Shrinking auto sales, profit margins and automotive advertising budgets have forced automotive advertising agencies to shift their investments from conventional radio, T.V. and print media to the internet and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and too many more to list. Unfortunately, conventional automotive advertising wisdoms don't always apply on the Internet Super Highway. As a result, automotive advertising agencies are struggling to find out not only what works, but how they can prove it to their auto dealer clients who are demanding a verifiable short term R.O.I. for every dollar in today's struggling economy. Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and the host of the automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.Net, is directing automotive advertising agencies to promote people over product or price using social media to produce quantifiable and qualified results.

Relationship based selling systems and marketing messages have always been part of the plan for auto dealers in their brick and mortar facilities and it has been carried over to their new online virtual showrooms. However, the assumption that people and personality serve only to build brand awareness or to enhance the retail message vs. replacing it is a dated concept that must be adjusted to fit the demands of today's empowered customers. Auto dealer's self serving retail messages delivered by their automotive advertising agencies -- regardless of the media -- is no longer perceived as relevant or transparent to online shoppers who prefer to ask their friends and/or trusted third party resources for information they need to make a buying decision.

Digital marketing techniques and priorities established by automotive advertising agencies -- such as focusing on Search Engine Optimization, (S.E.O.), Search Engine Marketing, (S.E.M.) and various other manipulations of the algorithms that determine page positions for the online search engines -- are no longer the best and/or the only way to deliver a call to action to potential customers. The newest opportunity for automotive advertising agencies to deliver a message that will sell new and/or pre-owned vehicles as well as service and/or parts is to have their past, present and pending customers do it for them.

Initial attempts to transfer hard retail advertising using conventional media and even digital marketing on the WWW using auto dealer websites or dealer centric third party automotive advertising platforms were not received well by the typical online shopper who traveled onto the Internet Super Highway to avoid car dealers and fast talking car salespeople. Today's empowered customers prefer customer centric messages sourced from likeminded consumers sharing their shopping/buying experiences before, during and after their purchases.

Auto dealers who marketed directly to these social networking communities were seen as wolves in sheep's clothing as they attempted to sell their products and services from the outside in vs. from the inside out. Automotive advertising agencies were also challenged by their inability to quantify the short term R.O.I. from their efforts to justify their fees.

Philip Zelinger discussed some of the new technologies and applications being applied to social media that allow automotive advertising agencies to prove the R.O.I. for social media on his blog talk radio show Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising. The show is an open business meeting featured on the blog talk radio station WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The time that is hosted on AdAgencyOnline.net.

Philip commented on the subject with some suggested resources that automotive advertising agencies can turn to for best practices in social media and accumulating R.O.I. analytics. "Automotive advertising agencies first and best resource is to listen, learn and apply the best practices associated with social media and social networking offered on automotive advertising resource portals including AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.Com, InternetSalesManager.Org, DrivingSales.Com, DealerElite.Net, Autr.Com, AskPatty.Com , ScottMonty.Com and networks of networkers such as Auto Industry Insiders featured on my own AdAgencyOnline,.net. I also suggest that automotive advertising agencies continue their education in real world venues like The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition scheduled Oct. 12-14th, 2010 at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Many of my affiliated automotive advertising agencies and auto dealer/vendor clients will be hosting sessions there on leveraging social media including mine: C2C + B2B - B2C SQUARED; Learn How This New Social Media Formula Provides New Revenues, New Efficiencies And Greater Profits."

"As far as leveraging limited resources to promote people over product and price one solution that comes to mind is a vendor client of mine -- DealerMouth. They offer auto dealers a master website that allows them to manage and monitor individual sites for each of their sales people and service writers. The sales people can promote themselves to their own spheres of influence in both the virtual world of Facebook and Twitter and the real world at the dealership by directing them to their personal website as a form of online "Why Buy Here Book" or as a personal blog like forum to talk about life. More uniquely, the dealer can make sure that their staff is using their online time in a productive manner vs. planning their vacations on company time by using the built in moderator functions to monitor content and online activities during business hours. The individual sites hosted on DealerMouth are internally linked to the dealer's online resources so it provides salespeople and service writer with a seamless transition to information they need during or after hours to sell a vehicle or service to a friend when the conversation warrants it."

