Got pressing questions about how to invest in Internet Marketing and what your business should expect from a vendor?

We have the answers!

Tomorrow, Wednesday November 2, 2011 we proudly present the CEO of KPA, Vane Clayton and the Co-Founder of TK Carsites, Richard Valenta, as this week’s TK Carsites webinar presenters. They will be taking the webinar hot seats and answering your questions live during the webinar. That is correct! We have gathered up your questions that you have sent in by request and will be giving back by answering each of them individually.

We truly believe you should remain knowledgeable regarding what steps are necessary to keep your business relevant and remain informed on what expectations you should have from a vendor, which will give you a leg up when choosing which vendor is right for you.

In this week’s special webinar we are not holding back, we believe in being upfront and honest in ensuring that you receive the best quality of service that the Internet can offer and therefore our leaders will be stepping up to the microphone to share with their experiences with you and aid in your business’s online success.

Here are some of the questions we will cover in tomorrow’s webinar. Do not see a question below that you would like answered, you still have time to submit yours!

• -What is the future of Internet Marketing?
• -I’ve heard that 60 dealerships are already using the new TK Connect platform. Talk to us about their experience versus the old platform.
• -What makes the new TK Connect platform different?
• -KPA has some of the highest retention and service levels in the industry; how does that translate to the TK Carsites products?
• -Will TK Carsites continue to differentiate with their Search Engine Optimization?
• -Why would I now select TK Carsites if I didn’t before?

Don’t be shy; remember there is probably someone else thinking the same thing. Click Here to Register for Ask the Experts, The Future of websites, SEO, and Social Media.

We look forward to interacting with you tomorrow Wed, Nov 2, 2011 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM MDT in our weekly webinar series.

Who Are Our Presenters? Allow me Introduce You:

Vane Clayton is President and CEO of KPA, joining the company in September 2006. He brings KPA 15 years of experience in successfully building profitable, growth companies as President/CEO. Vane holds a B.S. in Agricultural/Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Richard Valenta is Vice President of Internet Marketing Products of KPA and Founder of TK Carsites. Richard co-founded TK Carsites in 2001 and led the acquisition of the company by KPA in October 2011. Richard is responsible for advancing the vision of the TK Carsites product line of helping car dealers deliver their unique selling opportunities to consumers via the Internet. Richard has over 22 years of leadership experience within the automotive and consumer finance industries, having held executive and corporate officer positions in the sub-prime auto lending market.

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Read More Automotive News and Information on the TK Carsites Blog.

Thank you, dear readers, for the pat on the back!

We sometimes wonder if we’re on the right track about explosive trends. It’s our job, after all, to ensure that we deliver the cutting edge to our clients. Lately, TK Carsites has been busy honing that edge when it comes to Google+.

We’ve been certain that Google+ will be big. It so happens that you gave us an essential article of evidence to prove it.

Got any doubt that people are interested in Google+?

Let our analytics right here on this blog disprove that.

As of Friday, August 5, almost a third of our annual blog traffic has poured into two subjects:

Google+ and RDFa.

That’s a huge increase. What if we could offer you a 33% increase in your Web site traffic, in only a month? It doesn’t only show that we know what we’re doing in Web marketing. It proves that we know that the buzz around Google+ is going to pay off.

So, thanks for visiting! When we notice a mob-rush toward a particular topic, we know it’s a topic that’s going places.

And when that topic is a technology that we’ve been promising will be the next big thing, we get happy. It feels good to be right, after all.

Keep an eye out for more Google+ and more RDFa.

We’ll keep bringing you the future of digital marketing.

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Read more Automotive articles on the TK Carsites blog.

It’s a revolution!

Didn’t you hear? There’s a massive shake-up in the world economy coming!

Of course, I refer to Google developing a Master API. What did you think I meant?

Oh. Yes. That. Well, never fear—TK Carsites has the secrets on how to stretch your hard-spent marketing dollars into pure, digital gold. One of those secrets deals with a recent inside scoop from The Empire of All Things Marketing: Google.

The Master API is being developed. If “Master API” sounds to you like a gigantic killer robot released by HYDRA or SPECTRE on a mission of world domination, well, you’re close. It does involve Androids.

