3 Tips to Optimize Your Facebook Marketing

By: Devon Hudson

Have you noticed that Facebook has changed over the last few years? The most recent addition of a timeline page has provided us with a unique branding opportunity. Here are a few tips on how to create visual interest on your Timeline Facebook page.

1.The Cover Photo:

One of the most noticeable changes that comes with the Facebook timeline is the cover photo. With the cover photo as the strongest visual on the page, we can use this to extend your brand visually. Unfortunately Facebook has a whole host of rules for the cover photo, including “No promotions, coupons, or advertisements.” So while the cover photo cannot be used to promote specific special offers, it still stands as the biggest and most noticeable visual on the page.

2. Profile Picture:

The profile picture is a square image at the bottom left of the cover photo. This is a great tool to use as an icon and extension of the cover photo: It’s important to keep the profile picture consistent with the cover photo, because the profile picture is attached to all posts made on Facebook.

3. Highlighting Posts:

Along with the cover photo, Facebook has added an improvement to the way you make a post. Before the change Facebook users could view all posts in chronological order. Now Facebook has offered page administrators the ability to highlight specific posts by clicking the star icon in the top-right area of the status box. When you highlight a status, it takes up two columns in your timeline. This gives a new sense of organization and customization to the Facebook wall as well as providing a place to promote special offers or sales events (considering you can’t in the cover photo).

By using these tips, you can use Facebook’s timeline as an opportunity to visually brand your page.

Brand Your Way To Success

I’d be willing to bet that there are certain products and or companies that stand out in your mind more prominently than others. The question I have is why? What did these companies do that make you remember them before all the other companies vying for your attention? One word: branding. These companies brand themselves to leave a lasting impression.

I’m sure I know what you’re asking, how can I brand my dealership? Well the answer is simple really; develop an image that you want to portray to consumers and roll with it.

Creating Brand Recognition

There are many ways to create brand recognition of a dealership. Using a mascot or spokesperson, developing a tag line and or slogan, or even possibly a sponsorship to convey your message to the public.

In addition, it is important that a dealership creates a specific personality that is continuously reinforced in all aspects of media, including social media platforms. This will ensure that consumers become familiar with the dealership and will lead to brand recognition.

As a consumer, the purchase of a car is not a think-fast decision; it is a decision that involves extensive research and planning. When the time comes for purchasing a new vehicle, don’t you want your dealership to be the first name that comes to mind for the consumer? Contact us, and take the step to brand your dealership so that you stand out against the rest.

For A Million Dollars, The Barenaked Ladies Might Buy Your Love, But Mark Zucherburg Has A Billion Dollars to Spend

What can you buy for $1 billion? Well, if you’re Mark Zuckerburg you can by Instagram, the widely popular photo-sharing app. The acquisition, which Facebook CEO Zuckerberg announced is expected to close later this quarter, and will offer new experiences for users to share beautiful mobile photos with others based on common interests.

Google Change May Mistakenly Turn Search Traffic Into Referral Traffic

Do You Really Know How A Car Shopper Really Found Your Dealership Website?

Google’s about to make a change to how it reports referrer information for those using its Chrome browser. As a result, some analytics programs may begin listing search visitors as if they instead came directly from Google without doing a search, though major packages will probably adjust OK.

The change was posted on the Google Webmaster Central blog yesterday, and it took some follow up to really understand what’s happening. Come along, and I’ll explain more.

Google & Blocking Referrers

Referrers are sort of a Caller ID for web browsers. They tell a web site where someone came from. For example, if you click on a link from one page to visit the next, the page you were on is passed along as referrer information that can be seen using web analytics tools. Sometimes this is also called “referer” information, due to a long-ago misspelling around the referrer standard. “Referral” is also sometimes used.

Last October, Google began blocking referrer information from being passed along by those searching on its search engine, if they were signed-in and using a secure connection.

Google said the change was made to better protect privacy. It turned out to be a precursor to preventing “eavesdropping” of especially private searches that might happen as part of Search Plus Your World.

