If you’re wondering the impact YouTube has had on America take a look at these numbers.
Remember, YouTube is just a tool and not a magic pill. Posting a video, to just post a video will not help you obtain your marketing goals. However, put the right RV Advertising plan in place with the right videos……WOW! What an audience!
Make sure your Ad Agency has a plan to capitalize on the growth and power of YouTube.
If you’re looking at social media you need to know when and where you should walk. And yes you should walk before you run. I’ve attached a great list of DO’s when joining the conversation.
This were provided by Dave Nelson a social associate of mine. He gave me his permission to share them with you. Take a look let me know what you think.
DO:
Do the up-front planning as you would for any important new business or RV Advertising initiative. Define your target audience, detail how you intend to create value for them, and map out how you expect them to create value for you. Document your approach and objectives per medium (blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
Do read and listen first. In the beginning, listen and learn for a few weeks before responding. In general, spend twice as much time listening as responding.
Do display your Personality, and keep the content Interesting and Entertaining (the old radio adage “PIE”). Remember that people buy from people; show your professional self.
Do be authentic. Never before has a medium and its participants been more skilled at smelling a rat and turning against the perpetrator.
Do remember that social media is about two-way conversation. Conversation builds trust; trust leads to sales.
Do favor timeless content over the time-sensitive (note: this varies based on the medium and there are exceptions). We live in a time-shifted “Tivo” world and there’s wonderful leverage in creating a blog post (for example) that will have value to new readers weeks, months, or even years from now.
Do remember that “push” is out; “pull” is in. In today’s information-rich world, people want to opt-in, choosing where they spend time. Give them a reason to choose your content.
Do keep your eyes open. Use Google Alerts, search.twitter.com, Linkedin Groups, Ning networks, and more to listen to the conversation about your company, your competitors, and the best practices in your industry.
Do exhibit the patience of Job. As the party with more power (a business relative to a customer/prospect), attacking or being critical will frequently backfire and word will propagate quickly.
Do learn from your audience (as they will learn from you) and rapidly evolve your products and services to meet their needs. They’ll suggest valuable ideas you’d never think of.
This is a terrific list. The last point reminds of a quote.
“Survival of the fittest.” Not really true! It just means you’ll last longer than others but in the end you’ll fade away as well.
You really need to think like this quote!
“The one’s that have the ability to change and adapt are the ones that survive!”
Let me know your thoughts. Let me know which points you like the best!
Social media reinforces the art of relationship selling.
The RV market responds as well as any to relationship selling and social media is simply “relationship selling on steroids”.
I owe Mack Collier, author of the blog, The Viral Garden, for the inspiration for this post. He provides some straight talk regarding the lack of growth to individual and company online communities.
Many dealership and RV Advertising agencies struggle with building an online community. I’ve discovered a number of them that have the attitude “if I build it, they will come” but that isn’t the case. There is a lot of work involved to generate traffic to an online community.
Below are five pot holes to avoid on the road to relationship selling with online communities:
1. You are thinking of income first (and your prospective clients aren’t dumb, they can sense it.)
Many dealerships are anxious to sell. Generating income for their dealership is first and foremost in their minds before paying their dues and earning their way with social media.
We are in a business where relationships are important. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust. I’m a strong advocate that a dealership can build and sustain a pipeline of new business leads for their business through social media, but it must be done the right way, with the right motive and with genuine transparency to be effective. Be a friend first.
2. A lack of value/benefit to your audience.
Your audience will let you know if your content is beneficial and of value to them.
You can’t blame your audience if they don’t respond! It’s your responsibility to figure out what is appealing and what isn’t. You have plenty of tools in social media to provide you the information just use them!
You will need to dig deeper to figure out how you can best be of value and benefit to them. It’s not about you or your dealership it’s about them.
3. Don’t wait around and hope someone finds you
Your blog has to be well optimized for my target audience. Search should be a distant third in generating traffic to your blog site.
First should be generating most traffic from by repurposing your blog posts through Twitter.
