What is a social object? A social object is a conversation piece that inherently generates conversation and action around itself. A social object can be just about anything, it can be a news piece, a cause such as ending world hunger, a passion such as the love one has for their favorite football team, or even a lifestyle such as surfing.

A great example of a social object, one that we are all familiar with, is the iPhone. Have you seen the number of forums and groups dedicated to iPhone owners? There are thousands of them, all based around the iPhone, and there are literally hundreds of conversations going on right now about them. I’ve seen conversations happen between complete strangers surrounding the ever present device and its many apps.

All social objects have 3 things in common, they are:

1. Conversational: people want to talk and have conversations with other people connected with the social object.
2. Brings People Together: people want to be around other people that are connected with the social object. They feel part of a community, that they belong with each other.
3. Talk Worthy: people feel the desire to tell other people, who may not know about the social object, so that they, in turn, become part of the community.

When a person, place, thing or idea has all three of these things, it will grow bigger due to rampant word-of-mouth and the growth of community. There are two main types of social objects out there. The first is the actual brand, businesses such as Nike and Apple, Ford and even open source software such as WordPress. All of these command attention and get people talking, each one, in and of themselves is talk worthy and they bring people together.

Most business don’t have a strong enough brand whereas their product or business demands the kind of attention that really gets people talking. In that case it’s best to take a look at the product or service they sell and figure out what their customers are interested in, this is the second type of social object, one that already has an engaged community around it, let me give you an example.

Recently, I had the pleasure of consulting with a company called Magna Manufacturing, who manufactures and sells EPS foam based products, such as their LoBoy Foam Cooler. Most of us are familiar with those cheap, easily broken foam coolers but what Magna Manufacturing brings to the table, with its Loboy brand, is something totally different. Their foam coolers, while a couple dollars more, aren’t easily broken at all, in fact they have a few images on their site of a truck resting on the tops of these coolers, needless to say their product trumps the competition. So, how would we use the idea behind harnessing the power of social objects, around a product that people don’t put much thought into? Easy, we take a look at what the coolers are used for and we identify with the ways they are used. In other words we ask ourselves three questions:

1. What social causes can be supported by the use of our EPS foam coolers?
2. What lifestyles are supported or made easier through the use of our EPS foam coolers?
3. What are our customers passionate about that relate to the use of our EPS foam coolers?

It’s in the answers to those question about social causes, lifestyles and passions that help us to identify a number of different social objects, that we are able to connect around. Let’s go ahead and answer them now so that you get a better idea of how to discover your own social objects.

What social causes can be supported by the use of our EPS foam coolers?

Since Loboy coolers are stronger, more durable and don’t leak, Magna Manufacturing can donate a few hundred coolers to the Red Cross for domestic disaster relief. If you’ve ever been in a disaster area (I was during Hurricane Ivan and Dennis in Pensacola Fl.) you know the importance of ice and keeping things cold when there is no electricity for weeks at a time. So, Loboy can connect with groups, which there are hundreds of, that are dedicated to helping people in the U.S with disaster relief.

What lifestyles are supported or made easier through the use of our EPS foam coolers?

Fishing can be both a lifestyle and a weekend hobby, for those that it’s a lifestyle for, they are a tight knit group that loves to talk fish! Since Loboy coolers are made for life and not just the weekend they are a perfect complement to a fisherman’s already wide repertoire of equipment. I remember going finishing with my grandfather growing up, each week we would stop by the bait shop, grab some ice, along with a foam cooler or two before heading out to sea. Usually, at the end of the day the coolers were either leaking or broken and we would just throw them away.

What are our customers passionate about that relate to the use of our EPS foam coolers?

Easiest question of all to answer… sports! People are passionate about their teams, game watching parties and tailgating! There are many ways to connect with this social object, one that comes to mind would be to throw a tailgating party and invite people for free to partake of all the grilled goodness with cold drinks available in Loboy coolers!

