We're jumping on the iPad bandwagon at DealerRefresh.  Why?  Well....why the hell not?  Why does a dog....anyway.  We're on it, so now we're going to have an article on it.  So there!

Jeff and I are still waiting on our 3G iPads to show up, but I'm too much of a geek to wait.  I picked up a WiFi one to tie me over.

Now that the early adopters have had theirs for a few days I'm reading a few things that are "de-ethered".  The first one is from one of our friends at HomeNet:  Arnold Tijerina's iPad review.  Brian Pasch's iPad video explains his opinion on how the right apps will make sales more personal with the iPad.  And Joe Pistell is asking if the iPad is a gamechanger on the DealerRefresh forums.

Here's my take:

The iPad now ranks amongst those products that I lived perfectly well without, but once it was invented I can't live without it.  Some of the other things in that category are power windows, smart keys, online banking, and the Gillette Mach 5 razor (okay, I'm stretching a little).  But I can certainly say the iPad is better than I thought it would be!

Reading: It excels in reading applications.  iBooks, Newspapers, and just about any app that was designed to be read is incredible.  Sorry Kindle, I think you've just been assassinated.

Apps in General: apps are the future.  I'm absolutely convinced of that now.  They're one thing on the iPhone and Droid, but they're a whole 'nother thing on the iPad.  It isn't just the screen real estate; it is the new enginuity that is being applied to a fresh device.  I foresee things being developed for the iPad that will, later, find their way to the iPhone.  There are some clever new twists to some great old apps.

Interaction: I'm going to bunch email and Internet browsing here because they're the same old tools, but refreshed in a new way.  That new way is simply "touch".  I didn't realize it till I was on my third day of iPad ownership, but touching websites and emails is a very surreal experience (you're right, I haven't had a pysch eval in a while).  It gives me the feeling that I'm more in touch with the emails I write and the websites I visit.  I am assuming this feeling comes from adding another sense to something that has mostly only applied one human sense:  sight.  Now the web and emails POP from using touch and sight.  I can't really say much more about that - you'll just have to try it for yourself.

How I've been using the iPad: In the morning I read the USA Today, Associated Press, and New York Times.  Hop into Twitterriffic for the iPad and then get to my moderating job on www.S2Ki.com. Before getting into work stuff, I finish up by checking out the latest stuff on the DealerRefresh forums.  Until I come home, the iPad serves mostly as a web browser and email client with occasional instant messenger use.  After work, and whatever else was happening that evening, it comes back out to serve as a book.

Battery life: out of the box, it took me 2 days to get the battery down to 47% and you can imagine how much usage it got those first two days.  On regular days (of course everyone and their brother has to give the iPad a try in the office) I have about 60% life left by the time I put it down to get some sleep.  Even though I have not scientifically tested it, I think it has the advertised battery life in a real world scenario.  Thank you for not BSing us here Apple.

WiFi vs. 3G: there have been quite a few times I have been wanting to use the iPad when a WiFi connection was not around.  Many of the apps require an Internet connection, so I've got to say 3G is the way to go.  I thought that I would be able to grab everything I wanted when I was within a WiFi spot, but I thought wrong.

Bad stuff: no Flash is a little bit of a pain.  It isn't the end of the world, but there are quite a few Flash elements still in the wild.  Some apps are very buggy.  The Wall Street Journal has been an absolute pain - it no longer exists on my iPad.  I have had some connection issues.  The connection issue that occasionally comes up is the only thing that I feel is truly a problem with the device.  It is sporadic, but when it happens it is annoying.  I have faith that Apple will get it sorted out soon.

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What about using it at work? It wouldn't be kosher to write a DealerRefresh article without relating it to the car business, so here we go.

Does your IT Department bottle-neck your dealership's bandwidth with a whole bunch of job-justifying security crap?  Is your CRM company getting tired of having to troubleshoot your IT department?  Do you want to get your dealership into social media, but your boss won't let you?  There's an iPad for that. Yeah, I know, that was cheesy. There's also an iPhone and iPod Touch for that too.  And now that there are 3 devices and the Apple App store is cranking hard, I see some of our vendors creating apps.