Secondly, I generate traffic with a monthly email newsletter and an opt-in strategy for sign-ups. The point is, don’t sit around waiting to generate traffic to your blog through search. Be proactive in reaching out into a number of online communities that target your audience.
4. Lack of appreciation for those that are helping promote you.
There are scores of people that are willing to be of help to you online but they’ll be quickly turned off if you don’t show appreciation. Your dealership’s credibility rests upon what others are saying about you. Be sure to show your love to those who go out of their way to promote your company. Always be willing to reciprocate.
5. You could care less about the prospective audience you are trying to reach.
Matt really hit the nail on the head when he wrote about the reason why many companies and individuals are having a problem building their online community,
“You don’t give a damn about the people you are trying to reach.”
Matt said it first and I totally agree,
“The key to successfully building an online community is to genuinely care about the people that you want to reach.”
If all you want out of social media is to make money, then social media is not for you. Don’t waste your time and effort.
But, if you are willing to be transparent, open, honest and caring then social media can teach your dealership how to do new business development the right way. The way we should have been doing it all along.
As your blogs are written and published your key phrases need to tagged to the content of your blog. As people search opinions on a given subject your blog has the opportunity to be discovered if you have tagged it properly.
This will help you search out content for your blog as well. Find blogs that spur your thought process.
It is important to remember when writing your blogs or if your RV Advertising agency is assisting in drafting your blog be sure key words are included in your content. If it appears in your content then it can appear as a tag.
To give you an idea here are the most popular tags for the letters A-C for a recent month on Technorati.
You can see the rest of the popular tags used on Technorati.com.
A
apple android amazon american league advertising australia aol adobe allen iverson arsenal africa al qaeda aids adam wainwright afghanistan army avatar andre iguodala
B
blogging business berlin barack obama browsers brian kelly blogging during crises brendan haywood bing baseball baltimore ravens barnes noble blogging and the bottom line bad ideas blake gopnik
C
celebrity christmas crunchpad cnn china charlie weis california carrie prejean cloud computing canada cyberbullying cricket children cleveland browns copenhagen charlize theron car crash chrome cincinnati crime college curtis granderson career search career search advice corporate blogging conspiracies cloud hosting
Technorati is another great tool for the RV social media space.
What do you think are the best tag words for an RV dealership? Let me know I am compiling a list to share at a later date.
Don’t get frustrated with writing your own blog. It just takes a little different approach.
Use these tips to ease the pain.
Rule #1: Never stop reading and learning.!
Rule #2: Content comes from reading and never forger Content is king!
Rule #3: Writing style matters! Write to your market and make it friendly.
To convert content to new customers you must learn to write effectively for the web.
Writing for blogs requires a different type of writing style.
A lot of dealers, RV Advertising agency and dealership personnel have difficulty with the transition from print to web.
Here is the most useful tip I have received: Use the inverted pyramid style….taught to me by Michael Gass
He has pounded into me the most important information, the take-away or the benefit from your post should be in the first paragraph.
In searching for additional resources that help me to become a better writer for web, whether it is for my blog, Twitter or other social media platforms.
I recently came across a post written by Robin Broitman, chief internet and social media strategist for Interactive Insights Group, IIG, titled: HOW-TO: Write Effectively for Twitter & The Social Web.
This post contains a collection of 97 articles that are a tremendous resource for your online writing. If you want to make social media work for your dealership and drive traffic this is a must read. The articles are conveniently organized in the following 4 categories:
It’s time to turn the key when it comes to social media.
We’re beyond wondering if social media is going to have an effect on your dealership. It’s time to step up and make some money through social media.
Dealerships need an integrated social media strategy to see a social media payoff. The payoff will be big but it won’t happen by accident.
Don’t be fooled thinking a facebook page is social media. A dealership’s blog should be the central component. It’s the relevant content you provide your prospects that drive’s dealership traffic in the social world. .
Don’t forget this! The blog is the front door to your dealership. As important as it has been to have a website, it’s now equally important to have a dealership blog.
HOW SHOULD YOU BLOG? HERE YOU GO.
