An open discussion of automotive social media, website design, & automotive SEO.

Tom White Jr.'s Page

Tom White Jr.: Send a Message

View Tom White Jr.'s…
Discussions (7)

Tom White Jr.'s Profile

Tom White Jr. (twcarguy): 41, Male
United States

Hometown:: Wichita, Kansas

About Me:: I have been in and around the "Car Business" for the last 12 years. I am currently the General Manager for Suzuki of Wichita, a two month old Suzuki store located in Wichita, KS. In addition to my position at the Suzuki store, I am also a Partner with AutoApproved, LLC., an Internet Lead Generation and Website Optimization company also located in Wichita.

Prior to my move to Suzuki of Wichita, I served as the General Manager for Gorges Motor Company in Wichita, one of the highest volume used car stores in the country.

I am always looking for new ways to improve our business practices and want to stay on the cutting edge with regards to technology and how it relates to the Car Business.

You can keep up with me by reading my blog, although I don't post frequently enough... http://tomwhitejr.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Website:: twcarguy.com

Dealership Relationship: Work for a Car Dealer, Work with Car Dealers, Blog about Car Dealers

My Blog

Forum

Online Personal Branding and owning the Search Engines for Competitors Names

Added a reply Feb 16 2008

Vince, et al... On Super Bowl Sunday, I drove to my local supermarket with shopping list in hand. The typical items were on the list, and I had every intention of purchasing those items I had pre-... Read More »

Tagged: branding, search, marketing, online, engine

Online Personal Branding and owning the Search Engines for Competitors Names

Added a post Feb 14 2008

You bring up a couple of issues here. First of all, there is nothing at all wrong with going after competing dealers in the "search" department. If they aren't protecting their own sites, shame on ... Read More »

Tagged: branding, search, marketing, online, engine

The Political Process
2 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Raymond McGowan Feb 1 2008.

Just out of curiosity, and to stir the pot somewhat, I would like to get some feedback from the members of this forum as to who THEY will be voting for during this election season. Moreover, I woul... Read More »

RSS
View All

My Twitter Updates...

follow tomwhitejr at http://twitter.com

Tom White Jr.'s Friends

RSS
View All

Tom White Jr.'s Blog

Social Media and the Car Business... An Interesting mix... or NOT...

I find it interesting that there are very few car dealers embracing social media today. It would seem most of us are more consumed with creating traffic with a strong call to action, competing on price, and overall interrupting consumers, as opposed to engaging them.

This seems, to me, to be counter-intuitive. There are so many sites out there now that we can use to engage a viable audience for free. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and the like, all offer enormous opportunities to change t…

Continue Reading…

Posted by Tom White Jr. on April 16th, 2008 at 8:33pm — 2 Comments (Add)

Comment Wall (8 comments)

You need to be a member of Car Dealer Social Network to add comments!

Join this network

At 12:23pm on February 3rd, 2009, Marella Sebring said…: I am looking for any possible advice that you may be able to provide to me. I work for a new company called Ostock-Bid. We are an online public auction for dealer listings only. Basically we will sell to the public the dealer's old inventory or trade-ins. Preferably the dealer would list the vehicles with us that they would otherwise take to the live auctions (Manheim, Adesa, etc.).

I am having a hard time getting dealers to sign up, and I can't understand why. It doesn't cost them anything unless they make a profit (the starting price would be their out of pocket cost, if the auction ends above that amount, we take 25% of the difference), we do all the work (pictures, uploading, etc.), and it is free advertising (craigslist, radio ads, emails, voice broadcasting).

Why can't I get them to list any vehicles? What tactic do I need to implement? Or do we need to change our business model in some way?

I would greatly appreciate any advice you could provide me.

Thanks,
Marella

At 8:03am on August 21st, 2008, DioStro said…: i llok forward to the opportunityof getting to know you better, we are new to the industry...my company is 6 years old, but our product offering is new.
i would welcome your input, and the hope you will take the time to get to know us as well. i invited you as a friend on this site, hope you will vist my page and see what we are up to.
bets,
Rick

At 8:55pm on August 8th, 2008, Antonio said…: Hello Tom how are sales going for you. I hope you are holding high grosses. When you get a chance check out http://www.upyoursale.com

At 3:24am on May 22nd, 2008, Tracy E. Myers, CMD said…: Tom,
I don't believe we have ever met but Scott and I have connected online before. Don't know if you ever get to any industry conferences but I attend several of them and have spoken at most of them. I have also written articles for several trade magazines like Auto Success. Both of our stores were listed in Auto Dealer Monthly list of of Top Internet Retailers (we are #9 Special Finance Website) for the past couple of years.

As far as the sites looking similar, they really do don't they? I noticed the same thing several months ago. Do you know Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller from Gravitational Marketing? I know that Scott does. Most of my ideas for the site came from them...and Dan Kennedy/Michael York before that. It has been a work in progress since 2005.

How is the Suzuki biz? My brother, father and I own World Suzuki of Hickory (NC). New venture for us. Finally got name officially changed yesterday to Frank Myers Suzuki.

Thanks for the connect. Take care and remain blessed.

Tracy E. Myers, CMD
Frank Myers Auto Maxx

At 6:48am on February 15th, 2008, Tim Bishop Jr. said…: TW, who is John Graber? Are you adding him as a friend? Wanted to run the traps before I just added him.