Xspond – Blog

Katie Urbain

Is Social Media Affecting How Business is Done?

August 23rd, 2010

I usually don’t like to jump on the bandwagon and rush to my computer to write a post about overly hyped current events. But, I genuinely had a major thought-provoking reaction to the news that when Facebook announced the launch of Places, Foursquare had a record number of new users sign up the next day.

It surprised me, mainly because I did not even consider it. Not really all that shocking when I do think about it, but still really neat. After all, publicity is publicity. And this was the mother of all publicity. A Huge social media company is announcing (in a live stream no-less) that they are going to be competing with a smaller company that is just picking up speed. I mean, really, how does this make the average worker or small business person feel? Are you rooting for the little guy? Do you love the under-dog? Will it be necessary to choose one or the other – or will you use both services?

If you do have to choose who will you choose? The front-runner or the under-dog? Everyone loves a success story of the “little guy” beating the “giant”. But what does this sharing of the spotlight between Foursquare and Facebook say about our current business culture? Is there really room for both? Can both be extremely successful? Can there be a deep, symbiotic relationship where both the little and the big guy have value and depend on each other equally? Is Facebook doing this to avoid a PR nightmare of appearing to be the Big Box of social media that squashes all the Mom and Pop’s of the world?

Regardless of the cause and effect of the “Facebook + Foursquare = Social Zen” story, my recent observations are that business is indeed changing. It is becoming more social. It is becoming more balanced. My generation and the one before it and certainly the one after it are really trying to correct the errors we feel our parents made. We are recognizing that the phrase “business is business” is out-dated and absurd. We feel that business is people and relationships and without these relationships a business is doomed in this new social world. Everyone is sharing and eventually, if you are a predator who stabs people in the back, you will lose respect, you will lose customers, and you will lose money – and maybe you will lose your entire business.

It’s not just business collaborations but also client relationships that are changing quickly. We are beginning to take note that the same thing that applies in social circles applies in business circles. If you work with a known jerk – you may be perceived as a jerk or you condone other people being jerks. We are choosing our clients as selectively as we choose our associates. A prime example comes from the following tweet by @bradgosse.

I adore the fact that Brad is unwilling to do work for someone who is abusive to his staff! Will this cost him some immediate revenue? Absolutely! Will it gain him a long-term reputation as someone who is willing to stand up against atrocities – for sure! In the end he will gain a reputation of refusing to be a sell-out and maintaining a stance for what he believes in, no matter what the monetary outcome is. By clearly displaying that money is not his motivator he gains trust, and where there is trust there is more business opportunities.

How can this be applied to your business structure? Is there a “big box” in your industry that could really help you along in a mutually beneficial relationship? Is there a “whale” of a client that you need to fire before they ruin your reputation?

Be aware old dogs, if you still think “it’s just business – it’s not personal” you might be in for a big surprise as this social movement continues to gain strength and momentum.

Posted in Business Development, Reputation Management, Social Media | Tagged Client Relations, Facebook, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Reputation, Twitter | 1 Comment

Mitch Lipon

What is the Key Ingredient for a Successful Dealership Website?

August 13th, 2010

What is the key ingredient that goes into a successful dealership website? SEO? Design? Ease of use? Given the time, I’m sure we could come up with a very long list of “ingredients” that could be argued as the most important. I’m sure if we conducted a poll the results would be quite telling. On the flip-side of that coin is the argument that no single “ingredient” is most important, but rather it’s the proper “recipe” of ingredients, carefully crafted and considered for each application that truly makes the difference. I, and others that fall into this camp would support the notion that only a finely designed site, supporting a well-crafted Brand, tailored to the given audience, with content rich organic terms, and just maybe a few secret ingredients added by your given provider, would be expected to perform as desired.

The question is; Is it really that simple? And the next question is; Can you really expect your website to stand on its own and perform? It seems only logical, that if it is true that, no single “ingredient” is the most important to your site, it should stand to reason that, no site, all alone, can be expected to return the optimum desired results! I would again argue that it is a great site, combined with a well orchestrated Social Media program, proper customer communication, just the right amount of advertising, and a commitment to community involvement that will ultimately reward a dealership with the website results they truly desire. Think about it. If your customers only hear from you when you want to sell them something…why would you be the person they would automatically turn to when they want to buy? What’s stopping them from Googling “car dealerships, My Town” vs. Googling “Your Dealership Name”? Which result would you prefer they get? Most importantly, which customer will yield the highest margin? Ultimately, which will result in the website performance standards you really want?

