In my last article, I discussed what a Public Relations firm does. One of those tasks, which I hope you never need but is important to understand, is crisis management. Not every company is going to go off the deep end like…

Today’s world is full of review sites and social media- the epitome of information at your fingertips.  And because of this, reviews have become that much more important for customer retention and new client business. Search engines are becoming increasingly savvier by routinely displaying reviews (and…

This is part 1 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership.

It isn’t what you’re saying on social media that has the biggest effect on your business. It’s what others are saying about you that makes the true impact.

I’ve used those words in various forms since 2008. It’s…

The ripple effect, do you understand it?

Every action has a reaction, no matter how small or large. Any time we stretch the truth, tell a white lie or right out tell a whopper of a lie there is a…

We've all seen them. The market is been flooded with it. "How to succeed with Social Media," Top 10 Facebook Tips and Tricks," "Best Practices on Twitter." Don't get me wrong, the information is very useful and appreciated, but there is one problem... it's all the same information over and over again.

In the spirit of something new, the exact opposite…

It's really simple. If vehicle shoppers don't trust your dealership or your brand will they consider test driving a car or buying a vehicle from you? 

If you don't take active steps to build that trust you WILL lose sales.  Stop playing games with your reputation and embrace transparency to build your sales volume and respect from your customers.

Introductory pricing is still available…

Recently, I was invited to tour the new facility at my favorite dealership during a service visit.  From first glance, everything appeared to be in the framework of a typical dealership, until I got to the customer lounge.  This space had drawn a crowd in front of a large bank of glass windows.  I was curious about what all the excitement was about.  Did the dealership install an animal viewing area? …

It's one of the most overlooked components of a modern automotive internet marketing strategy. Some do it naturally, expressing the way they want the dealership to be perceived by customers and potential customers by instilling a unified sense of direction amongst employees, on their website, and throughout their online interactions such as on social media or when…

This is Part 4 in a 5 part series. Please read the previous posts first or none of this will really make any sense.

• Part I: The Key to Search and Social in 2013 and Beyond…

This is Part 3 in a 5 part series. Read Part 2 here.

By now, you should have an understanding of the importance of having an individual - preferably the owner, general manager, or…

I had the great pleasure of being part of the AutoCON team this year for the first annual event. It was held at the Aria hotel and casino in Las Vegas earlier this September. During the conference, I was able to see all my automotive…

On August tenth of 2012, we wrote about the movement to Boycott Clay Nissan (you can read that article here.) As a quick refresher, a woman–named Jill Colter–was fired from her position…

I recently read an article published by Forbes titled …

You might want to re-think the ask

You want to increase the number of reviews written about your dealership on online consumer and automotive review sites, right? The first step in any review-building initiative is developing a system or process for consistently asking satisfied customers to write reviews. But if you want to accelerate your results, maybe it’s time to take another look at how you are positioning the…

These two moving companies are on BusinessRater.com home page are FREE accounts and they're killing it!!!  

Alliance Worldwide Van Lines Moving Company has 52 reviews in only two months and it was…

Social media represents a new dawn for the marketing industry. The level of interaction it enables between business and consumer is nothing short of revolutionary. Most would agree that this is a step forward; more communication is always preferable to less. However, it is not an avenue of communication that…

We all know it's impossible to make every customer happy. There are often confusions in the automotive industry that consumers simply do not understand. They can do unreasonable things to try to get back at the dealership when they perceive that they were not treated properly.

This was a challenge a decade ago and before when word-of-mouth was arguably the most important factor in the success of a dealership.…

Dear Google:

You amaze and confound us daily.  You have created an infrastructure, tools and resources for accessing and organizing information that the majority of people and businesses all over the world rely on every day.  That is truly awe-inspiring.  You are pulling search, social and reviews together in envelope-pushing ways.

Nevertheless, change and innovation are rarely universally embraced as you have experienced first hand.   As the old saying goes – you can…

Thank You Dealer Elite Members

First of all I would like to thank Dealer Elite Members and others for taking the time to View my last Blog Post, I appreciate it. I was advised at had been viewed over 700 times so far, my sincere thanks to everyone.......

Now we all know the automotive industry needs to move into the 22st century as quickly as possible. Some of you may ask why, when some of the tactics still work.

Well let me give you some examples from…

Automotive Internet Sales and Google’s ZMOT for Car Dealerships

By now, nearly everyone has heard of ZMOT and how it might possibly be relevant for the automotive…