So by now, we can see one of the biggest trends in the world of SEO, and that’s the influence of communities and social media. The potential is obviously there to drive traffic, encourage conversations about your dealership, and increase ROI. But the real question is, how exactly can social media campaigns be analyzed and tracked?
This panel had many things to say not only about the impact that social media can make, but also about how to track the buzz and identify if your business goals are being reached.
Rob Key of Converseon stressed that a process should be used to test the success of a social media campaign. This process should include Listening, Engaging, and Measuring/Optimizing. Also, a marketer needs to know what they want to understand about the conversations that are happening in online communities and they need to know what they want to take away from the data sets, whether this data is in the form of YouTube video views, social bookmarks on Delicious, or how many Diggs your content receives.
While Rob discussed his experience with social media marketing, Todd Parsons of Buzz Logic interestingly brought along one of his clients, Breanna Wigle of Military.com, to discuss a campaign done for one of Military.com’s web properties.
Military.com had placed a significant amount of importance on the blogosphere and social media, and rightfully so. Today, there are as many blogs on the Web as there are websites. This gives advertisers such as Military.com and even car dealers an incredible opportunity to tap into these audiences. Whether you successfully manage to become part of the conversation, or even as an advertiser purchasing ad space on these niche blogs, businesses can capitalize on low-cost, high-value exposure on pertinent blogs.
Edmund Wong of iCrossing reinforced the value of the online community discussion. Citing Wired Magazine’s Clive Thompson, “Google isn’t a search engine, it’s a reputation management system.” Basically, social media conversations and blogs are being found increasingly among website listings in the SERPs, and thus it’s important to ensure positive stories are showing up for brand searches.
This panel chose to highlight social media in a different way than other panels. Rather than discussing how social media can be utilized for a campaign, social media services can also be utilized as a low-cost tracking tool: leveraged to find out just what people are talking about. For car dealers, there are many automotive blogs, forums, and community environments on Web, and plenty of opportunities to discuss your dealership. Many dealers have found success, such as one Minneapolis Toyota dealer, who has been able to generate positive exposure in the Prius Owners Group, a blog and community centered on the popular Toyota Prius. As the article referenced here points out, Burnsville Toyota is selling plenty of Prius hybrids, and the online buzz about the dealer can only be helping these sales achievements.
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This post was written by...
David Lux – who has written 84 posts on Automotive SEO. David is the Content Manager at TK Carsites and spends copious hours devouring content concerning autos, SEO, and social media. You can follow him on Twitter: @autocontent
