What do you think about: The government has acknowledged tapping into servers of nine Internet giants?—including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and YouTube—even though the companies deny giving direct "backdoor" access

"All we have is shadows of information," he said. "We are finally learning some things. We need more whistleblowers."

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There are always going to be those who are real experts offering real products or services with proven strategies and the ability to make changes to their techniques as the market and industries change. There are also always going to be those who put on the uniform, slide on the…

by Bobby Cannon

About a year ago my wife’s ‘93 sedan, with its 150K miles, faded gold paint, and malfunctioning engine, was finally laid to rest.  For some reason, she shed no tears on behalf of the only car she had ever driven.  While I mourned the loss of our “family member” she was already shopping for a new vehicle.  A new SUV was looming in the near…

Are you a hunter or farmer For so many years, we have struggled as an industry when it comes to follow up. Then, companies like Clients for Life and came along and started sending our follow up letters for us. All we had to do was sign it and mail it. This gave us more time to focus on working with the customers who were on the lot and calling in.

Basically, it gave us the ability to focus more time on hunting for new business and the farming was something we were able to relax on,…

  A study done by J.D. Power and Associates found that 82 percent of car owners with smartphones have an interest in an in-vehicle device/application link to connect their smartphone to their vehicle's infotainment system. That's up from the 78 percent in the 2012 U.S. Automotive Emerging Technologies…

Watch this - Vooza Video

You have to treat social media like a fire. Add logs all day. And then watch your day go up in flames. Vooza‘s social media maven shows…

Dealerships are typically slow to embrace technology. In some cases, it’s for budgetary reasons and for others it’s out of a lack of a sense of need. A recent article in WardsAuto.com reinforced the need for dealerships to streamline their processes. The article explains how as car…

During a discussion with a potential client, something came up that surprised me. It shouldn’t have considering the types of information that are floating around the internet and being spread by “gurus,” but it did.

“I post pictures to Facebook and links to Twitter,” she told me.

That was the sum of their strategy. In a way it sort of made sense – rather, I…

Edmunds launches price guarantee for online car shoppers 

Automotive News.

The article states that 600 dealers have already signed up. 

Here is another third party, that is going to dictate what price dealers should sell their product.  These dealers are going to pay…

In my 30 years in the business, I have never seen such a lack of civility, leadership and professionalism in the automotive industry. You can find managers anywhere, but developing leaders is a much more challenging task. Managers are integral, but leaders are essential. It does not take character, guts or vision to manage things, but it takes all three to lead people.

Here are common characteristics I see quite often from managers in dealerships…

There’s a challenge associated with Facebook advertising that isn’t as important when it comes to Google Adwords or similar advertising platforms. With Adwords, as long as your ads match well with the page that you’re advertising, you can maintain a high quality score and keep your ads working well. On Facebook, there is a much tougher audience than the Google algorithm that you have to win…

It’s not uncommon for digital marketing at the dealership to give primary focus to vehicle sales processes and practices and for the most part ignore service and parts departments.  The reality is that more and more of your customers are online and 

touching all of the dealership’s departments.  The frequent strategy for addressing these divergent points of communication is like the story of the blind men and an elephant.  A group of blind men touch an elephant to…

VinSolutions announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Haystak Digital Marketing, the marketplace leader of digital marketing products and services for the automotive industry.

The transaction was first announced on May 7.

Haystak will operate under its own brand and continue to provide digital products and services direct to dealers nationwide.  In addition, Haystak’s digital marketing toolset will be integrated with VinSolutions CRM and website products to help…

IRVINE, CA – June 5, 2013 – CarFinance Capital LLC, a leading auto-finance provider, today announced that it has completed its inaugural rated asset-backed securitization of $238 million of Notes in a transaction that closed on May 30, 2013.  The Offered Notes were assigned ratings by Moody’s Investor Services, Inc. and Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. from an A3/AA to a Ba3/BB rating, respectively.  Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were joint book-runners for…

We all get our oil change. It’s a relatively constant thing. Most people are comfortable with getting their oil changed regularly. Some cars tell you when it’s time. Most people have a sticker on their windshield that tells them when it’s time. Heck, our internal clock often reminds us.

Now,…

Blogging is the engine that drives your digital marketing activities. It is the content generation that bolsters your SEO, the posts you share to your social media accounts, and the voice of your company on the internet. If you don't pay the proper amount of respect to your blog, you're going to suffer for it in the long run. A truly successful digital marketing…

There are thirteen steps to happiness and it all begins with a process. From recruiting to advertising, watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday to determine which processes you need to focus on in order to be successful.

I recently read an article about a recent Forrester Report titled “Banks and Retailers: You Cannot Price Your Way Out of Bad Customer Experiences.” It was quite fascinating but there was one part that really resonated with…

I cut my teeth selling at an early age selling door to door. From delivering newspapers to Fuller Brush to Cash is Best, for which Ted Turner was a fugitive from the US holding offshore on his yacht in international waters for purporting a pyramid scheme, to selling the original wind up fire and burglar alarms for the…