Here’s what the Master API is, in terms even Captain America would understand:

Shown here: Google v. Captain America

 It’s a mind-reading device.

No, I’m not kidding this time. Google’s Master API is a program that absorbs data from what you do on the Web and predicts your “intent” for future actions.

Here’s a breakdown of what the Master API does:

1. It absorbs how you use particular programs—say, Search, but anything it can see in your Operating System—by the actions you use it for, like editing and sharing and so forth.

2. It passes that information on to Google applications, which learn about your behavior.

3. It then adjusts those applications to better “handle the requested intent.”

And by “handle the requested intent,” they mean suggesting their programs to you, directing you automatically to programs they like, or telling you about businesses that they like who can give you what Google thinks you want.

Got that? It basically automatically tailors Google to a user based on that user’s behavior, and routes that user’s future actions to Google-friendly places.

Like this. Only SOCIAL.

Are you friends with Google? I hope so. Google was already dominant, but the Master API—now active on Android phones and soon expanding to the Web—locks down that dominance.

Good thing TK Carsites knows Google so well. All our clients are best pals with Google.

Stick with us, and we’ll make sure that when the Master API conquers the world, you’re on the winning team.

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Read more Automotive articles on the TK Carsites blog.

Google Places just stepped up its game. It’s no longer just showing you places you want to go to. No, that would be too simple for Google Places. Reviews and results now show up for Places you’ve never even heard of, but will want to go to all the same.

Yes, that’s right—you want to go to them but you’ve never heard of them.

Now Google Places won’t be restricted to places you like. Google Places will highlight businesses that Google expects you’ll like.

For a business reliant on Web marketing—read, almost every business, especially yours—this means that Google Places and Google Reviews are far more important than ever.

How does Google do it?

Simple—Google quietly learns what you “like” by observing and analyzing your Web activity. And by “Web,” I mean Mobile too. Boy, do I ever mean Mobile.

Image courtesy of Pingdom

Bear in mind when reading this that Google’s share of Mobile is enormous, given that the Android phone’s Operating System pretty much is Google. Understanding that 500,000 new users go Mobile for their Web use every day, you come to grasp the scope of this.

So, Google takes this data and it goes the extra step. It creates a profile of what you’re like—your interests, your location, your reviews. Then it shows you Google Places liked by users like you.

Google no longer buys from your Christmas List. It’s like that best pal—the one who gets you the perfect surprise gifts because it knows you, as a person, so well.

Picture it: Google now weaving a massive data net from user behaviors, linking those behaviors by their similarities, and recommending businesses—Google Places—based on those similarities.

What does it mean to you as a business? It means that your Google Places—and the reviews on it—will be more important and, so, more competitive than ever.

TK Carsites has the value when it comes to Google: We win you Google Search Result Pages. We’re at the forefront of commanding Google+ social media. We are one step ahead when it comes to marketing on Google.

Google’s now one step ahead when it comes to marketing, and TK Carsites is right there in lockstep beside them.

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Read more Automotive articles on the TK Carsites blog.

You’ve got Google+ just about figured out.

You’ve learned the reasons why Google+ is going to be a major force in digital marketing. You’ve learned how to establish the foundation your dealership needs to be ahead of the game when the Google+ business component launches.

Now comes the fun part. Now you learn how to use it.

It’s a five-minute process that could net you hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Google+ and create two Circles. Name them “Customers” and “VIP Customers”.

2. Every time a customer comes in for service or makes a sale, be sure to get their Google account e-mail address or their primary e-mail address.

3. Go to your Google+ Home page.

4. Click on the link under Send Invites. Input the customer’s e-mail address.

5. Once they’re invited and have a Google+ account, add the customer to the “Customers” Circle.

6. Go to your Google Calendar. The link is in the upper right of your Google+ page.

7. In Google Calendar, set Calendar events for the next service appointment for the customer. If they just bought, set it for three months ahead, when they’re likely to need their first service.

8. For a personal touch, include notes about anything you learned about the customer’s interests or family, so that you can remember to take an interest in them yourself and make a social connection. If you’re able, communicate with them during this time via Google+, sharing and promoting their content.