Gone are the days where dealership marketing was as simple as newspaper, TV, and radio. As tempting as it may be, we have not simply moved to the days where an “awesome website” is the answer either. The buying public can find information everywhere. They DEMAND to be talked to and moreover, they DEMAND to be listened to. A proper marketing solution cannot be achieved with a single silver-bullet “ingredient”. Your website will not stand the test alone. The challenge comes in fine-tuning just the right recipe for your market, for your community.

We’d love to hear your ideas. Your recipes. What has your dealership done to push your website performance over the top?

Posted in Life-Cycle Marketing, Marketing, Web Analytics | Tagged Community, dealerships, Engagement, SEO, Web Development | Leave a comment

Katie Urbain

“I Disagree with You.” vs. “You Are an Idiot!”

August 5th, 2010

Use the Comments Field to Encourage Useful Dialogue (not to attack the writer)

Have you ever read the comments on your blog and found that it appears the person was reading something else when they commented? A completely different understanding of the point you were trying to make, or they read into it more than what you wrote?

I have! Words have been inserted into my mouth (or in this case keyboard). It appears when a commenter is struggling to make their point they insert anything they need to help their case. This kills the discussion. No one needs to be attacked for what they did not say – isn’t there enough attacking going on based on what they did say?

Here are my tips (not rules, I am not the Internet police) for playing nice on the playground. You won’t get a time-out if you don’t play nice, but you will quickly become the kid who has no one to play with.

Do not put words in the mouth of the writer.
Do not group the writer into a category (that you deem negative) of people who share this singular opinion. (everyone is unique, no matter how much they have in common)
Do not attribute opinions to the author that they did not state.
Do not attack the writer, attack the idea if you disagree. (I call this bullying)
Do not attack the intentions of the writer without some evidence of these intentions.
If you are going to be nasty to the author, have the cajones to NOT be anonymous.
If it is unprofessional to say it in person, the same applies here on the web.
Keep it above the belt.
Do not apply a personality characteristic to someone based off one article – you being offended by it does not mean they have a personality flaw.
Don’t just disagree, if you really have a different opinion, give the alternate solution and/or explanation of where you are coming from. (This is where great discussions begin.)
Don’t be rude, people will write you & your opinion off. (“I disagree with you” vs. “You are an idiot!”)*
Don’t take out your previous bad experience, or general hatred of something, on a person that has nothing to do with your past experiences.
Don’t assume anything, it makes an Ass out of U and Me.

Did I miss any? What comments have you received that have ended a conversation abruptly?

*Didn’t anyone tell you that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? It’s true. If you are trying to make a point and you tell someone they are an idiot, they quit listening to you right then. You’d be better off putting yourself on mute, at least then they might try to read your lips.

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged blogs, Commenting, Disagreements, Discussions, Engagement | Leave a comment

Katie Urbain

6 Ways To Waste Your Time on Social Media

July 29th, 2010

Social Media Marketing is a helpful tool, but you have to be careful not to waste time on unnecessary and even harmful actions in your quest to make the most of this new tool. Here are six big time-wasters to be aware of:

Subscribing to too many Blogs. I highly recommend that you subscribe to relevant blogs for your industry, but be picky, be realistic, and set an egg timer. The point is that you cannot be everywhere, you just can’t. So choose your feeds wisely. Following blogs won’t do you any good if you don’t have time to read, understand, and respond when necessary. You may want to respond by sharing with others, you might join the conversation, you might need to adjust something you are doing based on this new information. So don’t over do it, because if you read ALL the relevant blogs there will be no time to respond accordingly.

Reading every Tweet, Facebook post, or Status Update. This is similar to subscribing to too many blogs. You want to follow them because they have good stuff to say, but once you begin to follow a big crowd you can’t catch every little thing. So don’t feel guilty if you miss some posts. I highly recommend making Favorites Lists (“Groups” in Facebook) so that you can make sure to catch everything that the most relevant people have to say. **Disclaimer: if you have time to read a ton, read as much as you realistically have time for. I think listening (reading) is one of the most important parts of social media marketing, but don’t kill your productivity by reading all day long.