"Combine that with the tools available on Twitter and Facebook to manage the salesperson's and or service writer's data base of friends in a productive and constructive manner to sell them something without offending them -- many such tools are referenced in my session at the DD conference by the way -- and salespeople should be able to build enough online exposure to keep them and their dealer in the conversation when someone they know is looking to buy or service a car. Of course salespeople and service writers hosting their own blog site with inexpensive template solutions offered by providers like Wordpress and Ning will also provide them an online platform with little or no associated hard costs -- other than their time and effort!"

Some of the applications that can be applied to manage the auto dealers -- or their staff's -- data base of friends on Twitter to allow their automotive advertising agencies to prove the R.O.I. from their time on the site include, but are not limited to BlastFollow, Tweepi, Twaiter, TweetDeck, TweetChat, Tweet Beep, Twubble, Twitter Search, Twellow, Snip URL, Twee Take, Tweet Burner, Tweet Stats, Twitturly, Cadmus, PostRank ... and the lists goes on. Similar applications can be applied to Facebook such as embeded widgets onto a wall or on an auto dealer's website to virally distribute their marketing messages amongst their friends in a manner that can be sourced back to the social channel that started the conversation.

About Philip Zelinger

Philip Zelinger is the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of a nationally respected automotive advertising social networking portal, AdAgencyOnline.Net. Philip invested 25 years as a General Manager and Dealer Principal followed by his last ten years in the automotive advertising industry representing auto dealers and technology vendors focused on the automotive advertising industry.

His role as a “Dealer Coach” is enhanced by his hosting a nationally recognized auto industry social networking portal and blog talk radio station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time. As the author of two books on the auto industry, including “How To Sell A Car – a Career Guide to The Automobile Industry,” he is a recognized authority on market trends and developing technologies with the responsibility of selecting key vendors and applications for his dealer clients as well as forming strategic partnerships for his vendor clients to leverage their shared resources to help them bring their products and services to market.

About AdAgencyOnline.Net and Ad Agency Online, L.L.C.

AdAgencyOnline.Net reviews automotive advertising vendors and new technologies on several blog talk radio shows in addition to the Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising. Other shows include “Lunch With Ralph Discussing Automotive Advertising” and “Automotive Advertising Experts.” The shows attract automotive advertising agencies, auto dealers, auto industry vendors and O.E.M. representatives that listen to WAAOL to find vendors, applications and technologies to maximize the R.O.I. for their automotive advertising dollars.

AAOL is a national network of independent affiliated automotive advertising agencies linked by an online communication / distribution system developed by Philip Zelinger. The proprietary operating system that powers AAOL was designed to reduce fixed and semi-variable expenses for full service automotive advertising agencies. The developing technologies that enhanced the performance of the independent automotive advertising agencies linked by AAOL has served as the role model for the solutions suggested on AdAgencyOnline.Net and represented by AAOL to their affiliated automotive advertising agencies when serving their auto dealer clients.

Ad Agency Online L.L.C is focused on discovering and representing new automotive advertising vendors not yet recognized by the mainstream automotive advertising industry. Automotive advertising vendors represented by AAOL include; ronsmap.com, DealerMouth, TeleTextSolutions, GetAutoAppraise, Argistics - AutoTransaXion, DealMaker.Com, CityTwist.Com, Bulldog Marketing Technologies, Kihon Media, CarFolks.Com, Ai Dealer, Laser Stream Video, and SiSTeR Technologies - Video CarLot; to name a few.

For more information on Philip Zelinger, Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., social media, The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition or any of the vendor clients represented by Ad Agency Online contact Philip at 888-796-2228 or email him at pzads@bellsouth.net. Automotive advertising vendors, automotive advertising agencies and auto dealers that would like to be considered as a “preferred automotive advertising vendor” on AdAgencyOnline.Net and/or to hire/join Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. to represent them can contact Philip Zelinger at http://adagencyonline.net. To quote Philip Zelinger, “Help is only a click away! After all, what are friends for!” ###