What Is Twitter? Twitter is a form of online communication that uses posts, or tweets, which are restricted to 140 characters or less.

• Create and Claim Your Twitter Identity – By creating and claiming your name or organization, you can secure your personal brand and help ensure consistent communication and reputation management. It’s a good idea to claim a Twitter moniker for your full name, as well as any products and/or companies that you own or you have plans to create in the future.
• Optimize Your Twitter Page – Make sure your page has a picture, a description of who you or your business is and a link to get more information on you (could be your website or even a LinkedIn account for an individual). People are much more likely to follow you if they know who you are and have a visual image to associate with you.
• Who Should You Follow? You can search for people, organizations or news outlets that interest you and provide information you want to know more about. Once you have identified a Twitter account you want to follow, it’s as simple as pressing the “follow” button and their Tweets will show up in your stream.
• What Should You Tweet About? Some of the best people using Twitter have become known as an expert or resource. This can augment any information you post about your organization and make it more likely for people to follow you or retweet your posts.
• 140 Characters or Less – It can be challenging at first to express yourself in 140 Characters or less, but you’ll soon get comfortable at abbreviating thoughts and using URL shorteners like bit.ly to include shortened links.
• Retweets – Retweets allow you to pass along a Tweet from someone else to your followers. It’s good form to give full credit to someone else’s thoughts – for example RT @searchoptics: Mobile Ad Campaigns & Social Media Relationships in June Search Optics Newsletter.
• Hashtags - A hashtag is simply a pound sign (#) and then a keyword. Hashtags allows you to see what people are talking about and to more easily follow a topic of interest, such as #socialmedia.
• Direct Messages - You can send anybody who’s following you a direct (private) message. You can only send direct messages to them if they’re following you. Once again, you’re limited to 140 Characters or less.
• Links – It’s always a good idea to provide links to your website, Blog or even other social media accounts. If people find your Tweets interesting, you want to make it easy for them to learn more.

For more information on how Search Optics can help with your Social Media plan, call 888.509.9911 or email marketing@searchoptics.com.

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Monitor the Users and Understand the State Of Customer Base
Tracking website traffic helps dealers monitor user movements throughout the website.
• Key information like time period for which the visitor stayed, from where the visitors came like referrals and search engines, bounce rate etc. is useful to understanding visitor demographics.
• Tracking customer activity gives crucial data about their preferences, choices, interests etc and helps to retain the potential customer base.
• Website traffic tracking helps dealers adjust to changing trends and better understand the customer base.

Improve Website Optimization
Tracking website traffic through web analytics tools helps dealers know what appeals to their customers and optimize their websites.
• It is important to understand keywords used by customers to reach the website for effective website optimization.
• Automotive dealers need to know which cars are searched most by customers and which sections customers are most interested in. Based on this, dealers can expand inventory lists and increase lead conversion rates.
• Website navigation can be simplified for better usability of customers.

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During this period, RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7% percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, down slightly from 42.1%. This was followed by Apple down from 25.4% to 24.4% percent share.

Microsoft also dropped from 15.1% to 13.2% percent. Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points from 9% to 13.0% of smartphone subscribers. Palm rounded out the top five with a decrease from 5.4% to 4.8%.

Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

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Facebook
• More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) is shared each month.
• Over 150 million people engage with Facebook on websites every month.
• More than 100 million users access Facebook through mobile devices.
• People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active as non-mobile users.
• The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.

Statistics from Facebook press office.

Twitter
• Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
• There are currently 110 million users of Twitter’s services.
• Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
• There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
• More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.

Statistics from Twitter.

YouTube
• YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day.
• Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
• The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users.
• Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
• YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the Internet used in 2000.

Statistics from YouTube press centre.

For more information on how Social Media can help your dealership, call 888.509.9911 or email marketing@searchoptics.com.

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Search engines remain the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories.

Double-digit increases were recorded from April to May in the share of traffic going directly from search engines to the Automotive, Business and Finance, Entertainment, News and Media, Shopping, and Social Networking categories.

Among the top 3 search engines, Google sent the most visits to the Automotive category, while Yahoo Search registered monthly gains in Automotive at 10%. Bing’s share registered double-digit growth in Automotive.

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• 75% of online auto shoppers read reviews and feedback on dealers

• As many as 1 in 4 of online shoppers will change their mind about where to purchase a car based on what they read online

Customer retention is critical in today’s automotive climate. Equally important is increasing and maintaining brand name awareness. Consumers have unlimited Social Media outlets to rave about their positive and sometimes negative experiences at Car Dealerships.  Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube provide an opportunity for dealers to capture market share and strengthen customer relationships.  

Dealers can capitalize on social media by:

• Driving Interaction - Build campaigns designed to encourage positive interaction with customers. Ask for your customers’ opinions, respond to their posts and create an ongoing conversation.
• Generating Awareness - Create ads which attract new users and encourage them to “like” and share with others.
• Providing Instant Gratification - Use video to blend creativity and brand awareness for a user-friendly experience.

For more information on how Social Media can help your dealership, call 888.509.9911 or email marketing@searchoptics.com.

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Not only could direct mail be a waste of advertizing dollars, but it wastes the planet as well.  The US Forestry service estimates that more than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrives in American mailboxes each year.  Additionally, nonprofit groups like New American Dream and Northwest Recycling Outreach are making it their mission to encourage potential customers to “opt out” of receiving solicitations by mail. For companies who want to present a “green” image, these statistics are worth considering as environmentally conscious prospects may not receive your mailers at all.