It’s important to note that when connecting around social objects that you don’t use it as a way to pitch your product, rather as way to connect with, and become part of the community, by giving to it, not taking away. By connecting with the passion, cause or lifestyle related to the use of your product or service you are better able to identify with your customer and thus influence both new sales and word-of-mouth like never before. Remember, a social object is inherently talk worthy and if you, as a business owner, are able to promote the cause, passion, or lifestyle that your product or service promotes then you are well on your way to becoming synonymous with that particular social object. In other words YOU become more conversational, talk worthy, and gravitational.

I created a video around this same topic geared toward auto dealers, check it out HERE.

In a future post I will be discussing how to connect along side a social cause, in the mean time, what are some social objects that you envision your business connecting around?

Related posts:

1. Social Objects – Connecting Around An Already Engaged Community
2. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 1
3. [VIDEO] Creating Influence On Social Networks

In September I presented one-half of a workshop at the Industry Summit in Vegas titled, Profits and Pitfalls, Joining The Social Media Revolution.

Talking about the profit of social media I went into detail about how to find and connect with social objects in order to engage your community to influence both word-of-mouth and create brand loyalty. I had camera issues at the last minute so I decide to redo it and upload it for all of my awesome readers!

If you have any questions or comments, lets have a conversation in the comment section below.

Related posts:

1. Connecting With Your Customers On Facebook – Automotive Social Media Video
2. Finding Social Objects To Connect And Become Synonymous With
3. Creating Word-Of-Mouth Through The Creation Of Community

In both parts 1 and 2 of the Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, I mentioned that success in social media boils down to three things:

1. The Development Of Relationships,
2. The Creation Of High Touch, Emotion Based Connections, and
3. Customer Enchantment (think customer service to the Nth degree).

Want to know the secret behind creating rampant word-of-mouth? Wait for it… wait for it: Give people something positive to talk about! I’ve blogged about this topic a few times before and the importance of going above and beyond your customer expectations, but in this post I’m going to be laying out the ground rules for customer enchantment.

Remember: it’s the difference between what your customer expects and the level of customer service received, that will dictate whether or not your customer talks about you. Failing to meet those expectations will create negative word-of-mouth, going above and beyond will create positive word of mouth, the choice is yours.

What does customer service have to do with social media? Simple, if you want to be part of the conversation that is happening in your customers social graph, with their connections, then you have to give them something worth talking about. This doesn’t just happen by chance, it happens by design. Design excellence into your daily routine, every employee, everyday, all the time, no exceptions.

Always be on the lookout for chances to show exceptional customer service. In the service department, if you find out that a customer is having a hard time coming back in to pick up their vehicle, take it to them. Salespeople, offer your customers a concierge service where you schedule all of their service appointments and offer a pick-up-drop-off service.

The Golden Rule Of Customer Service: Never forget that you do this every day and just because you see it all the time doesn’t mean that it’s no big deal to your customers. Never glaze over an issue and act as if it’s not a problem, always reassure your customers that it’s a genuine concern and that you will personally take care of it.

In a study conducted by Bain and Company they found out that an increase in customer retention of just 5% improves profits by 25 to 95%! The logic behind this math is predicated on the fact that customer turnover is enormously expensive. The high cost of acquiring new customers can only be offset by maintaining profitable, long term relationships.

Creating Long Term Relationships By Creating High Customer Satisfaction

We’ve always known that word-of-mouth, by far, is the best form of advertising, but then why do some businesses, and whole industries (the auto industry among them), struggle to achieve it? Look at the car business, people don’t expect much, in fact they expect to be treated bad and to be the subject of high pressure sales techniques, which leads me to:

