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Archives for March 2010

You Rock and It Sucks! (or Computer Generated Interpretation of your Tweets)

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We all know (and have been warned) that what you put out on the internet can come back to bite you. We hear stories of people all the time having their personal and/or work life interrupted by things they’ve said or posted on Facebook.

My personal favorite (and a great example) is the following “status update” on Facebook followed by the boss’s comment:

           

So, now we have privacy controls and the ability to specify on a piece-by-piece basis what, and who, can see things.If you use them, they’re better than nothing. At least your boss (or potential employer) can’t see that drunken photo of you dancing on the bar top as easily, if you do, in fact, friend him/her.

Let’s talk about Twitter, now. Twitter is completely public and indexed by search engines. I have Google Alerts (and other services) setup to monitor certain things and I am always fascinated by what pops out in the results.

An item popped up in my Google Alert last Thursday and, while I found it amusing at first, as I started thinking about it more, it made me concerned.

What exactly I’m talking about is a website called “Amplicate”

According to  the website, it’s purpose is to do this:

“Amplicate
collects similar opinions in one place; making them more likely to be
found by people and companies.”

This would be fine because you actually DO have the ability to input your opinion on things if you, in fact, choose to participate in and interact with this website. Your opinion is, however, limited to whether something “Sucks” or “Rocks”.

My concern is that apparently it indexes Twitter in some way and automatically generates your “opinions” for you. I don’t know how it chooses which tweets to use to form your opinions, nor do I even know how it selects the specific people which it chooses to form (and announce) opinions for. I do know that, at least in my case, I didn’t choose to participate in or interact with this website.

It seems to take keywords from your tweets and then determines whether you think the subject of your tweet “sucks” or “rocks”. It then posts that to the world under the guise that these are YOUR opinions. It’s obviously a computer generating these because some of the “opinions” actually make no sense and it’s apparent that the “opinion” is out of context.

The peril in this is that, to someone who doesn’t actually analyze the opinions that were generated by a computer based on your tweets, they may just assume that these are, in fact, your opinions. If there’s a potential (or current) employer doing a little research on you for whatever reason, this could potentially harm you.

As an example, the Google Alert that returned this discovery to me shows the following (it even hijacked my photo):

So, apparently, I think the word “enough” rocks and that the Oscars and Toyota sucks.

Now we not only have to be careful about what we say, but also about how a computer would interpret it.

Here’s Looking At You, Kid! (Live Video Broadcast on Your Facebook Fan Page)

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Last night, I was introduced to a new app that is a “cloud-based, interactive, live video broadcast application” or, basically, an app that will allow you to stream live video right within your Facebook Fan Page.

A sales trainer could hold a live training session from within his (or her) Facebook Fan Page. Conferences could stream live video of sessions on their Fan Page. Dealerships could hold live video conversations with Facebook fans. An Internet Manager could actually work with a prospect this way. A vendor could have a presentation. I haven’t fully-digested creative applications for this new application but possibilities abound.

The company’s name is Vpype (I’m imagining it’s supposed to read V-Pipe) and this app is supposed to be as easy to start using as clicking a button within Facebook.

Here are some highlights of the application (from their Press Release dated January 21,2010):

  • create scheduled or unscheduled live shows
  • send video notes
  • store completed broadcasts with audience participation
  • share videos in Facebook
  • requires no software download
  • easy-to-view chat history
  • embeddable web video player
  • broadcast Tweet notifications
  • built-in viral marketing tools where you can promote your broadcasts through instant notifications to Facebook walls as well as broadcast alerts to Twitter
  • content automatically archived

Here’s a picture of the interface:

I know there are plenty of live video chat/broadcast companies out there, but I don’t think any of the other companies have a potential installed customer base starting at 400 million people (and growing by 1/2 million per day).

