In fact, there’s a new face we’d like to introduce right now that you can expect to see and hear from over the coming weeks:

Ashley Ross

Ashley Ross graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. Ashley lives and breathes all things social media and couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the SOCIALDEALER team! In her spare time when she’s not catching up on the latest celebrity gossip on Twitter, you find Ashley daydreaming about her upcoming wedding, training for a half-marathon or two, and working on her six-pack at her Crossfit gym.

Talent + Training = Success

We know how much you count on your Strategic Account Manager to ensure that quality relevant content and customer and fan engage are prominent on Social Media channels. That’s why we make every effort to bring in qualified social media professionals and put them through a rigorous training process that is second-to-none.

Each new account manager we introduce to the team goes through a 10-day training program that when completed gives you and your dealership confidence in knowing that your online reputation and social media presence are in good hands.

“Combined with our team of content producers and graphic designers, dealers taking advantage of our managed Social Media services consistently see greater performance month-over-month compared to non-managed customers.” – Ryan Gerardi, VP of Operations

Please help us welcome Ashley and Danielle to the team by visiting their social media profiles today and adding them to one of your circles on G+, adding them as a friend on Facebook, or following them on Twitter.

As new members are added to the team over the coming months we will be sure to send your their profile links too. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding your account or your account manager please do not hesitate to contact me via telephone or email.

On Friday May 3, Brian Fjeldsted, SOCIALDEALER Director of Corporate Development will play host with Lance Lambert, Regional Account Manager at CARFAX, to discuss the benefits of this new free service in a live Social Trends ON AIR broadcast.

Watch Live

To watch the show simply visit the new Social Trends ON AIR page of our website where the live broadcast will be streamed at Noon CST on Friday May 3.

During the show, and leading up to it, we encourage the use of the hashtag #SocialTrendsOnAir while on Twitter and/or Google+ to share your ideas about the show, offer feedback, ask questions, etc. This hashtag is pretty much your call-in line to the show.

RSVP on Google+ and/or Facebook

Be sure to RSVP to the event on Google+ and/or Facebook. You aren’t obligated to attend by choosing “yes” but we recommend doing this so that the show date goes onto your calendar and so that you receive notifications leading up to the show. In addition you can subscribe to Social Trends ON AIR via email so that you receive email alerts about upcoming broadcasts.

Attend the Webinar

On Tuesday May 7 @ 2 PM CST, Brian will be facilitating a webinar for dealers that would like hands on assistance with setting up their dealership the CARFAX Connect4Content program. You can register for this free webinar by clicking the link below. You can also get started right now by downloading our help guide.

About Lance Lambert [LinkedIn]

Lance is a Regional Account Manager at CARFAX. Lance’s professional career began in the auto industry. This was in large part a result of being third generation in an automotive family, giving Lance an extensive insight on the industry growing up. Lance was fortunate enough to be a part of the evolution of newspaper transitioning to online. In early 2012 Lance accepted a Regional Manager position from CARFAX . This position allowed Lance to get back in front of the customer, and refocus towards the automotive industry in specific.

About Brian Fjeldsted [LinkedIn]

Prior to SOCIALDEALER, Brian worked for more than 20 years at General Motors. He held many positions including: District, Area and Field Manager, Regional Marketing Manager, Product Marketing Manager, and National Advertising Manager. Brian brings a wealth of automotive perspective from his years of OEM and direct dealer contact experience. He has a B.S. in Management Systems from Kettering University and an M.B.A. from California State University.

However, just because content is king doesn’t mean it should be hard. In fact, if you are a CARFAX dealer then getting good social content just got easier.

CARFAX and SOCIALDEALER have teamed up to help provide CARFAX dealers with free engaging social content that can be used on your dealership Facebook page, Google+ page, and Twitter feed. The process is fully automated and you, the dealer, has control over which content appears on your streams.

How it Works

About 2 times per week, CARFAX and SOCIALDEALER put together a piece of content meant for your dealership’s social channels. As a registered dealer you receive an email each time a new piece is available asking you to APPROVE or DENY the post. By choosing approve, the content is then automatically published to the social streams, giving your fans and followers a chance to enjoy.