• Set yourself apart from the competition by displaying uncommon courtesy. In the auto industry it’s not too difficult to set yourself apart because people expect so little, so take advantage!
• Know your customers. If you expect repeat business then at least remember your customers names! I know what you’re thinking, how can I remember them all? You don’t have to, that’s what CRM’s are for, use them. Each visit, if you learn something new about you customer, put it in the database for other employees to use. For example if your customer mentions, during an oil change, that their in-laws are coming to town, put into the CRM. That way, during their next visit you can ask them how it went. Talking about being different!
• Smile… duh! I know that sounds simplistic but by having a genuine smile on your face your customers will feel more welcome and invited.
• Be polite. Say thank you, please, yes ma’am and no sir. Use proper salutations such as Mr. and Mrs. In fact keep using their last name until they give you permission to use their first.
• Be genuine. Obviously generosity can’t be faked so don’t fake it. If there are people on staff that can’t be genuine them maybe a job with the public isn’t for them.
• Always over deliver. You will notice that I didn’t say under promise and over deliver, I said over deliver. Do it as often as possible.
• Empower your employees to make a difference. What that means is, within reasonable bounds, empower each employee to be able to fix a mistake, that way they don’t have to go to a manager.
• Make customer service ordinary, build it into your daily processes and reward employees that go above and beyond.
• Create an enchantment budget, more on that here. Go so far and above what your customer expects that they will be forced to tell others about you.
• Do a touch point analysis at least every other month. What I mean by that is be your customer. Call in as a customer, walk in as a customer, go through the sales process as a customer and even go to the bathroom as a customer. What do you see? Is everything as you would expect it to be? If so, scrap it and start over, be exceptional!
• Call back! Too many times we have the intention of calling back but something comes up and we just don’t get around it, stop that! Treat every return call as if it were your wedding day, you wouldn’t forget that would you? Yes, it’s that important!

Final Thought

Create an environment of exceptional customer service into your dealership. Make it mandatory, tell your employees up front, at the interview, that you only hire people that puts the customer first. You need a staff of people that are quick to smile, want to serve, and understand that a happy customer breeds other happy customers. We all know how expensive it is to create a customer, so keep them happy, keep them coming back and keep them talking about you!

Related posts:

1. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 1
2. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 2
3. 5 Ways To Work Your Way Into Your Customers Social Graph And Influence Word Of Mouth

In part 1 of The Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success I mentioned that success in social media boils down to three ideals, they are:

1. The Development Of Relationships,
2. The Creation Of High Touch, Emotion Based Connections, and
3. Customer Enchantment (think customer service to the Nth degree).

In this post, part 2 of 3, we will be exploring the importance of creating high touch, emotion based connections within your online community. Keep in mind that the goal of social marketing is to influence word-of-mouth and create brand loyalty, in other words we want to create brand advocates; customers, that create other customers.

In order for that to happen though you must work to create three types of emotional based connections, they are:

• Employee – Community
• Employee – Employee
• Community – Community

Most of the time social media is used only to create a connection between the dealership and it’s community members, when in reality that connection must between the employees of the dealership and the community. The reason is simple: it’s nearly impossible to form an emotional based connection between a non-living entity, such as a dealership, and the greater community. I know that last sentence may have come across a little weird but too many dealerships have an unknown person (at least to your online community) in charge of their Facebook page, as an example, and as such they are missing out on the influential bond that is created by being high touch.

High Touch

When it comes to your customers, I want you to always think in terms of high touch, which isn’t necessarily high tech. In fact, I want you to evaluate any technological advancement that may come along by asking yourself, will this help me stay in touch with more of my customers or will it just look that way by mimicking high touch? Be careful here because sometimes they look the same.

With the advancement of technology, and the onset of social networks in particular, it may be easier to connect with your customers and your online community as a whole, but those connections usually lack the quality necessary to create the type of relationship with people that influences word-of-mouth. So, you must augment what you do online by being more human, by creating as much you-me time as possible. What I mean by that is instead of spending all your time conversing with the community as a whole spend time getting to know the individuals as well.