Most of the other live video broadcast applications require a software installation on the users end. While frequent users of a particular service may not mind this, the consumer that wants to talk about a car, see a sales training session or view a vendor presentation might not attend just because of this hurdle. (Hey, we all can’t be computer geeks, you know!)

Most people have Facebook accounts, however, and if you can connect with them and all they have to do is click a button within their Facebook account, the odds of them participating and listening to whatever you have to say increase exponentially.

People like easy.

Will Facebook Make Web Sites Obsolete?

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Facebook offers a simple to use, standardized user interface. It’s non-threatening, easy to use and easy to navigate. You can almost do anything on Facebook that you need.

“There’s an app for that!” may be Apple’s slogan but it certainly applies to Facebook.

Businesses are scrambling to set up Facebook Pages and integrate effective Social Media Marketing campaigns. Some of them are doing it because they realize the value and some are doing it because.. well, everyone else is.

Some statistics:

As of September 2009, there are 227 million internet users in the US (74% of the US population and the U.S. accounts for 13% of the world population of internet users). (link)

As of January 2010, there are 102 million Facebook users in the U.S. (or about ½ the population). (link)

Facebook is adding 50 million users every 90 days (537,634 per day). (link)

Keeping the increase in Facebook users at the same proportional level as the percentage of internet users (13%), that would mean that Facebook adds almost 70,000 users per day from within the U.S.

There are approximately 11,000 babies born in the U.S. everyday. (link)

You see where I’m going, don’t you?

Now, Facebook has decided that its user interface is so attractive to consumers that businesses will want to mimic the “Facebook experience” on their actual web site.

Facebook is launching a new API they call Open Graph.

This API will allow “any page on the Web to have all the features of a Facebook Page.”

Is this the start of a Web 2.0?

We already have many of the tools a dealership would need to effectively make this transition.

  1. You can have a “Page”.
  2. You can interact with your customers through Ads, News, Specials, etc. 
  3. You can have
    your inventory on your Facebook page now through Gumiyo and other providers. 
  4. You can have effective, professional looking ads and landing pages. 
  5. You have analytics and can drive customers to specific pages. 
  6. You can have live chat on your Facebook Page through ActivEngage. 
  7. There’s a Marketplace to buy and sell things (including cars). 
  8. There is now even a full-featured customer support center (ie. App) for use on your Facebook fan page now through Get Satisfaction.
  9. Everything (just about) interacts in some way with Facebook whether its pushing or pulling data (or both) through Facebook Connect or in some way (ie. Fan us on Facebook)

Why would businesses do this? Well, simply put, because that’s where the customers are.

People like simple. That’s why Apple’s products have been so popular. Sleek, minimalist, easy to use interfaces are attractive. Standardized web pages would certainly be attractive to consumers rather than hard to navigate websites that are “too busy” with all the widgets, gadgets, flash, and video.

The shift is taking place right under our noses. All spear-headed by Facebook.

Consumers are on Facebook. Business are getting on Facebook.The tools that you have available for your website are becoming available on Facebook. Facebook is creating an API allowing businesses to mimic the Facebook experience.  Businesses adopt the new API and make their websites look like Facebook.

Isn’t the next step for businesses just to get rid of their web sites all together and just have a Facebook page? I mean, why MIMIC a Facebook page when you can just HAVE one?

It’s a devious plan, and it’s already been set in motion.

How Do You Sell Your Bottled Water?

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It’s easy to sell your bottled water if you have the only
bottled water stand in the middle of the desert.

What do you do when there is a bottled water stand every
mile? What about every 100 yards? Now, what if every bottled water stand in the
world were 2 feet in front of you, all in the same place?

Well, the strategy a lot of people take is one of price
competition.

“Buy from me because my bottled water costs less than that
guy’s!”

Another strategy is one using the quality argument.

“Buy from me because my bottled water is better than
everyone else’s!”

You could also use the branding method.

“Buy from me because you can trust that my company stands
behind its bottled water!”

Now take off the sales hat, and put on the consumer hat.

