I need opinions and advise...

Replies to This ADM Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matt Watson on April 28, 2009 at 10:22am

Most companies haven't figured out how to best utilize social networking for business. I'm not quite sure anyways has...

But if you could provide a service to a dealer to keep fresh content on their site, update their facebook page, twitter status and etc it could provide value. It would be labor intensive of course on your end and you could only serve a few customers and keep up. I think it could be a valuable service. The key will be proving some ROI to the dealer.

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Permalink Reply by Megan E. Bucher on April 28, 2009 at 2:46pm

I had a similar thought process this afternoon about the opportunity to create a business like that stemming from social networking. Although a great idea, would one person, or one company, really be able to stay in touch with a Dealership, and a it's community, to make an effective mark? I know our auto group owner would never pay to outsource it. Never say never, but that's my gut on that. I do think that dealers should invest in a position at each dealership, and hire someone to do Internet Marketing, including social networking. It should be someone within the community that would go the extra mile to branch out and really be a part of it. The end product is always better when someone is personlly invested in their job, whether it be their money or their time. Could such a person fit into a dealership setting? I've never worked for another, but at ours they wouldn't get the support they would need to succeed. Their worth would be questioned daily, and no one would see the value in paying that person anything fair to do a good job.
I hope I didn't stray from the point too much.
Totally awesome idea, but can it work...that is the question...Much luck to you!

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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on April 28, 2009 at 3:04pm

I think if it is built up smart and with careful thought it can work. I see a few store advertise jobs for people to handle just that. But how much should you pay a person to do this kind of work inhouse? I am looking at starting out of my home office and landing about 20-25 accounts where I will work a 10 hour workday and build it up. As I start getting more accounts I will open up an office here in the area where I can hire college students to do this kind of work. It works out as a benefit because I will train them on how to effectively do the job and they can build up a resume for themselves. I would also get a sales rep and just start to grow from there. I belive that a single person can handle 10-15 stores if structured properly. You only need to update a social networking status once a day. You can blog two days per week. If you do it inhouse, how much should you pay an employee to do this kind of job? What about benefits and 401k? I am looking to promote this service between $200 and $400 per month per company. A large dealer group will have set costs. But can you have someone in house doing this job in a professional and quality fashion for $400 per month? I appreciate the insight and opinions. It will help me make my decision.

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Permalink Reply by Megan E. Bucher on April 29, 2009 at 2:13pm

Very good points. I don't think a dealer would create a position just for social networking...it would have to be lumped in with a larger marketing position. I love your idea to utilize college students. Your so hungry to make a mark out of college, and way up to speed on the current buzz. Keep me updated. I'm anxious to see how this works out.

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Permalink Reply by Cole Hitchcox on April 29, 2009 at 5:04pm

Stan, The company that I am involved with, iMail Media, we have just gotten off the ground, actually had our first account landed about a week ago, we looking into doing something along the lines of this also, but it really did not prove to be a great money maker, just becuase of the constant updating that you have to do to it. However, if you did figure out how to market yourself over social networking (facebook, twitter, blogging and such), I know that I would have been more than willing to listen to it when I was in a Internet Director's position. We have proven that with newsletters it is a great way to stay in front of your customers. I think that social networking is a similar way to do that. And if you could give me more time to do sit downs with my sales men, follow up with customers, and in general give me more time to focus on selling cars, it would be worth $300 to me. Best of luck to you, feel free to call me anytime if you need.

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Permalink Reply by Wei Yang on May 28, 2009 at 11:46pm

Sorry, but I really don't see this working out. Consider this: 99% of social media experts on Twitter are just out there trying to make a brand of their own name. Most of them spend time going to web 2.0 conferences, being social, blogging, twittering, etc. but most of those efforts do not translate into any sort of successful or measurable results for the companies that may hire them.

Also, the first rule of starting your own business is to build an entity that can make money on its own even while you're sleeping or on vacation. If you have to physically be at your desk doing the work in order to make money, then technically you've just found yourself another job, not a business.

