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Google Unveils “Hotspot” – its own Location-Based Service

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Well, we may have just found out why Google reviews and place pages have been acting crazy for the last few months (reviews disappearing and re-appearing, etc.)

Mashable announced that Google unwrapped it’s own new location-based service named “Hotspot” tonight.

“With Hotspot, users will be encouraged to rate and review businesses directly from their Google-linked profile. Users’ ratings and reviews are tracked with a counter at the top of each profile, and likes and dislikes are remembered and used in Google’s recommendation engine.”

I have yet to play with it but from the description – easy to use, simplistic, easy to write reviews – it seems like something non-techy people might get into or, at the very least, utilize when researching businesses – need a place to eat? – while on the go.

Whether the “average” person leaves a bunch of reviews is moot, in my opinion. Reviews will be left in the same manner that they have been on Google. The only difference will be that there will be one more venue with which to leave a review.

The fact that Google is still the dominant way in which most consumers start a business search leans heavily in their favor. Even with Facebook Places’ shadow ever present, in this arena – reviews- Google definitely has the edge.

This development also should encourage business owners to shift reviews back towards Google Place pages, especially if “likes”, “dislikes” and number of reviews left are weighted factors in Google search results as seems to be indicated by this article.

This story is definitely still developing so it’s way too early to foresee any definitive ramifications from this. I can definitely tell you that you should stay tuned, I will be.

Oh, and if anyone has an Android phone, supposedly this is accessible immediately. If you want to check it out and comment back, that would be appreciated!

Originally published on DrivingSales.com 

 

Google Announces ‘Instant Previews’ Search Feature

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I blogged about this here on DrivingSales on Oct 6th, and according to this article from ABC News, Google is now rolling out the “Instant Previews” search feature over the next couple of days.

This is the quote from this article that stands out and reinforces my views on this game-changing Google feature that I blogged about:

“The “Instant Previews” feature announced Tuesday is meant to help people bypass websites that are either irrelevant or simply too visually cluttered for their tastes. It works for Google Web searches, as well as searches for news, video and local businesses.”

All I can say is that you better know what people are seeing in the preview of your website very quickly after this feature goes live. Now, instead of bouncing from your website, they’ll just never have to go there.

I’m still unsure how flash-based websites will translate into a “preview”. It “could” be that it just shows as black IF it is a live preview (versus an image).

SEO on Google has just added a new dimension to your search results. Now not only do you have to worry about WHERE you show up in search results but also HOW your website appears in the Instant Preview.

I’m sure you don’t want people “bypass(ing)” your website.

I, personally, think this is a HUGE game-changer. Websites that have relevant, “preview-able” content are going to get more traffic.

What are your thoughts?

Originally published on DrivingSales.com

The New Facebook ‘Groups’ and Why You Should Care

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I don’t want to make this a long “what-it-is” sort of article because there are an amazing number of those available. Here’s a link to the best one, in my opinion – The New Facebook Groups: All You Need To Know (Watch the little 2-minute video on that page for an easy introduction.)