Proven Success

CARFAX and SOCIALDEALER have been testing this approach for more than 6 months, with terrific success. With only a small sample of a few hundred dealers, more than 75 unique posts have been distributed across Facebook pages and Twitter profiles and viewed by more than 800,000 people producing more than 35,000 clicks (comments, likes, and shares).

To take advantage of this opportunity and put free CARFAX content to use for you on your dealership pages and profiles, click the link below to get started. Simply follow the onscreen instructions and you will soon receive emails asking you to approve or deny for your channels.

As shown below, when creating an update, Facebook will display an array of categories such as “feeling,” “listening to,” or “drinking.” The user can then choose a specific sub-category within that category, or create his own.

Why does this matter at the dealership level?

If Facebook decides to move forward with this advanced status composer, giving customers a great experience will be more important than ever. From sale to service, customers can soon begin sharing their feelings about your dealership while checking in to the location or anytime after their visit.

This new feature, paired with Facebook Graph Search will boost your visibility to potential customers and allow for feedback from current customers

Using these behaviors in Facebook status updates may also lead to a more specific Facebook Ad targeting. For example, if you’re watching American Hot Rods on TV and leave a comment about it on Facebook using the “watching” status, Facebook could potentially target you with an ad about a Classic Car Convention at your local dealership.

In preparation for this potential change, SOCIALDEALER suggests the following, which will maximize your Facebook influence in current and potential customer searches:

• Instead of uploading images of your customers car purchases in a “Our Happy Customers” album, have the customer upload the picture using his or her personal account and tag the dealership
• Continue to push customers to check-in while at your dealership. You can reward this action with a coupon or discounted service, using Facebook Offers
• Along with pushing recommendations on Google and Yelp sites, ask customers to recommend you on your dealership Facebook Page
• Make sure all categories of your dealership are filled out in the About and Basic Info categories of your Facebook page

Yelp.com sees more that 84 million people each month and houses over 33 million reviews of local businesses. These ratings and reviews, or CONTENT, have quickly become significant factors not necessarily for choosing with whom to do business but for eliminating. And while Google+ Local has made strides in the realm of reputation, Yelp.com has effectively made it’s name the most relevant in the field.

We recently released our Yelp Help Guide that explains how to respond to reviews and updating your listing. But did you know there is more to Yelp than just ratings and reviews?

Yelp.com is also a directory, or a local search tool, where just like on Google where you want to come up high in the search results you want to show up front and center on Yelp.

Yelp Enhanced Listings help make that happen. Not only do you show up, but also you stand out.

In an upcoming On Air Hangout with SOCIALDEALER President Phil Penton we will be discussing the Help Guide and the benefits of maintaining your Yelp listing. More importantly though we will be discussing the benefits of a Yelp Enhanced Listing.

With a Yelp Enhanced Listing you benefit from:

Enhanced Photo Slideshow
Directory Info Cleanup
Ability to Post Special Offers
Removal of Banner Ads
Removal of Competitor Ads
Extended Business Info Section
Increased visibility in local search

Yelp Enhanced Listings receive more views from users and more appearances in searches, giving you maximum exposure to this valuable audience.

Best of all, an enhanced listing does not cost you that much either. In fact, as an auto dealer I imagine you will be pleasantly surprised at the tremendous value a Yelp Enhanced Listing has to offer.

To learn more about how a Yelp Enhanced Listing can benefit your dealership, sign up today to receive our free information kit that explains all the benefits of an enhanced listing.

But did you know there is more to Yelp than just ratings and reviews? Yelp.com is also a directory, a local search tool where just like on Google you want to come up high in the search results you want to show up front and center on Yelp.

So how can dealers benefit from all this?

On Friday April 5, SOCIALDEALER President Phil Penton will be live On Air with us talking about how dealers can benefit from Yelp, sharing tips for how to claim your dealer listing, customize the listing, and how to effectively respond to these reviews.

