Social Media Archives - Page 5 of 6

Deliver Smiles

August 29, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

This past Sunday, August 14th, was my birthday. Facebook brought me 150 “Happy Birthdays” yesterday from the whole spectrum of my social network – family, people I know well, industry people, and even people I only know through Facebook. I made a point to say “Thank you” to every single one of them in as personalized a way as possible. Why?

Other than the fact that it’s polite and I wanted each person to know that I recognized them and appreciated them taking their time to recognize my birthday, social networking is about involvement. It allows you to be involved in people’s lives and days. I view this as a privilege. People use social networks for all sorts of different reasons – whether it’s all about work, all about family, all personal or some mash up of these.

Regardless of HOW you choose to use social networks, the fact remains that behind each and every one of these “accounts” is a person. It’s easy to forget that the Facebook profile for a car dealership actually has someone on the other end posting things and interacting with people, even if it is on behalf of the dealership.

I think everyone would agree that it’s a best practice to send birthday cards to your friends, family, and customers and to recognize important occasions or be empathetic when they have a bad day or had some hard luck. Doing the same things on your social networks is no less of a best practice.

My personal philosophy in regards to social media use is this. I try to be myself. I let people into my life and get to know me for real not only what news stories I’m interested in, what inventory I have, what I’m “selling”, what quote I like, or what games I play. I believe that many of my social network friends that know me in real life would agree that I accomplish this pretty well. What you see if what you get. Don’t get me wrong, there are subjects I stay away from. A general rule of thumb I follow is that if I wouldn’t say it in a room full of people at a party; I don’t say it but I ALWAYS stay true to myself.

I believe that people want to network with people, not with the AP Newswire.

Just as every one of those 150 wall posts yesterday brought me a smile and made me appreciate and enjoy my birthday just that little bit more, I also reciprocate and make sure I say “Happy Birthday” to people daily. I also, as many know, post a “Comic of the Day”. I try to be encouraging, funny, and personal.. but, most of all, real.

One universal truth is that people like to smile. They like to be heard. They like feeling that people are listening and that they are making a difference and/or are part of someone else’s life even if it’s in as small of a way as saying “Happy Birthday” to someone or having someone say “Happy Birthday” to you, whether you really know them or not. There’s a reason that some of your highest interaction on social networks will be with humorous and personal posts.

Disneyland is a master at this. It gives people buttons to wear around the park showing everyone that it’s that person’s birthday. Their company’s policy is that every employee who sees a guest with this button says “Happy Birthday” to them. I even see other park guests take the time to say “Happy Birthday” to complete strangers. This smallest of policies can make a huge difference in someone’s day. Disneyland is “the happiest place on Earth” for a reason, and that’s why people love it and will spend hundreds of dollars to go there on any given day. Over 2 million people registered for Disneyland’s birthday promotion in 2009.

True social media influencers are influencers because they are genuine. People want to listen to them because they are real people, and that comes through in their posts, what they choose to share and how they interact with others.

So, if you only follow two rules in your social media networking, follow the same ones that you should follow in real life: be yourself and deliver smiles.

(Originally published August 15, 2011 on Dealer magazine)

How To: List Inventory On Your Facebook Wall & Succeed

July 8, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

Facebook is designed and centered on engagement. Social media professionals all have various ideas on how you should do it and what works. My quick take on this is: whatever works for you – do that.

What do I mean by that? Facebook provides analytics on a per post basis. Use those to determine what types of content are causing your fans to interact with you. If people like jokes, post jokes. If people like to answer fun questions, ask fun questions. It’s that simple. I think pretty much EVERY social media professional will advise you, however, NOT to post your inventory to your Facebook page’s wall.

I absolutely agree BUT, I have found one very creative and unique dealership that can get away with it. In fact, not only can they get away with it, I LOOK FORWARD to seeing new inventory being posted to their Facebook wall. I’m not a buyer. They’re not my client. I’m not even in the same state that they are in.

