The car business is always slow to adopt new things. Sometimes I feel it is because the companies that serve the industry feel that the less information that is brought in from outside sources the easier it is for people companies to capture a captive audience.
Historically online automotive marketing has been dominated by OEMs and third party providers, while dealerships have been crippled by these institutions for a lack of transfer of knowledge to the people who fuel the automotive economy.
That is why when I was approached by Drivingsales.com to help them with their efforts in the word out about their social network I was thrilled. One of the key components of their platform is Automotive Vendor Ratings. This will allow vendors to get feed back from the people that actually use their products.
Convincing a dealer through a persuasive presentation is one thing. Making sure the people that actually use the products get the service they are paying for is another. This will probably be the most active section on the site and fun to watch how dealership employees and vendors react.
Also there will be a lot of content on Automotive Best Practices provided by industry professional, hopefully we can see some real life applications brought from outside the industry to help dealers get in the game in their online marketing initiatives.
Filed under: Online Automotive Marketing, Online Communities, Online Networking
