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.
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!
“MICHAEL!!! Do You Realize What We Will Be Able to Do Now?” Those are the very words I shouted with excitement at 3am on February 13th, 2007! We had discovered we were able to do “Targeted Online Advertising” by the use of HTML identifier tags, IP addresses, and cookies. I am talking about Remarketing, which is also known as Retargeting, Behavioral Marketing, Interest Based Marketing or Targeted Online Advertising.
By harnessing this new technology, Michael and I felt we could change the way our dealers and dealer groups were advertising online in a very positive way. On February 14th, 2007, we named our enhanced version of this new-found technology “Webratz” as a play off of Potratz. This new technology would allow us to improve conversions even more on PPC campaigns and also conversions in general since we could now target individual consumers that visited our dealers websites with an ad featuring the specific vehicle they had expressed interest in.
Four days later, I was on my way to present our new Webratz technology to a large dealer group several hours away from our offices, and I knew what I was about to share with this progressive group would earn us our biggest dealer to date. Imagine the potential, reach, one-to-one advertising strength, and cost savings from serving the exact vehicle offer a car shopper had expressed interest in on the website. Not to mention we could also use this technology for service, collision, parts, accessories, secondary financing, and extended warranties, which were all the profit centers they were very dialed in on. To say I was excited would have been an understatement.
The meeting lasted for 37 minutes, and when I left that conference room, I was second-guessing my decision to keep Potratz solely focused on the Automotive industry. I was confused and amazed why they were not able to understand the competitive advantage and cost savings that remarketing would offer. I even had a non-compete agreement I was prepared to sign. I felt like our project was never going to get off the ground before it even started, since we needed significant funding to purchase enough ad placement on the top sites we had picked.
It Was A Fight Worth Fighting
Well, I picked myself up and dug in as I started calling more dealers and dealer groups that I felt would be willing to be our beta dealer. The result… Dealer 2: NO It sounds like spyware; Dealer 3: You Can Do What? When? How? Well, Get Back To Me Later; Dealer 4: That sounds like big brother, no thanks. And then after the 17th door being shut due to the dealer’s website provider refusing to place our remarketing code in “Their Website” I knew I had to try a different approach.
Then, I contacted the Business Review in Albany, NY, and Barbara Pinckney was happy to do an article about us and remarketing on June 25, 2007, opening two doors. But neither was automotive. In fact, these were a law school and a large furniture store wanting to give it that old college try. I was ecstatic since we finally had the funding to really start and test this new technology of remarketing. I am a gadget, software, and API fanatic so when I have new things like this to play with it is like Christmas, Easter, and my birthday all wrapped into one.
What We Learned Was Fascinating
We created a few hundred text ads and several hundred skyscraper, button, and leader board ads for our new clients as we tested and retested the results. It was fascinating as we watched the analytics and tried to sort why people clicked what they clicked and how the returning visits were being affected. We tested the website traffic by creating various campaigns ranging from “All Visitors,” “Subscribers,” and “Abandoned Shopping Carts.”
Then the light bulb went off that we could also “Cross Sell.” Working with a college and a large furniture store was actually the best thing that happened to our firm since we learned so much by being able to move outside of the automotive industry and expand our minds seeing how other industries operate so we could apply these strategies to our automotive clients. Yes, we finally had auto dealers give it that college try.
The Auto Industry is an e-commerce industry today, and to become truly successful as automotive marketers in the 21st Century we must think, act, and operate like an online retailer…just like Amazon.com and eBay! Refusing to change and learn like the Brick and Mortar Blockbuster Videos will result in a “STORE CLOSED” sign, while companies like Netflix that learned to restructure, embrace, and change the way they market results in four digit growth.
Choosing a Remarketing Partner That’s Right For You
Today, remarketing is being offered by a number of companies, but I must warn you remarketing is not created equal, just like PPC is not. I encourage you to do your homework and ask how a company develops the strategy. Remarketing is an extremely time consuming marketing tool when you first begin, but once you get the foundation in place with the correct text ads, banner ads, video pre-rolls, and landing pages, it will be well worth the time and expense. Remarketing is not a “set it and forget it” strategy if it is to work and not burn through cash. When choosing a company for your remarketing or digital marketing, do they work with other dealers in your market or do they offer a non-compete agreement? If not, I would have second thoughts, since this practice drives up cost and will not allow separation of messages in addition to the concern of sharing of code on competing dealers sites to drive up click cost. Transparency in the true actual cost for each campaign is a must.
Traditional Marketing or Digital Marketing or Combination
We also learned that we did not fit the Automotive Advertising Agency profile since that meant traditional advertising in our minds. We had many dealers shut the door on us since they felt we focused too much on digital marketing and did not talk enough about traditional marketing. Our reasoning? Yes, sure, we definitely do traditional marketing and have done so for years just as the dealers we spoke to, but what was missing is integrating digital marketing with traditional marketing to have a complete puzzle, which results in reaching more car shoppers more affordably.
