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Getting The Most From The 10th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition

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As people are getting prepared to depart for Orlando and the Digital Dealer Workshops followed by the 10th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, I thought some advice from someone who’s been to 6 of the 9 previous conferences would be helpful for those first-timers. This will be my first conference as an employee of Dealer Communications so these tips are derived from my experience gained from attending as a dealer.

1. Registration: Show up early to pick up your badge. Unless you like to see and wait in a line similar to one at Disneyland, make sure to find out when registration opens and get there early. Many people show up at the last minute and end up having to wait spending time they could be using for more productive purposes.

2. Planning: (click here to print the agenda before you go.) Read the session descriptions and plan (even if it’s tentatively) which ones you want to go to. There’s not a lot of transition time from one session to the other and there’s nothing worse than having to decide in-between sessions which to go to and then having to find the appropriate room and be late to a session.

3. Dress: Dress is business casual. These is an intense day of training. Be comfortable so you can concentrate on what’s being taught. You’ll be doing stuff from 7:30am-7:30pm on the second day so make sure whatever you wear (including shoes) will work for you for 12 hours of activities. Also keep in mind that there are plenty of post-conference opportunities to network so it could even be longer.

4. What to bring: You don’t want to be carrying around 20 pounds of “stuff” for 12 hours, I promise. It will get old fast. Bring only the necessities. Pads and pens are provided at every session. Refreshments are provided throughout the day. If you feel the need to bring your laptop, remember that electrical outlets are at a premium. If I could rent them out, I’d make a fortune. Also, while the rooms do have outlets, the setups may not make it convenient to charge items while paying attention to what’s being taught. Veterans carry only what’s necessary. Keep in mind that you will be provided with a bag to carry any exhibitor information or swag that you attain. Oh, and bring lots of business cards. You’ll need them. Keep in mind that most speakers will be happy to e-mail you their Powerpoints after the conference. All you need to do is ask them after their session.

5. Round–tables: Don’t miss the Peer Networking Round-tables on Tuesday morning. This offers you the chance to meet and ask questions of your peers. We’ll have 40 tables all split into different categories for you to choose from. This is a great way for you to meet some non-competing dealer peers that you can utilize as future sounding boards and/or share information with after the conference.

6. Exhibit Hall: Don’t be afraid of it. This is a unique opportunity to explore and see what new services and products are available. Nobody likes getting 20 solicitation calls per day while they’re in their store trying to sell a car so look at this is an opportunity to get all of your questions answered (and curiosity satisfied) in one place and at the same time. I always discovered at least one new thing. Whether or not you’re looking to add something to your store, knowing what your competitors may be using is valuable information. It’s also a GREAT opportunity to collect some cool swag and enter drawings and contests for some sweet prizes. Most vendors restrict their prizes to dealers so you’ll have an excellent shot at winning just for dropping off your business card with them. By visiting them, you may also get invited to some post-conference networking event that they are hosting.

7. Networking: Another valuable activity at the conference is the ability to network with your peers. We provide several opportunities to so this during our cocktail receptions. Use this time to get to know and meet new people. The exhibit hall is also open during this time so you could use this as another opportunity to visit with the exhibitors as well as enjoy a beverage and some appetizers.

8. SCVNGR: This year we’ve partnered with SCVNGR to offer attendees a fun promotion and way to earn some cool prizes like a MacBook Air and iPad 2 (and more) to dealers and managers just for participating in this fun promotion by completing challenges to earn points. Everyone who participates can earn an extra free drink at one of the networking receptions and unlock a custom DD10 virtual badge! You can also use this promotion as an educational opportunity. It’s a way for you to explore location-based services (if you’re not familiar with them) and see how they can be used to promote interaction with your business. You can find all the information you need to participate by checking in the conference program or, if you want to get a head start, you can text “DDFUTURE” to 48696

9. Opt–in for Text Announcements & Alerts: By opting in for text alerts and announcements, you’ll be up to date on any changes to the agenda or special announcement s. This will also provide you with a mobile agenda for you to use to navigate around from session to session. It’s as easy as texting “DD10” to 48696

10. Don’t Miss A Thing: You’ll be getting a lot of information in a relatively short period of time. Some people get overwhelmed. Don’t. There are plenty of ways in which to maximize your experience. If you missed a session you wanted to hear because there were two sessions held at the same time, track down the speaker for the session you missed and I’m certain they’ll be happy to share their presentation with you. If you can’t track them down, find me and I’ll get a hold of them for you and have them e-mail you the information if I can’t connect you two at the conference.