Who do you buy the bottled water from? Why did you make that
choice? What factors contributed to that choice?

Most of the time, we are told how consumers would choose our
bottled water over the “other guy’s”. Someone, somewhere, sat down with a lot
of analytics, focus groups, case studies, market research and a lot of other
people and decided that this way was the best (or at least most successful) way
to sell our bottled water.

They handed you a script and said, “Do this.”

If it doesn’t work, it’s easy to blame “those people”.

You did what “those people” said and it didn’t work.

Do you have a strategy? Do you have something that “works”?
Could your “something” work better than what “those people” handed to you?

Don’t be afraid to be different. The people that are the
most successful in this world did things differently. They tried new ideas.
They probably failed more then they succeeded. That’s how they became
successful.

In my automotive sales career, I did things differently. My sales managers hated that I did what I wanted. At the end of the day, however, it worked. I don’t know whether they were bothered more by the fact that I wasn’t doing what they told me to or by the fact that what I was doing was actually working.

How do you sell your water?

You better figure that out because every bottled water stand
in the world is, right now, 2 feet in front of the consumer’s face… and they’re
all only a mouse click away.

How To Add Inventory or Web Sites To Your Facebook Fan Page for Free

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So, you  have a Facebook Fan Page.

How do I “showcase” my cars to my customers without spamming their news feed?

Why not add your inventory to your fan page in a tab? (BTW, the methods I’m about to teach can be used to add ANY web page right within Facebook so, add your inventory.. add your credit application, etc)

The following instructions assume you already have a Facebook page. If you don’t, you can find directions here.

Step 1: In the search box, search for an application called “Static FBML”

Step 2: Go to their page. In the top left corner (under the logo), click on “Add to my Page”. A pop up box will ask you which page you want to add it to. Select that page.

Step 3: Go back to your news feed. Within the left menu will be an application called “Ads and Pages”. If not, click on “Applications” and search for it.

Step 4: That will take you to a page titled “Pages You Admin”. Find the page you added Static FBML to and click on “edit page”

Step 5: Scroll down the page until you see the Static FBML app under Applications. Click on “Edit”

Step 6: A pop up box will open. In the “Box Title” field, enter the text that you want the tab on your Facebook page’s wall to read.

Step 7: Cut and paste the below code into the lower box eliminating the BEGIN CODE and END CODE parts. Now edit it accordingly (Ive added an image illustrating the parts you need to edit)

BEGIN CODE
<script type=”text/javascript” charset=”utf-8″>
function disp1(var1) {
if (var1==’link_1′)
outside_location.setInnerFBML(link_1);
else if (var1==’link_2′)
outside_location.setInnerFBML(link_2);
}
</script>
<form>
<select id=”gowhere” onchange=”disp1(document.getElementById(‘gowhere’).getValue())”>
<option>-Select below-
<option value=”link_1″>View Our Inventory
<option value=”link_2″>Visit Our Website
</select>
</form>
<div id=”outside_location”></div>
<fb:js-string var=”link_1″><fb:iframe width=”760″ height=”1280″ frameborder=’0′ src=’http://backwebs.homenetinc.com/SalesDemo-ATijerina/browse/view_detailed/type_both/’ /></fb:js-string>
<fb:js-string var=”link_2″><fb:iframe width=”760″ height=”1280″ frameborder=’0′ src=’http://www.homenetsalesdemo5.com/site/’ /></fb:js-string>
<script type=”text/javascript” charset=”utf-8″>
var outside_location = document.getElementById(‘outside_location’);
</script>
END CODE

Note: The highlighted areas are the areas you will need to edit. Don’t edit anything else.

Step 8: In the first area (starting with <option value=”link_1″>) The text should be what you want the FIRST choice in your drop down box to say. Change that to describe where they would be going. In this example, the text reads – View Our Inventory

Step 9: Repeat Step 8 for the second link.