Getting involved in too many different social media sites. Keep it to the sites that are most relevant to your immediate fan base. We use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, & a few Forums. We post to a few main forums that speak to our industry. We comment on blog articles that are relevant and we can add some value to. We write our own blog, and we are maintaining our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube profiles. There certainly are more options for us, but this is where we find our specific community interacts. Your industry may have a ton of forums but not a lot of bloggers. It is certainly industry specific. Don’t be afraid to ask customers where they “hang-out”, and don’t be afraid to try something, give it the appropriate time to see if it works, and then make your exit if you find it does not work for your needs.

Checking your social media too often. Block out specific times of day where you spend 30 minutes or an hour, reading and replying on your social media pages. Don’t let the urge to hop over and check it every hour pull you under. Then the day is over and all you have to show for it is your social media posts and by then you are running out of good original work and content to talk about anyway.

Following or Friending people who are not a part of your community. Do you automatically let anyone who asks you to be a friend, be a friend? Do you automatically follow any Twitter follower that follows you? This can be a humongous waste of time. Again, you have to be choosy. Don’t let anyone who is not relevant to your business take any of your time or energy. There are many types of relevant people in this world; mentors, prospects, clients, industry experts, P.R. connections, local connections, you will have to make the final decision. The important thing here is to not let a bunch of spamming, get rich quick, time wasters get mixed into your community.

Posting repeat messages or setting up automated messages. I know this sounds ridiculous that these two things actually waste your time, but let me explain. If you set up automated status updates through ping or an rss feed you are wasting your time and everyone else’s. No one wants to read automatic status updates. Everyone knows they are automated, especially if they are following several industry giants and see the same thing posted, verbatim, over and over. Those messages are not personal and will send your followers straight to their Unfollow buttons.

I have seen many companies on many occasions who have a slogan or an elevator pitch or a special claim to fame, use that message non-stop on their social media feeds. I have even witnessed updates like these containing the exact same typo they had in the previous version of it. I have also seen this status update posted multiple times in the same day! Talk about exasperating. Can you imagine in your twitter feed, over and over again all day “companyxyz: We’re the home of the Award Winning Acme XYZ Thing-a-ma-jig!” Literally copied & pasted all day long? Not so good. #Unfollow

How do you keep from wasting valuable time while tackling your Social Media Marketing?

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged blogs, Facebook, social media time management, Time-sink, time-waster, Twitter | 15 Comments

Katie Urbain

3 Reasons Why Dealerships Should Use Foursquare

July 21st, 2010

Foursquare is a Geo-location phone application that allows users to “Check-in” wherever they are at using their mobile device. This allows the business to see who is coming and going, and it allows the user’s friends to see where they are. Which is in essence letting everyone know where their friends shop, getting your business an automated word-of-mouth.

I know what you’re thinking, “How can Foursquare be of benefit to my dealership when people only buy cars once every three years?” Here are some quick reasons and ways that Foursquare can help you.

Promoting Customer Loyalty

Mayorship awards. By rewarding the person who is at your dealership the most it will create a game among local patrons to win that coveted role. To do this they would come to your showroom to check out the new cars, come to your service department for oil changes and other maintenance, and come to your parts department to pick up anything they need. If they are the mayor you would provide them with a very special deal that no one else can get. This deal you give them should be a discount on your services, so that when they visit you, they get an incentive to keep coming back.

Offer a frequency based deal. For every x number of visits the user gets a discount. This could be a perfect set up for a car dealership service department. If it is recommended to rotate their tires every third oil change and you can cater to their exact needs by giving it to them for free every third visit, that will encourage them to get their oil changed with you to ensure they earn that free tire rotation. They have to get their oil changed anyway, they might as well earn another service for free while they do it.