I hope this was helpful. For first-time attendees, welcome. We are confident that not only will you return for future conferences but will bring more people from your dealership next time. For returning attendees, thank you for your support and patronage. We strive to bring you a bigger and better conference every time. Please feel free to e-mail me at arnold(at)dealer-communications.com if you have any questions you’d like answered before the conference.

See you in Orlando!

Originally published on DealerElite.net and ADM

Stan Sher, Public Figure, at the Innovative Dealer Summit

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I recently attended the Innovative Dealer Summit in Denver, CO. One of the highlights was a session by Stan Sher, President of Dealer eTraining. There were so many sessions at the Innovative Dealer Summit, and I had so many friends speaking, that I ended up jumping from room to room to hear small bits of everyone’s presentations rather than limit myself to only one session per hour block of time. 

Once I hit Stan’s session, however, I was completely riveted and ended up watching the whole thing, unable to leave. Kicking myself for not thinking about it sooner, I whipped out my iPhone and started filming to preserve this moment in all of its glory. My brain hurt at the end from the information that was shared. I hope you get out of it what i did. 
Some of my favorite sound-bites:
“I’m a public figure. I let it out there.”

“I personally don’t like to have cable anymore in my house because it’s a rip-off” (There was an attendee in the room from the local cable company. Check out the guy’s reaction at 7:20 in Part 1.. Whoops!)

(in reference to Twitter) “I don’t think anyone’s gotten to it yet…its still one of those things where it’s still like.. is it going to go? Is it not going to go?”

“Parts always seems to be the one department in the dealership that doesn’t seem to get a whole lot done.”

(on branded personal profiles on Facebook) “Do not accept friend requests for anybody.”

(on how Facebook’s news feed is a distraction) “It took me 25 minutes to respond.. to try and actually get my job done. I wasted 25 minutes of work..myself. I’m a pretty serious individual.. I’m very strict about a lot of things and I was still goofing off.”

..and don’t miss the “Angelina’s Crab Cakes” story in Part 4!

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



The Face-Off with Grant Cardone

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Well, the title is a little misleading. Here’s how this went down. 

Grant Cardone and I ran into each other at the ecarlist party at NADA. I really wasn’t sure how he felt about my blog posts so I was in a bit of a defensive mode. To his credit, Grant was a great sport. He wanted to take a video of me at the party but neither of us knew what the video should be “about”. Since I was there filming interviews for DrivingSalesTV , I suggested we film a “debate” on proper social media the next morning. I really wasn’t sure if he’d show up. When I got to the press room at NADA, however, he was actually there waiting for me.
It didn’t turn into a debate really. It ended up more of a discussion. See the results for yourself.
Interview with Grant – Part 1

Interview with Grant – Part 2

The Ethics of Online Reviews

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This article started as an investigation into a company providing services to the automotive industry,Review Boost. I didn’t know much about the company, only that it had received some negative press and accusations of gaming online reviews. In fact, it even had a local San Antonio television station, KSAT, run a news segment regarding a dealership who used their services. There have been blog articles written questioning the authenticity of the reviews as well as articles written in both Automotive News and F&I Magazine.

The importance of reputation management has been increasingly on dealers’ minds, being, from the dealers I spoke with and interviewed for DrivingSalesTV, the hot topic of this year’s NADA convention. The FTC is cracking down on companies engaging in posting misleading reviews, legislators are pushing for stricter laws regarding this practice, legal advisors are reporting that a company exposes themselves tolegal risks by engaging in this act, and a California law went into effect Jan 1, 2011 making it a criminal activity. Add to these variables the fact that search engines are starting to increase the importance of online reviews in their algorithms and incorporating them into search results, naturally, when they popped up on my radar again after partnering up with an industry vendor, I was curious as to why the partnership happened and I started asking questions and doing some homework.

[Edit: After sharing my article with representatives from Review Boost, they informed me that they decided not to move forward with the partnership I referred to above.]