Other downsides to direct mail include the high cost of printing, mailing and postage cost. Mailing lists can cost companies as much as 3 to 20 cents a name, and when sending to a business address, print ads may be intercepted by assistants and other gatekeepers, never finding their way into a decision-maker’s hands.  Even in the hands of qualified postal workers, they can end up smudged, torn or lost between the pages of a magazine or catalogue.

Additionally, unexpected delays in printing or delivery can cost even more. If a flier arrives late, customers might learn of a promotion after the fact, or too near the deadline to take advantage of a sale or special event.

Email ads cost far less to send. The click of a button sends the same message to multiple prospects and, most of the time, it lands directly in their inbox. Unlike “snail mail,” (a nickname coined in the 1840s to contrast the paper mail with the speed of the telegraph), the delivery of electronic mail is almost instantaneous.

Email also may be read more than traditional mail. According to the Pew Internet and American Life project, based on data from September 2009, 77% of American adults use the Internet and 89% send or read email. Not only is your electronic message more likely to be read;it has no environmental impact, doesn’t get chucked into landfill, and won’t get lost in the folds of a magazine or catalogue.  With today’s emphasis on being “green,” electronic messages make a lot of sense.

If you’d like help getting started on an successful email campaign to your customers, contact Nick Andrews at Search Optics, Inc. at 858-678-0707 today.

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Yahoo! Search is newer to the search industry but is becoming a major player.  Yahoo! claims to offer users a faster and more intuitive search experience.  To optimize for The New Yahoo! Search Web sites will have to cover every aspect possible.  This includes photos, videos, event listings and more.  Web site owners will need to become more involved with both social and media hosting online.

Google has some different criteria for what they rank first in their results.  It is more likely to pull up Web sites that have a strong introductory paragraph explaining what the site is about.  Google also pulls up Web sites that have text links to them, not just graphics.  It helps if the text links say something other than “click here”.  Google favors Web sites that use text, not images, for important content.

On page factors matter more in Bing than with Google and Yahoo!.  Bing also pays more attention to the authority of the site than Google and Yahoo!.  Search results are distorted in favor of older sites and/or sites of authoritative organizations.  Age of domain is also very important with Bing.  Fresh content matters less than with Google.  Whether this is because Bing is incapable of indexing sites that quickly or not, fresh content does not matter when ranking page results.  Bing is also more Flash -friendly.  Optimizing a Flash site for Google can be a bit of a nightmare, but Bing appears to be more Flash-friendly.

It might seem like a major challenge for companies and businesses to try and meet a variety of Search Engines’ optimization criteria.  At Search Optics, Inc. all search criteria is addressed and met when building the Search Engine Optimization of a client’s Web site.  Search Optics, Inc. is committed to converging face-to-face client care and forward-thinking 21^st century interactive marketing opportunities.  We specialize in driving targeted Internet traffic directly to a client’s Web site by optimizing Search Engine results.   Search Optics, Inc. covers all the criteria by creating a variety of social networking profiles for clients and customers.  Content is refreshed weekly and graphics are added to each profile.  Blogs are submitted to blog communities and drafted Press Releases are submitted to online Press Release distributing Web sites.  These efforts cover all search engine optimization criteria and maximize results on all Search Engine pages.

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1.       Try a Web 2.0 Campaign: A Web 2.0 Campaign will allow your company to reach out to Web-savvy customers in an easy, exciting way.  On top of that, it will provide you with increased organic search engine result listings and let you better control your company’s reputation online.

2.       Try a Newsletter for your business or company: A Newsletter allows your company to provide clients with information about your services and keeps your name in front of them on a monthly or weekly basis.  You control the content so, you can be sure to present the images and messages you want customers to see.

3.       Try a Mobile site:  A Mobile Web site will allow customers to view your information directly from their phone.  Customers on the go will be able to find your numbers, hours, and even specials more easily while they are out shopping or away from a computer.

4.       Play a more active role in monitoring your site’s traffic:  It’s a good idea to keep track of who is visiting your Web site, when they are visiting and how often.  Make a resolution in 2010 to learn more about how to access and understand your site’s analytics.

5.       Keep your Web site fresh with frequently changing specials and incentives for customers:  Specials and Incentives will give customers a reason to buy your product and will result in more sales!  If you change your sites specials on a weekly basis, customers will be likely to check your site frequently for new content and deals.

Search Optics can help you keep these, and any other Internet Marketing resolutions you may have.  For more information, feel free to contact us!

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For many car buyers, a lease is the only way to get monthly payments to fit their budgets.  Leasing monthly payments are typically lower than financing monthly payments.  For some, this is the only way they can have a vehicle to drive.  The scarcity of leasing specials means that an auto company who chooses to market one would have little competition for customers.

Providing a leasing option will attract customers that would not even consider visiting their local dealership otherwise.  Car companies who cease their leasing plans will be forced to tweak their sales incentives to keep vehicles moving out the door.  With a leasing option, sales prices will not have to be altered and vehicles will still be moving off the lots.

Leasing options serve the customer as well.  It is an economical way to provide vehicles for business use and a way for private individuals to drive more cars than one could typically afford.  A significant amount of the Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, and Lexuses you see on the road are leased.  If you find yourself mainly driving exclusively for work, leasing a vehicle is the only way to go.

It seems to be that trying out a leasing special this month is in the automotive dealerships’ best interest.  The significant amount of automobile customers that prefer leasing specials to buying or financing cars are left with no options for their automobile needs.  The competition is scarce and that is definitely in an automobile dealership’s favor.  Providing a leasing special could only work in an automotive company’s favor this season!

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