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  1. Rob Fontano

    Dealer's Buying FAKE Likes on Facebook. v. 50K Fans, Are You Serious..

    I meant to write "don't care" typing in the back of a moving Crown Vic. and no I am not handcuffed.
  2. Rob Fontano

    Dealer's Buying FAKE Likes on Facebook. v. 50K Fans, Are You Serious..

    Paying a company to drive likes is an incredible waste of money. Your dealership would be far better off with no Facebook page than one wallpapered with people who care who you are. I remember a comedian once said "Did you ever notice that the people with the most Facebook friends have the...
  3. Rob Fontano

    OEM Search Engine Marketing Crackdown?!?

    I just recently went through a very uncomfortable experience with an OEM where they forbid me to use any SEO and SEM against our same make competitors. The problem is that the OEM only allows dealers to be named by Town. Basically I was told to only focus on the manufacturers direct competitors...
  4. Rob Fontano

    Project Management Tools: How Do You Keep Track of it All?

    I am a big whiteboard fan, every member of my team has one. I also use Evernote to store photos of my white boards and even paper notes, all text in photos is searchable. I have shared notebooks (evernote) with my team so we can all see what is going on up to the minute on our PC's or...
  5. Rob Fontano

    Do you have a BDC or are planning to add one?

    We have a BDC or Internet Sales Department in both stores. Each one has a team of coordinators that handle all incoming leads and calls as well as a designated sales manager within the room to work deals and T.O. calls and Chats real time.
  6. Rob Fontano

    How do you Montor Your Reputation Online?

    It seems kind of obvious, but Google alerts has served me well over the years. It will catch pretty much everything that pops up online including some of the more subversive sites. The monitoring of it can be kind of arduous, but you can also track your competitors and see what SEO tactics they...
  7. Rob Fontano

    What Defines A Successful Automotive Social Media Strategy

    I just realized that I am still the only dealer in this conversation. "Kirk to Enterprise, Get me out of here Scotty!"
  8. Rob Fontano

    What Defines A Successful Automotive Social Media Strategy

    Cassie, Maybe the Chamber reference was not the best way to get my point accross, but if you read any other part of my posts you would see that the dealers voice and core beliefs should be the foundation of their presence on any social forum and that cannot be out sourced.
  9. Rob Fontano

    What Defines A Successful Automotive Social Media Strategy

    Like I said in my post, a dealer should first gauge their reputation within their community before even creating a page. If they think that they should move forward they need to make sure that the person managing the page can speak with the dealers core beliefs in mind and stay on message. I...
  10. Rob Fontano

    What Defines A Successful Automotive Social Media Strategy

    The perception of Social Media to businesses changed when some genius added the word "Marketing" to it. That's when the Social Media Gurus all began clamoring at the gates. I found that boiling oil was most effective. Facebook is an immeasurable medium, unless you are buying PPC ads and tracking...
  11. Rob Fontano

    A September to Remember ? How's it going this month

    Both stores having a up over August, both floor and digital. Web traffic is way up YTD. Pent up demand?
  12. Rob Fontano

    Email Quotes - Text or Graphics?

    I have moved more stores further away from contining graphics in my email templates due to spam issues, but mainly due to the exposion of mobile devices. A small logo won't hurt if it brands your store, but I prefer a link back to my site if I want the customer to see something like a video...
  13. Rob Fontano

    Does "Google Instant" kill Long Tail Search?

    In my opinion any concentrated investment in "long tail" search is a waste of time. Nothing in search has gotten longer since the advent of the modern search engine. We now have "reatime search" and are on the brink of single letter SEO. Google is being engineered to produce the shortest...
  14. Rob Fontano

    Autotrader Fraud?

    I have been informed by my rep that it is highly discouraged. You could probably could get it changed.
  15. Rob Fontano

    Google Launches Realtime Search

    @chip It's possible, but we use too many different video channels.
  16. Rob Fontano

    Google Launches Realtime Search

    I discovered some very interesting things from the Realtime search results. I have known for a long time that our dealerships online video content was being scraped for use on other non-related sites. It never really bothered me because it also helped our SERP. We use a lot of video at our...
  17. Rob Fontano

    CarGuru's calls Dealers CHEATS

    @ Jeff. I would like to see a vender / Dealer Refresh round table at this years Digital Dealer. What would it take to get the right players from Cars.com and Dealix as well as any other vender associated with CarGuru and a few representatives (Dealer Refresh members) from the dealerships and...
  18. Rob Fontano

    CarGuru's calls Dealers CHEATS

    Forget the free sites for a minute. Some of the biggest players like Cars.com and Dealix as well as a host of others are paying CarGuru to host your inventory on Carguru in hopes of capturing more leads. These venders don't really care where the leads come from because they have a signed...
  19. Rob Fontano

    Who are the Great Ones Among Us?

    Alex, Thanks, It's an honor to be included in these ranks and it means a lot coming from one of our industries true leaders. Rob
  20. Rob Fontano

    TrueCar using Zag Dealer Data to Create Value???

    This gives new meaning to "Third Party Parasite"