I spoke with William, the owner of Review Boost, at length. We spoke for upwards of an hour and he walked me through what his company does. First, to be clear, they deny all accusations of gaming reviews and/or writing the reviews themselves. William was very pleasant, if understandably nervous during our conversation but, in my opinion, sincerely wanted to clear the air regarding what his company does. Without revealing too many of his proprietary practices, which he shared with me, I didn’t get the impression that he is doing anything wrong at all. Now, given that there were already a ton of articles investigating and breaking down why other people feel that they are, I didn’t feel the need to rehash what others have already done and I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

See, William isn’t in the car business. Review Boost began assisting local businesses like dentists, doctors, and such. It ended up that dealers account for about 30% of their current client base but this wasn’t by design. The crux of their strategy, which is what surprised me the most, is that they administer a website called myreviewboost.com in which they post reviews collected from clients of their dealers. These reviews are then syndicated across about 40 online review directories through partnerships with them. I was surprised that such a syndication was allowed but I did some investigating and, not only is it allowed, but it is encouraged. Judysbook.com, in example, promotes review sharing partnerships openly.

I reached out to Google themselves. The fact that they syndicate reviews is telling about their policies but they did point out within their Review Posting Guidelines that conflicts of interest, including misrepresentation and/or posting reviews on behalf of others is not allowed.

In essence, William’s company is soliciting reviews only from the customers which the dealer provides contact information to them. They do not edit the reviews – whether positive or negative. They will moderate a negative review, if received, allowing the dealer a chance to resolve the problem and then, when the dealer reports that the problem has been resolved, resurveying the customer to get an updated review. In my mind, this absolutely explains why almost every review is positive.

If I were a dealer who needed to increase my online reputation, I certainly wouldn’t hand over an unhappy customer’s e-mail address to be reviewed. In fact, I know many dealers that will occassionally RDR cars to the factory with incorrect information to avoid a potential negative CSI survey and/or “buy” surveys from their customers through offers of free oil changes or something to encourage their consumers to return the surveys to THEM and not mail them in to their OEM unscreened.

William’s strategy made perfect sense to me and the syndication accounted for the reason for the same review appearing on multiple sites. So while this practice may be viewed by some to be unethical, it’s not illegal or in violation of these directories terms of service. They’re simply taking advantage of existing online directories willingness to crawl their review site to maximize the SEO value of each review they collected from their client’s customers.

So, is this article about Review Boost? No. The real story is what is ethical in the online reputation management arena.

I’m sure that we would all agree that posting fake reviews is unethical and, in some cases, illegal.

What about these practices?

  • Posting REAL reviews, verbatim, by your customers on their behalf with their permission.
  • Screening WHO gets reviewed to avoid negative reviews.
  • Choosing which reviews get displayed (ie. avoiding sites in which negative reviews exist)

The fact is that online reputation management, and the process in which dealers are utilizing, are becoming more and more important for the many reasons I described above.

How do you feel about this? What’s ethical or unethical regarding online reputation management?

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

Can You Be A Packer Fan in Bear-Town at Work?

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Yesterday, a good friend of mine, Joe Webb, President of DealerKnows Consulting, posted a news article on his Facebook wall that got all sorts of comments from his friends.

In summary, the article involved a car dealership in Chicago who, on the day after their loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game, fired a salesperson for wearing to work, and refusing to remove, a Green Bay Packers tie.

Article: Packer Backer fired for wearing Green Bay Tie

Most of the discussion centered around whether it was legal to fire this employee for refusing to remove the tie. Some of it questioned this salesperson’s right to wear it.

Was the employer justified in firing him?

Did the employee have the right to wear it at work?

What do you think?

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

David vs. Goliath – The Grant Cardone Saga Continues

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Throughout the day yesterday, via Twitter, e-mail and YouTube, Grant and I have been discussing why I believe his contest is bad and why he shouldn’t be teaching dealers inappropriate social media tactics. I think I explained myself clearly in my previous blog post and, in the interest of not writing a book here, I’m going to share the conversations, some select tweets, and his YouTube video which is without a doubt in response to our discussions.