Notifying People in the Immediate Vicinity of Current Specials

Offers Near By. Setting up offers to automatically alert people who are in the vicinity allows you to capitalize on your locality in a major way. Anyone who check in to Foursquare while sitting at the coffee shop next door can get an alert offering them a coupon for an oil change. The application will use the user’s GPS location to offer them any deals that are currently in the area. This can be a valuable tool for someone who may need a reminder that their oil needs changing. They are right next door or right across the street, they might as well swing in.

Finding Out the Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of your Visitors

When you set up your dealership on Foursquare you get immediate access to real time stats about your visitors. Similar to the way Google Analytics helps you know more about your Website visitors, it gives you invaluable information about your physical visitors. Here is what you can learn and how it can help you:

By knowing the most recent visitors who have checked in to your dealership you can find out if your employees did a good job getting contact information. This could be a great checks and balances tools for Customer Service.
Knowing the most frequent visitor will allow you to create a welcoming community for this frequent guest. By doing this you can find out why they frequent you so much. If they are browsing your used car lot for a specific car they cannot find, maybe you can help them find it elsewhere. If they are constantly in your service shop, you can offer them a courtesy ride to wherever they would like to go, along with a discount on the services they are using so often.
What would you do if you could tell the number of unique visitors each day, and find out who they are? Would you be interested in tracking the return rate of these unique visitors? Would you be interested in finding out if you have a huge group of returning customers and very few new customers? This information would prove to be invaluable in how you market yourself. If you have tons of return customers and not a ton of new, then you would certainly adjust your advertising efforts accordingly.
One of my favorite bits of information that Foursquare can provide is the time of day people check-in. What if you find that people are frequenting your lot after hours? Or better yet, what if they are not frequenting your lot during open hours? This can help you adjust your employee schedule to help you minimize expenses during typically slow periods of the day.
For a long time we’ve been able to track customer demographics through sales made, contacts made, and web customer tracking, but what if you knew the demographics of those who visit your lot but do not share their contact information? This would certainly allow you to customize your on-site efforts to cater to the specific people that are coming to your lot. Maybe you find that young mothers are on your lot a lot more than anyone else? Would you do anything different to make the experience better for them? Would you put your best family cars out front?

If you want to know more about what Foursquare actually is, please check out their website. And please keep in mind that this is just a tool, one of many, and should be used in coordination with all of your marketing efforts.

What Foursquare offers have been successful for you?

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged dealerships, Foursquare, Geo-location, social media marketing, special offers | 1 Comment

Katie Urbain

Announcing the Beta Launch of XMP Dealer

July 14th, 2010

We’re pleased to announce the BETA launch of our new dealership marketing package, XMP Dealer.

XMP Dealer is essentially a marriage of your Social Media Marketing, your Website, and your Customer Messaging Tools. By pulling them all together into a coordinated effort through our brand new innovative application, you will gain insights about current and potential customers you’ve never dreamed of. You will then harness that information to engage them in a precise way that will create a mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationship you both will appreciate.
What does XMP Dealer include?

1. Premium XMP Website: A fully custom, SEO driven, Facebook Connect, dealership website including maintenance and easy updating. The site will feature New & Used Inventory, Build & Price Tool, Inventory Specials, Vehicle Research Pages, Vehicle Comparison Tool, Finance Page/Form, Coupon Page/Form/Mailers, Social Media Feeds, Mobile Site, Facebook Connect enabled, Parts & Accessories Store, Automated Rebates, Stock Vehicle Video/Media package, Home, Service, and Contact Us pages, plus 10 additional static pages and up to 12 hours per month of site modifications and maintenance.

2.XMP Social Media Package: We will coordinate your community engagement, promoting of events, managing and monitoring all of your Social Media efforts. Including setup and content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr. By handling this piece of the puzzle we will be able to ensure that all of your efforts are in perfect harmony to get you the most exposure and the most relevant message.

3.Brand New never before seen XMP Garage Facebook application: This is the keystone connecting all of your marketing efforts. By putting your best site features on Facebook, where 50% of its 400 million active users log in every day, we are taking you to the customers instead of enticing them to come to you – making you more relevant than any other dealership out there. What does XMP Garage do? The XMP Garage is a Facebook application for your customers to use, making theirs and your life simpler. The system will be fully integrated into your XMP Website, bringing the power of Facebook Connect to your website; giving you endless engagement, messaging, and data collection opportunities, allowing you to automatically capture information from anyone who uses the application. Providing your customers this free tool they love, will build customer loyalty, increase iLead production, retain more service customers, and generate the most measurable Social Media ROI that the car selling business has ever seen!