Here as some other high touch ideas:

• Have Facebook appreciate days where you give away free oil changes or invite them to the dealership for a meet-up with music, food and games.
• As time progresses you will notice certain members of the community are engaging you more consistently than the others, call them, ask their opinions on an upcoming event.
• As a salesperson, instead of just sending out a birthday card, they can send out a short 30 second video wishing their customers a happy birthday. I’m not talking about creating the video once and sending that out each time, no, I’m talking about an individual video that uses the customer’s name within the context of the video.
• Empower your employees to be human and connect on a personal level. This requires a level of trust but with the proper training and the right people you should have nothing to worry about.
• Care. That’s right, care. Do whatever you can to show compassion towards your customers, treat them as people, not a transaction. Help out the community, become one of us instead of being just one of them.

Too many dealerships are afraid to trust their employees to be human, they would much rather be hands off and let technology help them connect in a sterile, but in their eyes, more efficient, manner. Just take a look at all these so-called loyalty programs out there, they use cards and point systems to offer something free after a certain amount of money is spent at the dealership. What is that really doing? It’s creating a hands-off approach that may be efficient, but where is the human element? Where is the high touch? If you truly want to create brand loyalty then go high touch.

Emotional Based Connections

Connect around an emotion. Are you married? If so, is the person you are married to the only person you’ve ever dated? Odds are the answer is no. So what caused you to have the type of connection with your spouse that lead to marriage? The answer is emotion, because without an emotional based connection the relationship is ultimately doomed to fail. The same holds true for the relationship that you’re creating with both your customers and your online community.

I’ve said it before, it’s almost impossible to create a connection between a business and their community if the only thing they have to connect around is the business itself. Instead, focus on something that the community is passionate about, such as their children’s education, sports, or even a local cause. For instance, Metro Honda of Union County put up $5,000 for area schools, which they had to compete for. In all, there were about 40 schools involved, as well as  thousands of people from the local community. Because Metro Honda connected with something that was emotional based, their children’s education, the bond created between the people of the dealerships and the greater community of Union County has lasted, and will continue to last, long after the Union County School Pride Project announced the winning school.

Your day to day interactions with your community should be emotional based as well. Ask questions that illicit an emotional response or bring up a fond memory such as the question, “What is your fondest childhood memory?” I’ve had so many great conversations around that one question alone, here are some other emotional fused questions to ask:

• When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• How do you feel when your child comes home with an A on a test?
• If you could do one thing without the worry of failure what would it be?
• If you were granted one wish that had to be used on a complete stranger, what would that wish be?
• What makes you jump up and scream for joy?

Of course there are thousands of other questions you can ask to start an emotion based conversation, but the idea behind it is to make people feel good about conversing with you. Don’t just stop there, questions that bring up moral dilemmas are good questions to ask as well, questions such as “Would you lie under oath to protect a friend you knew was innocent but couldn’t prove?” Of course you have to be careful with these types of questions but the depth of conversation that happens surrounding them is nothing short of magical! Remember, if you want to elicit emotions then you have to hold a conversation. Don’t just throw out a question for people to answer, ask more questions around their answers, probe. For instance, using the above question you can ask, after a few dozen or so people have answered, what if it was your spouse, not a friend? Well… would you?

Related posts:

1. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 1
2. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 3
3. [Webinar Recording] Developing A Successful Social Marketing Strategy

FInd Me On Twitter By Clicking The Pic

I thought I would do things a little different this week. That way I can show my gratitude for some of the people that I am connected with on Twitter.

@Automax_ I consider Craig Lockerd a good friend. He is a caring person that puts God and family first. He is the founder and CEO of Automax Recruiting And Training, but even more than that he is a motivator, trainer of sales trainers, and just an overall good person. I highly recommend that you follow him on Twitter, his insights are absolutely priceless.

@BobBurg Bob Burg is one of those individuals that cares more about others than he does himself. He gives of his wisdom freely and will do whatever he can to help others. Being a highly sought after speaker, best selling author and a prolific blogger  Bob takes the time to answer questions and for that alone makes it a necessity to follow him on Twitter.