[Note: These e-mails are unedited.]
From Grant to me:
Arnold, 

The
biggest thing I have spent my career on is inspiring sales people to do MORE not
do less. If a sales person is going to fail let them fail by doing too
much and then making adjustments to do too much a
better way.   

Your
suggestions about the program being wrong suggest to take action is incorrect
and causes people to be ‘careful’ rather than
to take action.  

The
world is filled with noise…..the only way people can break out is to take
action and lots of it.  You are going to love the 10X rule because it is about taking
action in massive amounts.  

George
Patton said, “a marginal plan executed ferociously is better than a well
thought out plan never executed.”

Encourage
people to make mistakes by taking more action not by labeling actions wrong,
incorrect, against the rules – There is enough of this
encouragement already.

Neither
you nor me or experts on social media….no one yet knows what actually works.
 Lets agree to disagree and both discover what does
work by experimenting…

 All
my love….

My reply to Grant:

So, in your opinion, violating Facebook’s Terms of Service as
well as the laws of the State of California (which have both civil and criminal
penalties) is ok?

 Even if we disregard the whole “spamming everyone” part of my
argument, you can’t seriously be saying its ok for dealers to break rules and
laws because taking “more action” is better than less?

The people that are participating in your contest are ALREADY
YOUR FANS, Grant. By making them spam their friends, you do not accomplish
increasing your exposure to new people. It’s great to have promotions and
contest. Get people involved and engaging with you, just don’t make them do it
at their friends’ expense and makes sure you’re doing it legally and in
compliance with the rules and laws that govern them.

His reply to me:

Dude,

 I am not ‘making’ anyone do anything and I am not
encouraging spamming.

I put together a contest to encourage people to learn while
they play.

Most of the people out there don’t even know how to start a
FB page… 

We have had over 20 people create video for the first time.
People are having fun with this thing and today now learning new ways to fine-target their message to clients so it is
not perceived negatively

Be a lover man, not a hater

Be an inspirer not a stopper.

Be an encouragement and supporter for action and
activity- 

Still love you…

My reply to Grant:

You have to take responsibility as a public figure and role
model for dealers, Grant. People look up to you and will follow your lead. I
hold you to a higher level of accountability to what you put out into the world
than I do the average dealer.

I’m not alone in my thoughts. Many people share my opinion on
your contest. I think the video part of your contest is great. You ARE making
them post on FB and Twitter about your contest. If they don’t they can’t win so
if they want to participate, they have to do it.

The fact that they don’t know, or have, proper social media
skills only makes it worse. You’re teaching them the wrong way to do things,
not the right way.

I still love you too. You’re still them man. You don’t know how
many people have messaged me kudos for standing up to you and saying most
people would be afraid to. I just tell them that you can handle it and,
hopefully, respect my opinion.

My job involves teaching dealers how to do it right. Your reach
and exposure certainly outweighs mine but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t advise
people not to follow your example. That would be neglecting my job, and
responsibility, in bringing proper digital marketing techniques into their
dealerships.

His reply to me:

Right on bro=  but there is a difference between
standing up and making someone else wrong…

at this point it seems like you are more interested in making me wrong
….

Based on what you are suggesting the  social media campaign
I used to help NADA get the Brownback Amendment passed which protected auto dealerships from losing their finance depts. would have
violated the law.  I slammed that thing every way possible from FB, TWeets, Youtube to direct emails into unwanted and completely
disconnected fields…

Where did you get that great signature…

My reply to Grant:

No, your Brownback Amendment activity was a “rally” so to speak.
It was a call to action and information for dealers. YOU were doing the
“spamming” if people considered it that, which I didn’t.

This is a contest. The state of California has laws regarding
contests, it does not have laws about social media. FACEBOOK, on the other hand,
has rules about having contests on their website, which your contest does not
comply with.

I’m not interested in making you wrong. I KNOW you are. This is
not an opinion. I provided links to the laws and Facebook policies in my blog.
Feel free to read them for yourself.

Yes, you inspired my putting my signature image in my e-mails.
It was always my signature though. I didn’t make mine look like yours. You’ve
inspired me to do a lot of things. You’ve inspired me to be better at what I do
and helped me do that because I made a commitment to listen and learn.

