Bitten By Blogs

Aww yeah, here it is folks: Ward's Auto Dealer Business Magazine's article on car dealerships and dealing with blogs. Yes, I’m in there, under the “Beware of the Bugged Bloggers” section. Here’s the juicy bit:

The danger of blogs is that anybody can write anything about anyone. It could be a disgruntled customer or a dealer across the street anonymously slamming the competition.

How to protect yourself? It won't be easy because you cannot control what is out there. But you can minimize it by having someone at your dealership maintain and regularly update a blog providing information about your store, specials or even news about the brand you sell.

Another, albeit more time consuming method, would be to assign a staffer to monitor certain blogs (probably local) that could hurt if someone wrote something damaging.

“You can get that one person who is a little bit malicious,” says Scott Bisbee, general manager for Desert Audi in Las Vegas. “If you don't have someone watching that, it could come back and hurt you.”

If you see one, be sure to respond professionally with your side of the story.

Dennis Gailbreath, senior director of automotive marketing for J.D. Power and Associates, warns dealership Internet managers not to take blogs lightly.

“Remember what the blogs did to Dan Rather?” he asks. “Need I say more?”

Let me help you out here guys: It’s about honesty. You don’t have to assign someone to “monitor” blogs to be successful. You have to assign someone to respond to blogs to be successful. Don’t just look at those on the inside, interact with them. Talk to them. Open lines of communication because, you know, the “I’m scared of the internet” excuse ran out about seven years ago.

And just so we’re all clear: This is exactly what the article tells them to do. And you know what I got instead? Threats. Some ridiculously bogus bullshit about trademarks or something. Look guys, we’re all adults here. Speak to me as if I’m worthy of your time and your business.

Why don’t you take a quick Google for Site5. See me on the first page there? When people Google Site5, they’ll find my problems, but they’ll also find Site5’s excellent response. It was courteous, professional, and if anything showed the resilience of an active, online company.

I hope the car dealers of the world will heed the advice of their own industry magazine.

Like a sum the mathematician cannot solve
Like me trying my hardest to explain