“Second place is a set of steak knives.”

When Alec Baldwin’s character lectured the sales team in Glengarry Glen Ross, he made it clear that the winner was the one on top, that everyone else was lucky to have a job, and that if they continued to perform the way they did they wouldn’t have a job for much longer. The same holds true in social media. If you’re not winning, you’re losing, and all too often the strategies used in social media marketing are designed to lose.

I’m referring to branding. It’s become too apparent over the last couple of years that many businesses and the social media companies that support them have turned branding into the ultimate goal of social media efforts. They believe that sales cannot be attained, that leads cannot be generated, and that trying to define the benefits is best left with something intangible like increased exposure of the brand. While this isn’t completely wrong, it’s selling the industry short. Social media can do so much more than branding.

In the automotive industry, for example, the goals of social media marketing should be first to drive foot traffic to the dealership. The 2nd place prize of every effort would be to drive website visitors. When all else fails, branding is the tertiary goal, the consolation prize. When that perspective is taken and an understanding is had that so much more can and should be done, the branding actually has the opportunity to flourish even more as a result.

Focus on business. Do the right things. Hire the right agencies, the ones that can demonstrate tangible ROI from their efforts rather than falling for the pitch that exposure is the best thing you can hope for. When branding becomes the top level goal, it’s possible for one to be convinced that they should be posting funny cat pictures in order to get the exposure they need on social media. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, the goal is to get tangible benefit. Cat pictures won’t do that.

Here’s a video I did that highlights this myth and demonstrates why it’s possible to have a proper hierarchy of goals to achieve the fullest level of success.

There’s a case against Twitter and Pinterest that is being waged by some in the automotive industry. They’ll say that there simply isn’t a good return on investment, that they aren’t worth messing with because it’s just too hard to find a benefit from them. This is true until you look at one major factor: time.

Twitter and Pinterest require very little time to maintain and keep vibrant. Before we get into the ways that dealers can streamline their efforts to make them more suited for a proper ROI, let’s first take a look at the three major aspects of them that make them worthwhile:

1. Time Driven Algorithm – Unlike Facebook and Google+, the Pinterest and Twitter feeds are completely time driven. When you post something, it appears in the feeds of your followers immediately. Over time, they move down. This is a good thing for their purpose because they’re ideal for getting real-time engagement.
2. Communication – At the end of the day, they are great as communication tools. Twitter allows you to communicate with people about ideas and events while Pinterest allows you to communicate visually.
3. Google Loves Them – If there’s one major reason to improve your Twitter and Pinterest posting habits, it’s Google. From a social signals perspective, they are adored.

Now that we have that covered, let’s go over a proper posting and monitoring strategy that can streamline it down so they aren’t a waste of time.

Quick Visit Twice a Day

Three minutes. That’s all it takes to keep a strong Twitter and Pinterest presence. If it helps you sell on car a quarter, it was worth it. If it helps you get your pages indexed and ranked better so that you sell more than one extra car a quarter, you’re seeing better ROI than anything else you could have possibly done.

Log into Twitter. Check for and reply to Direct Messages. Check for and reply to @replies. Post something. It’s 140 characters. It doesn’t take much effort.

Log into Pinterest. Check your recent activity. It will be mostly repins of your posts, but see if there are any comments. Pin or repin something. It’s easy.

That’s it.

Tools

For Twitter, I prefer Buffer. It’s super quick, there’s no need to mess with timing because it uses a queue, and it shortens all of the links for you as you post. The best part is that it can be a Chrome or Firefox plugin which means that you don’t have to visit the app itself. As you’re browsing throughout the day, you can Buffer it very easily.

Regardless of which tool you use, be sure that you keep your queue relatively full. While I don’t recommend planning your Tweets weeks in advance, you can definitely stay ahead of the game so that on days when you simply don’t have the time to mess with it, at least you have content going up.

A quick note about automation – I never recommend feed posting. In other words, setting any RSS feed to autopost, even if it’s your own blog, is a mistake. From sources that you don’t control, feed posts means that your posts aren’t manually vetted. People can tell. It also means that if someone makes a mistake and posts something that is either inappropriate or a mistake, your feed posting program will get it onto your Twitter feed regardless. I remember seeing a car dealer Tweet a post that said something to the effect of “Empire Avenue verification post 2342hkhk!kj32&hh”.

Regarding your own blog, you should be posting it to Twitter manually. It’s your content so you should highlight it appropriately. Use hashtags. Ask for feedback. Make the title more Twitter-appropriate. It bugs me when people auto-feed their own blog posts because it saved them seconds while costing them an opportunity to truly highlight the important content appropriately.