I’m trying to HELP you understand that it’s important that you
teach the RIGHT way to do social media. Between you and I, we both know that
you’re great at teaching closing techniques to salespeople and motivating them.
We also both know that you’ve never sold a car via the internet and, in fact,
I’ve helped you with social media in the past.

I AM recognized as a thought-leader and expert in the field of
social media. That’s why I’m enlisted to do all of the social media for most of
the major auto conferences. They certainly don’t ask me to do it because I
don’t know how.

I know you’re a busy guy and probably don’t have time to go back
and forth with me. Ive always had your back and you know that. Ive contacted
you when your account was hacked. Ive shown you a lot of things. Just know that
I believe you needed to hear this and, hopefully, you’ll realize your mistake
and take action to change it.

Don’t make this a right vs. wrong thing. Don’t worry about
saving face. Just fix the problem.

As we tweeted back and forth today, a friend of mine, stated via Twitter that he was backing off because it was pissing his friends off. Here’s the conversation:


To even suggest to Stan that he shouldn’t be friends with someone (which he implies) who is advising him that he is going to alienate his friends by continuing his actions is not only irresponsible but it’s absolutely self-centered. I know for a fact that I am not the only one giving Stan this advice.
Why does Grant want to encourage Stan not to take my advice? The answer is simple:
He wants people promoting him no matter what the cost is to them!
Now we get to the YouTube part. [Note: This is my favorite.]

While he doesn’t mention me by name, it’s real tough for me to believe that this video wasn’t created in response to my calling him out and trying to make him realize that he is NOT helping his dealers. He is hurting them. Obviously, he doesn’t care. He’s more interested in self-promotion than on the social media success of his dealer audience.
Let’s examine some of his comments:
“..you’re learning what the difference between spam is and a good coordinated program.”
Yeah we’re learning that what YOU’RE doing is spamming. What you’re NOT showing us is a “good, coordinated program”. Running a contest via a software program called Contest Burner that is designed to spam people (for only $147). If you read their website, it describes Grant’s contest EXACTLY. It’s all about the following:
  • Flooding your site with massive traffic
  • Creating an army of back-links from all over the net
  • building a monstrous, responsive list
  • explode your revenue
Funny how there’s not ONE MENTION on that incredibly long home page telling you about RESPONSIBLE social media or that the program is designed to engage your fans and retain them. Of course not, it’s not designed to be responsible. This is what it accomplishes.
“With Contest Burner, your visitors will “happily” spread the word about your site all over the web. They’ll get engaged with your message… and become raving fans!

In fact, they’ll tell everyone about how great you (or your product) is and they’ll recruit people (influence them) to visit your site!”
Bravo, Grant. You’ve enlisted all of your fans to tell everyone they know how great you are while, at the same time, annoying the hell out of them.
Now let’s examine his logic and reasoning to his fans on his YouTube video:
  • You shouldn’t listen to their friends and colleagues but “push through the criticism”.
  • Social media is no different than him “knocking on a door”
  • “if you stop because people are asking you to stop, you’re done.”
  • If you’re creative, it’s not spam
  • Social media is no different than knocking on a door, making a phone call, or sending out a piece of mail, it’s just electronic.
  1. I don’t need to listen to my friends and colleagues. You’re the only thing that matters. Got it.
  2. It’s not like “knocking on doors”, it’s like knocking on your FRIEND’S DOORS. I’m sure your friends would appreciate you harassing them.
  3. Uh… when did “No” stop meaning “No”?
  4. Even if it’s creative, it’s still spam.
  5. You can be spam whether you’re knocking on a door, making a phone call, sending mail, sending e-mail or being on social media. In fact, there are laws regarding the use of 4 of the 5 of these and, I suspect, there will eventually be laws regarding the use of social media.
I’m sorry but anyone that tells me to annoy my friends and family, despite their requests to stop, and to “push through” anyways, is not doing me any favors.
The ONLY person winning from this contest is Grant Cardone. 
If you’re friends, family, and business connections are only worth $500 to you… well.. that says a lot.
[As I finished this post, I got another e-mail from Grant]

Dude  

All you have done is make
wrong – there is no direction, no guidance, and no teaching.

there have been no efforts to
do so either….

its been a constant
commercial of what I am doing wrong….then i expect you got some cowards
patting you on the back and got all inspired..
 but you didn’t help guide or inform anyone of what to do only encourage
them not to do!