@RaplPaglia Ralph Paglia may have been in the auto industry since I was in diapers but he is no dinosaur! In fact, he has shown all of us, time and time again, that he is the king of online marketing and internet sales. He is a fount of knowledge that always takes the time to teach other what he knows. You really should follow him on Twitter

@Ryan_CarChat24 While I haven’t known Ryan Thompson that long he has proven time and time again that he has a zest for the auto industry that few others posses. He writes thought provoking posts that always keeps me coming back. Like the others I listed above he goes above and beyond to help others and for that alone he’s okay in my book, even if he’s Canadian (You know I love Canada Ryan, I’m just joking!) Check him out on Twitter you will be glad that you did!

@VelocitySales I’ve never personally spoken to Ed Brooks over the phone or have seen him in person but we have shared stuff back and forth on Twitter a lot. Ed is the sales director at VAuto and is a great person to follow on Twitter. You can find his daily, The Car Folks Essentials Report, right here.

While there are many other people that I feel you should follow, I’ll save that for next Friday!

Related posts:

1. Guest Post: Follow Up… Why Even Bother With it?
2. It’s All About The Engagement
3. Social Media in the Auto Industry: Are we done with the “whys” yet?

Social media is a way to connect with and develop a community around both the brand of the dealership, and the personal brand of the people that make up the dealership. It’s important to note that the biggest difference between traditional marketing and social marketing is that traditional marketing is all about marketing of the business, but social marketing is all about marketing the people OF the business.

I want you to keep that in mind, that social media is all about the marketing of people. It’s about building relationships and influencing word of mouth. It’s about caring for your customers in such a way that they feel the desire to spread your good word. Social media is all about connecting the people of your community, to the people of the dealership. The true power of social media lies in the bond created between dealership employees and the community.

Success in social media boils down to 3 different ideals, and they are:

1. The Development Of Relationships,
2. The Creation Of High Touch, Emotion Based Connections, and
3. Customer Enchantment (think customer service to the Nth degree).

The Development Of Relationships

In a recent study conducted by the Journal Of Consumer Research it was found that consumers don’t buy into the idea that they are in “relationships” with sales people, at least not the same kind of relationship they share with family and friends. The study goes on to say that buyers slip into the normal script of trying to behave as if the sellers interactions are real relationships just to be polite, when in fact, it can have a negative effect if the seller tries too hard to build a real relationship, during the sale.

In part three of the Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success we will talk about replacing relationship building tactics, during the selling process, with customer enchantment techniques. After all, the whole idea behind social marketing is to create brand loyalty and influence word-of-mouth and THAT starts at the point of sale.

Building relationships through
the genuine use of social networks will go a long
way to building a lasting interpersonal relationship with
your customers, thus influencing both brand loyalty
and influencing word-of-mouth.

Engagement Is A Precursor For Brand Advocacy

In order to create brand advocacy you must first engage your community, in other words, converse with people, if you ever hope to influence word-of-mouth. Big, national brands, have the ability to create communities around the power of their brand alone but local businesses have something even more powerful… the community.

Up until very recently sociologists thought race was the strongest predictor of whether two people will socialize, but in a recent study it was found that where you live and your social class prove to be stronger proponents of lasting friendship. Why is that important? It tells us that because we live in the same geographical area, we have a strong precursor for the development of relationships. So, in order to create relationships with your community, and satisfy the first ideal of social marketing success, it’s important to note that you must keep things local. Talk about local news and sporting events, charities that help the local community and any awards that local people may have won.  In other words, show that you are part of the community, by engaging the community surrounding local happenings. Consider searching out a social cause, something that the community is passionate about and connect around that, the ideas really are endless.

Connecting On A Personal Level

Be you, not a brick and mortar business. Each one of us are special in our own unique way and if you ever hope to build the kind of relationship with your community that creates brand advocacy then you must be personal. I’m not talking about bringing up sexual orientation, religion, or politics but I am talking about sharing what you and your family did over the weekend or your thoughts on the popular movie that just opened. You can even give your opinions on who will win the big game or the outfit Jessica Alba wore on the red carpet, again, the ideas are endless. Get real, be real, and connect on the same level you do with your real friends.