However, despite saying the move was to protect privacy, Google went out of its way to continue passing along referrer data to paid advertisers. Other loopholes also remain. The move is incredibly hypocritical. See the articles at the end of this story to understand more about the blocking and the hypocrisy in greater depth

If Google is already withholding search term data for signed-in users, then what else could it really pull back? How about reporting even if a search happened.

Beginning in April, Google’s going to begin using the referrer meta tag to report what it calls a “simplified” referrer. The tag will let it override the real referrer that would go out, even what’s left of that referrer after search terms have been stripped.

How The Referrer Meta Tag Turns Searches Into Referrals

Consider a search for “hotels.” If you do that search and click on one of the top listings, say for Travelocity, the actual URL you’re going to looks like this:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=hotels&source=web&cd=1 &ved=0CJABEBYwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.travelocity.com%2FHotels &ei=EftoT6eRLaKxiQK5uYGSBw&usg=AFQjCNHw3v58SOrf2HWCsE6AraxFouCmJQ

The URL doesn’t lead directly to the site. Instead, it redirects through Google itself, in a way that Google can record what’s in the URL to better track the click.

I’ve bolded how Google embeds in the URL information that someone searched for the word “hotels” and clicked on the first listing in the results, which in turn took them to the page at Travelocity, also shown in bold.

If this search is done when someone is signed-in using a secure connection, Google drops the search term portion. It basically looks like this:

http://www.google.com/url?q=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.travelocity.com%2FHotels

An analytics program can tell that a search happened by seeing the “q=” part in the URL, but the actual term itself has been stripped out by Google. So while Google Analytics can’t report what the search words were (and thus says “not provided”), it still can tell that a search happened.

The new change takes out everything but the start of the referrer. Do a search on Google.com using Chrome, and this is all that will be reported:

https://google.com

Because there’s no indicator that a search happened, an analytics program may interpret that people have come from a link on Google.com rather than doing a search there. This means that search traffic would mistakenly get recorded as what’s called “referral” traffic.

Search Traffic Vs. Referral Traffic

To understand better, here’s my traffic breakdown to my personal blog Daggle from yesterday. This is from Google Analytics:

You see that 76% of my traffic was from search, people who did some type of recognized search and visited my site. Google Analytics doesn’t know the actual search terms for nearly a third of these visits (yeah, wow, right?). See how “not provided” makes up 35% of all keywords in the lower chart? But Google Analytics still knows that they were searches, so they get counted into the overall search total.

After that, about 14% of traffic is from referrals, people who clicked on a link from one site that lead to my own. Another 10% of traffic is direct, people who either directly entered the URL of one of my pages into their web browser or who came to my site without any referrer information being reported (which isn’t necessarily direct traffic, but it gets counted that way).

With the change, Google Analytics or other analytics program would count some of my search visits as if they are referral visits, unless they adjusts for this. The slice of search traffic would start to drop, even though my search traffic could potentially be going up.

Google Analytics Will Adjust, Other Vendors Being Told

If you use Google Analytics, Google says there’s no reason to panic. Google Analytics is supposed to figure out how to count things correctly. The same may be true for other vendors, by the time this happens. Google told us:

We’re using the meta referrer standard which allows us to choose the origin and still send a referrer to http sites from https search results (without going through a redirect on an http host).

Google Analytics will also adjust for this change, and we’re in the process of reaching out to a number of other analytics vendors to notify them about this in advance.

Only Impacts Chrome & Really A Time Saver?

The change will only happen for those using Google Chrome, as that’s the only browser that supports the meta referrer tag, Google told us. As for why bother doing this at all, the blog post says:

This results in a faster time to result and more streamlined experience for the user.

I’m a bit doubtful about the savings. It’s not like Google is stopping the actual click tracking that it does. Everything you click on still gets redirected, which causes a tiny delay. The meta referrer tag only means that those using the Chrome browser will pass along a shorter URL for where they came from.

Surely that’s not saving much time? I asked Google how much this really speeds things up:

We don’t have data to share right now. However, this does allow the user’s browser to avoid making an extra connection to http://www.google.com (which the browser may not have already established since the search was on https://www.google.com/).

I’m still confused about why the browser would make an extra connection back to Google after someone has left, because of anything to do with passing along referrer data. I’ll check on that.