My friends don’t do that with
me.  Teachers and mentors that I learn from encourage me to use my
strengths and

and never suggest that I do
less but offer advice how I can be more effective…

Go back and look at your
tweets and see how policeman like they are.  I am taking my time to tell
you this because I like you and would like you to be
supportive of me and what I am doing….

A better way to do this is by
example —– why don’t you get involved in the program and show them how to do
it or do you just monday morning quarterback?

My response to Grant:

Do you honestly believe that you are helping dealers learn anything
about social media?

His answer:

I
got a 100 from my brother with a message on it for you…

I responded with one word: nice
To be fair, he did respond with the following (despite the fact that I absolutely took the last e-mail seriously):

Just
loving you baby…  I have given you too much attention today…

but
it has been fun! Have a monster year and best to you..

I have nothing to gain by criticizing Grant’s contest except putting an end to the continuous stream of Grant-spam that I’ve been getting. He, on the other hand, has everything to gain by encouraging the continued participation of his contestants.
I absolutely feel like David and he is Goliath. Am I trying to “topple” him? No. Am I trying to get his attention and make him realize what he’s doing is wrong? Yes. 
The scariest part is.. maybe he already realizes it.

Oh, and Grant, if you want me to show you how to “do it right”, I’d be happy to.
Onto my commercial: Very soon, I may have a ton of Grant Cardone material available for bid on eBay including some signed photos, books and tons of audio material. 
Just kidding.. maybe.





GM creates more jobs.. in Mexico

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I don’t know about everyone else but it seems to me that GM’s decision to create more jobs in Mexico is absolutely bad business. Without the U.S. taxpayer, GM may not have a business at this point.

This seems like a complete snub to Americans, who, last I heard, needed jobs. As of December 2010, thenational unemployment rate was 9.1%.

It may be cheaper to have factories in Mexico and employ Mexicans. Being of Hispanic origin, I have nothing against Mexicans.

The United States still owns about a third of General Motors and is the largest shareholder.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Does GM have any obligation to the taxpayers? Should the United States government intervene – which is its right as a shareholder?

[This post is in response to this article from 1/20/2011]

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

How to: Turn Your Facebook Fans Into Spammers

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Businesses are constantly trying to generate word-of-mouth
and increase their exposure in social media via promotions. Promotions are an
effective way of increasing eyeballs and, perhaps, generating new customers, if
done right.

If done WRONG, it can actually do the opposite. What do I
mean by that?

This is how I’ve seen promotions being run lately and the
thought process that I suspect went along with it.

  1.  I want exposure or new customers.
  2. I’m going to hold a giveaway or contest via
    Facebook.
  3. I’m going to enlist my existing fans or customers to spread my message.
  4. To do that, I’m going to require them to “share” my message with their social network. The more they share, the greater the likelihood that they will win.
  5. By doing this, my message will be shared with, hopefully, a lot of people and my business will gain exposure that meets or exceeds the value of the prize(s) being awarded.

There’s a couple of problems with this thought process for
both the business and the fans of that business.

First, requiring your fans to “share” on Facebook is against
their Terms of Service . To be precise, it clearly states that:

“Section 2.1:  You will not condition entry to
the promotion upon taking any other action on Facebook, for example, liking a
status update or photo, commenting on a Wall, or uploading a photo.”

Second, by encouraging
your existing fans to repeatedly share your message by rewarding them to do
that, your fans run the risk of alienating members of their social network. By
alienating their “friends”, they run the risk of being “unfriended” or, at the
very least, hidden. If your “fans” are hidden or “unfriended”, their social
graph decreases making the sharing
of your message less effective not
to mention the detrimental effect it will have on your fans by decreasing their
reach.

You know this is true.
Think “Mafia Wars” or “Farmville”. How many people have you “unfriended” or
hidden because of their continuous sharing of these social games’ content? How
many dealers have you unfriended or hidden because, despite everything we say, they continue to post their inventory continuously online?

The third aspect of this
is that most businesses open their contests up to everyone, not just their
customer base. I’ve heard of plenty of dealership vendors and/or people who would otherwise never do business with
a company entering and winning a Facebook promotion. It’s just as easy to “unlike”
a business Facebook page after the contest ends as it is to “like” it in the
first place.