In addition, Phil will also explain how Yelp Enhanced Listings work and how you can take advantage of the local directory listings on Yelp.com, an important element to not only your reputation strategy but also your search strategy.

Watch Live

To watch the show simply visit the new Social Trends On Air page of our website where the live broadcast will be streamed at Noon CST on Friday April 5.

During the show, and leading up to it, we encourage you to use the hash tag #SocialTrendsOnAir while on Twitter and/or Google+ to share your ideas about the show, offer feedback, ask questions, etc. This hash tag is pretty much your call-in line to the show.

Be sure to RSVP to the event. You aren’t obligated to attend by choosing “yes” but we recommend doing this so that the show date goes onto your calendar and so that you receive notifications about the show. In addition you can subscribe to Social Trends On Air via email so that you receive email alerts about upcoming broadcasts.

About Phil Penton: LinkedIn

Phil Penton has had lifelong interests and involvement in the automotive industry. As a former business owner and Vice President, Phil specializes in revenue enhancement through the application of technology into the day to day processes of a startup enterprise. After forming and managing several successful small businesses, Phil went on to work with HomeNet Automotive as Vice President of Business Development which eventually sold to AutoTrader.com. As an executive, Phil worked daily with other business owners nationwide on how to better design, build, implement, and execute solid business plans that were built to drive revenue and profits using the same concepts and philosophies that are at the root of his own success.

If someone came into your dealership and started telling your customers about a bad experience he or she had wouldn’t you want a chance to intervene? What if someone came in and started talking about what a good choice you are compared to the competition, wouldn’t you want to say thank you?

The only difference between this and when someone reviews your dealership on Yelp is that on Yelp more people see it, often times more quickly, and the effects last longer because they are always online.

Yelp is the leading website when it comes to rating and reviewing companies, and Yelp reviews are beginning to have a significant effect on dealers now too. Yelp sees more than 84 million monthly unique visitors, holding over 33 million reviews, and the most relevant results in mobile searches.

Going by the notion that auto shoppers use reviews to eliminate dealerships (as opposed to choosing one), making your dealership’s Yelp listing an attractor for new business and not a deterrent should be a top priority.

The first and most important step in helping your Yelp page is responding to reviews. It helps you show appreciation to customers who praise you and allows you to respond to those who post negative feedback. By responding to negative reviews you show that you want to give your customers the best experience you can and fix things when they go wrong.

“Negative reviews provide you with opportunities to learn about vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your dealership. They also help identify rogue employees.” – Joe Castle, CEO, Castle Auto Group

To help you tackle this challenge we are providing you with a free Yelp Help Guide. In this guide we show you how to respond to reviews on Yelp with either a public response or a private message, plus how to update your page’s information and photos. Once you have the process down you’ll be turning your Yelp page into a driver for site traffic in no time.

Now, Yelp is not just about reviews. In fact, reviews are only a part of it. The real caveat to Yelp is visibility of your dealership. With 84 million Yelpers out there, what options do you have to give your dealership a chance to stand out above the crowd?

Hello Yelp Enhanced Listings!

With an Enhanced Listing, your dealership will benefit from more views because it will appear in searches more frequently, and higher up in search listings too. A Yelp Enhanced Listing gives you maximum exposure to this valuable audience:

Enhanced Photo Slideshow
Directory Info Cleanup
Ability to Post Special Offers
Removal of Banner Ads
Removal of Competitor Ads
Extended Business Info Section.

Take your Yelp presence to the next level with an Enhanced Listing from SOCIALDEALER.

Tweets with links having limited characters isn’t new for Twitter. However, anyone who has to write a call to action on a tweet with a link will have less space to work with. The reason for the change is that condensed links will be taking up more characters resulting in a 2 character loss. While that might not seem like much, as someone who tries to avoid typing messages like “U R gonna <3 this" I know personally I may have to adjust to the new restrictions.

How do you think you'll be affected by these new limits?
Do you plan on condensing your tweets?

Image Courtesy of Mashable