Do You Really Need Remarketing?
It’s now 2011 and remarketing is gaining in popularity, which is perfect timing since it is a great marketing tool that no dealer’s marketing strategy should go without any longer. There are more vehicle makes and models than ever before and if a dealership is to continue growing in the 21st century they must reach a wider audience and do it for less! This fascinating old technology called Remarketing has left the Digital Technortti stage and should be part of every progressive dealer’s advertising strategy. When Remarketing is done correctly we have seen return visits as high as 47% and conversions of leads increase by 13-19%.
What Is Remarketing?
As an example, let’s assume Mary Car Shopper visits Potratz Audi of Albany via Google Search, PPC ad, Facebook Ad, Email Blast, or any means, and is researching a new Audi A6 Premium Plus. As she is completing the contact form, her work phone rings, so she closes the browser down and returns to her job. Ten to 15 days later, she decides she has time to shop for that Audi A6 again, but she can’t remember on which Audi dealer’s website she found the perfect A6. So, she begins the search again. The Potratz Audi dealer website she visited earlier has a 50/50 chance at best that she will return. However, if Potratz Audi used Remarketing… Mary would have been exposed to Potratz Audi as she surfed websites for the weather, news, recipes, hairstyles, etc. So Mary, now very familiar with this Audi dealer, could go directly to their site, stop in after work, or have clicked on one of the remarketing ads days earlier.
Just think of all the sites you visit that have ads on them…those are the very sites remarketing ads could be served on!
Remarketing is not a pop up ad…In fact, it is an ad embedded within websites like ESPN, ABC, Fox, Weather Channel and thousands of other top rated sites. This is a commonplace technology that is now being used by American Express, Bose, University of Phoenix and some car manufacturers. Are you using it?
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.
There is a new kid on the social media block: Pinterest, and online pin board on which users have the opportunity to organize and share the things they they love. Essentially, it is a visual bulletin board for the Web, and a great way for your dealership to market your vehicles.
Pinterest is by invitation only. You can request an invite at Pinterest.com, but it could take a few weeks. And honestly, who really wants to wait that long? The easiest way to become a user is to ask a friend to send you an invite; but I’ll do you one better. Email me, and I’ll send you one!
Once invited, users are able to begin pinning images, which are also known as pins, to their boards; a user’s board is where their pins live. Users, also known as pinners, are able to have multiple boards for different subjects they are interested in.
Become Viral
It gets really exciting when content begins to spread virally through the practice of repinning; once something is pinned, it can be repinned by other users. Pinterest users are able to link this account to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, increasing the exposure of their pins, and possible your vehicle pages.
After users begin pinning, repinning and building out their boards, they begin to construct a list of people to follow, which can be based on commmon interests, or they can choose specific pinners to follow, like the people they are already connected with on Facebook and Twitter. Users can choose whether they will follow all of a user’s boards of select just a single board.
Pinterest has actually been around for almost two years, but it just recently has become the next big thing in the world of social media, as one of the Top 10 social networks.
Why Would a Dealership Use Pinterest?
- It has had an impressive number of visitors – 11.7 million – and reached that mark faster than any other standalone site in history. When a dealership has the ability to reach that many users, why wouldn’t you take a chance to raise awareness of your product?
- It presents opportunities to self-promote your vehicles by linking images to inventory pages and even adding pricing directly to the pin.
- A dealership can also promote service specials, car parts and accessories, and various other items, not only increasing followers but also attracting traffic to their site.
- It offers the ability to show that your dealership has both a personality and additional interests other than cars, adding a distinctive aspect to your dealership image.
- It adds SEO value to your dealership; this happens when people repin you and credit your site as the original. Also when you pin an image, all you have to do is make sure it links back to your website.
Reaching a Different Segment of Car Shoppers
With Pinterest, dealerships have the ability to reach potential users they may not always be able to reach using other social media platforms. When pinners begin their Pinterest accounts, they have the option to follow based on shared interests. This means that pinners will be following someone they don’t necessarily know personally, and as a dealership you have the ability to connect with a larger group of potential customers at one time.
In addition to possible connecting with more potential customers, using Pinterest is a way to draw someone is who may not be currently looking to buy a new vehicle. Say, for example, a dealership takes advantage of pinning and repinning individual interests, such as planning a wedding, preparing for children, vacation ideas or even sports; essentially the ideas are endless. There is the chance of exposing your dealership and becoming more relatable to users who are involved in similar life experiences.
Do you think your dealership is ready to take the step and request an invite to Pinterest? Are you ready to become more relatable, and have the chance to connect to the possible 11.7 million pinners currently using Pinterest? There is even an iPhone app available. Sure you are and happy pinning!
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?
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
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? 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.
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!
