If you think television is going away, take a look at the chart below. More Americans are watching TV than ever before. Note that 80% of younger viewers (18-24 years old) watch TV shows online. As a business, think about how your website and social media can reach your target audience.

As the social media wave continues to pick up steam, independent auto dealers are taking a closer look at sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to see whether there might be a way they can turn friends and contacts into customers. It’s a good question; with hundreds of millions of people using social networking sites, it’s clear that prospective car buyers are out there. But to find and reach them, dealers are going to have to take some cues from businesses in other industries that are already making it work.

Here are five things independent auto dealers can learn from other businesses about social media.

Social media takes some time… but not necessarily a lot of money. You would think that large, multinational corporations, with their extensive public relations teams and market research staff, would dominate social media, and some do use networking sites effectively. But in many cases, it’s the smaller players – family-owned candy companies and Main Street specialty stores – that are using the personal nature of their businesses to meet the big boys step for step. To make social network marketing work, you’ll have to be patient and invest some energy, but not necessarily a whole lot of cash.

Connect with your best customer. One of the reasons those smaller players are doing so well is that they typically don’t have any trouble finding focus. Given that there are literally hundreds of millions of social media users, trying to target them en masse is never going to be effective. Instead, think of who your very best potential client would be and then arrange a profile that speaks to them. You can’t sell to everybody online, but you can use social media to attract good customers.

Keep your marketing messages subtle. You’ll hardly ever see movie stars and musicians advertise on social media, but they’re always promoting their latest projects. You can do the same. Since social networking sites make a poor outlet for outright advertising, try to layer your sales pitch within informational articles and other “soft” forms of content. Once people are familiar with you, it’s only natural for them to take the next step and buy from you in the future.

Be fun. In the same way, take a cue from our friends in the public relations world and try to blur the lines between marketing and entertainment. Social media marketing is really about winning attention, and there’s no substitute for being fun when it comes to drawing readers and followers online.

Stick to the plan. If there is one thing you want to borrow from the corporate giants, it’s this: focus on the bottom line. The advertising departments of Fortune 500 companies don’t spend much time worrying about how many friends they have; they just want to know how social media is supporting their other online and offline marketing goals. Your thinking should go the same way. Social media is fun to use, and it can be effective, but only if it works along with everything else you’re already doing.

Need help making social media work for your dealership? Contact Marcy Design to find out why so many other businesses trust us with their online marketing plans.

Businesses were asked which social media they use, whether social media is beneficial and what the benefits are. The results are surprising. See charts below.

It’s often been said that it’s more profitable to listen than it is to speak. As it turns out, at least on social media, it’s a whole lot more fun, too…

Too many small and medium-size businesses use their social media profiles to simply broadcast information and specials. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but it sort of misses the point: social networking works best when it’s fun.

Take advantage of that and make connecting with your company a more enjoyable experience by offering feedback. Rather than giving a coupon for a pancake breakfast, for example, offer a discount on a meal for anyone who will send in their mother’s favorite recipe. Don’t just advertise a sale on flowers; give a free bouquet to anyone who can send a picture of the best arrangement in their home. Or send a gift certificate to the customer who forwards you the best joke on a Friday…

We could go on and on, but you get the idea. To make social media marketing more effective, don’t think of it as marketing at all – consider it a chance to have a fun give-and-take with your customers. They’ll enjoy hearing from you a lot more, and you’ll enjoy what it can do for your business.

We’ve noticed something slightly shocking over the past few years: that a new business website can be a complete waste of time and money.

Now, that’s probably not what you expected to read in this space. More likely, you thought we were going to tell you how, since it can potentially attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, your website is an important – and probably the most important – part of your marketing mix. You thought you were going to hear about how it doesn’t just help you with sales, but also public relations, customer service, and even recruiting. You just knew we were going to tell you that your website represents some of the best money your company can spend.

And those would all be correct… as long as you’re building a site with an online marketing plan to go with it.

Here’s what we are getting at: a new website for your company is fantastic, but unless you’re making the accompanying investment, in time or money, to search engine optimization, social media marketing, improved content for your landing pages, and so on, then you probably shouldn’t expect to get too much out of it.