Now before I get into the reasons WHY you should participate, go NOW and secure the vanity e-mail address for your company name, group, club, whatever.. some people cannot get there via the normal path as it’s not completely rolled-out to everyone BUT there is a direct link that will allow you to get there. – Facebook Groups 
Go create your group, then, once you’ve created it, in the top right corner, click “Edit Group”. Kind of in the middle of the box, there will be an option to create a group e-mail address. Get yours. Just trust me on this. I’ll get around to explaining what it means and why you want it.
Alright, to the meat and potatoes…
In the beginning, Facebook was created and it was good. (Uh, not that far back)
Think of Facebook like your living room. In its origins and/or in its origins for YOU, you invited people into your living room. When you talked, they could listen and vice versa. 
The problem is that Facebook has grown so exponentially that many users have invited too many people into their living rooms. So now you have all these people, all talking at the same time and nobody hears anyone else.
Facebook’s FIRST attempt at solving this problem was trying to filter out the people in your living room who you listen and respond to the most by filtering your news feed into “Top Stories” and deciding who amonsgst the people in your living room deserves a spot within your news feed at all (EDGE score). Remember I said that FACEBOOK DECIDES who you hear…. not you.
Now we have the new Facebook Groups.
Facebook Groups is designed to allow you to segment your social circles and communicate only with those that you wish to at any point in time. Do you want to post those drunken party pictures? Make a group of your party friends. All of those business content shares would be shared with your business connections.
This functionality in Facebook already existed in the form of “Lists” but they were unwieldy and difficult for people to use and setup so they weren’t used. 
With the new ‘Groups’, it is much easier to do this and share the content you want to with ONLY the people you want to without creating and managing lists and tweaking privacy settings.
There can be an infinite number of groups with the same name – ie. Family, Friends, Business, etc. BUT only one of those groups can have the vanity GROUP E-MAIL ADDRESS (ie. family@groups.facebook.com ) 
What does the group e-mail address do? It allows any member of your group to email content to that e-mail address and share it with the group. In marketing terms and strategies, it’s important to understand that, to get people to interact, the easier you make it the better so you’ll want to acquire the vanity email address that is simple for you. Instead of having to tell your group members to e-mail family@groups.facebook.com, you’ll be forced to find some creative new e-mail address.. but c’mon, wouldn’t it be easier to have your company name or keyword email address?
The new Facebook ‘Groups” are like social networks within the social network. You can group chat, share and edit documents, links, video, etc. The beauty of groups is that they are group-managed. Anyone within the group can invite anyone else to join. No admin permission required (unless they have no connection and/or weren’t added by any member of the group). So ‘Groups’ lets you interact with any member of the group WITHOUT them having to be your “friend” so while you can interact and share freely within the group, you can rest assured that your Facebook profile and wall are still secure. (Caveat: An Admin CAN remove people from the group. If it’s your group and someone you invited into it invites someone in that you do not want there and/or they are disrupting the group, you do have the power to boot them from the group IF you are an Admin. Want a group of employees? When someone leaves your company, you can remove them from the group.)
Facebook got too “noisy” for some people. This is the way you’ll be able to reduce that noise by kicking people out of the living room so you can hear and interact with only those you want to at that moment BUT not kick them out of the house (ie. un-friend them). You have your family in the living room, your business associates in the kitchen, your friends in the game room, etc. and YOU move from room to room as you choose which group you want to share and interact with.
The internet is transforming AWAY from a destination place and TOWARDS a means of travel. What do I mean? People are using social networks and apps more and more every day. They’re getting the news from Facebook and Twitter and then sharing it with their friends. In the future, people won’t go to PLACES (ie. websites) on the internet… they’ll go to a PLACE (ie. Facebook). They’ll use the internet as only a means to get there.
People spend more time on Facebook RIGHT NOW than on Google Search and all of Google’s properties combined. This trend is only going to continue. 
Groups will transform Facebook, I guarantee it. They have big plans to keep adding new group functionality.
Don’t wait and find this out later. Just go grab your group vanity email address now… if you want to wait after that, feel free. 
Yesterday was like the big domain name land-grabs of the past but it’s happening RIGHT NOW. Don’t be scrambling to grab your “real estate” later. 
If you do, you’ll be sorry.

Google Search Is About To Make You Re-think Your Website

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According to this article , Google is testing out full-page website previews within search. This will have HUGE ramifications for dealer’s website traffic when considering non-branded search traffic.

Why?
Well, right now, a consumer has to click on your organic link and go to your website to see if what they are actually looking for is there. These clicks obviously represent traffic on your website.
If and when this full-page preview function of Google search goes live, the consumer will no longer have to actually go onto your website to see if the content they are looking for is present.  
Here’s an example screenshot:

That’s huge. What would a consumer see if they could preview your website before actually visiting it? 
Would what they see actually make them want to visit your website?
How will flash-based items and/or videos appear?
I don’t think it will effect GoogleAds. My guess is they will NOT have this preview function. Why? Because it will reduce the number of  ‘clicks’ an ad would get therefore cutting into Google’s wallet. Bad move on their part.
Dealers REALLY need to stay up on this and KNOW what people are seeing within this preview of their home page. Dealers with inventory hosting that has inventory specific URLs with dealerships name, make, model, year, etc could have an edge in the sense that if their vehicle shows up on a Google Search and the ‘preview’ shows an actual vehicle (vs just your home page or general inventory search page), a visitor/customer would probably be more likely to click on it.
This is definitely a must-watch feature and could have huge ramifications on your website and its traffic.
Here’s another image:
Stay tuned!

Facebook Ads – Ad Targeting Will Dominate

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I wanted to write a quick article regarding some changes to the Facebook Ads program. As time goes by, they are increasingly becoming an easier way to dial in your target audience while not wasting any of your ad budget.