Step 10: The third highlighted area above is the URL you want to take them to. Notice each line of code corresponds with the number of the link you established in Steps 8 and 9. So, in this example, the first URL corresponds to the first link you created in Step 8.

Step 11: The fourth highlighted area is the second URL.

Step 12: Click “Save Changes”

Step 13: Back to the “Edit Page” page you were on in Step 4. Scroll down again and find the Static FBML application. Click on “Application Settings”. Make sure it reads “Box: Available” and “Tab: Added” under the little “profile” tab in the little pop up box.

Now you’re finished!

[Note: The Page Administrator cannot see the results after selecting from the drop-down (for some odd reason) but if you log-out, you can see it. Everyone but the Page Administrator(s) can see it, however.)

You can do this to infinity and beyond, by following the instructions in the addendum below (although I wouldn’t put a link to every page in your website).

This code creates a tab. Within that tab is a drop down box. Within that drop down box are your link titles. When someone selects a link, the page opens up WITHIN Facebook, right on that page.

Here’s an example of what the finished product looks like. LINK (Click on the “My Inventory” tab)

Of course, there are alternative ways to get your inventory onto your Facebook page. Gumiyo has a new application titled “MyShowroom”. If you do a search in Facebook, you can find it within the applications search results.

(You can see it on my example page linked above by clicking on the “MyShowroom” tab)

To use Gumiyo’s “MyShowroom” app, you need a way to feed your inventory to Gumiyo either through the company that handles your inventory feeds (I know a great company if you’re in need!), or directly with Gumiyo through a product that you have.

This is for the budget-minded and costs absolutely nothing! (assuming you have web pages to link to but chances are, if you’re a car dealership (or any other business), you at least have that.)

Now what?

You don’t want to get too intrusive with your Facebook Fan Page. Remember, the whole point of Social Media Marketing is to engage your customers, not irritate them.  If you irritate them, they will either “un-fan” you or “hide” you in their news feed. Either one of these actions will make you invisible to your fans. This, of course, is contradictory to what you’re trying to accomplish.

The second thing you have to keep in mind is that the number of fans you have is absolutely irrelevant. You’d rather have 100 fans that are actually your customers (or potential customers) then have 1000 fans who will never buy anything from you. Personally, I’d start by recruiting the people who already do business with your dealership, your service customers. Create a half-page flyer and stick it in every service customer’s vehicle prior to giving them their car back asking them to “fan” you on Facebook.

(Caveat: To get a customized URL for your Facebook Fan Page, you will need 25 fans. Get your employees to fan your page so you can get an easy URL for your customers.)

Keep your page interactive and throw a bone to your fans every once in awhile (ie. service coupon, etc.). Announce your sales. Keep relevant news about your dealership posted. If your dealership is participating in the community (ie sponsoring a little league baseball team, organizing a recycling campaign, etc.) Post information about your vehicles or new models. You have a never-ending supply of free content to add by just utilizing content from your OEM site. Take pictures of your sold customers with their new cars and post them within your photo album. Take photos of your staff. Be creative.

You want to humanize your dealership, NOT make a sales pitch.

Be helpful. Answer any questions you get. Respond to any complaints. Be pro-active. Do these things and, I promise, sales will come. This will only take you about 15-20 minutes a day (if that). Seeing as Facebook pages are now indexed by Google, this has some SEO value as well.

This is a cheap and easy way to interact with the people that truly matter….. your customers.

Hope this helped!

Addendum:

You can add more links to more pages simply by adding lines of code. To add a third line, you would copy and paste this line:

<option value=”link_2″>Visit Our Website

and change it to this:

<option value=”link_3″>The name of your new link

Make sure to paste it right after the first line you copied. In other words, keep them in order.