10 blogging Tips For The Social Media Dealership:
Your first goal sounds simple but must be discussed in detail, “Who is your target audience?” Without answering this question you will find it extremely difficult to generate traffic. If your blog has no traffic, no audience, no community …you’ll have no ups.
Descriptor Statement: Clearly state what your dealership’s blog is about. Go ahead and be creative with the title, but not with the subtitle, the descriptor statement. It needs to tell your target audience exactly what the purpose of your blog is.
Someone has to be responsible for keeping the blog’s focus, generating blog content and repurposing that content through other channels. This is where you need to choose between someone in the store, your RV ad agency or a third-party that can execute social media specifically for you. Someone has to be responsible!
The less people you have to depend upon the better. When the dealership gets busy Social Media can’t take a back seat. So keep it simple, you want to be able to make changes easily and quick. As much as possible keep sales and the internet departments out of the process. I recommend you get outside help here to make sure you stay on top of it.
A successful blog is going to require you set a goal to post a minimum of 3 times per week. It’s preferable to post each week day. This is why you need to have someone responsible that can be consistent, where writing becomes a ritual.
Repurpose blog content. You can easily repurpose your dealership’s blog content through Facebook and LinkedIn using special applications available in each platform. You can create an Excel spreadsheet of your blog post titles and URLs and upload those into a special 3rd party application called Social Oomph to repurpose blog content through Twitter accounts.
Focus on Customer Benefits. Blogging keeps you focused on what’s important to your target audience. It requires you to focus on their everyday needs. Don’t fall into the natural tendency to sell your dealership. Once you do this you lose your credibility.
Write to Scan. This is the Social Media style of writing. This may be difficult for a lot of automotive ad agencies. Nielsen Norman Group ’s research found that 79 percent of their test users always scanned any new page they came across online; only 16 percent read word-by-word.“How do users read on the web? They don’t … they scan,” is a good resource article for writing your dealership blog.
Be Transparent. You won’t appeal to everyone but those that you do it will be strong. People want to work with people they know, trust and like. Social media, blogging in particular, can create a strong relationship with thousands of people each day.
You must give to get. Show that you have a genuine compassion for your audience and a willingness to help with their automotive ownership challenges. You give away valuable information. Your ups in the future will be drawn by the helpful content. If they understand how you think, your points of view, you’re going to create dealership traffic. When they’re ready, you’ll be the first one they contact.
DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND! .
If your not involved in social media you may not see the power. Don’t make this mistake. It’s time to step up. Make sure your RV advertising agency is on top of this.
If you have any questions or additional tips, please don’t hesitate to share them in the comment section below or email them to me at rwheeler@wheeleradvertising.com
Twitter has set the social media world on fire and it’s not slowing down. It is quick and efficient.
Even the most monotonous internet user must admit that it is pretty dang fun. RV Advertising can really benefit from Twitter.
The idea of Twitter is to build a community of RV friends and followers through an exchange of short 140 character messages. You build trust with your followers and in the end build relationships.
Twitter is going 24/7 and it helps create a face for dealerships. If you are planning to engage in Twitter and begin tweeting (or maybe you already have) there are a few rules of etiquette that you will want to remember if you’re going to use Twitter for your dealership. If you do it right, it can help drive your dealership traffic.
1. Be willing to embark and follow people. The most popular Twitterers are those who open up the lines of communication both ways. Simply “allowing” people the honor of following you and receiving your tweets is not enough. The entire point of Twitter is personal contact and building relationships. So if someone follows you, you should follow them back. A good example is Michael Gass (@michaelgass) who has over 13,142 followers on Twitter—and follows 13,403+ himself. There are applications which allow you to organize your followers into different groups so that you can keep up on your favorite contacts without them getting lost in the shuffle.
2. Don’t chat. Twitter is not a chat room, it is a way to communicate with people. If you are having a conversation with another Twitterer that exceeds more than just a couple tweets—use the Direct Message feature. Otherwise, it’s annoying and bothersome and no one wants to read that.
