Social Media Success Tips In Ward’s Dealer Business Magazine

I was fortunate enough to have an article placed in Ward’s Dealer Business magazine regarding social media success tips a couple o.f weeks ago

In the interest of brevity, I left some tips and tactics out of the article that business owners and marketers might find useful. Here are some more notes to go along with the article:

Tip #1) Expand your definition of social media.

This tip is first in the article because it is key – forums, blogs, and niche social networks are excellent sources of high-quality links and related web traffic. What follows are some resources for discovering social media alternatives to the big sites like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.

To find blogs and bloggers in and/or related to your topic area:

• Google Blog Search
• Twingly
• Bloglines

To find forums that might be composed of your customer base, check out these tools:

• BoardReader
• BoardTracker
• Big Boards

Finally, niche social networks and social news sites can be a great source of relevant links and traffic. Active networks are hard to find, but here are a few places you can look:

• Pligg Sites
• Ning’s directory
• List from Social Media Answers

Tip #5) Leverage official info to build authority.

This tip is easy for auto dealerships to execute – simply sharing the contents of official manufacturer to dealer memos, technical service bulletins the minute they’re released, etc. will establish authority in popular owner communities.

For any business that isn’t an auto dealer or a franchise of a notable company, this tip is a little tougher to use. Small businesses often struggle to leverage “official” info simply because they don’t have access to such things. In this case, simple yet well-executed case studies that profile the normal day-to-day operations of a business can be useful. Offering advice to others in your same industry (i.e. competitors) can also be a way to build a reputation, but striking a balance is key.

Tip #10) Approach automation with caution.

Many auto dealers use automated systems to post tweets about ongoing sales and promotions, new inventory, etc., so I’m hesitant to completely dismiss the entire category. However, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone spend time working on these automated tools until they’ve managed to achieve success elsewhere. “Automated” and “social” don’t really go together

P.S. If you like the Ward’s article, please do me a favor and tweet about it, bookmark it, submit it to Delicious, etc. Thanks!