How do they do it? By following one best practice and using massive creativity.

I doubt anyone would disagree that one fundamental best practice of internet marketing is to merchandise your inventory well through multiple photos and detailed descriptions. They do this, and they do it very well. EVERY car has photos and descriptions – new and used.

Do you still doubt that this dealer can post their inventory on their Facebook wall and get away with it? Certainly ONLY doing the above wouldn’t warrant that… BUT

…enter the creative part. Here are a few of examples of vehicle descriptions, cut and pasted straight from their website:

“You know, I feel so pure just sitting in this vehicle. It’s like I should put on a button up sweater and some sneakers and sing a melody like Mister Rogers. The vehicle has some type of Good Energy that removes the darkside. I’m going to put in a request to the Prison Board to have all inmates sit in one of these so they’ll become good honest citizens. A 2010 Chrysler 300 Touring with stellar fuel economy, 1 owner and factory warranty. $299 payment on 72 months with $0 down (with approved credit) is nothing short of a Disney movie (in this case, Disney, would be called our Finance Department). After you buy this, can we hold hands and go pick flowers?”

“Driving this makes me feel like I’m doing the waltz on Dancing with the Stars. Carrie-Anne Len and Bruno would be watching me from the audience and I have no doubt that their scores would all be 10. And if it wasn’t whoever gave me less would be run over. Yeah cause that’s how I roll. All 10’s all perfection because that’s what this lovely Journey is. 3rd Row Seating and killer fuel economy is INCREDIBLE. The only thing pathetic is that I’m selling it to you for this kind of price. The way it rides and handles is a dream come true. Call me the Genie in a Bottle because that’s what I do!!!”

“You’ve heard of Michael Myers from Halloween, yeah, well that’s like me at the dealership. I am a nightmare walker, price slashing talker. My machete is my pen and in the end you can NOT escape me. I don’t do a dance, I don’t run, I frigging just throw the ax that says my vehicle still has a moonroof, all power amenities on the inside,1 Owner, and killer fuel economy for an SUV. So think of it as a horror flick but in a good exciting kind of way. You can’t stop me. Just let me do the deed…SAVING YOU MONEY!!!”

I’ve been watching them for a while. I look forward to seeing new inventory shared on their wall. In this highly competitive market, you need something that sets you a part from all of the other 1,000 similar vehicles for sale. These descriptions undoubtedly also get sent to all the websites they participate in. At times, I browse their website JUST to read vehicle descriptions.

If I were a consumer, in their market, do you think this dealer would be memorable to me? Absolutely. Would you look forward to reading these descriptions? I bet you’re already on their website checking them out.

The person that writes these descriptions is a genius and needs a raise and THIS is how you can market your inventory via social media and not only get away with it but have your fans looking forward to more.

(For more information, and to see what I consider to be one of the best inventory marketing dealers I’ve ever seen, check out their website at http://www.bigredsports.com and check out their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bigred.sportsimports)

How Social Media Campaigns Can Fall Apart

July 1, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

(originally published on Dealer magazine)

Social Media marketing isn’t just about “doing it.” If you want to succeed, all of the pieces must fit together. You must be committed to doing it.. all of it.. not just some of it.

In this real-life example, I’ll be referring to a few things that I want to define for those unfamiliar with them.

1. Klout – Klout is a company that measures a person’s social media influence by monitoring their usage and actions from others in relation to it. Think of it like a credit score. The highest score is 100. My Klout is currently 61, which is very good. Klout stated that the average users Klout score is 11.

2. Klout Perks – Klout Perks is a service offered by Klout to companies that want to target influential social media users. These companies make offers, through Klout Perks, to these users in the hopes that they will talk about it via social media (ie. passes to movie screenings, etc.)