Notable changes:
You can now set a lifetime budget for a Facebook Ad campaign (instead of a daily budget). This is valuable to that person who really wants to dial in their ad spend for a campaign. Rather than have to monitor your ads performance and spend daily, you can cap off the spend for the entire campaign. Their system will evenly distribute your ads across the entire campaign.
Facebook started providing social context metrics to its advertisers. These metrics, in a nutshell, will show you your ads performance when presented to a user when the user sees a “friend” that likes the ad listed (vs. just the ad). This is a great start and, as it stands, Facebook allows some very specific targeting for your ads. In the long run, however, the introduction of a targeting method which allows you to target users with a high number of friends could produce some high-performance ads. Imagine being able to only display your ad to users who fit your demographic settings AND have over 500 friends… That would be something.
Yesterday, Facebook added URLs to ads that point off-site. This is great news for Facebook advertisers. What this means is that you’ll get less uninterested clicks by people clicking, going off site, then bouncing. This should result in higher conversion rates for ads as people will know, before clicking the ad, that they will be leaving Facebook to go to your website.
Facebook’s introduction of the “Like” button is also important. I’ve talked about this in past blog articles. It’s “Like” button is spreading throughout the internet virally. How does this effect a Facebook Ad campaign? Facebook uses the information gathered by “Like” button users to deliver more relevant ads by basically incorporating the user’s web browsing history into the equation. Yesterday,Facebook shared some statistics about “Likers”. People who actively use the like button have 2.4 times the amount of friends and are 5.3 times more likely to visit an external website.
Are you a Honda dealer that wants people in your PMA who have visited your OEM or competitor’s website to see your ad? I’m betting you do.
As Facebook Ads gets more dialed in, it will increasingly become more inviting for advertisers. 
With Facebook Ads, you can target your ad delivery much more than you can with Google.
Imagine being a Honda dealer able to target your ads this way….
Deliver to users in Los Angeles who:
Are/Are not connected to my Facebook fan page and/or Are/Are not friends of someone who is connected
That are single/married/engaged/in a relationship
between the ages of 25-40 (you can even schedule ad delivery FOR their birthday)
Have a Bachelors degree or higher
are male/female
Have a specific keyword in their profile (Honda, in this case, or maybe even Toyota)
Work at a specific company (or companies)
Speak a specific language
Have 500 or more friends
Have visited Honda’s OEM website and/or your competition’s (whether its brand or dealer competition) website in the last 30 days.*

You can’t do that with Google but you can with Facebook and it’s only going to get MORE targeted. 
As the viral incorporation into apps and websites and the migration of users AWAY from Google and TO Facebook continues, the targeting will only get stronger. You’ll be able to maximize your ad performance while minimizing your ad spend in a way that NO OTHER DELIVERY SYSTEM can offer.
(*Note: The bold targeting categories do not currently exist, but they’re coming)

Forget SEO. Try NFO (News Feed Optimization)

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Recently there has been all sorts of talk about the proper way to accomplish Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I wrote a blog article about it the other day.

Something interesting that’s been happening (in case people failed to notice) was that while people are still trying harder and harder to optimize Google searches (or just coming around to figuring out they should be), that’s exactly where people are spending less time at. In August 2010, CNet reported that more people were spending time on Facebook than on all of Google’s properties combined (including YouTube and GMail). This shouldn’t be a surprising statistic what with Facebook having about 500 million users and given the amount of time any particular user spends on its site.

So, the rage for the past year or so has been to talk about Social Media Marketing (SMM). 

There are plenty of best practices, tips and techniques to make your fan page flourish… but that’s not what I want to talk about here. 

Did you know that Facebook has an algorithm for what pieces of content get placed into a person’s “Top News” area? 

If you don’t know what that is, the default view of the Facebook News Feed (where every user goes when they log in) is the “Top News”. Think of this as kind of a “greatest-hits” for the last 24 hours or so from all of their friends. Of course, you can manually then change the view from the “Top News” to “Most Recent”, which will show all of your friends posts.