Pleading Again For More Data In Google Webmaster Central

Overall, there’s probably no reason to panic, if you use a major analytics provider. But it’s something you should check on. It’s also an unpleasant reminder that Google keeps messing with the referrer data that it provides to publishers in a way that messes up their trending.

Google’s answer to all these changes is that people should make use of Google Webmaster Central to pull in missing search data. But that data only goes back 30 days. That does nothing to restore the trends that have been destroyed since withholding began.

I’ll repeat what I said earlier this year about all this:

I think Google should do more than 60 days. I think it should be providing continuous reporting and holding that data historically on behalf of sites, if it’s going to block referrers. Google is already destroying historical benchmarks that publishers have maintained. Google’s already allowed data to be lost for those publishers, because they didn’t begin to go in each day and download the latest information.

So far, all Google’s done is provide an Python script to make downloading easier. That’s not enough. Google should provide historical data, covering a big chunk of the terms that a site receives. It’s the right thing to do, and it should have been done already.

By Danny Sullivan

Have You Seen The Changes?

In the last few weeks Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest made promises of a redesign of profiles on the popular site. Upon logging into accounts on Friday morning, users began to see these changes.

For the most part this redesign is based strictly on formatting changes giving the page a more distinctive look that in fact resembles that of Facebook’s TimeLine.  Moved to the top of the page, next to your profile picture there is a section to add a description about yourself; this gives you the opportunity to personalize your profile and add immediate insight into your interests. In addition the news feed regarding pins has been reduced to include the three people whose photos a user most frequently re-pins.  Below your profile picture is a tool bar tallying your number of boards, pins, and likes. There is also an activity button, which allows other users to view recent pins, and new users you followed. In the center is your edit profile button; here you can rearrange your boards. And, on the right side of the tool bar is the tally of the number of Pinterest users following you, and the number that you follow.

The biggest change would be the boards themselves, now featuring the last pin on each board made as a larger cover photo, and four thumbnails ordered from most recent placed below. Users are able to rearrange the order of their boards, but are unable to rearrange the photos themselves.  If you don’t like the photos being displayed, the trick is to keep pinning and then the photos will change.

What do you think of the changes made to Pinterest? Are you happy with them, or would you like different changes made?

Instagram for Android

Android users have unfortunately not been able to partake in the latest mobile application that has been sweeping the nation; a photo sharing application called Instagram. The good news is, it is on the way to Android phones and should be released very soon. There is no specific date yet as to when this release will occur; it is still being tested.

Instagram was originally an app that only iPhone users could download and use, however with the release of the app to all android users the opportunities are endless. With currently 27 million downloads for those users with an iPhone, a number that is sure to rise exponentially with the addition of Instagram to Android users, why wouldn’t you want to be a part of Instagram?

Co-founder Kevin Systrom said when speaking about the new Instagram app for Android phones, “in some ways, it’s better than our iOS app. It’s crazy, the app is fast, works great on large screens and can share photos to Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler and other networks”.

How would a dealership use Instagram? Dan Allen, our Creative Director at Potratz breaks it down for you:

• Tip #1 Post interesting images of the vehicles: Don’t just take straight on photos of the vehicles but look for interesting angles, a close up of the rims, dashboard, headlights. Apply a filter to it, use the blur feature, and presto, an artistic shot that any car enthusiast or a loyal customer will surely like.

• Tip #2 Post interesting images of your staff: What will make your Instagram gallery stand out is to start taking fun and interesting photos of your staff. Visually appealing lifestyle photos thrive on Instagram. Your staff is a subject matter that will always give you plenty of ideas. Do this with your service, sales, customers, and with everyone involved at the dealership.

• Tip #3 Post consistently: A pet peeve of mine on Instagram is when someone will not post anything for weeks and weeks and then in one day post 20 photos in a row. To me this comes across as spam. Even if the photos are good, it’s overload and might result in people unfollowing you.