Related posts:

1. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 2
2. Three Ideals For Social Marketing Success, Part 3
3. Creating Word-Of-Mouth Through The Creation Of Community

Life has changed, the way we sell cars has changed, business, in general, has changed. Now, it’s time to embrace it, or fall by the way side. We live in an exciting social world where the new economy is more social in nature. Why? Because we are an untrusting lot. We are putting less and less stock in traditional advertising and more and more into what our peers think. Opinions matter. Reviews matter. What our friends think  matter. Even the opinions of complete strangers matter. Are you embracing this new philosophy or fighting it tooth and nail? It’s time you start embracing it.

Collectively, we’ve gone back to what I like to refer to as the village mindset. There used to be a time before the internet, a time even before the phone, when neighbors asked neighbors their opinions on certain things and made purchasing decisions based off of what their neighbors told them. For instance, Farmer Bob needs to buy a new dairy cow, and in a hurry. Instead of jumping on Google (remember this was before the internet), Farmer Bob would ask his neighbor Farmer Frank if he knew who sold the best dairy cows around. Because Farmer Frank just bought a dairy cow himself, he recommended that Farmer Bob buy one from Farmer Dan.

Take a look at what’s happening today, it’s the same exact thing, more or less. True, we have Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks to help us connect, but the desire has always been there. In fact, I’d argue that the desire to find out what others think about a particular business is stronger today, than it ever has been. Why is that? First, we are social creatures. Second, we are tired of all the slick advertising who’s only aim is to take our hard earned money, not necessarily to aid us in finding the best product for our particular situation.  That’s where word-of-mouth comes in, and why it’s vitally important to your dealership, that you influence as much chatter as possible.

It shouldn’t be an epiphany when I state that the two most powerful  forms of advertising are word-of-mouth amongst friends, and word-of-mouth amongst strangers. In fact, you should be shaking your head up and down in agreement. So, how do you influence word-of-mouth anyway? First step is to admit that there has been a fundamental change in the way people are buying cars, most anything for that matter, especially big ticket items.

The second, is to think in terms of engagement. Of course, a new definition of engagement is in order. If you take a look at how traditional engagement was defined, it was defined by us, the business owners, the dealerships. We defined it by how many people we could get to scratch-off a winning number on a direct mail piece, but as Forrester Research points out, the revised definition of engagement is defined as, “the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has with a brand over time.”

Of course, I’d like to expand on that definition and say that engagement is not only the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has with a brand over time, but also the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence an individual has within the broader community that supports the brand. The idea, as I pointed out a few paragraphs earlier, is to influence as much word-of-mouth as possible, so the addendum makes sense.

Social As A Relationship Tool

Thus far I’ve been talking about using social media as a way to market your brand, but in reality, it can be used more than just as a marketing tool. Social media should be used to bring both awareness about your dealership and to build relationships with your current client base. For years and years we’ve heard it over and over again that the best type of customer are referrals, but most dealerships fail miserably in the referral department. In my honest opinion that is a total waste of money.

Think about it, each and every month, 10′s of thousands of dollars must be spent to generate new business, when it costs pennies on the dollar to generate referrals from old business. Yes, I understand that you may be sitting there reading this, shaking your head, saying that you can’t get your salespeople to follow up. You know what I have to say about that? Stop! Use social networks, Facebook as an example, to engage your customers. Salespeople come and go but if you spend time, on the dealership level, engaging your customers in order to build community, you will go a long way in creating massive amounts of word-of-mouth.

I’ve seen a lot of dealers fight the idea that the way they market has to change. No, I’m not saying that you should stop advertising on television, radio and print. All I’m saying is that your advertising techniques must evolve if you want to influence word-of-mouth. Try to work in ways to engage your audience in order to create a dialogue. The whole idea with social marketing is to create a conversation surrounding your brand. A conversation that goes on without you, long after the campaign is over. Stop hitting a brick wall with your current advertising, no matter how hard you hit, it won’t budge. Instead, grab your social media ladder, climb it and embrace the new social world, it’s not that scary, it’s just different.