3. SCVNGR – SCVNGR is a location-based marketing service businesses use to create engagement and drive traffic to their location. Campaigns can be as small or as elaborate as the company wants to make it. Consumers check-in at the business locations and complete specific tasks to earn points towards rewards and/or badges (Think: 20% off your purchase or a free soda, etc)

Now, onto the story…

Subway restaurants recently ran a cross promotion with Warner Brothers for their new movie “The Green Lantern” through SCVNGR. The promotion involved using the SCVNGR mobile app to visit Subway restaurants and complete tasks to earn a free movie ticket to see The Green Lantern. They were only giving out 1,200 tickets so I jumped on it and visited my nearest Subway restaurant two days in a row to complete the tasks necessary to unlock this reward. I did so and SCVNGR delivered to me a free movie ticket (Hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?). Life was good. I liked Subway and appreciated the free movie ticket.

At the same time, Subway was also apparently running a campaign with Klout through their Klout Perks program to offer selected influential social media users a free $10 Subway gift card to try out their newest sub sandwich. That offer was extended to me and I accepted it.I liked Subway even more.

It goes downhill from here…

So, the Subway gift card comes in the mail. I’m not sure who actually sends these gift cards out (whether it’s Klout or Subway), but it comes with postage due of .63 cents. OK, some people make mistakes and I still got $9.37 free food at Subway. No big deal but I tweeted this:

Got offered a $10 @Subway gift card from @KloutPerks and when I got it, it came with $1 in postage due. Still appreciated but funny.

So, I take my wife to see The Green Lantern and, afterwards, decide to visit Subway to use the gift card offer Subway extended to me. I arrive at Subway at 9:50pm and it closes at 10pm. I don’t know off the top of my head what time they close, but I see lights on and I see people inside. As I approach the door, I see the store’s posted hours inform me that they are open until 10pm. When I go to open the door, it’s locked. I get the attention of an employee who comes to the door and informs me that they are closed. I bring it to her attention that it’s not yet 10pm and she tells me that the owner called her and told her to close early. Now remember, there are still people in the store and a couple is even at the counter ordering and, frankly, I don’t believe her.

Frustrated, I go to my car and tweet this:

Went to @Subway before 10pm and they were inside but decided to close early. Said the owner told them to. #fail #lazy #badliars

Frustrated, but still hungry, I left Subway and went to Little Caesars Pizza.

As a social media person, I wanted to see if anyone was paying attention at all, or cared, so I tweeted this:

@Subway @kloutperks Tried to use $10 gift card last night but the employees wouldn’t let me in even though it was 10 minutes b4 closing #fail

Did I ever get a response from either Klout Perks (who was paid to run the promotion) or Subway (who paid to run it)?

No. Not even a peep.

So instead of me tweeting and raving about The Green Lantern movie, the Klout Perks offer from Subway, or their new sandwich which was the whole point of these promotions, what they did was take a customer who engaged them and started happy and turned me into a customer tweeting negative comments. I certainly didn’t hold Subway corporate responsible for the local franchise’s failure, but I did assume that they were active on Twitter so when I heard nothing in response to my concerns, that further frustrated me and left me with the impression that they didn’t care.

The point of this article is to illustrate that merely running a social media campaign in and of itself is not sufficient. If you’re going to enter the social media space at all, you better be prepared to monitor and support the campaign. Failing to do this will result in accomplishing the opposite of what you intended.

The bottom line is that Subway spent money on a social media marketing campaign and Little Caesars Pizza got my money.

(Note: While writing this article, I discovered by chance that while Subway does own the @Subway twitter account, they are not active on it at all. Instead, for whatever stupid reason, they re-direct people from that account to a @subwayfreshbuzz account, which they seem very active on. Why on earth they wouldn’t monitor the other account or, at the very least, monitor mentions of their restaurants is beyond me and a big fail.)

Why Having A Lot Of Facebook Fans Is A Waste Of Time

June 29, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

It amazes me how many dealerships judge their Facebook marketing efforts success by the number of fans they have. People are in awe of that dealership that managed to get 15,000 fans to their Facebook page. Some vendors sell the fact that they will exponentially increase the quantity of fans you have. Dealers give away cars and iPads just to entice people to “like” them on Facebook.