9. When the Calendar event comes due, use Google+ to send a personal message to all those customers who are set to be contacted. This activity will keep your business’ Google+ activity high and will keep your customers in the loop through social media.

10. The best part is when a customer begins interacting back with you. When they do, move them into your more exclusive “VIP Customers” Circle. And when they come in to do business with you, treat them in a way that title deserves.

Seem simple? It is. Yet using social media rather than conventional e-mail can help your whole business’ Google+ relevance, can develop a personal relationship with a customer and can keep you in the lead of digital marketing’s trends.

It may not seem big, but it’s a small part of building massive influence online. It’s timely, it’s personal and it’s tech-savvy.

 Google+ is the best new way to add to your business.

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Read more Automotive articles on the TK Carsites blog.

Whoever your clients are, they have an opinion of you.

Whatever that opinion is, we only hear about the strongest of them.

And even that is assuming that you can monitor all the social media out there. Technology is still seeking out a silver bullet to nailing sentiment monitoring. SocialMention, Google Alerts and even PostRank, just acquired by Google, rise and fall and rise again as social technology changes.

How do you stay current? Here’s how.

It’s as simple as these three rules. We’ll call them the Triple Crown Approach. After all, digital marketing is a gamble. Good thing we at TK Carsites know how to play the game.

First Rule: Keep Your Tools Current

You need to have monitoring tools and techniques that update at the rate of your clients. That means one thing: You have to be aware of changes in the technology before everyone else is.

Fortunately, it’s not as daunting as it sounds. The market adopts quickly and changes gradually. A social media service like Tumblr can be a big hit with a relatively small, niche crowd one day, and then explode the next.

Keeping your tools current means keeping up with what social monitoring programs have adapted to the latest and greatest in social media. This doesn’t mean just going with the service that covers the most social media sites. That can give you too much noise and not enough signal. What it means, is seeking out the experts. Find influencers and commenters who are respected and shared in social media, and see what they’re using.

TK Carsites, for instance, has just introduced our TK Connect social monitoring, search-equipped, management dashboard. It is updated with the times. But you get more than just a thorough social search with TK Carsites. You also get to work with a company that stays ahead of the changing trends.

Second Rule: Listen To Buzz

Social media is no longer a fringe interest—it’s become a media obsession. Every day, we hear about stories related to the latest buzz in social media: About how Shaq announced his retirement on Twitter or how Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme rocked the social media world by working gaming into the social media promotion. Eventually, we’re going to be as adapted to social media as we are to television. But right now, the media can’t stop talking about it.

All you’ve to do is listen. If you hear everybody talking about Twitter, make sure you’re monitoring Twitter. If you hear FourSquare is where it’s at, check out your presence there. It’s the same way everybody learns:

Listen, and ask questions.

Questions, by the way, are always welcome at TK Carsites, Facebook or here on our blog.

Third Rule: Don’t Spread Too Thin

It’s like the old saying about being all things to all people. You can’t do everything at once. Same rules apply to trying to watch everywhere at once. If open the search technology too wide, you end up looking at a forest and missing a lot of key trees.

That’s why Google is going to PostRank for social media search. Think about it:

Google is the largest, most effective search engine company in the world. PostRank is a startup. Why the giant rely on that little fellow to search social?

The reason is, Google is designed to search everything, and so misses a lot of the narrowly tailored channels of social media. Anyone who’s ever used Google Alerts knows that results don’t always populate in real time and don’t cover activity on a lot of crucial sites. That’s especially the case with social and review sites—the very sites an auto dealer is concerned about when it comes to sentiment.

PostRank is Google’s sugar baby because PostRank is designed to monitor those narrow channels most effectively. It is made to sift out all the gold flakes of data that Google would otherwise miss because it’s looking too big picture.

Just like PostRank and Google, don’t go with tools and buzz that are too exotic. Don’t worry about the fringe. Worry about where the millions of users are going.

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Read more Automotive articles on the TK Carsites blog.

Last week, Google made a change that will be felt instantly and long-term by car dealers and their SEO firms. By integrating Google Places and reviews into the organic listings, two things that were once very important are even more important today: strong SEO and reputation management.

