?
How will you still try to attract “new eyes” for your products? How will you make sure you’ll be found on the Web with all the competition? How are you catching all these “buyer eyes” online, when your store is closed and they actually have questions about your product?
A Digital Marketing Poll of “TopRank” earlier this year showed that six out of ten online marketing tactics were Social Media related complemented by an “energy-boost” of SEM and Email-Marketing. So, my question to you is now “Do you believe that then right ingredients of Content Marketing strategy and the various facets of the Social Media will be the right recipe to win you the title of Cake Boss (analogy: Cut out for you the biggest piece of your DMA pie a.k.a. market-share – bon appetite)?
The current results on the 2011 “TopRank” Digital Marketing Poll (list below; at the point of writing 229 votes were submitted) are showing a trend, and YOU still can influence the outcome and ensure your voice is heard. Just go to “What 3 online marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2011?” and take the survey.
Let me know what your favorites are when commenting on my post. Thank you!
–VJ
It’s not about if you have advertised before – it is how, where and with whom you’ll do it
Similar to the fairy tale of the Princess and the Frog, there is another phenomenon in the real marketing and advertising world what pretty much reminds me on this tale. You know it is something new out there, you are not really certain what it does, if it works – and most likely you only will find out when you try it. Just like giving the Frog a kiss and see if it turns into a prince.
We all have by now heard (I guess and hope for you) about Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and other social media networking websites and networks. One of the newer kids on the blocks are social hubs like Gowalla, Where, Loopt and Foursquare. These three named social engagement tools are considered Geo-location based services which have only one goal in mind: To lure Users, Advertisers and Investors into their fangs. When in 2009 the Mobile Advertising segment scratched the $320 million mark, according to researchers at BIA/Kelsey, the year 2013 is expected to soar to $3.1 billion in the U.S.
May be I should quick reflect on the purposes of these Geo-location based services and explain what they are actually doing. Geo-location services are being embraced by mobile devices and encourage their owners to shop, communicate and socialize. When the purpose of these applications in the early phases were more likely game playing and seeing where my friends were hanging around, the momentum has now shifted. Capital Venture analysts nail it down: Location is one of the most important tools a merchant and marketer can use today. The opportunity to connect with potential consumers and existing customers of a brand can grow deeper.
When you still doubt the success or let’s say upcoming phenomenal success of the last 3 mentioned platforms take this my friend:
- Just a few days ago Foursquare was able to secure $20 million in additional venture funding
- In April Foursquare just passed its first million member mark only to just passed 2 months later the 1.8 million member mark
- With this speed Foursquare is able to maintain a growth rate of approximate 15,000 users/day
- Foursquare has more than 15,000 business partnerships established, including Starbucks and even the news channel CNN
- The company “Where” has so far connections and business relations with more than 20,000 businesses
- Loopt has accumulated already 3 million users and attracted Gap and Burger King to their portfolio of clients
- Gowalla is up to 350,000 users
With the driving force of skyrocketing Smart-phone sales and approximate 11,000+ iPhone apps offering location services – the trend is not reversible. As you possible already know; Google with their location based application “Latitude”, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and numerous other Social Network platforms are adding or have already added Geo-location tagging. This is just the beginning. Further down the road is planned to combine Photos and Content with the locations.
Chances for dealerships? Huge!!! Just think about following scenario I discovered when I was a few weeks back in PA. In the evening hours I went to a restaurant, 4-squared my location to share it with my friend and followers to just say what I am up to and typing the info on the home screen of 4SQ. All this happened mobile (using a Blackberry). With my location (tracked to the smartphones GPS system) I also get a small information icon, placed on the right hand corner of the screen with the message “Check offers nearby”. One of the basic principles in Social Media “create curiosity” hit me up, I clicked and “voila” a Starbucks message shows up to tell me that the store right next to the restaurant offers $1 off any Frappuccino. What a perfect scenario in wanting to settle your nightly meal with a nice cold (or warm) Chocolate Chip Frappuccino.
Please read my next blog post on “How can dealer actually participate in these Geo-location based services, obtain their advertising or promotion spot and encourage potential customers to stop by. Sign up for my RSS-feed @ SocialMediaBuzzer.com to being notified when the follow-up post will be life.
Reaching Social Media ROI Objectives will take time – but the wait is worth it
Too often do I get the question during my seminars “VJ, what is the ROI – what can I expect to make on money and how many cars will I be selling at my dealerships, when I am “signing up” for Social media?”….here we go again. I am not complaining that I receive this question but I am foremost dazzled that question is still comparing Social Media Marketing with the “old” way to do Marketing and Advertising.