Related posts:

1. Creating Word-Of-Mouth Through The Creation Of Community
2. Busy, Busy, Busy!
3. The 3 Phases Of Dealership Social Maturity

It’s only technology after all, social networks. They’re a communication device that aids in the connection of people. Their true power lies in that actual connection, the human side of what the technology helps to facilitate. It’s within that human element that the true magic happens, it’s in the humanizing of business that we learn more about who we are and what we want out of our business affiliations that sets us apart from our yesteryears.

It’s always been there of course…it. We’ve always had it. The desire was always there but it wasn’t until technology came around that it was unearthed and really brought to bear. Much like the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell all those years ago, the internet and the social web in general, have brought about a way for us to connect with each other and be the social creatures we always were. So you see, social media isn’t about the networks… not really, it’s about the relationships that are built because of it, the friends created, the marriages formed, the love discovered, and the moments we share that holds the true power of what social networks have done for us, the human race, they have become the tie that binds us.

Businesses, in general, now have a way to plug in and connect with their customers like never before. They can become part of their everyday, not just the “transaction,” the wam-bam-thank-you-ma’am, no, they have a way, a real way, to become part of the lives of the people that keep them in business in the first place. They have a way to interact with, learn from, and get advice from the best consultant they could ever hope to have, their customers. It’s time that businesses really start to listen to what is being said. It’s time for them to get out there and have a conversation with their customers about what they can do better as a business, because they are the ones that truly know.

Why social media though? Because it’s where they are, that’s why. But even deeper than that is the fact that they are there to interact, and if a business interacts without trying to push their marketing message, they will be accepted as “one of us,” instead of as “one of them.” It’s about the dialogue, the conversations that happen around topics that don’t necessarily have anything to do with business. It could be about kids, or dogs, art, or skydiving. Be human, interact and have fun. Don’t worry, if done right you will sell stuff, lots and lots of stuff, but first you have to become human. Build trust, tell stories, and laugh with your customers, be their friend, influence word-of-mouth and encourage loyalty. Life is way too short to live life as a business, open up and live, enjoy who you are, it’s okay to take the tie off and be “one of us,” live a little… will ya?

Related posts:

1. [VIDEO] Creating Influence On Social Networks
2. Social Media, BHPH and Decreasing Delinquency Rate
3. Increasing Customer Retention With Social Media

When you start a Facebook fan page, there are a few things you want to do to get the ball rolling. First, create a vanity URL for your page (facebook.com/username). Caution: Put some thought into what you want your vanity URL to be because you can’t change it after you make it. Best practice is to go with the dealership name and it will make it easier for people to find your page plus it will also rank high for your business with search engines.

Next, you want to create some content on your page that is fun and inviting since fan pages can be viewed by anyone but your goal needs to be to get people to like your page and stick around. People typically aren’t interested in being friends with a car dealership so be friendly and use Facebook more to sell your dealership, people inside of it, and your love for your local community as opposed to using it as an extension of your offline advertising.

Now that your page is ready, it is time to get some serious growth going with the locals. Here are five things you can do now to increase your LOCAL Facebook likes!

Grow from the inside out

Start with people who already have a relationship with your business. Create buy in from your employees and their friends and family. Put up signage in your dealership and make sure your service and sales customers know how to find you on Facebook. Design business cards to hand out to people with your Facebook URL on them.  Send out an email blast to your customer database letting them know you’re on Facebook.

Membership has its rewards

Though it isn’t really a membership to like you’re your fan page, let people know the advantages. Offer coupons only on Facebook, make your online community feel special and they will become more passionate about your brand. They will become brand ambassadors for your business and will start telling their friends and family to check you out. Plus, this preferential treatment will increase the intimacy with your community as will the trust.

