Charity + Super Bowl + Cars.com = a quick newsworthy post.

Cars.com has a cool charity promotion their running with their Super Bowl ad. Dealers are of course encourage to participate.

What’s it about?

Car.com will be giving the massive audience of Super Bowl XLVI the power to make a big difference in the lives of kids and young adults through its “Cars Cares” campaign.  During the Super Bowl this year, when the Cars.com commercial airs, viewers who use the popular Shazam App to tag the ad will earn $1.00 for one of seven charities in contention for a maximum $100,000 donation from the site.

How very generous of Cars.com.

The maximum $100,000 donation will be given to the charity which receives the most votes on the Cars.com Facebook page between January 26 and February 13.  Eligible organizations were selected for the work they do to drive confidence in kids.

Each organization has a unique focus on educating youth and providing programs and services that drive self-esteem, positive decision making and healthy behaviors

“It was important to us to identify organizations whose culture and values match our own and to give our community a voice in deciding which organization should be the recipient of our first Cars Cares donation.” - Mitch Golub

Votes can be cast daily through February 13, and the winning organization will be announced on Monday, February 20, 2012.

The charities are:

• Adopt-A-Classroom helps underfunded teachers by providing them with community partners and funding to purchase the tools, materials and supplies they need to help students learn as effectively as possible in today’s classrooms.
• Alliance for a Healthier Generation works to address one of our leading public health threats – childhood obesity. Through its nationwide efforts the Alliance works to positively affect places that make a difference to a child’s health: homes, schools, doctor’s offices and communities.
• Cameras For Kids Foundation brings the gift of photography to underprivileged teenagers living in foster facilities across the United States. By use of digital cameras, these teenagers build up confidence, self-esteem, artistic talent and gain a skill set by learning about the fundamentals of photography through workshops, photo shoots and Fine Art Photography Exhibits.
• Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) inspires children to be lifelong readers by delivering free books and literacy resources to underserved children from birth to age 8. Through the dedication of more than 400,000 volunteers nationwide, RIF motivates children to follow their dreams and achieve their full potential.
• SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) empowers teens to stand up for positive, healthy choices.  SADD students work to keep their peers safe and help them avoid making destructive decisions around underage drinking, drug use, risky and impaired driving, and teen violence and suicide.
• Scholarship America believes that every student deserves an opportunity to go to college regardless of their financial status, and since 1958 has awarded more than $2.7 billion to 1.8 million students across the country.
• VH1 Save the Music is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education programs in America’s public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education. Since 1997, VH1 Save The Music has provided $48 million worth of new musical instruments, donated to more than 1,800 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of more than 1.8 million public school students.

So Sunday during Super Bowl XLVI, be sure to have your Shazam App loaded and ready!!

During a recent management retreat, a colleague introduced the group to the Internet’s fastest growing Social Networking site, Pinterest.com. Pinterest (pronounced pin-terest, not pin-interest) has burst onto the Internet with growth rates we haven’t seen since Facebook. Traffic has jumped to almost 11 million visitors in mid-December, nearly 40 times where it was only six months ago. Pinterest is now in the top 7 social networks on the web, with 59% of its users being women ages 25-44.

During the brief demonstration I watched, I initially didn’t understand the mission of the site, or rather, why it would drive consumer eyeballs. I learned that you needed to “apply for admission” which could take weeks, or you could find another Pinterest user and have them invite you. Just like learning about every other social network, you’ll never truly understand it until you immerse yourself (which is what I did). While I was figuring out the value proposition Pinterest offered, I also showed the site to my wife and her sister. Their instant addiction caused me to embark on a journey to find out more about this site, and potentially how it might help my customers (you, the car dealer).

If you visit the site, you will notice that the majority of content relates to food, home decorating, crafts, and child-related ideas. I took a stab at creating a man’s version of the site, including my interests in cool cars, vintage guitars, and outdoor barbecuing. I was pleasantly surprised that when I searched for related “Pins” and “Boards”, I found there were many others with similar interests.

Pinterest is all about pictures, not so much about words. When you find an interesting picture on the web, you “Pin” the picture and it is attached to your profile. You can also have “Boards”, which are subject-related collections of Pins. I have Boards for “Cool Cars”, “Vintage Guitars”, etc. Every time I find a picture of a cool car, I “Pin” the picture and put in on the “Cool Cars” Board. You can also “Re-Pin” someone else’s Pin, which propagates that content across the web. You can also simply “like” someone else’s Pin, which just shows you liked it, but didn’t feel compelled to Re-Pin it.

