 You have seen many posts lately about the importance of managing your businesses Google My Business profile and I have been talking about for years as well! Just in case you still aren't convinced that your company GMB profile is actually more important than even your website check our some interesting facts from Digital Marketing wizard Shawn Joshi that support that very claim!
"The internet is filled with unqualified opinions - so let's not add to that dumpster fire.Here's what the data says: 1. 46% of all Google searches have a local intent. That's about 1.6 billion searches per day where people are looking for products, services, and information in their location. 2. 93% of local searches now feature Google My Business listings. There's a lot of people using Google every day for local purposes. And now we know that virtually all of those searches feature Google My Business listings. 3. 68% of people contact a business directly from search results. If they're on a mobile device - which we've established is already 50% of all web traffic (and growing) - all someone needs to do is tap a link... And they're calling you - or your competitor - directly from search results. These three data points show the importance of Google My Business - especially when we already know that Google wants to send people to a platform they own. But we haven't even covered the most important one... "88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations." (Source: Forbes)..." Boom right?!! Great post, read the rest HERE Original post found on http://www.antzdigitalmedia.com/blog
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I am not usually a fan of pointing out other people's failures for likes or views however this video highlights the need to really do a better job of ensuring that employees that speak with the public are better educated on the products we sell as car dealers. The folks that made this focused on the upcoming Mach-E from Ford so it may be a little understandable just how much misinformation they received from dealer staff when asking about it but it could be about a product already on the front line and they would still get a lot of wrong answers or information made up on the spot. As a sales manager long before the fear of being secretly recorded for a YouTube video I always prided myself on product knowledge and trained my team to know our vehicles inside and out, more importantly, to be comfortable with saying 'I don't know that but I will be happy to find out for you' which always seems to be more difficult than it should be. Car dealers, are you sure your team wouldn't sound like the folks captured on this video?? Should you mystery call your store and find out, an even better question is are you using a call review service like CallSource and not bothering to listen to the calls and know if your team members sound like these folks???
 Recently the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Dominos Pizza regarding a case about how accessible their website is to people with disabilities. By declining to hear the case the court leaves in place a ruling by a lower court that ruled the Dominos Pizza website is subject to the American's with Disbabilities Act, a federal law that requires places of public access to make accommodations for people with disabilities. The appeals court stated that websites are included in the coverage and that Domino's must comply even without "a blueprint for compliance with its statutory obligations." The original case involved a customer with visual disabilities that was trying to use reading software that was unable to pick up the small print of the special offers on the Dominos Pizza website and therefore felt he was unfairly denied the opportunity to save additional money y using the special offer coupons.
If the 'specials' on your dealership's website have small print disclaimers this is a good read. Auto dealers tend to be easy targets, knowledge is key. | "Unclear ADA compliance rules on websites flummox dealers..." Read the full AutomotiveNews post here: https://www.autonews.com/commentary/unclear-ada-compliance-rules-websites-flummox-dealers  One of my favorite conversations at the recent DrivingSales Executive Summit was when I was able to sit with AutoConverse host Ryan Gerardi and one of my own automotive mentors Bryan Armstrong and talk about automotive service dept marketing. Bryan was one of the first car guys I followed online that was doing the kind of stuff I wanted to do at my own dealership, I have followed him closely online for over 10 years now and am lucky enough to call him my friend but this was the first time we really got to sit and chat in person... and it was pretty damn cool! You can watch the convo here:
Mike theCarGuy talks with Ryan Gerardi and Bryan Armstrong  Simply having a presence on social media is no longer enough as most realize by now. Facebook recently noted that not only are posts ranked in news feeds, comments are also ranked as well. It takes time but being on social media means being 'social' if you truly want your companies page to thrive! Make sure you, or your social media manager, is replying to comments and liking customer interactions on your companies social media pages. Think to yourself how cool it would be if a brand name you follow responded to a comment you left on one of their posts, wouldn't you want your own followers to feel that same way?
For more insights read the rest of the SearchEngineJournal's post "Facebook Changes Reach of Comments in News Feed" HERE  Heads up Ford dealers, did you know that Ford has created a Facebook 'ghost page' for your dealership? It is titled Ford Motor Company (your dealership address) and mirrors the main Ford page. The pages all share the same posts and engagement, which does not help your dealership or increase your store's visibility and some of the pages have check-in's which may be confusing your store's customers when they are looking for your dealership's page while at your store! Another thing to consider, if you are paying for Facebook ad's are you competing against your own dealership? It's pretty much accepted that the OEM's are only concerned with increasing brand awareness and not where the customer shops, but it doesn't look like all Ford dealers have one of these 'ghost pages' so is Ford intentionally trying to split traffic for certain dealerships? Perhaps questions need to be asked of your Ford Digital rep, soon! To see if Ford has created a new Facebook page for your store try Google searching: Facebook.com Ford-Motor-Company (your dealer address) as shown in the example above. It’s critical to have a good understanding of marketing basics to ensure you are truly able to inspect what you expect from your marketing efforts, and not just take your agency’s word that it’s working ;)
 A few months ago I had the opportunity to attend a session with awesome car guy Brian Allan where he spoke about the things that HyreCar Inc. are doing and how dealers can profit from their idle inventory, I must say I was fascinated. This week at Digital Dealer I was able to finally meet Brian and get to know some of his kick-ass team while learning more about what they offer. Essentially they have created a digital marketplace for car dealers to provide vehicles to drivers in the ride-share and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) industry. This allows dealers to earn incremental revenue, provide a path to purchase, and generate new business with this innovative solution to idle inventory... I am keeping an eye on HyreCar and really think they are on something huge! Dealers learn more here: https://hyrecar.com/commercialsolutions
 I follow many of the dealerships I work with online, recently while speaking with a dealership's General Manager I shared with him that I really liked a recent post on their Facebook page and he looked at me with a blank stare. He said that he didn't follow the store's social media because he didn't mix work and personal stuff so he was not aware of what the store was doing online. It was a really great post and I could not help but think how much better it could be performing with employee sharing and engagement. As a GSM myself I always tried my best to involve our team in our social media efforts and it always paid off huge but not everyone knows where to start. My friend and social media pro Kathi Kruse recently wrote "Employees are perceived as “People like me” by your customers. Each employee has their own unique expertise and they often bring great ideas to the content creation table. This is golden for social media. The content is richer, more well-rounded and generally met with much more engagement.
Why? Because employees know your customers. They’re on the front lines with them every single day and they speak their language..." Read Kathi's Smart Steps To Engage Employees here: https://www.krusecontrolinc.com/smart-steps-to-engage-employees-in-social-media/ |
Hey there, I'm Mike theCarGuy and here are some of my thoughts about cars, the car business and sales! Take a look around, maybe you will learn something or at the very least find your self smiling, and if you do... leave me a comment so I know I at least did something right! Thanks for stoppin by...
Need to reach me? Call or Text: (909) 213-5475 mikethecarguy@outlook.com Mike theCarGuy: 22421 Barton Rd Suite 451 Grand Terrace, CA 92313 Twitter: @MiketheCarGuy1 Instagram: MiketheCarGuy 
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February 2020
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