So how do you – as a Facebook marketer – get YOUR content into a user’s “Top News”? – News Feed Optimization (NFO)

There’s an algorithm for that. 
This slide is from a presentation give by Facebook engineers at the f8 developer conference.
What we have here is a definition of an “Edge Rank”. 
Believe me when I say that I’m not a math freak or anything but essentially what this says is the following (short version):
  1. Everything on Facebook is an object – status updates, photos, links, video
  2.  There are three factors that determine the “edge rank” your object is given which will determine the likelihood that it appears in your fans (or friends) “Top News” area.
  3. The first factor is the ‘affinity score’ between the user (your fan or friend) and creator (you). How much and how often does this person interact with you? Do they spend a lot of time on your fan page? What do they do while they’re there.
  4. The second factor is ‘weight’. Each type of object interaction is weighted. What type of interaction happened? a comment? a like? a tag? The more “interactive” the ..uh.. interaction, the more weight it has – so someone who actually types a comment is going to be interacting more than someone who clicks “like”.. this of course, gives more weight to the comment. 
  5. The last factor is ‘time decay’ which is simply how much time has passed since your object was created.
Weights are not always evenly kept, FYI. When Facebook launches new services, those objects suddenly seem to be weighted more than others (ie. Facebook Places) so jumping onto new features and services does have advantages.
With the potential that Facebook may start sharing the “Like” data with Bing, the official release of Facebook’s Page Browser, Google indexing Facebook Pages, and the “Like” button’s viral adoption on the web… You may find it easier and easier to get lost in the crowd.. just as it is, right now, on Google Search.
Imagine, for a brief moment though…. 
What if you had started optimizing Google keyword searches for your business when Google first appeared?
You have that opportunity now with Facebook Pages, Like buttons and NFO.
What will you do with it?

Search Engine Optimization: The Great Debate

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Let me start with this disclaimer: I am not an expert on Search Engine Optimization. (Thank God!)

That being said, SEO is definitely something that’s been around a long time and most businesses have come to realize that it is something that they need to be doing. There are many companies that will assist you with this if you can’t do it yourselves and all of them have different opinions on how it should be done, to some extent.
As evidenced by this fascinating thread on www.drivingsales.com  titled ‘A Broader Look At SEO‘ by Dennis Galbraith, you can see that many in the industry have been debating the importance of SEO, how it should be done, the significance of Page One placement, and who an expert is and what that entails. It’s quite heated, which makes it quite entertaining. Is there a ‘right’ answer? I don’t think so but I’m certainly not going to jump in the middle of that battlefield.
This morning, I read an article about how Google Instant is changing SEO. (article) 
It made me think about the world we live in and technology in general. We all know that computers and technology become outdated very quickly. I believe this applies to SEO as well. With the advent of ‘instant’ anything.. does all this bickering about ‘who is right’ really matter? Hell, by the time that discussion comes to a close, it may be irrelevant.
An article I saw yesterday (shared by Harlene Doane, editor of Auto Dealer Monthly ), was hilarious but had a hint of truth to it. Search engines (and websites.. YouTube Instant anyone?) are doing everything within their power to predict what we are looking for before we even know what that is. There are times when I’m doing a Google search and I really don’t know what I’m looking for (except in very general terms) but I guarantee that, as these forms of predictive technology evolve, I’ll certainly focus LESS on the search results and MORE on the INSTANT results. I’m going to start typing letters and look at what the drop-down box suggests. 
I’ve seen far too many people ‘Google’ pages that would take less time to actually type the address in. I find it hilarious when people Google “Yahoo”… anyways, the point of this post is that, in my opinion, SEO is a constantly evolving beast. There are no right or wrong answers or strategies. Anyone who knows what they are doing (or teaches themselves) can apply basic SEO techniques to their business and Google will ABSOLUTELY help you learn and implement a Pay-Per-Click campaign (PPC). Trust me, they want your money.
Everything you do online is a form of SEO.. whether it’s writing a review for Amazon, posting something for sale on eBay, owning a Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media page, Tweeting.. well, you get my point. Just have a presence and be active and SEO will come naturally. If dealers or any business would DO things on the internet, SEO would be less of a chore. The problem is that dealers DON’T do anything on the internet, which is why they get dominated by companies that DO.
[Edit: If you want PROOF that just doing ‘stuff’ on the internet will achieve dominating SEO, Google search my name. You’ll have to go to Page 24 before you find AT LEAST 4 links that are not, in some way, related to or about me. Granted there isn’t much competition for search results of my name but I haven’t even TRIED to optimize my name on Google.]
I personally don’t care HOW it’s done (as I suspect most dealers also feel).. it’s all about RESULTS. 
Oh, and when I can go to my computer, turn it on and it just goes to the website I want it to without me typing anything.. will SEO really matter? Just sayin’

Facebook ‘Questions” Could Bring You Business

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I’ve been watching this new feature Facebook has rolling out called “Questions”. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s not a new idea. Yahoo has ‘Answers’ and is the most used of the Q&A sites but there are plenty more. It’s still in beta and is rolling out slowly so you may not be able to see it yet but I believe there’s a potential for some Facebook Page exposure and, possibly, for dealerships generating some business.

