In my travels across the blogosphere, I am finding more and more dealers putting up blogs. While this is extremely encouraging, the VAST majority of them still lack in quality and effort. Here are some things that I noticed so that, if you or your dealership have a blog or are considering getting one, hopefully you won't make these mistakes.
- Add Content. Regularly. - One of the most obvious mistakes is that many dealers are gung-ho about putting up a blog. The first couple of weeks, they post quite a bit of content. Then, nothing. They're done. Time to move on to the flood of sales that are sure to come now! Of course, it doesn't work like this. If you put up a blog, commit. Post at least once a week. Don't burn yourself out with too many posts up front. Take it slow, but keep it going. Otherwise, you're wasting the opportunity and possibly evean tarnishing your own reputation by letting a blog fail.
- It's Not Just Sales - If people wanted to read a lot of blog posts about how great you are, they would have just gone to... well, they DON'T want to read about how good you think you are. They want content. They want personality. They want to know more about you than what they can learn from television commercials. Post about local events. Spotlight some employees. Discuss news of local interest that's not car related or national news that is car related. Most of all, make it interesting, not just an advertisement.
- Make it Look Good - There are tons of blogs out there that look terrible. Don't add to the list. If you don't know how to make a blog look good and professional, hire a professional.
- More than Words - People like visuals. Put lots of pictures up. Post videos. Give them more than just a long series of articles with lots of words. Words are good, but they have to have something connected to them that people can see or they just won't read it.
- Add a Feed - You never know. If you follow the steps above, people might want to see what else you have to say. Use Feedburner to create a feed that you can track, then make sure they can get to the feed easily.
- Get Writers - A blog by the ISM is nice, but if you can get more people involved, the blog will be much easier to maintain. Writing can be difficult at times. Getting different perspectives can enhance the voice and quality of the blog.
These are just a few of the things I've noticed, but as with any blog, I have one more piece of advice:
keep it short but informative. More than a couple of paragraphs, less than ten - just write however you normally write, then cut it back a notch and you should be fine.
There are many talented bloggers on this site itself who you can look to for advice, possibly even to hire, including
JD Rucker,
Jeff Kershner,
Paul Rushing, and
Ryan Girardi. Reach out.
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