NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — "I don't know what to do." It's a refrain echoed by small businesses, large corporations, and everyone striving to generate sales and fame using social media. But did you know that 80% of YouTube views come from outside of the United States? Or that over 260 million Americans don't use Twitter? Or how about that half of all traffic on the Internet isn't created by humans at all? You haven't heard this because every day, the news is filled with stories about social media. And all of them feature alleged experts and gurus talking about why you must use the latest platform, and how you're going to "leave money on the table" if you don't. The only story being told isn't one that involves the truth, it's one that only benefits the gurus, and for them, the truth is bad for business.
But for car dealerships across America, the question remains: Is social media the be all and end all for their marketing efforts the way the gurus claim? Or is the answer more complex? In fact, do they even need social media at all?
B.J. Mendelson, author of the top-selling and controversial book, "Social Media is Bullshit" (St. Martin's Press), has the answer. "It's not really a question of whether or not the platforms themselves are useful or useless. It's really a question of why you're using them in the first place and whether or not you can achieve your objects quicker, easier, and less expensively using something else." Mendelson added, "In most cases, not all, but most, it may be that the best solution is actually looking you right in the face. It's the unsexy stuff like direct mail, search, and television, that offers a better return on your marketing investments. Not to mention, a higher rate of recall among your customers."
Todd Neidorf, President of Ross Direct Digital, concurred. "There's a rush going on where young marketing professionals, and those who should probably know better, are asking dealerships to shelve their traditional marketing plans and measurable metrics for success, and replacing them with fuzzy metrics that might be nice to have, but don't ultimately do much to actually sell cars and keep the lights on for the dealerships."
As thousands of auto dealers converge on the New Orleans Ernest M. Morial Convention Center in search of that one key take away that will bolster sales and other key performance indicators for 2014.
Items to be discussed at the session will include:
- How to translate Internet traffic to showroom traffic.
- The appropriate tools to be used to improve customer retention.
- How to hire a marketing professional who will do what they claim they can do.
- And the question will finally be resolved: What social media platforms should you be using, if any?
B.J. Mendelson will give the play-by-play and Todd Neidorf will add real world dealership applications to put NADA attendees on the path of understanding and provide information that can be acted upon immediately. One thing is for certain for conference attendees who visit Mendelson and Ross Direct Digital's workshop: They'll leave the conference knowing where to invest their marketing budgets and perform activities that will produce sales, not likes.
For more information on the workshop, or for interview requests with B.J. Mendelson and Todd Neidorf, contact:
Alex Woodward
Ross Direct Digital
(678) 492-6853
Email