Then copy this line:

<fb:js-string var=”link_1″><fb:iframe width=”760″ height=”1280″ frameborder=’0′ src=’http://backwebs.homenetinc.com/SalesDemo-ATijerina/browse/view_detailed/type_both/’ /></fb:js-string>

and 1) change the “link_1” part to the new number (ie. “link_3), then 2) change the URL to the new web page corresponding with the title you gave link 3. IMPORTANT: make sure you keep the URL surrounded by the single parenthesis.. ‘desiredurl.com’

Keep repeating this process until you have all the links you want. They will all open within Facebook. (although only one at a time can be viewed.)



It Takes All Of the Pieces To Finish the Puzzle

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Recently, I got the opportunity to spend an entire day at a dealership analyzing their processes and marketing efforts.

There are many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that any dealership has to put together to end up with a “finished”puzzle that is an online marketing strategy. The particular vendor I work for offers a lot of services (puzzle pieces). It’s difficult to effectively outline all the pieces of the puzzle we have to offer in brief, to a dealer, on the phone. So, it was a nice treat to really let my creative juices flow and assist a dealer with their desire for success, in person and with their full attention, after being able to analyze what they’re currently doing.

Some of the services we offer require a little work on the dealers’ end. More often then not, when I present a “plan” and parts of it require work, people tend to start losing interest. You have concerns from the owner who doesn’t have confidence in his people to actually DO the work. You have management who passes the buck and says “We’ll get Bob to do it!” and then you have Bob who, typically, doesn’t really want to do it. He wants to stand outside, smoke cigarettes and wait for the next customer.

It was very refreshing to be able to analyze a dealership’s online marketing, to look at the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle I can provide and,from that, develop an aggressive online marketing strategy. Then have the opportunity to explain the entire strategy and how all of the “pieces” fit together and why this particular puzzle will work for them… in person and with everyone’s full attention.

Watching a room filled with the owner, all the managers and key salespeople follow along with each “piece” and really “get it” is priceless. They saw the puzzle I had created, saw the value and need for each piece of that puzzle and understood that putting the puzzle together takes work but, in the end, you have art.

I swear I saw light bulbs coming on over everyone’s heads. People were excited, engaged and motivated. There was complete buy-in from everyone.

Too often, the owner (or the decision-maker at the dealership) likes the ideas and strategies but decides to only implement some of them, rather than all of them. On this day, he, and his team, decided to start putting the puzzle together… with all of the pieces.

The confidence and trust given to me by everyone and the knowledge that I truly helped this dealership to grow as a company was priceless.

On this day, art was created and I rocked. (link)

The Death of the Internet Sales Department

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Internet Sales Departments will become extinct.

        Yes, I said it. That’s my
prediction.

        The reasoning
behind that prediction is an extrapolation of industry trends and
consumer shopping habits. We’ve all seen the trends.

        A) As time passes, more and
more consumers will start (and maybe even complete) their vehicle
purchases online. The natural result of that increase in behavior is
that a higher and higher percentage of any dealership’s sales will be
generated through their internet departments.

        B) Right now, “good”
internet departments account for anywhere from 30-40% of a dealerships
business. “Great” internet departments can easily generate half (or
more) of the sales within a retail sales department.

        If the current level of
consumer internet shopping generates 30-50% of dealerships sales, the
logical conclusion is that as (A) increases, so will (B).

So,
how do these factors support my prediction?

We all know that
people in retail automotive positions work hard. Crazy hard. They work
long hours and, generally, make good money. Of course, there are
exceptions to this rule but chances are that at some point in their
career – they worked a lot. Why do they work a lot? In general,
customers are not loyal to a salesperson. You can give them every
different way possible to contact you and do your best to reinforce that
you will be there whenever they are ready to buy and build great
rapport with them and they will still come in and buy a car from someone
else.

How many of you have experienced this? You come back from
your day(s) off just to find that your customer bought a vehicle. Isn’t
that frustrating? What does that make you do? Work harder.