Lastly, don’t feed your Facebook page posts onto Twitter or visa versa. Not everything that goes on Facebook is appropriate for Twitter. More importantly, it simply doesn’t save much time. If you post something to Facebook that also works on Twitter, do it manually. Seconds, folks. That’s all it takes.

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They don’t take much time. There’s simply no reason to not include Twitter and Pinterest into your social media strategy. Done properly, they can enhance more than just your social presence. They can help with your website rankings, your blog traffic, and the general perceptions that people have about your dealership. We didn’t even get into the more advanced ways that you can use these sites to promote your business. At this point, I’d be happy if dealers were simply using them on a regular basis.

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According to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, there’s no reason for people to be allowed to work at home. This sent much of the tech world into a frenzy as the ever-connected digital world allows collaboration, tracking, and productivity to flourish without the expense and cumbersome nature of an office environment. Those who work at home regularly are often aware of both the benefits and drawbacks of the status. Is it really worth it?

The Dog House Diaries had their own take on the concept and put it together in this quick little visualization.

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It was a not-so-funny website to start with. IsThatcherDeadYet was started by people who did not like the former British Prime Minister and they seem to be “celebrating” her passing. Part of the way that they’re doing it is by promoting the Twitter hashtag #nowthatchersdead.

The problem is that many people though it meant “Now That Cher’s Dead” instead of “Now Thatcher’s Dead”. It started an uproar on the social network that hit its high (or low) point with a tweet by Ricky Gervais:

Some people are in a frenzy over the hashtag #nowthatchersdead.It’s “Now Thatcher’s dead”. Not, “Now that Cher’s dead” JustSayin’

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) April 8, 2013

The lesson here is simple. If you use hashtags in promoting anything, be sure to make them clear. You can use capital letters to start each word, but even that isn’t enough since many won’t capitalize the letters when Tweeting. The best thing to do is look at your hashtag and make sure it’s crystal clear.

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Cheese is a staple in most of our diets and there are plenty of different kinds of cheeses we can choose from, like, cheddar, mozzarella, and Swiss cheese, but for most of us, macaroni and cheese is our all-time favorite. Okay, so mac and cheese technically doesn’t fall under the cheese food group, but it is definitely one of the best ways to eat our favorite dairy product.

Several Long Beach Restaurants offer mac and cheese, but it is also easy to make at home and both choices are delicious. This infographic provides some interesting facts about our favorite noodles smothered in a cheesy sauce that we love to eat, mac and cheese.

[Sources: Food.com, FriendsEat]

Honda isn’t a car manufacturer known for having missteps, but that’s exactly what they did with the 9th generation Honda Civic which was released last year. The critics were plentiful and the reviews were poor for the iconic car that has always been a leader in the compact segment.

In a bold move, Honda listened to the critics and their customers and decided to rush a new version of the Civic out just a year after it’s last release. Launching in 2013, the new Honda Civic will try to address some of the complaints, including cheap interior design and boring exterior look.

Many Honda dealers are hopeful, including San Jose Honda.

“This needs to be a home run,” said one dealer. “We aren’t used to having a car that didn’t sell itself. The 2012 Civic was the hardest one to sell, possibly ever.”

There isn’t a lot known about the car yet, but enthusiasts, owners, and dealers alike are rabidly anticipating something better than what they have right now.

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Image Credit

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Some of us have satellite TV in our homes or satellite radio in our cars. Either way, many of us don’t really know much about them, how the thought of putting satellites in the sky came to be, or how many of them are orbiting the earth.

Find out more about Satellites from the cool infographic below.

This infographic from Direct TV comes to us via Dallas Volkswagen and explores “Interesting Facts About Satellites”. Click to enlarge.

The car of our dreams is one that works for us. It is a vehicle that fulfills our wants and needs through the use of technology and high tech gadgets. Many of us have seen such vehicles in movies and cartoons, but the reality of one sitting in our driveway may be sooner than you think.

Hyundai is making the impossible closer to being possible with the concept car, i-oniq.

Thanks to Fredericksburg Used Toyota for sharing this amazing car with us.

There are so many interesting and cool things about alligators that it just had to be put into a fascinating infographic for us all to see. Some of the information listed surprised me and I learned a little bit more about these awesome creatures.

What surprised you?

This infographic from History comes to us via Phoenix Mazda and explores “Interesting Facts about Alligators”. Click to enlarge.

Thinking about proposing to your significant other? Be glad you’re not dating a celebrity for you would have to be rich in order to purchase one of these pricey engagement rings. Here is a list of ten rings worn by Hollywood celebrities that are made for those who are rich.

How much do you think is too much to spend on an engagement ring?

This infographic from Brilliance comes to us via San Antonio Mazda and explores “The Most Expensive Celebrity Engagement Rings”. Click to enlarge.