For example, we have a client that has a Facebook day every month in his service department where they give free oil changes to anyone who is on their Facebook page.  The first time they posted this special, there were a lot of people asking what the catch was but there wasn’t any. About a dozen people took advantage of the free oil change and several went back to Facebook to thank the dealer.  Second month they posted the special and only a couple of people asked about the catch and by the third month, nobody was asking.

Have a contest

First let me say that the prize does not need to be huge but everyone likes winning something. Carve a small portion out of your monthly ad budget like $500 and have 20 trivia contests giving away $25 gift cards each. This will really get people talking and you can take their pictures when they come in to claim their prize and post the pictures on Facebook. I promise you this will get people chatting about your dealership more than $500 more of your television ads.

Cross promote with other local businesses and non profits

Find non competitive businesses like restaurants in your community that are active on Facebook and share events and specials they have going on. The law of reciprocation is a psychologically tested law that says as humans we have a subconscious need to return actions in kind. Basically, when people are nice to us, we want to do the same and vice versa. These local businesses will turn around and do the same for your dealership.

This is especially powerful with non profits because there is usually a higher level of passion for non profits. Share information about blood drives and fundraisers happening in your community. Consider having one yourself at the dealership. Just recently, we had a client rent a dunking booth and have a fundraiser entitled “Dunk a car salesman for cancer”. The dunking booth cost $250 but they over 200 people come out to try to dunk a car salesman and the event raised almost $1500 for a local cancer charity.

Use Facebook application to show on your retail website

Facebook has an application or widget where you can post your fan page to your retail website and it will update in real time with your activities. Now it only shows your activities so this is another important reason to keep the content fun and exciting. People can click through from your website directly to Facebook and like your page. Most dealers already have a lot of traffic coming to their website, take advantage of that and increase your Facebook following.

Well, this is just a few ways to grow your online following but it will get you headed in the right direction. Remember, having a lot of likes from people in the Middle East may help you answer the geography questions on Jeopardy but it won’t help you sell more cars. Think local and grow local!

Do you know the difference between Top News and Most Recent on your Facebook home page? More importantly, do you understand why it is so important to show up in someone’s top news?

Top News is a snapshot of the statuses that Facebook determines to be from your better friends (or pages) based off an algorithm that is referred to as your EdgeRank (explanation to come). Most Recent is status updates of all your friends and pages you like. Top News is the default setting when you log into your Facebook on a computer (most recent on mobile apps) and most people (over 50%) just view these updates without even knowing that there are other views, such as by videos or by photos.

Obviously, you want to show up on the people in your community’s top news so your messagse can be seen. Since social media is branding in its purest form, ultimately we are trying to keep people’s attention for an extended period of time to have a long term effect of their perception of your brand.

What exactly is EdgeRank? Most simply, EdgeRank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which of your statuses your online community sees in their top news. This is the mathematical formula:

Affinity * Weight * Time Decay = EdgeRank

Here is the explanation of each term:

First, there’s an affinity score between the viewing user and the item’s creator — if you send your friend a lot of Facebook messages and check their profile often, then you’ll have a higher affinity score for that user than you would, say, an old acquaintance you haven’t spoken to in years.

Second, there’s a weight given to each type of interaction. A comment has more importance than a Like, for example and pictures carry the highest weight!

And finally there’s the most obvious factor — time. The older an interaction is, the less important it becomes.

This is the magical formula to increasing your status views or as Facebook calls it impressions. What does it all boil down to? Engagement! The higher your engagement is, the higher your EdgeRank score will be.

Score Break Down:

• 0-6 is below average.
• 7-13 is average.
• 14-19 is above average.
• Scores above 20 are excellent.

How familiar are you with your Facebook insights? How many active monthly users do you have in relation to your overall likes? If this figure isn’t above 70%, you’re failing on Facebook! There isn’t a curve like there wase back in high school; this is business and the difference between being the dealership in town people talk about or the one they forget about.

Do you understand why engagement is the most important aspect for a business to succeed on Facebook?

If you would like to know what your EdgeRank score is, along with a few things you can do to increase it, then contact us HERE, there is no charge, its just our way of giving back.