• Tip #4 Get social with your posts: Like anything else, when a conversation gets going, more and more people want to chime in. By utilizing the @replies and hashtags you will see more and more activity that will give exposure to your profile. Using these features can open doors for social contest both internal and external. Do a photo contest within your dealership between the employees and choose a winner. Or have followers submit photos with a particular hashtag. You can be the judge and give them a prize. Make sure you’re supporting any contest on Instagram with other social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

To read Dan’s full article to see the possibilities of how Instagram can be used for your automotive advertising, click here.

Consumer Perception Trumps All

By: Kurt Thompson

In the world of advertising, the consumers perception of your product is everything and when it comes to selling automobiles, this is no different.

Consumer perception is influenced by a variety of things including hands-on experience, word of mouth, and marketing. The way a consumer perceives a brand name vehicle can mean the difference between making a sale or having the car sit yet another day on the lot.

Consumer Reports conducted Car Brand Perception Survey for 2011 that reflected a vehicles brand perception level across seven areas including safety, quality, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environment. The survey consisted of a total of twenty different brands such as Cadillac, Jaguar, Jeep, Volkswagen and on.

Topping the charts was Toyota followed closely by Ford. Trailing third came Honda and a close fourth was Chevrolet. When you really think about it, it isn’t a surprise that these brands trump even the most luxurious of cars in a public perception survey. Their advertising campaigns reflect a broad spectrum of qualities that many consumers factor in most to car shoppers.

What is truly amazing is that Toyota has managed to stay on top of leader board only a year and half after its unintended acceleration which recalled close to 9 million vehicles worldwide. A business disaster such as this could threaten the reputation of even the strongest company. However, through a strong a public relations and advertising campaign, they have managed to stay on top of the competition. A truly remarkable feat.

Toyota’s story alone is a clear example of the power of consumer perception. Consumer perception doesn’t relate necessarily to the actual qualities of a vehicle, but rather what the consumer believes what the quality of vehicle is. In your next advertising campaign, consider promoting a broader spectrum of your brands qualities rather that focusing on just one. This will undoubtedly improve your prospective customers perception and increase your chances of making a sale.

Is your advertisement memorable

The average American is exposed to 3,000 commercial messages each day. I know what you’re thinking: How can someone possibly see that many commercials in a day? Well it’s easy; ads are everywhere. We normally think of advertising in the simplest sense of TV or radio commercials, but the truth is they are much more prominent in our daily lives than we realize.

Picture this, you’re walking down the street for ten minutes and, whether you notice it or not, you’ve probably already seen at least a dozen advertisements. They can be on local business’ windows, bus stops, and gas pumps. They are even posted on the sides of a buses or cars driving by. In addition you also see ads while checking your email, going on Facebook and searching the Internet.

So as an advertiser how do you make your advertisement memorable? With the excess amount of commercial messages an individual is exposed to each day, you need to make sure yours will stand out.

There are some very simple ways to do just that, I think first and foremost it’s important to come up with something both unique and fun that people will want to talk about. One great example of this is the mayhem commercials for Allstate; these commercials are humorous and entertaining so that people associate them with Allstate. In the mayhem commercial series even though the general idea remains the same — mayhem happens — each commercial takes a different plausible situation and puts a humorous spin on it to make the spot memorable.

Another way to establish your company’s presence and ensure audience recall is to develop a slogan. Right off the top of my head I can think of various slogans that stick out in my mind; Just Do It, Breakfast Of Champions, You Never Know, and Have It Your Way. I would be willing to bet that most people can name which businesses those slogans belong to without having to give it too much thought. A slogan is a specific way to differentiate your organization and to tell the consumer something memorable about your product.

Sometimes, a commercial can lead a consumer to make a purchase. The information given, or the memorable impression made can stand out for an individual and bring them to your product.

Are there any advertisements that stick out in your mind? Are you willing to take that step to help ensure your commercial messages are memorable?

If you are looking for a knowledgeable team that is ready and willing to evolve with your dealership and automotive marketing campaign, visit this page to see more information and contact us now.

Facebook: The New Revelation.

Facebook? It’s this generation’s Atari, which isn’t a surprising revelation given the fact that currently there are over 800 million users.

