Pronounced “Otter,” Auttr is the first and only social media site devoted exclusively to the auto industry. Like Facebook or Twitter, you can find friends and colleagues, and create a profile. But unlike these other sites, Auttr gives you access to tools and contacts that can help you with your business, career, or car search.

Here are just a few of the things you can do on Auttr:
• Search hundreds of thousands of cars in dealer inventories
• Become a smarter car buyer with educational articles and tips
• Find best practices and regulatory information for dealerships
• Read posts and check out videos from auto industry experts
• Create and share professional profiles
• Catch up on national and international auto news

In other words, Auttr is a place for car buyers, dealers, and industry experts to come together. Whether you are looking to buy a car or sell one, get the best deal for your money, or learn to operate your dealership more efficiently, you are sure to find just what you’re looking for on Auttr. And Auttr has a new website design to make navigation easier.

Social media marketing is still a relatively new and evolving field. There isn’t a whole lot that we, or anyone else, can say definitively about what works and what doesn’t, and especially which sites or techniques are going to be important and profitable in the future.

Still, we can point you at the best and worst ways to use social networking sites right now.

Let’s start with the worst way, which also happens to be the approach lots of business owners and marketers seem to be taking: halfheartedly setting up a bunch of profiles and then waiting for customers to show up.

While this is a terrible approach to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, it’s also understandable. Companies know that hundreds of millions of people are logging on to these sites, and so they want to take advantage. But, since they aren’t sure what to actually do with any of these opportunities, they take a “wait-and-see” attitude towards the whole thing. Eventually, they are forced (but not surprised) to admit that it hasn’t worked for them.

So what’s a better way to try social networking? To become a resource for information, advice, and connections. Social networking sites work a lot like real-life networking events used to. To sit around and wait for your biggest potential customers to walk up to you, introduce themselves, and end up buying isn’t realistic. But, if you can show off what you know and become a focal point of activity, then new accounts are practically going to fall into your lap.

If you want to dominate the social networking scene, then learn to become indispensable to prospective clients. Show them that you have expertise in the form of articles, videos, and ongoing comments and discussions. Once you do, it will only be a matter of time before they’re interested in buying from you.

If you’re ready to get the best from your social media marketing, contact Marcy Design today to find out how we can help.

SAN FRANCISCO — A surge in social-media use by small businesses reflects a shift in how they operate and their comfort with increasingly easy-to-use technology.

In growing numbers, small-business owners are adopting social-networking services, location-based services, Twitter and online video to promote products and services, according to a new study by MerchantCircle, a social network for small businesses. It polled a fraction of its more than 1.3 million members.

The survey results are the strongest evidence yet that small businesses — which account for more than 90% of all U.S. companies and fuel the economy — are accelerating their use of social media at the expense of traditional media such as newspapers, the Yellow Pages and radio. Even e-mail messages have taken a beating.

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The largest social network in the world, Facebook, will soon reach 500 million users. According to Techcrunch; “Facebook’s announced 400 million users only five months ago, as it celebrated its sixth birthday. And it took only five months to go from 300 to 400.” Coincidentally Marc Andreessen, a Facebook board member, mentioned that revenue for the company reached $500 million last year.

On a flight from Newark to the West Coast not long ago, Jeff Jarvis, author of the book “What Would Google Do?” fell into a conversation with a fellow passenger familiar with his work. But it was not a face-to-face chat. Rather, it started as an exchange of Twitter posts at the boarding gate.

When the plane landed, Mr. Jarvis recalled, the conversation resumed. “It was as if someone had recognized you and come up to say, ‘hello,’ on the flight.” He said it reminded him of the days when passengers could socialize in airborne lounges, “except now it’s happening digitally.”

The mobile phone and laptop are not just tools to stay in touch with the office or home anymore. As Mr. Jarvis can attest, a growing number of frequent fliers are using their mobile devices to create an informal travelers’ community in airports and aloft.

Airlines and social media providers are scrambling to catch up. Airlines are beefing up their presence on networking channels, and travelers’ groups like FlyerTalk.com have created new applications that allow members to find one another while on the road. Business travelers can use these services to share cabs to the airport, swap advice or locate colleagues in the same city. As Mr. Jarvis puts it, “finding a like-minded person to travel with lessens the chance of getting stuck next to some talkative bozo” on a long flight.

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AdAgencyOnline.Net Shares Social Media Formula With Automotive Advertising Agencies; C2C + B2B = B2C SQUARED

AdAgencyOnline.Net is an automotive advertising resource / networking portal hosted by Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., (AAOL). Philip Zelinger, the President of AAOL and host of the blog talk radio station featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net — WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time — shared a simple formula with automotive advertising agencies to help them monetize social media for their auto dealer clients; C2C + B2B = B2C SQUARED. The formula suggests that Customer to Customer, (C2C), comments coupled with Business to Business, (B2B), cross promotions can virally amplify Business to Customer, (B2C), marketing messages through social networking channels without offending the community.

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Facebook continues its move towards market domination, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying it could be the first social networking site to reach 1 billion users.

The website currently has 500 million users, but Zuckerberg is confident Facebook can reach 1 billion once it conquers the relatively small number of countries that are yet to fully embrace the site, the New York Post reported.

Zuckerberg told the audience at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France that China, Japan, Russia and South Korea were the only countries where Facebook wasn’t the social networking site leader.

“While Facebook has fewer than 1 million users in Russia, the growth rate is doubling every six months,” he said.

Facebook opened an office in Moscow in April and opened discussions with local mobile phone operators as part of a project to expand in Russia.

Zuckerberg said Facebook wouldn’t reach the 1 billion mark this year but it “has a decent shot” down the line, the New York Post reported.

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Follow these 5 steps to extend the conversation and grow your audience.

Right now online, your customers, clients, members and prospects are chatting up a storm. Whether they’re tweeting on Twitter, posting on Facebook, forwarding YouTube videos or commenting on blogs, they’re out there engaging in conversations and sharing information that’s relevant to your business or cause.

Are you a part of that conversation?

If you’re not, you may be missing out on opportunities to extend your marketing reach. Social media sites offer new ways to share your content, grow your audience and build customer relationships. In tandem with e-mail, they create a powerful marketing mix.

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By Courtney Rubin | May 17, 2010

Video-sharing website YouTube celebrates its fifth birthday today with the news that it receives more than two billion hits daily.

That’s almost double the number of people who tune into ABC, NBC, and CBS combined, says YouTube’s owner Google. It’s also a huge leap from the 1 billion-plus daily views the site said it was getting in October.

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Social Media Success Tips: http://www.credit-and-collections.com/blog/?p=1549