I can also see some very proactive dealers cutting hardware costs by using iPads or iPod Touches instead of clunky computers or ThinClients with huge servers.  In many cases, most of the sales staff already owns one of these devices, so there could be only bandwidth costs to the dealers if they allow employees to use their own device (no worries about an employee breaking or losing it either).

At the end of the day, these Apple, Google, or Blackberry mobile devices are only as good as the apps that are written for them.  So, Automotive Technology Vendors - untie our cords and make us some apps!

ATLANTA, GA – April 14, 2010 – Contact At Once! LLC, provider of the most widely deployed automotive chat tools that help dealers move online car shoppers into live conversations, today announced the immediate availability of interactive online training courses for users of the ContactAtOnce! chat solution. The six course curriculum was developed to help dealership staff improve their chat techniques which in turn helps them convert more prospects into sales.

“Dealership personnel have hectic, interrupt-driven schedules that often don’t allow time for classroom or even webinar-type training sessions,” said Marc Hayes, co-founder and EVP at Contact At Once!. “With these self-service, easy-to-use, online interactive automotive chat training courses our dealers may now learn new ways to convert prospects, from their location of choice, on their own schedule and at their own pace.”

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The online automotive chat training includes six courses with integrated testing. In addition to being conveniently available on-demand, the courses are interactive and were designed and developed by Contact At Once!, in partnership with online learning experts from RevenueGuru.com.

“Contact At Once! is demonstrating leadership by providing auto dealers more than just software and actually helping with the training, support and integration they need to increase sales and profits through the effective use of chat,” said Dennis Galbraith, founder of RevenueGuru.com.

A sample training course entitled “Chat Basics” is publicly available for anyone to learn more about the importance of using chat as part of the sales process. The full set of training courses, including the test module, is immediately available to all 30,000+ registered users of the ContactAtOnce! chat service through the ContactAtOnce! Portal, all for no additional charge.

About Automotive Chat Tools Provider Contact At Once!, LLC:
Contact At Once!, LLC is the leading provider of automotive chat solutions and internet marketing tools for automotive sales, apartment leasing, and other industries where consumers conduct research online before visiting a dealership or office. The ContactAtOnce! service typically moves at least 25% more website visitors into live conversations with sales people by utilizing a suite of technologies such as presence, IM/chat, VoIP telephony, video chat and text messaging, resulting in increased revenue and a better return on marketing expenditures. ContactAtOnce! is the only solution with features specifically for vertical search websites and over 40 such sites, along with thousands of merchant businesses, are using it today. Find out more at www.contactatonce.com.

Three new digital marketing services specifically designed for savvy automotive retailers.

PCG Digital Marketing announced today three new digital marketing services specifically designed for savvy automotive retailers that seek to leverage social media, consumer review portals, search marketing and paid advertising strategies to expand their brand(s) online.

The three monthly marketing packages offer a comprehensive approach to digital marketing for car dealers. PCG Digital Marketing’s proven strategies in Search Engine Optimization, content marketing, Internet Reputation Management, social media and now inventory advertising raise the bar for the automotive industry.

The core PCG monthly Digital Marketing Package offers dealers a powerful combination of off-site and on-site marketing and search engine optimization strategies which include customized microsite development, a complete Google compliance review of their current site, online Press Release distribution, blogging, content development, social media management and more. Their core monthly digital marketing package is priced at $1,195 per month.

In addition to PCG's core Digital Marketing Package, dealers can now enhance their digital marketing strategies with three new packages:

• Internet Reputation Management (IRM)
  
• Google Adwords Management (GAM)
  
• Automotive Advertising Network (AAN)

Monitoring Car Dealer Reputation Scores

According to Brian Pasch, CEO, "Internet Reputation Management will be one of the key metrics for success in 2010 and beyond. Mobile phone apps that reward consumers for on-site reviews make a clear case why dealers in 2010 need a reputation management policy and strategy."

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The PCG's Internet Reputation Management (IRM) package, priced at $595 a month, includes customized reputation management policies and procedures for dealers, design of a Reputation Management Portal (RMP) and full reporting that monitors each month the dealer's online reputation scores.