But, that’s not all; Facebook is now a staple on most phones with the simple free download of an app. I take a look around and I see Facebook users everywhere, checking their walls and updating their status’ at restaurants, movies and even while walking down the street. Not too mention spending hours of free time exploring the world of Facebook from home and even while at work.
When you have a product or platform that is in such high demand, there is always a way to capitalize on it. For example, Facebook is available through TV’s, DVD players, eReaders and now, it will even be available in a car. Mercedes-Benz USA is bringing a special version of the online social media site to its cars.

Understandably this new adaptation of Facebook will be different from the regular application you can access via computers, phones and various other electronic devices due to the importance of safe driving. However, it will still allow drivers the ability to communicate to their friends by sharing pre-written postings that a driver can publish with the tap of a finger or a turn of a knob. In addition drivers will also be able to track their friend’s locations or find places of business within the car’s vicinity that their friends have “liked”.

“Now that cars have screens that are intelligent, you would expect that more and more car manufacturers will want to make those screens capable of allowing people to connect with their friends and take advantage of the social context that comes along with that,” said Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose in an interview.

So, I ask you, what do you think about Mercedes-Benz’s idea to create a car with Facebook? Would you want your car to have this new ability, and would you use it?

If you are looking for a knowledgeable team that is ready and willing to evolve with your dealership and automotive marketing campaign, visit this page to see more information and contact us now.

Instagram uses in Automotive Advertising

The polaroid camera is not something that I would have used for inspiration in trying to develop a new mobile photo-sharing platform. But that’s exactly what Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the makers of Instagram, did. Polaroid cameras were big and bulky, and the overall design and feel was anything but sleek. I personally loved the eight exposures per pack. But, what was cool about polaroid cameras, and what Instagram has capitalized on, is the instant gratification factor.

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows iPhone users to take a photo, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook and Twitter. Instagram has indeed captured an audience with almost 10 million total users and an average of 14 photos uploaded per second.

I know what you’re thinking. “Dan, what does Instagram have to offer my dealership?” Most dealers that I talk to are weary of getting involved with a platform that is not specifically focused on price points and sales events. Volkswagen is a prime example of how the automotive industry and Instagram can work for your dealership.

Recently, Volkswagen Canada launched a campaign called ‘Art Heist’ to expose the Jetta as a work of art. Limited edition framed photographs of the Jetta started to appear all across Canada. These pieces of art were left for people to take down and bring home. Volkswagen encouraged those who took the pictures to share their experience online through Volkswagen Canada’s Facebook and Twitter pages under the #VWArtHeist hashtag.

So if Volkswagen launched a very successful campaign based on displaying “artsy” photographs of vehicles, then why would taking interesting photos of cars and your staff not gain interest as well? Here are a few rules to live by when using Instagram at your dealership.

Tip #1 Post interesting images of the vehicles: Don’t just take straight on photos of the vehicles but look for interesting angles, a close up of the rims, dashboard, headlights. Apply a filter to it, use the blur feature, and presto, an artistic shot that any car enthusiast or a loyal customer will surely like.

Tip #2 Post interesting images of your staff: What will make your Instagram gallery stand out is to start taking fun and interesting photos of your staff. Visually appealing lifestyle photos thrive on Instagram. Your staff is a subject matter that will always give you plenty of ideas. Do this with your service, sales, customers, and with everyone involved at the dealership.

Tip #3 Post consistently: A pet peeve of mine on Instagram is when someone will not post anything for weeks and weeks and then in one day post 20 photos in a row. To me this comes across as spam. Even if the photos are good, it’s overload and might result in people unfollowing you.

Tip #4 Get social with your posts: Like anything else, when a conversation gets going, more and more people want to chime in. By utilizing the @replies and hashtags you will see more and more activity that will give exposure to your profile. Using these features can open doors for social contest both internal and external. Do a photo contest within your dealership between the employees and choose a winner. Or have followers submit photos with a particular hashtag. You can be the judge and give them a prize. Make sure you’re supporting any contest on Instagram with other social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Follow us on Instagram @potratz, and also follow my personal stream @dannallen. So enough reading! Grab your iPhone and go look for interesting angles and subject matter. Have fun with it, and I look forward to seeing your photos!