3. Twitter is public. Everyone who follows you can see your tweets. That means that if you are Twittering as a part of your business networking, you want to represent yourself in the best way possible at all times. Drunken tweets, excessive swearing, abusive language, off-color jokes—these can all alienate you from your onlookers even if they don’t say anything specifically about it to you. Good rule of thumb: Don’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t say on national television.
4. Take a break. When you tweet, you may be tempted to send out a bunch of messages all at the same time. It’s best to send out two or three at a time, otherwise you appear to be one of those obnoxious people who attempt to dominate the conversation when you’re in a group of people. And nobody likes that person.
5. Go easy on self promotion. Many people join Twitter as a way to promote their business, product, service, blog or other projects. That’s great! You can make some amazing connections on Twitter; which, will improve your business and help you form some important relationships. However, if you are obnoxious about plugging your wares, people will begin to avoid or un-follow you. New Marketing is about drawing people in, not proselytizing; and, the best way to do that is by being interesting and engaging. Twittering self-promoting ads all day long is pretty much just spam. Do you like spam? Neither does anyone else.
Twitter can be an amazing tool for creating a network of friends, contacts, and resources; but as is true with any community, you must remain considerate of others to be considered a valuable member.
Your Blog Must Begin By Defining Your Target Audience!
It’s the first step that every dealership must take.
Social Media is integral to every dealers RV advertising plans. Except everyone appears to be overlooking content. At first glance content creation appears to be a mountain that’s just too big for a dealer.
It’s not easy but make no mistake the blog is the central platform for any successful social media program.
The blog becomes the “gateway” to your dealership. The place you’ll drive targeted online traffic. Without relevant content you can’t put SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn to work for you..
To create a successful dealership blog that generates traffic and a consistent flow of leads, you first need to answer one simple question.
The very first step you take is to answer, “who is our best target audience?”
Get with your RV advertising agency and discuss this. You can’t move forward without it being absolutely clear.
Without clearly defining this audience you’ll find it difficult:
Deciding what to write about
Where to find resources
What search terms to use for SEO
Where to locate your online audience
Bloggin will be a waste of time and energy. I can provide dozens and dozens of examples of blogs that have not identified their target audience. They are like ships without rudders.
I could list some for you but I don’t want to embarrass anyone.
But I will provide some examples of blogs where companies have clearly identified their audience:
Let me know what you think of these.
Autonation (From battery life, tire wear and tear, community involvement and hybrid vehicles. Building relationships with past and present and future clients by sharing vital information.)
Blue Collar Branding (From boots, bowling balls to boats. Manufacturers who need to reach blue collar workers.)
She-conomy (Male advertisers who should be marketing to women.)
I’m sure you have many opinions at your dealership.
That might just be why your confused!
Be careful listening to opinions which are just opinions.
Before you plan your digital strategy understand what your customers are looking for on the internet.
I am not aware of an RV survey that soley addresses the RV dealership but I did find one I agree with.
eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's “Global Web Index.” I suggest you review this research. My big take away from it was this:
When it come to social media you’ll want relevant non selling information and when it comes to your web site you’ll want offer some deals. Give the shopper something for their time.
Bottom line, I think the results are easily translated to the RV consumer. Make sure your RV ad agency is learning about Social Media and how it relates to this research and make sure your web site is selling value.
Here you go……….
What do customers want from the brands they love?
Information mostly (well, after a good discount anyway.) Ultimately, they want value. Most importantly you just need to ask yourself is my message relevant to them? If it is they probably want more of it.
Something to think about as you plan your online strategy.
Let me know what you take from this. Sure looks like Social Media is on everyones mind.
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Ron, Wheeler, Founder/CEO, Wheeler Advertising, Tel-Edge, and the Wright Edge Advertising.
If you're an RV Dealer looking for insight on RV Advertising you've come to the right place. I've spent over 20 years helping RV dealers effectively advertising their dealerships. This blog is designed to share some of this experience with you.
You'll find weekly insight into marketing and advertising ideas for the RV industry. The topics range from Social Media to Lifestyle Marketing.If you have questions or suggestions on how I can provide more value on this site just email me at rwheeler@wheeleradvertising.com.