PCG's IRM team also assists dealers with contacting customers to participate in online review websites. The assistance provided by PCG and the creation of a Reputation Management Portal (RMP) simplifies the process of engaging customers to post online reviews.

Innovations in Car Inventory Advertising

The Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) consists of a network of car inventory advertising websites that target national, regional and local search phrases that consumers use to research new and used cars. The AAN features hundreds of regional websites containing automotive buying news, tips, resources which also advertise local dealer inventory. (http://www.automotiveadvertisingnetwork.com)

In addition to the AAN's network of regional and local websites, dealers can leverage and advertise their cars using CarPort App™, a software application that allows cars dealers to post their cars on social media websites and popular blogs like WordPress. With CarPort App™ car dealers can leverage the search engine power of blogs to write about the cars they sell and include sample inventory inside the blog post.

CarPort also allows dealers to create a custom tab on their Facebook Fan Page which displays cars that are in stock and ready for sale. Dealers can view an example of the CarPort technology on Facebook by visiting the Rairdon Auto Group fan page and clicking on the "View Cars" tab: Rairdon Auto Group | Kirkland WA .

The AAN package is currently being offered at an introductory price of $495 per month until June 1, 2010. After June 1st, admission to the AAN will move to $795 per month. The AAN provides unlimited leads at one low monthly price.

Dealer professionals who would like to learn more about the enhanced monthly marketing packages can contact PCG Digital Marketing at 732-450-8200.

About the Brian Pasch and PCG Digital Marketing
Brian Pasch, CEO is a veteran marketing expert and a noted expert in the field of Automotive SEO and Automotive Digital Marketing. His career has spanned both management and technology roles.

He continues to lead research into Digital Marketing platforms. PCG continually tests new digital marketing strategies which can provide a cost effective channels for business advertising and lead generation.

PCG works for and with an ever-growing number of auto dealers and dealer groups from all over the country to maximize results of their digital marketing efforts.

Finally! The day has come where we can all say goodbye to Flash websites. Hooray hooray!

Oh....what's that? You like big Flash websites?

Everyday I get calls from dealers asking for referrals on various products and those calls always move into other online marketing areas. Today, a call about instant chat led to a conversation about how "the boss" wanted to go a certain route with their website. It was obvious "the boss" was on an ego trip because he wanted to plaster his face all over the homepage inside a bunch of interactive Flash sections. I thought to myself how sad it is that website providers are still trying to sell dealers on things that don't really help business and it is also sad that these conversations are still happening in 2010....and knowing our industry we'll still be having this conversation in 2015.

Why is it sad?

1.  SEO:  search engines still cannot read a Flash element.  If your whole site is Flash, then....ouch.

2.  Installs:  not everyone keeps their computers up-to-date.  If your site requires someone to upgrade something, it is an annoyance and most people don't think you're important enough to invest their time in.

3.  Apple:  iPhones and iPads don't support Flash.  There are over 40 million iPhones and over half a million iPads in the world today.  Don't alienate this crowd.

4.  Speed:  Flash typically takes longer to load.  If your site takes too long to load, people will bounce.  And, Google knows that.  A slow loading site will hurt your Google standings.

Here's a different spin on things:

Javascript has always been a fantastic tool for the web; people just forgot that it was a great tool because they didn't know how to use it properly. The same thing has happened with Flash, and the same thing will happen to Web 2.0 if we aren't able to focus on what really matters - delivering great web designs and web systems that deliver on objectives, improve the user experience, are standards compliant and work for the job that they were intended for. Lets use whatever technology we choose, wherever its appropriate and useful for the client and their customers. Lets focus on using a technology because it will help drive our clients business. Is that too much to ask?

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If your objective is to just put your HIPPO ego out to the world, then Flash is fantastic!  But if your objective is to provide a meaningful experience to your shoppers, that will eventually lead to profit, then shy away from Flash.

Here we are in 2010 and we need to get "oooohhhh aaaahhhh pretty" out of our vocabulary and get serious about retail.

Die flash die!