GM/Dealer Principals who aren't paying attention to their own dealerships Social Media efforts  baffle me! I know they have a lot on their plate but at the very least they should be aware of who is posting on behalf of their store and from time to time take a moment to check out whats being posted. Often times they will have someone who demonstrates a decent level of Internet knowledge take on the duties of dealer postings, which may be fine however it is very important that more than one person know WHERE the dealer is being represented and HOW to access the profile/postings. There should always be a central location for the site address along with user names and passwords, perhaps a shared file even. Should the employee overseeing the social effort for the store leave and not share all the access with someone else its could result in quite a mess! I came across a dealer who apparently had someone pretty creative and motivated at one time working for them who had secured quite a few unique Twitter handles on behalf of the dealer however of the nine Twitter accounts created for the dealership eight have NOT been updated since Jan 8, the ninth one has been dormant since Feb and the last post was "we're back!"....
I have forced our GM, with much effort(!), to at least watch as I showed him all of the listings/profiles/pages I have set up and manage for the store and showed him how to access the shared file with all the user names and passwords to them. If I ever leave there may not be a guarantee that he will know how to continue the work I have started for sure but at least the person they may hire will have a solid place to start! Just my $0.2: GM's ask your Social Media person to make sure you have access to all the places online that your dealer is represented! :)

Over the past 25+ years of working in the retail auto business one thing my friends both in person and online have grown to know about me is that I have an incredible passion for this business. I love what I do and I know this to be an awesome career when approached from the right place, a place of service and a genuine desire to help folks. Over the years I have met and had the privilege of working with many amazing people both in the business directly and working with the business from outside and the one thing I try to share with everyone I meet is that I know this business can be a better place than we have allowed it to be over the years and I am committed to helping make it so. Recently my efforts in creating my brand got the attention of the folks at Careers in Auto and they asked me to sit for an interview about utilizing Social Media is car sales and I was honored to do so, it was a blast and the video has received some interesting attention since being posted. This past week the folks from Careers in Auto contacted me again and asked me to be a keynote speaker at their job fair! They would like me to speak about the car business as a legitimate career path and not just a 'job'! In my presentation they also would like me to speak to folks new in the industry or considering entering and explain how to leverage social media to create a revenue stream that is not dependent on their dealerships marketing and advertising. I thought it was pretty cool that they consider me an 'authority' in the auto industry and I am really stoked about this opportunity! Stay tuned because you KNOW I will be posting the video right here friends! 

For some time now I have dabbled with texting customers who requested information online and although the response has always been great I have had my concerns about having my cell phone number and the numbers of my staff being so available and some what unprotected. I avidly follow the work of awesome car folks like Elise Kephart, Robert Weisman and BDC trainer Sean Bradley and I agree with the value of texting in addition to phone calls and emails because it does allow our customer to choose the method of contact that THEY feel comfortable with and I know many folks don’t mind freely giving out their cell numbers but all that still couldn’t overcome my privacy concerns. Two weeks ago my fears were realized when a customer who had engaged in a lengthy text conversation with one of my BDC staff actually asked her what she looked like and what she was wearing as she was texting him! I went ballistic and all texting came to a grinding halt! I know many CRM platforms have a texting feature within them as does the one we use however the additional cost has not been something our GM has allowed me to incur so for a short time it looked like the great results we were seeing from texts were going to vanish. As a long time Google+ user I had seen a few references to Google Voice over the past couple of years and it occurred to me to look deeper into it as a solution to the texting concerns. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to set it up and kind of mentally kicked myself for not looking into it sooner. In no time at all I had set up numbers for the whole staff and we are back in action! Phone call, email and follow up with a text; the results are simply incredible and more importantly my staff can rest easy knowing that if another creeper decides to act stupid at least he, or she, wont have anyone’s actual number and when we put an end to the conversation it will be an end!
I may be late coming to the party with this but I wanted to share it with everyone because I know I am not the only one who values the privacy of his staff even in the efforts of trying to make every deal possible! If you aren’t texting already you should be, and I highly recommend using a Google Voice number to do it! Have an awesome day, Sell Something!