What was in past (and of course still is) known as Monologue Marketing strategy – the shouting out of Marketers messages to the “may be listening” audience via T.V., Radio and other traditional marketing media has by far nothing to do with the Social Media approach and the possibilities to integrate into your existing marketing mix. Because we are now trying to communicate with potential clients and hope for a response to us, we are pretty much sure that we are now hoping to convert into a Dialogue with our new friend. We want to find out if they “like us” (you probably have already noticed that Facebook “Friend” button was exchanged into the “Like” button), if they (customers of course) are talking about our organization and hopefully only good stuff, if our influence and brand recognition in our community is growing due to positive WOM (Word-of-Mouth) actions.
A positive WOM campaign will end most likely up into positive comments on reveiw sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Presto Reviews and dealerrater (the two ladder mentioned are dedicated automotive dealer review sites), which fulfills the objective having postive listed online reviews talking great about you. That is what we want – positive reviews about our business from neutral source, which opinions are more than 70% held more integer than a typical advertising message about your good doing.
With these so called “soft ROI factors” [a.k.a. Return of Engagement (ROE)] we are indeed on the path to create a positive impact on our products, company and ourselves. The video below (launched February) will show you a few more ideas what ROI in the Social Media environment means, and I hope that with changing the focus from former traditional
ROI = (Gain from investment – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment
into
ROI(E) = Dialogue X WOM = Penetration + SERP = Walk in Traffic
the idea becomes more clear.
And one last advice please – Social Media Marketing embedded in your Marketing Mix is a long-term goal and not a quick fix to work the old “Monologue” practices in a mass market.
So, I am still hoping to get the question, which pointed out in the beginning of this post, because it tells me that there is more work for me to do. More seminars and workshops I need to set up to assist dealerships and dealer groups in their process to integrate Social media Marketing into their overall Marketing objectives.
Thank you for reading and thanks for commenting. Looking forward to your responses.
VJ
Source: Video-Socialnomics; Picture-eMarketer
ONLINE SHOPPER QUEST – A Keywords Journey and its Tragic Death
GUEST POST OF DEBORAH THOGERSEN
While I was away, recently, I noticed a low-rumble. No, it wasn’t the passing of a nearby Harley-Davidson, nor was it the growling of my stomach from a New Year’s Diet Plan taking its toll. No.
There’s a lot of noise today about the subject of Social Media. It appears to be the most discussed topic in a lot of forums. I’ll even say that it’s the hottest initiative in marketing this year.
The second hottest project this year, is offering workshops in Social Media. I have received more invitations to such events, than I even thought might be available. Sheesh! Besides that, if you get an opportunity, go. This is not an area where you can sit on the sidelines anymore. Digital wallflowers don’t get asked to dance either. I know that as readers of VJ’s blog, you probably already knew that!
Moving on, you may have read recently, that I do a lot of research online, when I shop. This is kind of a part two. Yes, it is a part two, so I’ll give this a little more ‘pomposity’. (Cue John Williams’ soundtrack file.)
I like to find ‘great deals’, but I also know enough that I don’t want to expose myself to scams, bad deals, or other opportunities to get burned. Which is why, I still research, even though the internet has been around for nearly two decades.
I’m old enough now to say that there are kids out there who’ve grown up in a world different than the one I knew. Many kids have always had a computer in the home. Or more to the point, they’ve always had the internet.
But I digress.
I recently had an opportunity to look at different furniture options. So, yes, the first place I went was the internet. After all, furniture stores, or warehouse shops, are huge, take up real estate that is typically further outside city limits—or ‘bedroom communities’—and requires a lot of gas to look at different options. I don’t want to do that.
Unfortunately, looking online proved to have a different challenge. Starting out, I knew what I wanted, I just didn’t know where I could get it. I wanted a new (not used) wood-frame, full-size bed. I popped those ‘keywords’ into a popular search engine, and waited mere moments for it turn out a page of results.
What I got, turned out to be an assortment of apparent Futon stores. Some links looked liked indexing of the same site, and then there were some other stores I could try out, as well. As I start clicking around, I noticed something horrifying. As I was trying to compare prices at different stores, I started to notice that I was at the same store that I had started with, just at an alternate version of the site!
I felt like I was trapped in a bad, 80’s music video, where everywhere I turn, I’m facing the same nemesis. Feeling like I had no other choice, I turned to my favorite, online shopping site, just to see if they had the same product. They did. Phew! I could escape the mind-bend, I had fallen into, and could move on with my purchase, and therefore, my life.
It’s not that I didn’t like the first store (and it’s doppelganger). But, seeing the different info, for what must have been the same product, from the same people, made me lose faith in the sale. And what’s sad, is that I know from experience that the fact that they were running two different sites means that they were incurring multiple sets of marketing costs associated with it. Ouch! And it made them lose my business. Double-Ouch!
Having multiple sites can be disconcerting, in a sort of, “Is it Live, or is it Memorex?”-kind of way.
But my journey, was complete. I had made my purchase. Oddly enough, the product was sourced through the same company that offered the multiple websites.
AAAAAACCKKK!!
