A good friend of mine, Tom White Jr., shared a story that bears repeating here.  It is a real testament to managing your online reputation.

A customer came on the lot today and bought a car.  They would not deal with any of my other staff or sales people and when I asked why they wanted to only deal with me I was blown away.  I am the General Manger at the store so it is not often that people ask for me directly or refuse to allow a sales person to help them.  This is the explanation they gave me. “Tom, you are all over the internet, you are a professional.  You have a lot to lose if you don’t treat us right.”

That says a lot for maintaining your online presence.  I am not talking about sites that pitch you or your product geared to the car business.  The message delivered by these sites are not what consumers will pay attention to if they are looking to find out the real deal about you.  They know that messages received via these venues can be manipulated to be one sided.  While they may have their place more for building your stores brand they don’t help build up you the person.  You need to be genuine in your online presence and not try to deliver a marketing message every step of the way.

What they can look at is your participation in other venues not car related, personal blogs, giving views of other products and anything else you publish online.  There is a lot to be said about spreading you online.

You can do this through a variety of resources and build your story sites such as:

• http://linkedin.com
• http://squidoo.com
• http://blogger.com
• http://wordpress.com
• http://facebook.com
• http://myspace.com (I hear the groan already)
• Your own personal self hosted blog
• and a multitude of other resources such as social media.

While these may not be the end all be all but anywhere you can carry your message can benefit you.  You can talk about anything you like.  Just make sure your content does not alienate potential consumers.  In the past I have had consumers applaud my efforts not car related dealing with fraudulent marketing tactics, activities by big companies that violate privacy issues and on raising a child with a cleft lip and palate.  I like spreading the word when i comes to these things.  If my content can help another with something they are facing it is rewarding in more ways than one.  For people who view this type of content as a negative impact on my character I really do not care if they chose to do business with me or not.  I am not scared to hide behind who I am or what I stand for.  Using this in an effort to discredit me only places them in disdain and removes my objectivity of what they offer the marketplace.  Even if on the surface it appears to be a good idea.

There are many people in our industry that do not get it.  They try to hold onto the old ways of doing business in our ever changing marketplace.  I have even heard statements such as “everybody does it this way”.  That is why they keep getting the same or less results for their efforts.  You have to decide on what will separate you from everyone else and tell your story.  It does not have to be cutting edge it just needs to separate you from the pack.

I am proud to call Tom my friend he gets it.  He is part of the ever growing circle of influence that will bring the car business into this century leaving the old school in the dust looking at each other blankly in the eye  wondering what happened.  It is a new age it is time to get in the game.

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