First, here’s an example of what a question would look like:

Now initially, you would think there wouldn’t be any payoff for trolling through questions posted by a service with a user base of 500 million people. I mean, how is answering someone’s question that lives 2000 miles from your dealership going to generate business for you?

There’s also a lot more involved than posting a status update or tweeting 140 characters. To answer most questions properly and intelligently (especially in the automotive business), it will require more than a little explanation. I mean, how easy is it to answer the question “How much is my trade worth”? That’s a complicated answer. (Unless you go old-school on them and ask them to back the car up to the phone so you can hear it.)

The features that make it potentially worthwhile to a dealership or business are these:

  1. If you are the administrator of your business’ fan page, you can choose whether to answer the question as yourself (ie. John Doe) or as your business (John Doe Ford). By answering as your business, your Facebook page is the official “responder” and, just as any post, will be linked back to your Facebook Page. This could lead people there to explore further.
  2. Facebook Questions will allow the people posing the questions to geo-target those questions. For example, a person in Ohio could seek answers from other people in Ohio and/or just want to identify where they are in case that has relevance to their question. If you’re a business who has decided to peruse Questions, you can not only search topics (ie. automotive) but you can also search geographically. Obviously if your business is in Ohio, and it’s a car dealership, you could look at automotive-related questions from people in Ohio. I’m not sure yet exactly how fine-tuned the geographical function will be (ie. can you choose to see questions from people down to the city level) but you could certainly see how answering automotive questions from people in Ohio which could then lead them back to your Fan Page and, possibly, your website or dealership, could be beneficial.
  3. We know that public information on Facebook is indexed by Google. We know that Fan Pages are. Seeing as Questions is public, I’m assuming the question (and your answer) would be indexed by Google. Facebook ranks well with search engines so it could get your business’ fan Page (and name) a little more (or a lot more depending on how active you are answering questions) exposure and SEO.

When I was in Internet Departments, I would target message boards seeking to answer people’s questions about my particular car brand. I answered them directly and never tried to sell them anything. People appreciate that and you could help yourself stand apart from your competitors.

Just as in Yahoo Answers, I’m guessing that people can search Questions previously posted (and answered) for similar questions that they may have. In this case, best case scenario is that they find a previous question posed by a Facebook member and answered by your business. If they are also geographically limiting their searches, you could have a local customer seeing your business being helpful and pro-active in answering people’s questions. This is certainly a form of reputation management that could assist you in gaining some brownie points with a potential customer.

This is certainly a method of gaining some exposure for your business. It’s not the easiest or least time-consuming but the advantage is does have is that not only do you get your name out but you associate positive images with it at the same time. Once this feature is rolled out to everyone, it will be interesting to experiment and see what happens.

On Facebook, Sometimes Less Is Better

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Social Media Marketing is not meant to be your businesses’ sole means of marketing but rather it’s meant to compliment your existing marketing.

I see businesses scrambling to create presences in the social media spectrum daily without any clue what their goal is. Seeing as I’m in the automotive industry, most dealerships that I see diving into the social media party believe that the “goal” of this endeavor is to “sell cars”. By their actions, it seems as if their true goal is “acquiring friends”. If you go into Social Media Marketing with either of these goals, you are wasting your time.
I’m going to focus specifically on Facebook here but this advice applies to pretty much any social media site.
When a business first dives in and creates a Facebook page, they concentrate on acquiring as many “friends” as possible. While it’s fun to see that you have lots of “friends”, the whole purpose of your Facebook page is to engage with your customers. 
Are these “friends” you’re acquiring customers (or potential customers) or are they a collection of other dealerships, vendors, employees, etc.? 
If your answer is the latter, your social media efforts are wasted time. Chances are really high that none of these people are going to buy cars from you, get their cars serviced at your dealership, or do anything that is income generating for your business. 
What you want to do is captivate an audience of people (ie. friends) that are potential income. You want to market your Facebook page to your real customers. Tell your walk-in traffic. Tell your customers who buy cars from you. Tell your service customers. Include your Facebook page in your other marketing. 
Acquire “friends” that are meaningful. 
I’d rather have a group of 100 customers that I can engage with that would potentially do (or have done) business with me than 5000 friends who will never buy anything.
This obsession with gaining as many friends as possible is counter-productive. The goal of Facebook marketing is engaging with and marketing to your customers, not acquiring friends. If you do it right, in a passive, non-intrusive way with meaningful content, your message will be heard by the right people (customers) and you will reap the benefits.
It’s the quality of your “friends” that count, not the quantity.