Why chosing the T.R.I.A.N.G.L.E approach and Twitter works.
After numerous requests I am ceratinly sharing my Twitter presentation and the T.R.I.A.N.G.L.E theory below. Let me know if you have further questions. In case you are interested for the word-track please don’t hesitate to contact me and/or leave a comment. Thanks for visiting:
Not only customers can ruin your reputation
GUEST POST OF: LOUISE SMITH
Up until recently automotive “dealership” marketers may have felt safe from fines from email marketing, SMS/Txt and now social media engagement. After all “we” don’t consider our industry one of spammers – we’re working “leads” right? That could be “wrong” depending on: your lead marketing is as good as good the source of the leads, the medium/vendor that manages/sends your messaging (TXT, email marketing, social media management) and the permissions received from consumers. You may be confident about the permissions that your company receives directly from the consumer – but what about your source of leads? Do you have substantiation that the messages impacting them are permission based?
Let’s take a look at how you can protect your reputation and avoid six figure+ fines:
Example: March 2010: involving bulk e-mail (e.g. “Email blast”) Tagged, which bills itself as America’s third-largest social network, has agreed to pay $650,000 to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office for sending “deceptive” e-mails to its users SF was apparently not the only market and “SmartBrief” reported that “the payment brings Tagged’s total bill for the incident to $1.4 million, following similar settlements with Texas and New York investigators.”
Technology leaves a “trail” – so a “smart” marketer is wiser still to examine in depth – where their leads come from, that they have retained a reputable sender/vendor or medium and the permissions given by those targeted consumers match your communication to them.
Too reputable or too big to be fined? “Mobile Marketer” reports Twentieth Century Fox has been fined for sending unwanted text messages in conjunction with a Robots campaign. This was a 2005 campaign and the complaint driven by at least (1) unhappy consumer recipient of the message and resulted in potential damage of reputation, monetary fines and other negatives. Remember – mobile messaging is a medium that is regulated by the FCC and specifically the TCPA. Section 227 of the TCPA places certain restrictions on the making of a “call. The FCC has determined that SMS to be equivalent to a call, when used through marketing communications e.g. “Mobile Marketing. “
The FCC said: “We affirm that under the TCPA, it is unlawful to make any call using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded message to any wireless telephone number. Both the statute and our rules prohibit these calls, with limited exceptions, to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged. This encompasses both voice calls and text calls to wireless numbers including, for example, short message service (SMS) calls, provided the call is made to a telephone number assigned to such service.”
The TCPA applies to certain types of calls. Although the term “call” is not defined, the FCC has opined that the statue covers both voice calls and text “calls” using SMS. The court found this interpretation to be reasonable and held that the Twentieth Century Fox text-message campaign was subject to the TCPA. To learn more go to: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/legal-privacy/5925.html
Get permission! Use a reputable vendor for obtaining your leads, for creating your message and for sending them in the most compliant means! Get permission, adhere to opt outs and list integrity. Be compliant and adhere to best practice in all aspects.
What can I do to make more friends, fans and followers? QUICK TIP WEDNESDAY
Hello my Friends:
I am proudly presenting my colleague Louise Smith and her guest post. Louise’s thoughts and opinions will be from now on a frequent guest in the Social Media Buzzer blog, and you’ll find it always on Wednesday updated. Therefore I created for her the “Quick Tip Wednesday”. I hope you enjoy her insights…Sincerely, VJ
GUEST TIP: Louise Smith
Be less “salesy” and more community minded! Be real and get involved. Your website is for “transactions”- your Facebook, “tweets” and Word of Mouth are for building your network. Example: soccer teams, baseball teams, boy scout, girl scout troupes – what do those “moms and dads” need from you? Great deals on accessories! Child seats, side window sun shades, etc…you get the idea. When these new friends buy your new deal – get a photo and testimonial on it. Even better, tape it with your flip camera. Then post it!
So next time you think about putting up a cash incentive that might annoy a new buyer who has “friended” you – think about stellar deals on accessories that are relevant to your community! Make it a sweet deal then post it, make it sharable!
Next up on QUICK TIP WEDNESDAY: More Word of Mouth Ideas!
Fire-up those leads – are your news really share-worthy?
Hello my Friends:
I am proudly presenting my colleague Louise Smith and her guest post. Louise’s thoughts and opinions will be from now on a frequent guest in the Social Media Buzzer blog, and you’ll find it always on Wednesday updated. Therefore I created for her the “Quick Tip Wednesday”. I hope you enjoy her insights…Sincerely, VJ
GUEST TIP: Louise Smith
Leveraging your customers, friends, business colleagues and community can be your best source of new business revenue. Provide specific savings on certain days, times of year, hold events and leverage your existing contacts to grow your revenues. Make “shareable” offers specifically to your customer base and make it easy for these extended networks to take advantage of your offers. Clinics, special financing, certain day/hour specials, extended hours, events etc.