I’m here to tell you that the number of Facebook fans you have is not only irrelevant, but it could be wasting your time and making your Facebook marketing essentially useless.

What do I mean by that? A Facebook fan that is not in your market and will never do any business with you is NOT doing you any good.

If you’re a dealership in California, would you take out a print ad in a Florida newspaper? No.

Why? Because those people aren’t in your market and that would be a waste of money.

Now, some people would argue it’s a numbers game. Get more fans and the chances that your message is heard increases. I’d argue that the only way this is true is if these fans are in your market. If nobody you’re marketing to would ever spend a penny at your dealership, you’re wasting your time.

So what do I think you should do?

In my opinion, building a healthy Facebook presence takes time. It starts at the dealership level where your fans are acquired from actual customers doing business with you and/or coming into your store.

· You make tent cards and spread them out at your dealership.

· You tell service customers about your Facebook page.

· You integrate your Facebook presence into your existing marketing – traditional, in-store and online.

· You hold your contests in your store where actual customers of yours win.

· You get them to share your message with their social networks.

Focus all of your Facebook marketing on acquiring fans that actually CARE about what you have to say and will do business with you.

I’d rather have 100 fans that would do business with me than 15,000 fans that wouldn’t.

Is Social Media Important To The Auto Industry? AutoNation Thinks So.

June 12, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

(Originally published on Dealer magazine)

Many dealerships have realized that social media has become the communication method of choice for people. Dealers came across this revelation via many methods – maybe it was through an article they read, a session topic at a conference, through their OEM’s initiative or through an enlightened member of their staff. Some dealers are just now realizing it while some dealers still don’t.

AutoNation has not only been progressive in their social media campaigns, they’ve created positions within their organization that, to my knowledge, were the first of their kind in the retail automotive industry.

They have a “Chief Blog Officer” and a “Chief Facebook and Twitter Officer” within their corporate marketing department and have designated a “Social Media Champion” at each of their dealerships. They’ve embraced social media at all levels and in every way. These positions indicate a top-down embracing of social media from the corporate to the dealership level.

They took the next evolutionary step yesterday when they announced Alison Rosenthal as a new member of their Board of Directors. Ms. Rosenthal joins AutoNation’s board after leaving a 5 year career as an executive of Facebook.

“We are very pleased to have Alison Rosenthal join the AutoNation Board,” said Mike Jackson, AutoNation’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Alison’s technology experience, especially in the areas of mobile applications and social media, will be a valuable resource for the Board.”

AutoNation has run some great Facebook promotions in the past, including “Mosaic” which utilized the Facebook platform to achieve over 36,000 page views in less than 30 days while increasing interactions with fans by over 76%.

Their goal is to be known as the “un-dealer” through online interactions, transparency and responding to their customers. They answer questions publicly that most dealers would shy away from such as financing and invoice pricing as well as proactively seeking out online conversations about their brand, whether that’s through blog articles or social media, and participating. Every customer gets asked to leave online reviews – good or bad.

It’ll be interesting to watch in what ways AutoNation leverages Ms. Rosenthal’s expertise to further engage its fans and increase its already large online footprint.

We’re used to seeing technology companies being acquired by technology companies. It may not be too far in the future where we start seeing technology companies being acquired by automotive industry companies.

Social Media ROI Just Got A Little Easier

June 11, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

(Originally published in Dealer magazine)

Social media has been a hot topic for a while now in the automotive business. As the communities grew, dealers and OEMs started paying more attention. Progressive dealers started social media campaigns while others adopted a “wait and see” attitude. As time progressed and search engines started recognizing the importance of the content generated by the sites, they started integrating data from these sites into their search algorithms (Google includes Twitter content while Bing includes Facebook “Like” data.)

