(Ward’s) New Kids on the Blog

Cliff Banks, Editor of Wards Dealer Business, featured CIMA Systems in this article about the emergence of blogs in the space and specifically asks Gary Nixon, President and CEO, his thoughts on the new trend.

By Emily Prawdzik Genoff
WardsAuto.com, Apr 12, 2007 12:28 PM

Dealerships considering entering the world of blogging need to determine if their needs will reap the benefits, which, at this point, are fuzzy at best.

A blog essentially is someone’s personal opinions published online. While many blogs might be considered drivel, others are insightful and professional looking. And blogs that follow specific industries, such as automotive, are becoming more popular.

Although blogs have existed for a few years, they still are a fairly new – and untested-tool for dealers.

According to one weblog tracker, August 2002 saw the creation of a new blog once every 40 seconds, or more than 60,000 per month. By early 2006, this number jumped to more than 160,000 per month.

What this number fails to show, however, is the number of blogs abandoned shortly after they are created. Taking this into consideration, the number of active blogs decreases from 160,000 per month to 100,000 new, continually maintained blogs.

Dealers are starting to take notice but are doing so with an air of caution.

“The question is should you consider blogging, not why don’t you,” says Brian Epro, director-Automotive Services Group for iMakeNews, a company that publishes e-newsletters for dealers.

“The hallmark of success of a good blog is the same as a newsletter; it’s interesting content that’s updated regularly. The key component for failure for a blog, which you see in the industry all the time, is to start up a blog, post twice and never post in it again.”

Gary Nixon, president and chief executive officer of CIMA Systems, a firm that provides automated real-time communication solutions to dealerships, says his company is seeing increased interest in blogging from dealers.

“I think it was just an idea a couple years ago,” he says. “Dealers are the type to see who else takes it on, like the Internet. What they’re finding out now is that it’s here to stay.”

Fiesta Ford Lincoln Mercury, in Indio, CA, started a blog on its website in February.

General Manager Teddy Stephens says the idea came about when his dealer principal noticed other dealers launching their own blogs.

“It’s the most technological-savvy thing to do,” Stephens says. “It’s less costly than sending newsletters out and paying for postage, and we just thought it was a great idea to tie our customers to us.”

Stephens updates the blog himself every morning.

“I get e-mails from Ford daily about their advancements, and I also post what’s going on in the local community,” he says, adding that it takes only moments to update the blog each day. “Now it’s become a habit where I go and post it.”

Stephens shares news of charitable events, dealership news, including employee of the month updates, and industry trends. He also posts coupons. The blog can be found at http://fiestaford.wordpress.com.

Although the Fiesta Ford blog is still in its infancy, Stephens says it already is attracting readers from across the country. Stephens received positive feedback from a reader in North Carolina responding to an article posted about the Lincoln MKZ.

“He had just bought one and he talked about what a great car this was,” Stephens says, adding he hopes the blog will attract further positive comments about products and dealership services.

“The best customers we get are the ones we already have,” he says. “We find most customers want to be contacted by e-mail or Internet, and this is just another way to keep them in the family.”

Earl Stewart, of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach Lake Park, FL, has been blogging since last summer. The idea came after a local newspaper asked him to write a weekly column. His son, General Manager Earl Stewart III, suggested that his father post his columns online.

The elder Stewart says much of his entries occur with day-to-day life in the dealership.

“I don’t have a problem coming up with a subject every week because there’s always something,” says Stewart. “There’s always a new customer that will bring something to my attention or an old customer with a problem that occurs with the dealership.”

Customers have the option of leaving comments on dealer blogs. Dealers can receive peace of mind by having control over the comments posted.

“If I get 50 (positive comments), I get one negative,” Stewart says, adding that he is always upfront and honest when giving advice to his readers.

“They see I’m willing to bare my soul and share truths with them,” Stewart says. “A lot of awareness comes from the blog site. (They say) ‘here’s a dealer who’s telling the truth. He’s not trying to take advantage of us but telling us the safest way to buy a car.’”

Customer Jeremy Tollberg left this comment on a March 11 post:

“I just want to take a moment and thank you for all your great insights and tips for buying a car,” Tollberg writes. “It would be nice if the majority of dealers had your level of fairness and class- the business of buying a car would be much more pleasant. In the meantime, thank you for taking some time to put the focus on the customers’ well-being.”

Stewart’s blog is at oncars.blogspot.com.

Epro, though, wonders what blogging’s true value is for dealers.

“I’ve seen people in the industry make this a pet project, but what I haven’t seen anyone effectively do is see how a blog is truly helping monetize those eyeballs reading it,” he says.

A way blogging can help dealers, Epro says, is by providing “a tremendous boost to search-engine optimization.” It depends on whether the blog is appropriately created and formatted.

“An auto dealer needs to consider whether he or she can provide that level of content and whether it is worthwhile,” he says.

Even though Epro is skeptical, his firm offers blogging services for dealers, as does Cima Systems and Izmo Cars.

Jordan Hardy, director-online marketing for Izmo Cars, believes dealers should blog, mainly because it is another avenue to drive search-engine traffic to the dealership website, along with keeping shoppers on the site longer.

But he realizes dealers have better things to do with their time, and may want to consider using a vendor to manage their blogs. “Imagine a dealer having to update blogs daily,” he says.

Epro, though, believes the value is minimal. “Do I think consumers will be actively looking up blogs from their dealer website?” he asks. “I’m not too sure. Blogging that helps with search-engine optimization is good. Blogging for the sake of the sake of blogging – I tend to question whether it has any validity to the dealership.”

Read the original article at Ward’s online.