Now,
every dealership has “normal” salespeople. What I mean by that is that
they work the “floor” and do not handle any internet leads. Typically,
the “retail” sales departments have antagonistic relationships with the
“internet” sales departments. They are run separately and, in most
dealerships, there is a clear divide between the two departments. Not in
all cases, mind you, just in general. They’re fighting over customers.
They’re fighting over deals. The sales managers tend to protect the
“floor”. The internet department is viewed as giving cars away and on,
and on. Animosity exists between the two groups.

So, now we have
two groups of people. Both groups are in sales. Both groups work hard.
Both groups make decent money.

As this increase in consumer
buying habits continues to shift towards the internet and the percentage
of sales within a dealership shift to the internet departments, this,
by necessity, decreases the sales within the “retail” sales department.
Dealerships are continually expanding their internet departments to
accommodate this shift. They have been shifting their advertising
dollars to capture these shoppers. Traditional advertising is declining.
We all preach this. We all tell dealers this is the future. Some
listen. Some don’t.

So, now we still have two groups of people.
Both groups are in sales. Both groups work hard. Both groups make decent
money. The dealership is shifting its advertising money to internet
sources. This, in turn, drives more traffic to their internet
departments creating the need for expansion, which, in turn, prompts the
dealership to spend more money to generate more traffic to its internet
departments.

Where does this leave the “retail” group?

As
this shift continues, and a higher and higher percentage of the total
sales volume is funneling through internet departments, the logical
conclusion is that less sales are being generated by the “retail” sales
departments. So now, the members of this second group, who are still in
sales and work hard, don’t make as “decent” of money. The reward for
that hard work diminishes.  This will contribute to a
higher turnover of “retail” or floor salespeople.

However, there
is an absolute need for retail salespeople. Customers still like to
shop in person. They still like to touch and feel the cars. They still
need to test drive vehicles. They still need to actually go into the
dealerships to do this regardless of how they originally started their
car shopping.

So, now we have a dilemma. How do we accommodate
the consumer when our second group whose sole purpose is to accommodate
these consumers, is diminishing because they are working hard and being
rewarded less.

The end result, out of necessity, will be a
merging of the two groups. You need people who can handle the internet
customer and you need people who are physically at your dealership ready
to meet and greet, find needs and wants, land them on a vehicle and
take them for a test drive. The dealership of the future will not have
“internet” sales departments, they will just have sales departments.
Every sales person will be responsible for not only handling floor
traffic, but also handling internet customers. This means, of course,
that every salesperson will have to be trained and have the skill set to
do this.

This merging creates one group of people. All of them
are in sales. All of them work hard. All of them make decent money.
Consumers continue to shift towards the internet but 100% of the sales
are In your “retail” sales departments. Just as in the past, everyone
has an equal opportunity to make a sale. Your eagles will still soar and
your dead weight will still sink but your dealership will be whole. No
longer will there be two groups of people. No longer will your sales
managers resent your internet departments. No longer will your
salespeople fight over customers (or deals).

Most retail sales
departments spend more time with each other than they do their families.
Their co-workers become their extended families. Is yours
dysfunctional?

With a single change of mentality and some
training, your dealership can become whole.

It’s going to happen.
It’s already happening.

Is your dealership ready?

Socialnomics and Guerrilla Marketing (inspired by Sean Bradley of Dealer Synergy)

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There’s a book that’s been out for awhile called Socialnomics:How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business by Eric Qualman that is fantastic.

If you’re still on the fence about what social media is doing to our society and how you can capitalize on it, you need to read this book. Since this book came out, I’ve seen the videos I’m going to embed here pop up in presentations at conferences and conventions. Yes, they’re that good and they’re eye-opening.

Amazing, isn’t it? 1.5 million people have watched this video (the longer version).

Here’s the follow-up to the first video you just watched. Not as many people have seen it but it goes into the ROI of Social Media Marketing.

I just had to share those two videos. They’re very powerful statements and really illustrate the value of social media and how it will transform our lives.