Too many prospective clients are out there just looking for “a website,” and too many web design firms are happy to give them one – and collect a fee – without taking the time to learn about the client’s real needs and business goals. But a website built without purpose or plan is just an expensive online brochure. With the right tools in place, it can be a huge boost to your businesses income.

Do you need more help turning your web design project into a profitable online marketing plan? Then contact Marcy Design (614-224-6226) today – we’ll give you the kind of personal service clients have come to expect from us for years.

How fast can customers and prospects navigate your website? The average viewer decides in 3 seconds whether to stay on your website or not. See today’s comic strip “Zit’s” below.

That depends on the age group you are selling to. To illustrate this, Pew Research Center provided this highly interesting graph, where the shift in channels is broken down by age.

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. And businesses are getting on board. Click below and take a look at this cool InfoGraphic.

Full story at Mashable.

If you had to guess what the one thing missing from most social media profiles would be, what would you guess? Based on speaking with lots of clients over the last few years, we can say that most of the typical answers would fall along the lines of quality photos, contact information, new and fresh content, a healthy contact list, or maybe even links to your other social media profiles and online marketing tools.

These are all fantastic answers, and elements you definitely should work into your social media plan. What we are talking about today, though, and what is truly holding a lot of would-be social media marketers back, is a lack of passion.

When you love what you do, or at least can get excited about it, customers respond in a way that’s entirely different than they do when you are just phoning it in and trying to collect a paycheck. The biggest companies spend billions every year trying to show or fake that enthusiasm to the rest of us; to the degree that they succeed or fail, their profits rise and fall.

So, one of the easiest ways to increase your company’s financial success, not to mention get more out of your social networking profiles, is to let your passion comes through. Even if you can’t feel over the moon about what you sell, try to at least get fired up about some aspect of it, like customer service or new product development. That will come through in your posts and updates, and you can be sure people respond to it.

Need help injecting your passion into social media and other online marketing activities? At Auttr.com, we are experts in taking your excitement and sharing it with the world.

In a way, the growth of social networking is a bit like the latest “gold rush” for online marketers – a new way of reaching hundreds of millions of potential customers, just like search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and e-mail newsletters were in the past.

But even though sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can be a gateway to more business, to use them as a marketing avenue alone kind of misses the point. That’s because, at their core, what makes social media sites so interesting and effective isn’t that they give us another way to reach out and sell to people… but that they give us a chance to do so much more.
The real goal of your social network marketing plan shouldn’t be to increase sales this month, or new accounts this quarter. It should be to let your customers get to know you – and vice versa – in a way that wouldn’t have been possible through newsletters, advertisements, and other traditional forms of online and off-line marketing.

To some, this will sound a lot like branding, and we suppose that it probably is. But don’t forget that the goal of branding is to create customers for life. If social media marketing lets us accomplish that in a way that doesn’t require us to obsess over logos or hire expensive consultants, shouldn’t we embrace that?

The point is that social media can be a great way for deepening client relationships, but only if we use it as more than a megaphone for advertising. Here are a few tips to get you started on getting more out of social networking sites:

Don’t just sell, communicate back and forth. Rather than battering people with advertising messages and offers to buy, try starting and maintaining conversations. The more dialogue you create, the deeper relationship you’re going to be able to enjoy with customers and potential customers.

Invite feedback. Maybe one of the most underrated benefits of a strong social networking plan is that it can encourage customers, vendors, and colleagues to open up and give you greater insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your business.

Be friendly. Your network should always be growing and expanding. Take a little bit of time every day, or at least every week, to see if there are more potential customers, industry contacts, and other people you can bring into your social media circle.

Emphasize content and advice. Whether they are on social media sites or not, one thing web users love is a good source of information and guidance. While sites and profiles that only advertise are rarely bookmarked or returned to, ones that offer expert opinions and guidance become a trusted resource.

Wish your social media marketing plan was more comprehensive? Get in touch with us to see how we can turn your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts into a new way to get to know the people you do business with.