Using foursquare to Bring Customers to Your Dealership for FREE!

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I know some people think foursquare is stupid and that’s OK.

Some people also think playing video games is stupid but that hasn’t stopped consumers from spending almost $8 billion dollars per year.

As a brief summary, foursquare is a location-based game in which people use their GPS-enabled cellphones to “check-in” at locations. Checking in earns them points, badges and mayorships. It’s all fun and, for the most part, you don’t get anything but bragging rights out of it with your friends. I explained why I thought dealers should pay attention to foursquare in a previous blog post.  I also briefly touched on the idea I go into in this blog post.

It has been exploding with new user registration now boasting about 1 million users and adding about 50,000 per day. This, of course, is attracting major brands such as Starbucks, Pepsi, Macys and more to see what they can do to use it for their benefit.

According to a New York Times article today , Pepsi just worked out a deal with foursquare to offer “live notification(s) when customers are near stores” that carry Pepsi products. Pepsi relies on stores to sell Pepsi products so their interest is in directing customers into those stores. They’ve also combined their foursquare campaign with their Pepsi loyalty campaign so when people check-in at those stores, they actually earn Pepsi points for their loyalty account in addition to the points they receive on foursquare.

I’m waiting for an automotive manufacturer to start a similar campaign since they are pretty much in Pepsi’s shoes and rely on dealerships to move vehicles. Why not have an OEM campaign designed to drive customers to dealerships? (I wouldn’t be surprised if Ford is the first OEM to try this. They’ve certainly embraced social media marketing.)

Foursquare has also started catering to businesses and offering businesses the opportunity to offer their customers specials, coupons and freebies. It includes with it analytics of your business (as related to foursquare check-ins). You can see more about their program here (Foursquare + Your Business ). Here’s a sample image (from that page) showing you kind of what you “could” do when people check-in:

Without  going into too much detail, the one thing that foursquare users love is badges. People go to places and do things just to get badges. The badges don’t really “do” anything. They’re just cool and, well, it is a game after all.

Whether you like foursquare or even know what it is, there’s at least one immediate thing you can do to drive traffic to your dealership, cater to the game.

There exists a badge on foursquare called the Swarm badge. This badge can only be unlocked when 50+ users check-in at the same place and at the same time (within an undisclosed time frame). This is particularly hard to get, for obvious reasons.


Dealerships use promotions all the time designed to bring people to their lot. Radio station promotions, Gas card and movie ticket giveaways, free food, live entertainment, etc.

Why not hold a “Swarm” event?

It’s not hard and it’s free. Worst that could happen: nobody shows up. Best case scenario: you have people on your lot. Accompanied with an appropriate Twitter campaign, you will generate interest and you may even get foursquare to help market your event. They’ve been known to do that. If foursquare tweeted just one tweet about your event, 60,000+ people would get exposed to your store. I guarantee that consumers in your market will also re-tweet this event as they will have a vested interest in ensuring that as many people show up as possible.

Consumers get barraged with all the “typical” dealership events and they tend to tune them out, in my opinion. We have so many “sales” that a customer probably feels like there’s a sale every week so the “sense of urgency” a sale is designed to instill is negated by the fact that we have them so often and, in some cases, all the time.

Do you know why Nordstom’s sales are so popular? They only have them twice a year. Really. Only twice. They never deviate from that and customers know it. That’s creating a true sense of urgency.

A Swarm event would create a true sense of urgency, even if only for foursquare users. They would have to come on a specific time on a specific date and they will come, I promise.

You never know, you may even have such a great turnout that the people on your lot at your swarm event earn the even more coveted Super Swarm badge where 250+ people have to check-in.

All I know is anything that’s free and will bring 50+ people to my dealership on a specific date and time would definitely be something I would try out. 

Just having 50+ people on your lot at the same time would bring non-foursquare users onto your lot. Why? Humans are curious beings. If they’re shopping for a car (or even just driving by), they may stop to see what’s going on. Heck, people also like attention. I could very easily see someone buying a car right then just to show off!

Having people on your lot is never a bad thing. This could help them get there.

After that, what you do with them is up to you.

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