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I can imagine Austin Powers dressed in a blue velvet leisure suit saying:

It’s Social Media Baby!

If you haven’t noticed car dealers are being pushed off of Google Page One for the cars that they sell. To throw salt in the wounds, it seems that every month another car dealer “review site” pops up.

This means when consumers type in a car dealership name, more sites are vying to capture and suck the equity out of the brand.

In reality, many of these sites are just Google Adwords and banner advertising sites that are making money from optimizing website pages on a car dealer’s name.

There is nothing illegal about this and over 60% of car dealers are allowing their name to be leveraged for other people to profit from.

In the area of car dealer reviews, have you take a minute to see just how many websites seek to be the “authority” for car dealer reviews?

Here is a quick sample of the sites that I have found that want to be found in Google, Yahoo and Bing search for the phrase “Car Dealer Reviews” or “Auto Dealer Reviews”:

Car Dealer Specific SItes

• www.mydealerreport.com
• www.cardealercheck.com
• www.dealerrater.com
• www.cardealerreviews.org
• www.prestoreviews.com
• www.dealerscene.com
• www.dealershipratings.com
• www.carsdealersreview.com
• www.autodealerreviews.com
• www.dealerreviewer.com
• www.autodealerreviews.com
• www.edmunds.com

General Review Sites

• www.my3cents.com
• www.insiderpages.com
• www.yelp.com
• www.citysearch.com
• www.judysbook.com
• www.merchantcircle.com
• www.yellowbot.com
• www.switchboard.com
• www.superpages.com

Automotive IRM Confusion

The reason I bring this trend up on this blog is because it can be confusing for a car dealer to know where to focus their Automotive Internet Reputation Management strategies.  So let me give you some practical advice:

1. Look at your own Google Maps listing and see which review websites are being summarized on your Google Maps page.  Focus on getting positive reviews posted on these sites first.
2. Of course, getting posts directly on Google Maps should be a car dealers #1 priority because the “star” ratings are directly counted if a consumer posts on Google Maps.
3. Once you have seen which review sites are being summarized on your Maps listing,  focus on getting more reviews on those sites via email, calls and in store coaching.
4. To see if other sites are having an impact on your business, Google your exact business name and see which review sites are showing on Page One and Page Two.
5. Any sites on Page One or Page Two should get some attention to build positive reviews.

If a review website is not on Page One or Page Two, I would hold off investing any labor on these sites  until the steps listed above are complete.  Then, I would add positive reviews to the largest website vendors first and ignore the lesser sites that only have their own self interests in mind.

Summary:  There are hundreds of websites trying to capitalize on your car dealership name.  Don’t get overwhelmed and just focus on the most visible websites that appear for your car dealership name or the cars you sell in your PMA.

If you need help, call 732-450-8200.

Brian Pasch will be conducting a seminar on Automotive Reputation Management at the 8th Digital Dealer Conference and I hope you can attend.  As part of Brian’s preparations for the seminar we wanted to share a strategy that is important to consider before starting an IRM program.

Here’s an excerpt from Brian’s IRM workbook:

I am often asked how to deal with DUPLICATE directory listings for your business on popular directories like Google Maps and consumer review sites like Yelp, Insider Pages or CitySearch.  It is not uncommon for a business to have multiple entries on the same website if:

1. Your business has moved during the past 10 years.
2. Your business has gone through a name change.
3. Someone added a new listing without checking for previous entries
4. Someone has purposely added the business multiple times with variations on your business name.

Duplicate Entries Are Not Good

Leaving duplicate entries on the same website dilutes your Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process and may trigger the website owner to ban both accounts if they feel you are spamming their index.   Duplicate entries that a consumer may find via organic search or by searching a review website should be removed.

To find duplicates, try these steps using Google search:

1. Search Google for your business name + the name of the review site
2. Search Google for your business phone number + name of the review site
3. Search Google for your OEM brand, city  + name of the review site
4. Search or your business name inside of the website using their search tool.

So, if your dealership name is Brickell Honda, you would test for duplicates on InsiderPages.com by going to Google and typing as a search these three phrases:

1. brickell honda insiderpages
2. 866-645-7878 insiderpages
3. honda miami insiderpages

The process for removing duplicate entries varies by website.  Google Maps has an easy tool to report duplicate or erroneous map entries.  Other websites like Yelp, have a reporting process that requires a few more steps.  Invest the time in making sure all your public directory listings are correct. 

Review All Public Directory Listings

When you review your business listings, here are some suggestions:

1. Make sure you have a tracking number on the most popular websites, like Google Maps, and the review websites that show on Google Page One and Page Two for your dealership name.
2. Make sure your website address is correct
3. Make sure that you have selected the proper business category “tag” for the services you offer.
4. Make sure there are no spelling errors.
5. Make sure you take advantage of any sites that allow you to load photos or videos to your listing page.

Once all the most effective IRM websites are de-duped, record the links to all your business profile pages in a file that can be used to for IRM letters, icon placement for your primary website or to be used in a Reputation Management Portal (RMP). 

Checking What Consumers Are Saying

By having a single document that has all your profile page links, it is a basic ad no-cost way to see what has been written about your business online.  Setup a procedure where someone on your team visits these profile pages to ensure that no complaints have been posted that you are not aware of.

Setting up Google Alerts is another free tool to notify you in real-time when anything is posted online with your dealership name. However ,in case you miss some alerts, checking your manual list will be a second round of checks and balances for your overall social media strategy.

There are paid services that automate this process and save you the manual work but not everyone has extra money to spend.  So you have no excuse, other than time, not to check your current business listings and clean them up if they have duplicates on the same website.

See You In Orlando

At my DD8 seminar I will demonstrating the most effective strategies, policies and procedures to create powerful Internet Internet Reputation Management (IRM) campaign, which should be an integral part of your social media strategy.  Public review websites is one of the most powerful social media tools that consumers have decided are valuable so you can’t ignore them!

A new website  called SurChur (http://surchur.com)  can actually be used as an Automotive Internet Reputation Management tool.

The tabs make it easy to quickly see what is being said about your dealership across the web.  This is a very convenient dashboard for what is currently being written about any search phrase and I recommend that dealers use it regularly along with Google Alerts and Google Reader.

Internet Reputation Management and monitoring will need to be part of auto retailers standard operating procedures in 2010.  If dealers are looking for assistance and training in Automotive IRM, call the Pasch Consulting Group for a free consultation at 732-450-8200.