Social Marketing and Reputation Management for Dealers ADP Dealer Services Solution Prototype

A Commercial/Social Dual Website Strategy

With most dealership Internet Sales operations, the emphasis is on selling a car RIGHT NOW, or as soon as possible. Our focus has been to move the customer from Keyboard-to-Keyboard (email/web) communication, to Ear-to-Ear (phone) and then to Face-to-Face (showroom) as quickly as possible. An effective Social Marketing and Reputation Management (SM/RM) strategy works more like a good CRM plan than an advertising campaign… dealers receive online assets, tools and web sites that are focused on long term relationships and connections.

Dealership Community Social Website

Using a CRM type of relationship focus, ADP has developed a Social Marketing and Reputation Management strategy that includes the creation and utilization of “Dealership Community” social network sites designed to emphasize relationship building and ongoing communications. The platform we chose is ideal for communicating different topics that are about lifestyle with the dealer’s products and social engagement. The “Community” platform we selected is based on a need to provide a robust set of tools, applications and features that would basically create a social network similar to Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace, but is dealer owned and integrates seamlessly with whatever social media or networks are popular with the dealership’s customers today, and in the future.

Dealership Business Commercial Website

Alternately, the dealership’s traditional “Commercial Website” is all about providing tools to customers who want to do business today… Pick a vehicle to buy from inventory, schedule a service appointment, complete an online credit application, request a price and payment quote, get directions to the dealership, etc. Of course, we connect the two dealership sites together, but with community and relationship building objectives handled by the dealership’s community site, the commercial website is freed to place the vast majority of its focus on transacting business in all the dealership’s departments. In many ways, this is a lot like the use of dealer microsites and the “one website is not enough” strategy that has propelled many dealership Internet sales into the triple digit volume levels. By having the “Commercial” website all about doing business, it becomes much more efficient, develops a better conversion rate and can be cleaner and less cluttered than if you tried to do BOTH Social Marketing and eCommerce within the same website design.

Scope of Services

ADP sets up a steady stream of interesting content and installs the right tools to provide desirable information that the consumer will seek out, rather than just promoting the latest deal, rebate or incentive on a car.

1. Leverage customer reviews of dealership in a community site platform that makes it easy to syndicate ONLY the good reviews across multiple social networks, search engine listings, blogs and news sites. Use push syndication to drive positive consumer perception of the dealership’s reputation at a level that exceeds what competing dealers have achieved… Examples showing Dealership Communities featuring their reviews are: www.Ford-Community.com , www.Automotive-Avenues.com and www.MyJeepCommunity.com

2. Set Up Dealership Profiles and User Accounts with Leading UGC sites and Social Networks

a) Google

1. We start by creating a dealership www.Gmail.com account; i.e. AutomotiveAvenues@gmail.com

2. Using the dealership’s Gmail account we: set up your dealership’s YouTube Channel with links to community set up Google Analytics for tracking community site activity set up Google Webmaster, generate HTML tag for community site set up Google AdSense, generate HTML code for community site set up Google Adwords, first campaign targets your community site! set up Google Maps Business Listing with complete profile and coupons set up dealership Blogger site, embed community content syndication

3. Examples: www.KennyRossTube.com , www.AutoAvesYouTube.com

b) Ning 4. Setup brand focused dealership community site with optional services:

Use your URL; i.e. www.SandersonCommunity.com We go Ad free and remove Ning promotional links

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Social Marketing and Reputation Management for Dealers ADP Dealer Services Solution Prototype

5. Social media syndication of dealer and consumer generated content6. Online Forums used by consumers, suppliers and dealers to interact with each other7. Customers, suppliers and employees get web site with CMS and SEO tools8. Blog application indexed and top ranked by Google9. Integrated Social Media syndication includes:

www.Flickr.com www.Facebook.com www.Twitter.com www.MySpace.com www.Digg.com www.Delicious.com

10. Examples of Dealer Community sites that use the Ning platform: www.Automotive-Avenues.com www.FordCommunity.com www.MyJeepCommunity.com www.SandersonCommunity.com www.Boston-Honda.com www.Boston-Volkswagen.com

c) www.DealerRater.com

11. Setup/get dealership annual certification12. Acquire/redirect easy to remember URL to your review page: i.e. www.RateAutoAves.com 13. DealerRater reviews are indexed and included in Google Maps and Business Listings 14. We use the DealerRater “widget” to embed automatically updated customer review feeds, engage

satisfied sold customers with prospective new customers within the online community 15. Social media syndication tools that integrate with Ning, Facebook, MySpace and others 16. DealerRater to Dealer Community site syndication examples:

www.Automotive-Avenues.com www.MyJeepCommunity.com

d) Facebook 17. Setup dealership “fan” page business profile 18. Add links to the dealership’s community site and commercial sites 19. Add proprietary application that displays the dealer’s inventory within a Facebook tab20. Add videos from clips hosted within the dealership community site21. See Dealer Facebook Fan pages at www.AutoAvesFacebook.com , www.KennyRossFacebook.com

e) Twitter 22. Create 4 dealer accounts at http://Twitter.com; Community, New Cars, Used Cars, Service and Parts23. Syndicate “Latest Activity” RSS feed into Dealer Community Twitter accounts24. See Dealer Examples at: http://Twitter.com/RichFordNM , http://Twitter.com/AutoAves

http://Twitter.com/SandersonFordAZ , http://twitter.com/MyFordCommunity

f) MySpace 25. Create MySpace profile using dealership name i.e. www.myspace.com/automotiveavenues 26. Acquire and reassign designated URL for MySpace profile i.e. www.AutoAvesMySpace.com 27. Syndicate RSS feeds from Dealer Community to MySpace Blog

g) Flickr 28. Setup dealership’s photo and blog account, upgrade to Professional version for a year29. Acquire Flickr application API key code and install in your Dealership Community account

h) Digg 30. Setup dealership’s account using same Gmail address and password as Dealership Community

i) Delicious 31. Setup dealership’s account using same Gmail address and password as Dealership Community

3. After getting your dealership’s Web 2.0 community website in place, we train dealers to use the content management tools, and assign the daily tasks that get their community’s content created and syndicated out to social media, generating traffic and valuable back-links. Look at www.Automotive-Avenues.com , www.FordCommunity.com , www.MyJeepCommunity.com and www.SandersonCommunity.com for “Best in Class” examples of Dealership Community sites.

4. Build social networking connections with existing customers while using weekly meetings to motivate and engage dealership employees from every department with practical guidance and rewards. Issue payroll flyers on how employees can link their personal profiles in the dealership’s community to social networks.

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Social Marketing and Reputation Management for Dealers ADP Dealer Services Solution Prototype

5. Social Marketing/Reputation Management Employee Meetings:a. Inform the dealership employees about the overall Social Media launch strategy

½ hour meetings (each) with sales, fixed and management teamsb. Define the role that they play as pioneers in this new marketing strategyc. Timeline: Get everything set up before the dealership launch meetings, and then set a goal of 50%

employee enrollment in the dealership community site within the first 30 daysd. Cost: let the employees know the dealer is serious by announcing spiffs and bonuses at the launch

meetings with the dealership employees: $250 = Employee who successfully invites the most new dealer community members in 30 days $250 = Employee who gets most views of their videos uploaded to community in 30 days

Social Marketing and Reputation Management Campaign Assets

Follow us at:

Twitter.com/AutoAves

Become a fan at AutoAvesFacebook.com

Subscribe to Our Channel at: AutoAvesYouTube.com

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