The biggest, and most basic, question that dealers always ask is the same core question that they ask for any advertising medium: How will this help me sell more cars?

Facebook recently announced that it was phasing out FBML in favor of iframes. All those custom landing tabs you created won’t go away… yet, however. If you already have the “Static FBML” application installed on your fan page, you’ll continue to be able to use it for now. It is, however, expected to be phased out eventually with some saying it could go away completely by year’s end.

The advantage of using an iframe on your Facebook page, in simplest terms, is that you now have the ability to use your current tracking software to measure traffic generated by Facebook to your site. An iframe basically allows you to create a “window” within your Facebook page (on its own tab) in which you can show users a website without having to pull them away from Facebook.

Historically, search engines have ignored content within iframes – they see the window but not the picture inside. I don’t know whether this will be changing or not so the SEO value of the framed website may be negligible. Don’t get me wrong, your actual Facebook Page will still be seen by search engines, it’s only the content framed into your landing tab that may not count.

About a year ago, I wrote an article showing people how to frame in their inventory and/or website into their Facebook page. It was great while it worked but it had its drawbacks. The biggest one being that, the easiest “solution” for website integration or display was displaying an existing web page on your site, which framed in your website at its actual size. Your website, in whole, is still much larger than the display area contained within a Facebook tab. This produced ugly looking results with horizontal and vertical scrollbars. Facebook also didn’t allow outside analytics so, while it was cool to have your website or inventory framed in, you couldn’t really tell whether anyone was on your site within Facebook. Facebook then got rid of the ability to implement iframes and limited businesses to FBML.

With their migration back to iframes, and their decision to allow analytics on the framed site, you now have the ability to measure traffic that is viewing your website from within Facebook. You also have much more control over the design of what you display.

My advice to you has several components –

Install the app “Static FBML” on your fan page now. You will not be able to do so after March 11. If you have it before that date, you can keep it. I only say this because, if you decide you would rather use FBML, or some website or SEO wizard determines that a FBML landing tab converts or optimizes better than the iframe, you’ll have the OPTION of using it.

If you decide to utilize iframes, create SEPARATE LANDING PAGES for each tab you create. (ie. If you have a tab “About Us” with a website framed in, create a page (website) just for that tab. If you then decide to add a “Specials” page, create a different landing page for that tab.

Make sure your analytics code is installed on these customized landing pages.

Make pages specifically designed for optimized viewing within Facebook. What do I mean by that? As I mentioned before, by simply framing in existing websites, you end up showing people a very small view of your website and have these scroll bars in which they have to scroll all over the place to see it in whole.

Bottom line:

Facebook landing tab windows are exactly 520px by 800px. Create individual landing pages, with analytics code installed, and sized to view within Facebook. By doing this, you will have an attractive landing tab for your fans AND you will be able to measure conversion and views. Personally, I would create and display some sort of conversion device within the landing tabs, like a “Contact Us” page, or something that could generate some leads.

I’m not promising that you’ll all of a sudden generate massive traffic and leads.

What I’m saying is now you’ll have the ability to track views, test different landing pages and measure conversions…

And that’s the first step towards being able to measure your efforts.

To learn more cutting edge digital marketing strategies, please join me at the 10^th Digital Dealer® Conference & Exposition being held in Orlando, FL on April 19-21, 2011.

David vs. Goliath – The Grant Cardone Saga Continues

January 21, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

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.

I don’t need to listen to my friends and colleagues. You’re the only thing that matters. Got it.
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.
Uh… when did “No” stop meaning “No”?
Even if it’s creative, it’s still spam.
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.

How to: Turn Your Facebook Fans Into Spammers

January 19, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

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.

I want exposure or new customers.
I’m going to hold a giveaway or contest via
Facebook.
I’m going to enlist my existing fans or customers to spread my message.
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.
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.

Are OEMs Finally Embracing Social Media?

January 7, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

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