Now that Google has incorporated real-time search results of Facebook Fan Pages (link), the question you have to ask yourself is do you want your business to show up when consumers search for your product, or do you want someone else’s to?

An interesting article popped up in the Automotive News this week detailing a campaign that is being run by Scott Robinson Honda in Torrance, CA. Sean Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy, Inc., helped design this campaign. In a nutshell, Scott Robinson was targeting people shopping for Toyota Corollas (right in Toyota headquarter’s backyard). When people searched for the term “Toyota Corolla” at the top of the first page of search results there was a little video of a guy telling these searchers that maybe they should consider a Honda Civic (from Scott Robinson Honda, of course).

Imagine the possibilities of a dealer using a similar technique on their Facebook fan pages. Heck, they don’t even have to do it on their REAL fan page. They can have a fake Facebook fan page solely designed to be used for this purpose. Stick rich, relevant keywords in the status updates that can be indexed by Google or Twitter.

What would happen if you filled a Twitter feed and/or Facebook page with tweets or status updates like this….?

(Imagine YOU are a Honda dealer)

“Looking for a Toyota Corolla? Why not consider a Honda Civic? (insert TinyURL here)”

“Thinking about buying a car from (insert competitor name here)? We won’t be beat! Come to XXX Honda! (insert TinyURL here)

You get the idea.

Guerrilla marketing at its best.

Opportunities Aren’t On The Be-Back Bus

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Opportunity is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a favorable juncture of circumstances”. The second definition of the word is “a good chance for advancement or progress.”

A study I heard of awhile back said that 80% of people who went to a dealership left their house with the intention of buying a vehicle that day.

The customer walking onto your lot, sending you an e-mail or calling you on the phone is a combination of many things: the advertising your dealership does, a vehicle you have in your inventory, or the desire (or need) of the customer for a new vehicle. In other words, the stars and planets have aligned and all the right things happened that led to that particular customer calling your dealership at that exact time. For the customer, that moment in time was the perfect time. That’s why they called (or emailed or came to your dealership) when they did.

At that moment of interaction, you have a favorable set of circumstances leading to a good chance for advancement or progress.

Make sure you have the skills necessary to take advantage of that opportunity. You are in control of your own knowledge. If the dealership doesn’t have a training program in place or material for you to use, get them yourself. Stop making excuses.

Once, while working as a closer, my team and I were standing on the point awaiting the elusive “up”. The next thing we knew, a big yellow school bus pulled up on the street and parked. The driver came out and proceeded to look at some cars. Of course we all got a laugh out of that saying that the be-back bus had finally came back. She told my salesperson that she (and her husband) were looking for a vehicle and she saw a vehicle we had that caught her eye. Needless to say, the woman said she needed to bring her husband back.

The be-back bus became a be-back.

Make the most of each opportunity. You might not get it again. Carpe Diem.

Thoughts on Google’s Securing of Patent for Location-Based Advertising

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Today, an interesting development came to light. Mashable is reporting that Google has secured a broad patent for location-based advertising. (See Article Here)

One thing I noticed within the abstract for the patent kind of peaked my interest and I started thinking of how this could be leveraged in the car business.

Here’s the specific line that caught my eye.

“The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information.”

We all know that there are vendors in the automotive industry selling mobile marketing. As mobile phones get more sophisticated and more consumers start using them to browse the web, mobile websites and SMS marketing will become more important.

Imagine the possibilities of being able to designate which ad, or landing page a person sees based on where they actually are!

Would you give a bigger discount to the person shopping you from 60 miles away than to the person shopping you from 2 miles away? Do you think the 60-mile-away-person needs a bigger inventive to drive to you and buy from you? I certainly do.

Say you sell Hondas. Would you serve up a different ad to the person at a Toyota dealership then you would to the person standing on your competitor’s lot?

Now, imagine automating this effort.

The possibilities are mind-boggling.

(…and it sure could throw a few kinks into some iPhone apps seeing as Google now holds the patent.)

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