The fourth problem is
that, just because your business is holding a contest or promotion on Facebook,
it doesn’t exempt you from your state’s laws regarding contests and promotions.
In example, California has strict laws dictating how you must run a promotion
including mandatory disclosures. Just because the winner of your contest may
not be in California doesn’t exempt you from your state’s laws.

Acura started a
promotion called “Compete Like A Pro last week. On their Facebook page, these
are the exact words:

“All you have to do is work your social network as hard as your
quads to earn the most votes. Spread the word on your wall, send friends an
email – do whatever it takes to let people know how serious you are about your
action sport.”

Buick, on the other
hand, also has a social media promotion called “Quest for the Keys”. Their promotion doesn’t involve
spamming your friends anywhere. It involves participation by the contestants to
“find” keys that are hidden in various US cities. To gather clues, you (as a
participant) must pay attention to their various social network assets. Now you
have people regularly monitoring and visiting your various social networks and,
most importantly, not annoying the hell out of their friends. 

Finally, you have to
consider the message you are sending. A contest going on right now being run by
Grant Cardone is wrong on so many levels.

Let’s analyze WHY.

First, it violates Facebook’s Terms of Service.

Second, anyone who wants
to win is REQUIRED to spam their friends by posting on Facebook and Twitter. (I
don’t have a problem with the YouTube component because, while you have to
create a creative YouTube video promoting the contest, it doesn’t appear that
you are required to share it to increase your chances of winning (although I
could be wrong)). You may argue that it’s not required but let’s be honest here, the premise of the contest is that you score points by sharing on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. If you don’t share, you don’t score points which means you can’t win. This pretty much means that, to participate in the contest, and have a chance at winning, you are required to spam your friends.

Third, the contest is in
violation of promotion and contest LAWS of the State of California as, at  the very least, it doesn’t contain the proper
disclosures. Now I’m not a lawyer but these laws carry not only civil
penalties, but also criminal ones.

I’m not even going to embed these videos into this post but, if you haven’t seen them, here are the links:

Grant Cardone Social Media Contest – Win $10,000

Grant Cardone Social Media Contest – Win $10,000 Part II

The final, and maybe most important, is simple.

What message are you
sending to people when the “Grand Prize” is $10,000 in “store credit” OR an
iPad (Retail value approximately $500) OR $500 cash. Second prize is $5,000 in “store
credit” or $250 cash.

Maybe it’s just me but
it “seems” that $10,000 of his training material just got equated to $500 cash.
I’m sure that he doesn’t really “want” anyone choosing the iPad or cash, that
would be the ultimate snub. That being said, why on earth would you even plant
the SEED of that idea in your customer’s minds?

Third place is… wait for
it.. a set of steak knives. Of course, if you don’t want the steak knives, he
has also offered the third place winner a $100 bill with a personal message on it
that he won from his twin brother. Check it out.

Note: Since he began the
promotion, he has since censored out the “message” written on the $100 bill within the video. Guess he thought it was a bad idea after the fact. Luckily, I preserved it.

In the second video (on
the day the promotion started), his message to his fans was the following:

“.. or I will give you
this hundred with a personal message to you.. a personal 2011 message.”

Well, if his personal
message to “me” (seeing as I’m a fan) is what is written on the $100 bill from
the first video, that’s plain insulting. Now, I know Grant personally. I’ve
always supported him and sincerely like his training materials. Lately,
however, some of his messages have contained material or comments that I find
offensive. Being from the car business, I’m pretty thick-skinned and have heard
(and participated in) plenty of swear words.

I can certainly tell you
that I have NEVER sworn in front of any customer and I certainly have NEVER
delivered any message similar to the one Grant wants to “personally” deliver to one lucky “fan”, who is, in fact, his customer.

If that’s what you want
to tell me, I only have one thing to say… right back at you.

