Are you tired of having your staff complain about "The Training"? Remind them that they aren't perfect and neither are you. If we all were "perfect" at our jobs, then none of these training companies would be in business. We do our training, and maybe if they saw us doing it they wouldn't complain about the "boring training". Make the training fun. Turn it into a competition. Have prizes or rewards of some sort. Then show them what it's like to make a good commission or cut time on the…

This is a picture of some money.

If a vendor offered you all this cash, you wouldn’t refuse it, would you? But at ActivEngage, we find that some dealers are turning their nose up at big mounds of cash. We’re asking our friends to reconsider throwing away money by neglecting a big part of their dealership operations.

I’m speaking about …

I am writing this from the airport in Manchester, NH as I head back to Wilmington, NC.  Hurricane Sandy has left her mark on the North Carolina Coast and is heading north for what forecasters think will be a huge event.  I'll be glad if I just make it home today.       Many of the homes up here are equipped with back up generators to handle loss of power issues.  Stores were selling out of extra water and batteries as folks prepared for the worst.  I think we can all agree this is just being…

How do we define “thought leadership,” or more specifically, how should the term be applied to the retail automobile industry? According to Wikipedia, the term “thought leader” was coined in 1994 by Booz Allen Hamilton, a Fortune 500 corporate consulting firm, and it was used to describe individuals or firms that introduced business ideas that “merited attention.” Without question, thought leaders tend to be the most successful people or organizations within their respective fields. However,…

No matter how hard you try you can’t control who is going to link to your website. Every site out there is going to have a few unsavory links that they want to get rid of, it’s a reality of building a website. Since Google came out with their Penguin update people have been scrambling to try to clean up their link profiles and many are resorting to some pretty desperate measures. There are even stories of sites charging to remove their links in this link un-building panic. When combined with…

For years, marketers and search engine optimization gurus have been preaching something. They've been telling the world that "content is king" and that if you put the right content on your website, that it will rank well. After all, who would deny the king, right?…

http://www.robertwiesman.com

Do Hyundai Cars Suck? Is Hyundai A "Throw Away Car"? Robert Wiesman Answers Your…

My eldest son showed up with a tee shirt to this effect one day:

 I loved the…

There’s something to be said for getting in on a trend when it’s hot, social media marketing at it’s core is all about trends. When that great, roaring and rushing storm of interest starts to brew, it pays to be right in the eye of that…

It’s A Game Changer: Start Producing Video. If You Dare

Think you should leave Britney alone? Think again.

I’m about to do a 180 degree turn on something I’ve said here a few times. Pay attention, though, because as I turn, I’m also going to be moving the circle.

Just like YouTube has.

Last week, Google announced that they…

Businesses and organizations have made strides in the last year to improve their overall understanding and strategy in social media. Many who once played in the social media realm using traditional internet marketing techniques such as posting only self-serving links have changed gears and focused on higher-visibility content such as images. Unfortunately, many are still lacking the understanding of how the networks work and how to post properly.…

New case study shows how Auto Sound teamed with AOA and dealerships to drive a 50% increase of in-dealership sales of Auto Sound products in just four months.

One year after launching, izmocars’ AOA Supplier Digital Network is generating accessories sales results for both suppliers and dealerships. A new case study released today shows how Boston area aftermarket supplier, Auto Sound, helped dealerships selling its products leverage the…

When making the perfect peanut butter chocolate pie (my all time favorite), there are several ingredients that go in to make the perfect tasting pie. When it comes to selling a new or used vehicle, there are also certain ingredients that will facilitate a sale.

With the pie baking analogy not only do you need the right ingredients, but you also need the right pre baking components in order to make the pie like an oven, baking pans, measuring cups etc. When it comes to…

Content marketing is internet marketing. It has been for a while (which I'll discuss below) but is 2013 it will emerge to become the "must have".

It was during a discussion on ADM…

Much of the eastern seaboard is expecting (or already experiencing) massive power outages and flooding as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall. We at ActivEngage think this is a good time to talk about what to do when your Internet network goes down. As a live chat provider, it is…

Twitter is planning to get rid of their favorite button in favor of something a little more Facebook-y. They want to actually add a tool similar to Facebook’s ‘Like’ tool, which may be use the terms ‘like’ or ‘star’. The company is saying they want to change the wording just to make it seem “lighter weight” but it could still have an impact on…

It’s been a few months since I have written for SEL. I had to take a short ‘sabbatical’ to hunker down and focus on a major phase of development and updates on our own site.

It’s nice to get back to blogging but I have to admit that I feel a bit off the pace. Writing is like exercise; once you are out of practice the first time back takes longer and…