We will be tackling the reputation management aspect in the next post but for now let’s take a look at how this change will affect dealers from an automotive SEO perspective and what dealers can do to take advantage it. First, the video:

In short, automotive SEO is even more important than it was before because:

• The organic Google algorithm now determines the order of the map listings.
• Sponsored links have been moved down lower on the page in the sidebar with maps staying at the top.
• Reviews are visible and easily clicked from the organic listings.
• Phone numbers and addresses are visible, meaning that ranking high will lower clicks but increase phone calls and visits.

Now that you can see how the changes work and hopefully have an understanding of the importance of top-notch SEO, the question becomes, “How do I take advantage of this change?”

SEOs in the world have often debated the value of long-tail vs what we like to call “money terms”. Some say having a lot of low-volume keywords is better, while others say that a few high-volume keywords makes more sense. The real answer is that you should have both, but while most have the ability to get the long-tail terms with proper site structure and indexing, the money terms such as “Washington DC Acura” are more challenging.

To get the money terms, you must utilize link-building. There’s no way around it. Driving relevant, powerful links to your site is the only way to achieve top rankings on these high-volume searches. The links need to be contextual, properly structured with targeted anchor text, and permanently indexed.

For example, when I create a link for Virginia Acura Dealers and link it to Pohanka Acura, I am creating a link that the search engines value (as indicated by this website’s PageRank of 4), one that is relevant because this website is considered an authority in the automotive industry, and one that is properly anchored so that the search engines see it as a “vote” that TK Carsites believes Pohanka Acura’s website is the authority for the term “Virginia Acura Dealers”.

That’s the process and it must be repeated. If you do not have an SEO strategy in place, get one now. If you do have one or you have a vendor doing it for you, ask for examples of link-building. Make certain the links are strong as described above and anchored properly. Putting together a well optimized website with good title tags, content, site-structure, etc., is the first step and will get you going in the right direction as well as help you rank for the long-tail searches, but to get the “money terms” you must have a linking strategy in place. There are very few exceptions to this rule (none that I know of, actually).

Part 3 of this series will discuss how the changes affect reputation management and ways that dealers can take advantage of it.

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Read more about Dealer Marketing on this blog.

Ford's Scott Monty Weighs in on Quality vs. Quantity

If you fear integrating social media within your dealership or are unsure of whether to choose quality vs. quantity when analyzing your social media, Ford’s Head of Social Media, Scott Monty clarifies what has worked for Ford Motor Company and how Dealers need to proceed for their ultimate social media survival and success.

In this second part interview with Scott Monty, we explore the fear of Social Media within the Automotive Industry and how Social Media needs to be a group effort. We also covered the almighty question of quality vs. quantity while utilizing social media for your dealership.

This interview took place during the world’s largest expo in Las Vegas, BlogWorld and New Media Expo. Where for the second year in a row Ford has been a Gold Sponsor for the event, in part III of TK Carsites’ interview with Monty we will find out why Ford decided to sponsor a non-automotive event which may inspire you to do the same, and think outside of the box.

Watch all of TK Carsites interview with Ford’s Scott Monty and we encourage you to share your thoughts on social media with a video response on our YouTube channel.

See more of our interview with Ford’s Scott Monty below.

Sales is Limited, Service is Forever: Interview with Ford’s Scott Monty Part I
Ford’s Scott Monty on How Much Time Dealers Spend on Social Media Part III
Ford’s Scott Monty Discussing Ownership, Facebook or Twitter and Ford’s Future Part IV Finale

Another satisfied customer! Bear Goodman knows his marketing and social media savvy, and he trusts in TK Carsites for his Holmes Honda, Shreveport, Louisiana dealership’s Web marketing. Automotive pros and fans take a listen to what Bear has to say about TK Carsites SEO and social media.

Stay tuned for more award-winning automotive Web marketing opinion and excitement from TK Carsites’ Digital Dealership Conference 2010 appearance, to be posted in the days to come!

Hear it from those who matter most – the clients! TK Carsites achieves excellence in SEO and Social Media Marketing. Automotive industry experts agree that our award-winning SEO and cutting-edge Social Media is top tier. But most importantly, see what our clients think:

Stay tuned for more award-winning automotive Web marketing opinion and excitement from TK Carsites’ Digital Dealership Conference appearance, to be posted in the days to come!