[Update 1/19: Day three of the contest brings another level that is the fun of getting my fans to spam their friends and, this time, it’s via E-MAIL! Yes, I’m so ready to upload my contact list into your system so that I can spam everyone I know. Video here: Grant Cardone Contest – Emailing Contacts ]

Disclaimer: In this rant (yeah, it’s a rant), I’m not trying to
imply that Grant’s material has no value. On the contrary, I used his material
to help me sell a lot of cars and make a ton of money. I’ve always been a fan
of his and recommended his material to anyone that asked me. I’ve helped him
spread his message and assisted him personally in social media when he’s asked
me to. The purpose of this rant WAS, however, to not only warn businesses of
some of the dangers inherent in running a Facebook promotion wrong, but to
call Grant out on his ridiculous contest. I’m not holding back here and I’m
sure this won’t be appreciated but it’s a message that people need to hear..
especially Grant Cardone. 

Of course, this is all my opinion. I’ll let you decide whether you agree with me or not.

With the Verizon iPhone Coming, Is It Time To Re-Think Mobile Marketing?

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With today’s announcement of the iPhone coming to Verizon, you have to analyze the mobile market and wonder if it’s time to embrace mobile marketing (if you haven’t already).

The facts are that 85% (264 million) of the US population (307 million) has a cell phone.

 

Smartphones accounted for about 30% of all phones as of Oct. 2010 but that number is projected to overtake non-smartphones in 2011 per Nielsen. That would take the number of smartphone users to 132 million across all cell networks – almost 1/2 the population of the U.S.

Android and iPhone users account for about 1/2 the total number of smartphones in use but the iPhone accounts for 65% of AT&T smartphone subscribers. I’m expecting that the chances that the percentage of Verizon smartphone users who have an iPhone will approach, if not eclipse, the percentage that AT&T has. Assuming this holds true, the iPhone will end up accounting for 86 million smartphones with the Android comprising 30 million.

A large percentage of the US population will have, and be using, smartphones. According to Morgan Stanley, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage within 4 years (by 2014).

Getting the picture? This isn’t even accounting for web traffic originating via iPads, iPod Touches and Android-based tablets. It also doesn’t account for traffic generated through apps.

Bottom line is that you need to have a mobile website and/or make sure that you’re existing website is mobile-friendly, at the very least.

It’s time to seriously re-visit a mobile marketing strategy if you don’t have one. Don’t play catch-up later.

 Originally published on DrivingSales.com

 

Are OEMs Finally Embracing Social Media?

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In analyzing the “Top Social Brands of 2010” list put out by Vitrue, you may notice a trend. (Keep in mind that this is a list compiled that includes every brand in existence and their social media presence and activity. That’s huge.) The automotive manufacturers have stepped up their social media game.

Vitrue “analyz(es) online conversations on a daily basis across social networks blogs, micro-blogs, photo and video sharing sites using the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI).”

A full 17% of the list is from the transportation industry. Ford was the highest ranked automotive industry representative at #11 followed closely by Mercedes (#12) and BMW (#13). General Motors scored the highest increased ranking amongst automotive manufacturers (2nd highest increase overall) jumping 31% from #85 to #54 over last year.

All of the OEMs showed an increase in their social media branding and presence except for Ferrari (-1%), Toyota (-2%), Porsche (-2%), Jeep (-6%), and Kia (-9%).

All of these brands were on the list last year but the lowest ranked one in 2010 was at #62 (Kia) versus #85 in 2009 (General Motors).

Here’s the annotated list of automotive manufacturers and how they ranked in 2010 as well as their 2009 ranking and percentage change.

#11 Ford (#24 / +13%)
#12 Mercedes Benz (#17 / +5%)
#13 BMW (#20 / +7%)
#20 Honda (#25 / +5%)
#27 Ferrari (#26 / -1%)
#30 Nissan (#37 / +7%)
#35 Audi (#45 / +10%)
#40 Toyota (#38 / -2%)
#45 Suzuki (#61 / +16%)
#49 Volkswagen (#67 / +18%)
#52 Dodge (#57 / +5%)
#54 General Motors (#85 / +31%)
#57 Porsche (#55 / -2%)
#59 Chevrolet (#80 / +21%)
#61 Jeep (#56 / -6%)
#62 Kia (#53 / -9%)

(The complete list can be found here. The Vitrue 100 and, in case you were curious, the missing “transportation” company from my annotated list is Harley Davidson at #71.)

What do you read into these statistics?

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

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