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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on May 29, 2009 at 8:49am

I was thinking of going after many businesses not only the automotive industry. I see your point and believe me that is what has been on my mind. Some people think it is an amazing idea and others want to do this in house. There are also companies that have no presence at all and need help or have someone that does this for them.

So, I think I will keep my model very small and maybe get myself like a few clients so that I can do this is as a side gig and have a supplementary income while working full time for a dealer or vendor. I am in the job market and looking for a new job but I am also looking for a few clients that require these services. I may have a huge consulting company utilizing my services because they like my social networking skills. I am a workaholic and have no problems working 80 hours a week as long as I am making money. Between a job and a side gig I am expecting to be very profitable.

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Paglia on May 29, 2009 at 12:16am

Stan,

Due to contractual NDA's, I cannot say who our clients are, but I can tell you that my crew at ADP Digital Marketing has several automotive customers who pay us substantial amounts of money to cover hourly costs associated with social media and reputation management. Most of them were existing ADP clients who became outraged when negative and in many cases, untrue information or disinformation has been cascaded across the blogosphere and Web 2.0 realms in a deliberate effort to smear their reputation and cause financial harm to their businesses. We have seen considerable efforts applied via legal channels and resources, but most to no avail... We have a crew of over 15 people, some of whom have been hired from the ranks of PR firms and SEO service providers, who work diligently at generating and distributing factual, truthful and positive content about the dealer, the company and the people who work there.

We do not accept any business from dealers who are trying to cover up shoddy operational or customer service issues and we will not accept a client who is not using a fairly substantial amount of other ADP technology solutions and services. But i can assure you that for the handful or large Reputation Management clients we do service, they not only pay more than what, say, a website and CRM system would usually cost per month. And, they also are highly engaged with their VMR and/or Analyst and seem genuinely appreciative of the work being done for them.

Am I worried about competition? No... Why? Because we respectfully decline to provide these services to enough dealers that are not major ADP clients that I know there is plenty of work out there for anyone that provides a genuine service. When there are dealers experiencing problems in a specific area, those who can provide solutions to those problems can usually make a business model work... Not always, but usually!

A couple of observations... First, what we all seem to be calling "Reputation Management" appears to me as the logical progression of the (mostly failed) efforts by car companies to measure CSI and then whip dealers into shape... Only this time, it is consumers who are creating "Public CSI Ratings", which seem to have more impact on many dealers than the confidential CSI ratings collected by car companies after they stopped putting financial teeth into the who equation...

Secondly, what many people want to call "Social Marketing" seems to me like something closer to an extension of the CRM application and process implementation movement that started picking up a lot of steam in the early 2000's and which has now matured into something else with far lower expectations on the part of dealers... Personally, i believe that Social Marketing and CRM will come together over the near future and become part of a dealer's overall customer management strategy, and less of a new business conquest tactic.

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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on May 29, 2009 at 8:57am

I see your points which are valid. I see dealers trying to do this in house and fail because of lack of knowledge, manpower, or time. I want to keep it small and as a side gig.

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Permalink Reply by Joey Abna on May 29, 2009 at 8:36am

Another angle on this is that some internet marketers have built blogs on local businesses in different markets. Some build the blog and then show the local business how they are ranking better or how much traffic they are generating and then offer to sell the blog to the business. Others approach the business owner first and offer their services.

I'm guessing the profit margins might be slim for a service like this. One way to maybe boost that some would be to also sell hosting for the sites.

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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on May 29, 2009 at 8:54am

Owning a domain and hosting a site is cheap and I am working on that now. If I have only 5 clients and keep it small as a side gig, I can work it smart. The profit margin is small but there are no costs involved and all the money goes to me. I will get paid to do what I like to do as a hobby which is social network and help promote businesses.

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Permalink Reply by Joey Abna on May 29, 2009 at 9:17am

I can totally see that working on a small scale. You can even offer other services on a as needed basis like email templates, newsletters and youtube videos.

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