I share the concepts of the fundamental attribution and conversion errors in this short video blog.

#CarStrong Community | Feldman Gives Back

Community is the foundation that keeps our cities standing tall.Feldman Automotive realizes this and believes it’s important to participate and give back in order to build a stronger community around the…

Facebook has been a challenging venue for marketers and advertisers ever since it started really getting popular in 2009. At that time, it was clear that it was the social network to beat and the company started trying to cash in with different types of advertising options. Most of them failed miserably for the same reason that many marketers continue to fail today: people go to Facebook to be…

It was one of the most used made-up words of 2012 (and in many cases, one of the most annoying). Just about every marketer in and out of the automotive industry used some variation of "SoLoMo" (Social/Local/Mobile) in a blog post, video, presentation, or declaration of things to come. The underlying concept - that many people and the sites they visit are…

Foursquare has quietly been making moves that will have a major impact on local businesses and . The service is already used to check in at a variety of places, and now their reach will be expanding.

The first new feature is the explore option for non-registered users, and the attached ratings update. Explore lets users search for specific kinds of businesses and…

So you've created your dealership's Google+ Brand Page in preparation for the move from Google Places to Google Plus Local...but now what?  Here are some tips for optimizing your dealership's Google+ page:

Keep SEO in Mind: When putting information into the "About Us" tab, use relevant keywords. Also use these terms when adding content to your page to help search engines (especially Google) understand what your page is about.  Use "Recommended Links" to send…

Google recently released guidelines for their Google+ Local Pages, outlining what you can and can’t do with the main picture on your Local page. It is important to stay on top of these announcements from Google, make sure you read over these guidelines to make sure you aren’t hurting your local page, it could have big implications on your…

Today, more than ever, online reviews can make or break your month selling vehicles.  We can search for online reputation management companies and we will get hundreds if not thousands of opinions on how to manipulate the system of posting positive reviews.  Many of these companies state that they have a secret to help your dealership look like they are flawless.  This is done utilizing a lot of smoke and mirrors.

Studies by consumer behavior and search experts say that 7 out of 10…

KPA Announces New Automotive Social Media Service

KPA Local Engage is a social media service dedicated to bringing a dealer’s unique brand to their local community.

Lafayette, CO (June 19, 2012) ­— KPA announced today the launch of KPA Local Engage, the first social media service in the automotive industry to include collaboration with a social media expert, localized promotions, and social media management software in one service. Auto dealers…

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Google was going to include items from Google+ in their regular search results when users were signed in, calling it “Search Plus Your World”. Now that users have had some time to get accustomed to it, I wanted to touch on how this new way of searching could benefit your car dealership’s local search…

Most people tend to focus a lot of their local search engine marketing for their auto dealer website on Google Places.  While it's true that a lot, if not most, of your search traffic comes from Google, it's still important to make sure your dealership is properly optimized for the other major players as well.

Here are…

Last week I wrote a post about Google Local Portal in Portland, available on DealerOn’s blog.  If you’ve already read it, you might have seen mention of Google's new service for businesses: Google Offers.  Google Offers appears to be similar to Groupon and other discount offering services -- it allows you, as a small business owner, to get your business "in…

Have you seen the new offering from Google for local search?  Unless you live in Austin, Portland, Madison or San Diego, chances are that you haven't.  Google's new “Beta” Local Directory Portals are a bit of a mix between their place pages and Yelp.  They let users look at all of the businesses in a city in one place (similar to Yelp’s model).

Here is a screenshot of Google Portland:

 …

Yahoo! Local for Auto Dealers



Yahoo! Local has created an algorithm to gather content from local blogs, newspapers and local retailers to create another great opportunity for Auto Dealers. Although this service remains as a Limited Beta there are more cities being added rapidly. This is an attempt by Yahoo! to aggregate deals from sites like Living Social and Groupon with content from authors writing in the community.



For those Automotive Dealers that already optimize…