Since a major component of a dealer’s social marketing strategy should be to build a social network, and join in on the conversations, I would think a progressive dealer would start a profile for their store, and simply “Pin” new or used car photos for special or unique items. You might also “Pin” pictures of cool aftermarket or OEM accessories, perhaps alone or as part of a customer’s vehicle. You should be careful not to be too self-promoting, or you will be unlikely to attract many followers. Instead, only show the very new, or very special, models or products, and simply try to create interest. Creativity attracts interest on the site, by adding unique titles and high-quality photographs; you can increase the traffic to your profile. Be forewarned, Pinterest has rules where they discourage overt self-promotion, and you wouldn’t want to start your experience getting blacklisted.

You could also search the site for related “Pins” for makes/models that you carry, and “Re- Pin” those items and maybe add a comment with your thoughts. Again, don’t add a comment that could be in any way considered self-promoting but instead add an interesting fact about the benefits of the car’s make/model. You should also begin “following” other Pinners with similar interests, or anyone who starts following you. Like all social media sights, networking is key. Another idea would be to use your knowledge and statistics about the users on the site, and gear some of your boards to them. For example, since the majority of Pinterest users are women, create Boards that appeal to women and direct them back to your profile to increase views of your Boards.

You could create a Board for your local community with pinned pictures of your community involvement, Little League teams you’ve sponsored, and your passion for your surroundings. You could create a Board with pictures of cool home garages, pictures of interesting driving destinations, or even pictures of vehicle interior customizations. Once again, creativity is key on this site.

The goal is to create Boards that reflect the personality and culture of the dealership, and the interests of the owner. As in all social marketing programs, you are trying to personally connect, in many cases one-on-one with other people with similar interests. If they feel a personal connection with you, they may eventually decide to become your customer, since people like doing business with friends.

I’ll admit, it took me a while to get my hands wrapped around this new site, but the growth stats are incredible. Effective Digital Marketing Strategy says to promote your business where people are spending their time online, so Pinterest definitely fits the bill. This site will force you to be a little more creative, and a little more subdued in your approach, but the exposure and payoff in the long run should be worth it. Chances are most dealers will read this article and move on, so your opportunity to be an early entrant could give you a nice head start.

Good luck, and please let me know how I can help!

According to Google Trends, email is more popular than beer, Lady Gaga, McDonald’s and American Idol… but not sex.

Email continues to be one of the most cost-effective ways of staying connected with your customers, but it only works if you have your customers’ active email addresses (and their consent).

Here are 12 ways you can invite your customers to share their email with you.

1. Have you spiffed your advisors lately?
Run a promotion with your advisors and pay them $1 for each email address collected. Whatever percentage of emails that are collected during the promotion should be a good benchmark for the percentage that can be collected after the promotion.

If a $1/email sounds too expensive keep in mind that you’ll spend anywhere from $.68 to $1.25 in costs to mail a letter once you factor in time, paper, envelope, toner, and postage.

2. How about spiffing your customers?

I recall 15 years ago having conversations with dealers regarding the importance and necessity of deploying a dealer branded website. Today, dealers are now battling that same argument around the deployment of a dealer branded consumer mobile website / application.

Are dealer branded consumer apps a necessity or a nuisance?

Importance of mobile

With over 4.5 billion mobile subscribers in the US alone, dealers would have a hard time finding an argument against the importance of deploying a mobile strategy. As a key touch point that connects consumers to businesses, dealers need to consider that deploying a dealer branded consumer mobile app in their dealership is not only a necessity but also a cost effective way of increasing customer loyalty and ultimately driving repeat business.

Why are consumer apps important?

DrivingSales Vendor Ratings CONTEST – The Winners are…

Last month we helped promote the DrivingSales vendor ratings CONTEST, so of course we would highlight the winners.

It was great to see a few DealerRefresh members in the winning circle. A quick Congratulations to our good friends Aaron Holland, Larry Whitson, and Jeff Collins for winning the Driving Sales weekly contest drawing and receiving a $100 Amazon gift card each!

But big winner of the MacBook Air is  Michael Baker from Antioch Auto Center! <– some juice for ya

Mike will be receiving a brand new, straight from the store, 11-inch MacBook Air. Mike, you’re going to love it! I’m typing out this post on my 11-inch MacBook Air. Be sure to check out this thread once you have that baby fired up for our members suggestions on what apps to get for your new MacBook Air.

The DrivingSales vendor ratings is catching on, as I quote Mike – “I have totally used your Vendor Ratings to look up other vendors and products that we might want to use”

The prizes and contests are one thing, and we have a lot of discussions here on DealerRefresh Forums about different vendors and services,  but it’s also great to have an additional organized place where dealers can see how other industry services stack up against each other in one place.

Thanks to all the DealerRefresh members that have helped contribute to the DrivingSales vendor ratings. Remember, you can rate your vendors all year long – once per quarter for each vendor. Each review makes the database more robust and better informs dealer
decisions.

Again, congratulations to Mike Baker as the grand prize winner of a brand new MacBook Air!