September 1st, 2010 - 
One of my basic rules for social media:
- Inject social media into traditional advertising.
Although digital marketing might not be as old as television and radio it gives you a great opportunity to reach out to your customers. Creating a newsletter using your Blog content will connect with your database.
These three examples are taken from a Social.Motive sldie show. They demonstrate regardless the size of your database you can expect some great results. Each of these newsletters would cost $500 to $ 1,000 if created from scratch. In a good social media program they are just an added benefit.
RESULTS:
- Open rate in these three examples ranged from 18% to 32%. You really should be doing this once a month if you want to effectively own your customers and grow your market share. This is great ROI!
If your RV Advertising agency or staff is not prepared execute give us a call. We can get you on track in a very short time.
April 20th, 2010 - 
Is this a good idea? Well that depends!
The value of any ad is based on the strategy and the intent of the ad.
NOTE: If you’re not engaged in social media with the right platform facebook ads will be on no value to you.
Here’s what you get straight from facebook.
Connect with Real People
- Filter your target audience from over 400,000,000 facebook userws
- Offer a relevant value to your target audience for increased success
- People respond to relevant content
- Ads are easy to create
- Advertise your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page or an Event.
- Choose to pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM) in your local currency.
Optimize Your Ads
- Track your progress with real-time reporting.
- Gain insight about who’s clicking on your ad.
- Make modifications to maximize your results.
Here is the main reason I think this can work for you and your dealership! Below are the list of filters you can use.
Target Your Audience By:
- Keywords
- Education
- Workplace
- Relationship Status
- Relationship Interests
- Languages
I have used this program with good success. The costs are very reasonable.
But like anything involving your RV advertising make sure it is well thought out before you spend any money.
It is not a silver bullet! Just another good tool.
February 26th, 2010 - 
It’s time to think about TAG!
One thing for sure, social media is thriving in the RV space because RVer’s want to interact with RVer’s.
We know RV consumers want to share opinions and experiences.
Technorati will help you connect with people searching for content like yours.
What isTechnorati? ……..Technorati is a search engine for blogs.
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.
February 21st, 2010 - 
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:
- General Web and Social Media Writing Principles
- Writing Strong Headlines and Titles
- Writing for Twitter
- Writing for Search Engines
Click Here for the links to Robin’s collection of “how to” articles for writing effectively for Web.
February 7th, 2010 - 
Social Media can look a little overwhelming!
Picking the right tools and is not.
I won’t tell anyone if your not into facebooking, myspacing, tweeting or youtubing, because it looks too confusing. But, I do need to say…. Thats no excuse?
The numbers are staggering and the RV world is a perfect fit for Social Media.
Social Media=Relationship Selling
The Internet is filled with people who are looking to meet other Internet users and develop both business and personal relationships. RV Advertising must include social media!
Businesses like Apple, Budweiser, GM and even football conferences are using social networks to build relationships and trust in their brand or product.
RV dealers are just starting to figure out that they can also benefit from social networks. But only a handful of dealers will get it right while the others experiment and wonder why it isn’t working. It’s all starts with the right tools.
You need tools that help you execute your plan with the least amount of work and the biggest opportunity for upside.
If you use the right tools building mutually beneficial relationships with customers and future customers is at your finger tips.
The great news is almost all the tools needed for social media are free.
The problem is there are so many to choose from.
Make sure whom ever helps you with social media knows the tools to use. In fact if they’re not already executing a social media plan for themselves you more than likely want to stay away from them. You don’t need that many but you could spend years finding out which ones work and which ones don’t.
Find a resource that can help you learn quickly and with the least amount of pain.
One final note: Be leery of the expert! I’m not sure there are any.
January 30th, 2010 -  HubSpot
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.
January 10th, 2010 - 
The RV industry seems to really be taking to Facebook but remember it’s a tool for driving dealership traffic.
The number one reason to have a Facebook fan page. Facebook is one of the largest social network sites in the world with some 300 million + subscribers. More people can find out about your dealership because your fan page gets indexed and is searchable inside and outside of Facebook.
Facebook Quick Facts:
- Over 300 million active members.
- Predicted to be at 500 million by 2011.
- The 5th most trafficked website in the world.
- The largest photo-sharing platform with over 2 billion photos uploaded per day.
- If Facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest.
- More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week.
It’s hard to believe that Facebook was just started in February of 2004. It will continue to have amazing growth and dominance for the foreseeable future and can be an important component to your dealership’s new business efforts.
From Facebook:
Establish an interactive presence on Facebook. Every Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers. Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more. Creating a Facebook Page is easy, free, and great for all types of businesses.
Facebook guru, Mari Smith, author of “Why Facebook?” advises,“The CORRECT way to register an account on Facebook is in your personal name. On Facebook, Profiles Are Personal. Pages are for business. FACEBOOK PROFILES are for your own personal account in yourfirst and last name. In order to represent your dealership on it’s own “profile” in Facebook, you must set up a FACEBOOK PAGE.”
BUT REMEMBER SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT JUST ABOUT FACEBOOK. IT IS JUST ONE OF THE TOOLS.
January 7th, 2010 - 
It’s time to step up and be a leader and point your team in the right direction.
Twitter is on the move.
Are you using it the right way for the RV industry?
Twitter itself created the conditions that has allowed users to innovate. No one in the beginning envisioned that:
- People would want to follow businesses and stangers
- Businesses would use Twitter to promote discounts, launch new products and services
- Twitter would be used by broadcasters, educators, politicians, doctors, lawyers, ministers and so many others you can’t keep up with them all
There are not many who use Twitter the way that we do. Make sure who ever is doing your RV Advertising that they follow this strategy.
Our point-of-view is that most of our followers do not care about specific conversations that I’m having. What our Twitter followers have come to expect from us are helpful ideas from RV Ad Talk.
For our own Twitter formula … 80 to 90 percent of our Tweets are made up of resourceful articles and posts. Our Tweets usually include just the article/post titles and URL links.
Many of these articles/posts come from my online reading using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about the post and publish it to my Twitter account. If I’m finding lots of good material, I may post them through Social Oomph (Tweetlater) to be able to spread the posts over a period of time.
I have written a number of posts, the vast majority written as a resource for RV Dealers. Most of these are not time sensitive and continue to be a helpful resource for my readers. I know that because of the traffic each generates to my blog.
- I have a number of reasons for re-purposing blog content in this way:
- Readers do not read my blog chronologically. People are so busy they don’t have time. I usually write and post at least once a day, Monday through Friday, but the majority of my readers are not reading my content on a daily basis.
- Most of my readers will read posts through many different channels such as RSS Feed, email newsletter, SEO, Twitter and from mirroring blog post content through my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
- Even with a large number of followers, an article that I post at 11 am on a Thursday is going to be missed by 99% of my readers.
- I provide links to similar articles that would possibly be of interest to my readers and try to spare them having to search for them on their own.
- There are often posts that I discover that I know would be of interest to my readers. So, I will “bridge-the-gap” by specifying how this post/article relates to them. Materials and tools that aren’t specific to my audience, I can make it specific to them. It then becomes a resource for ad agency new business.
If you aren’t generating traffic, it’s a sign of a lack of appeal. Metrics keeps everything on track and focused. I check my blog analytics multiple times a day along with other metrics tools from bit.ly, socialtooand Twittergrader.
How are you using Twitter? I hope not sending out retail offers.
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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.
Have a great day!
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