Best Social Media Marketing Campaigns for Car DealersInvesting in Your Community Will Boost Your Sales

Today’s Buzz

Where does Facebook stand on location? Facebook is reportedly preparing to launch a location-based service, perhaps at a Palo Alto news conference later today. Marketers will be watching to see whether Facebook’s offering is designed to allow brands to offer location-based promotions and ads or allow consumers to leave location-linked reviews for products and services. VentureBeat (8/17) , CIO/PC World (8/2010

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Ideas in Action

20 greatest social-media campaigns of all time The best social-media campaigns have one thing in common: They’re fun. From “The Blair Witch Project” to the “Will It Blend?” campaign, experts say that campaigns take off when they combine interactivity with compelling entertainment. Forbes , Forbes

Results matter more than tools, marketers say Social-media marketers are relatively platform-agnostic and care more about the results their brands achieve than the specific tools and social networks they use to produce them, writes Dan Neely. That pragmatism is a sign of social media’s maturity, Neely argues. “This new focus is a function of digital’s arrival as a marketing tool, and social as an important and powerful marketing avenue. In short, success breeds interest in more success.” iMedia Connection

Report: Companies keep on blogging More than one in three companies have a blog used for communicating with their customers, according to an eMarketer report, and that figure will increase to 43% by 2012, the firm projects. Many companies also use Twitter and Facebook but find that blogging still has an important role to play. “Companies are finding that blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media do not,” said eMarketer analyst Paul Verna. eMarketer

How social media can help you through a product recall Social media isn’t just a tool for improving sales and building brand awareness — it can help you during difficult times, too, says Kelly Voelker of Graco. Voelker explains how Graco was able to use social tools to limit a product recall’s ability to damage the brand. Companies can use their followers to spread the word about important recall information without resorting to traditional media channels, she notes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media

Whom should your brand follow on Twitter? As companies take to Twitter, they have to decide whom to follow — and it’s best to cast a wide net, writes Rupal Parekh. Counterintuitively, it’s often best to make a point of following your direct competitors: It may raise eyebrows, but it’s the best way to keep tabs on what your rivals are up to. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model)

The Takeaway

Social media boosts corporate-intelligence efforts Companies are increasingly turning to social tools to boost their intelligence efforts, this article notes. Social-media messages can help defuse potentially damaging misinformation and can also be a great way to adjust your strategy to capitalize on your opponents’ missteps. Social Media Today

What business-to-business firms need to do to adapt to social media Once business-to-business companies take the plunge into social media, there are lots of small steps they can take to make the most of the available technologies. Claiming site-specific user names for your brand is worth doing even if you don’t flesh out your presence immediately, writes Kipp Bodnar, while getting started with content creation right away can give your campaign momentum. It’s also never too soon to start keeping an eye on the marketing data coming out of your social-media marketing efforts, Bodnar notes. HubSpot.com

SmartPulse

Do you see social-media marketing as an art or a science? Both 67.13% Art 13.49% Neither 12.80% Science 6.57%

Is social media an art or a science? Art and science may seem to be polar opposites — but most SmartBrief on Social Media readers say you need both disciplines to succeed at social-media marketing. But what were the folks who said it was neither talking about? Learn more over at SmartBlog on Social Media.

The conventional wisdom is that anyone can be a “social-media guru.” But does that work in practice? Is social-media marketing something anyone can do well? Yes, people can figure out social media all by themselves Yes, but it takes a certain amount of education and formal training to be great at social media No, it takes a certain kind of personality to excel at social media Not everyone can plan a social-media strategy, but anyone can execute one

Featured Content

Investing in Your Community Will Boost Your Sales Thursday Bram

[Sent from Ralph Paglia’s iPhone]

Ralph Paglia
Director – Digital Marketing
ADP Dealer Services
cell: 505-301-6369
office: 480-421-5005
RPaglia
Ralph_Paglia
http://www.RalphPaglia.com
http://ADPdealerservices.com
http://www.ADPsocial.com
http://SocialAutoSales.com
http://ADM.fm

Recommended Ralph Links:
http://LinkedIn.com/in/RPaglia
http://Facebook.com/RPaglia
http://Twitter.com/RalphPaglia
http://YouTube.com/RalphPaglia
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http://naymz.com/Ralph_Paglia
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Recommended Automotive Links:
http://ADMPC.com
http://AutomotiveInternet.com
http://AutomotiveGenius.com
http://Car-Guy.com
http://AutomotiveSocial.com
http://FordCommunity.com
http://ToyotaCommunity.com
http://ChevyCommunity.com
http://KiaCommunity.com
http://MazdaCommunity.org
http://InternetSalesManagers.org
http://SocialMediaMarketing.BZ
http://DigitalDealerConference.org
http://www.SEMdealer.com
http://www.FLMdigital.com