For more details check out the XMP Dealer website.

Join us at www.facebook.com/xspond or www.twitter.com/xspond to get the latest news on all of our exciting new product launches.

Posted in Life-Cycle Marketing, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment

Katie Urbain

Printed Media is Still Valuable.

July 8th, 2010

As a blogging, Facebooking, forum posting, copy writing, Tweeting person I get to see my work published all over the web on a regular basis. This is very fun for me but I have gotten used to the medium I am in. The Internet is so vast it seems like not a lot of people proportionately see what I post, normally. There are those occasional, fun, and shining moments when a post catches some momentum and I get to celebrate and spend a couple of days replying to comments, but they are occasional so far.

The other day when I arrived home from work and retrieved my mail I was delighted to find a local free newspaper had published my article about a client event on the front page, along with the pictures I took. I sprinted up the driveway eager to show my husband that I was indeed published, on paper. Then I was baffled at myself. Why am I so excited? If I had posted this on a Facebook page or blog I would not be screeching for my husband to read it. (It was not my best piece of writing by a long shot.)

So I have been pondering it over the last day or so and have come to accept the fact that no matter how many tools we have at our disposal for sharing information, the printed form still holds a certain value that web media does not have. I am happy to be my own devil’s advocate when I state that certain audiences get zero value from printed media, but I would also argue that most still take printed matter more seriously.

That being said, I don’t imagine this is a fact that will stay true forever. I can already see a shift occurring in my five year old son. He is currently learning to read. Every digital cable menu, every computer game, and every video game menu that he sees on screen he will read perfectly. But when I sit him down with a book, he is bored, struggles to stay focused and absolutely does NOT want to take the time to read it.

So while I continue to get completely giddy over my stuff being printed on paper, I will also continue to remind myself that there is absolutely value in my digital material. I am one of the lucky ones who gets to embrace both print and digital media. I am being careful to balance my marketing efforts across all mediums during this transitional period, what are you doing to feed your customers’ love of printed materials?

Update: Since I wrote this reflection and let it simmer before posting, Xspond has been featured on the front page of the Business section in the Detroit News. The energy around the office yesterday, when the article hit was unreal! Everyone in the office reacted the way I did when my little local article hit. I will keep you posted on what kind of interest our company gains from this fabulous article that was written. I am curious to observe whether this article gets us more relevant traffic than some of the blog articles that have taken off across the blogosphere & twittersphere recently.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Katie Urbain

Outsourced Social Media: Oxymoron?

July 1st, 2010

My guts tell me that a client should be doing their own social media content posts. My passion for transparency and honesty tell me that posting social media content for another business is a conflict of interest. After all, the power of social media resides in the ability to be oneself and gain the trust of others.

But, is there room for some outsourcing if it is handled correctly? My short answer is: “yes”. My long answer is: “it’s a necessity for some.”

I am working with an industry where technology gadgets are not fully embraced, writing ability is limited to short “call-to-action” copy, and customer engagement is done face-to-face with charisma and charm. I am talking about the car selling business.

What translates in face to face charm by inflection of voice, giant white smiles, and lots of showmanship does not necessarily translate in content through social media. Someone whose sole purpose is to close the deal does not always have the tools to converse with the community without accidentally attempting to sell something by force of habit. The need to just chat and listen is there, but the ability is not [always].

The task of communicating effectively for someone who can’t get the right message across on their own has been a booming industry since the beginning of time. Famous people “write” books using ghost writers, big brands use ad agencies to design their image across the board, and everyone has a PR Agency or Talent Agent to help promote their skills and services. Why should social media be any different? If a business hires me to handle their social media efforts, why is it different from them hiring a full time employee? It’s not, if I do my job well. In fact, it’s better, if I do my job well.

It all goes back to the common business advice given across the board. “Delegate what you don’t do well or don’t want to do. So you can focus on what you are passionate about.” What do you outsource that saves you time, energy, and money, while improving your business?

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged honesty, outsourcing, social media, transparency, trust | 1 Comment