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Grant Cardone Uses Contest Burner

Ryan ... If you win, will you buy me this in the GC store? The Cardone Success Store: Superfreak Poster

SF_main1.jpg
 
Wow, this thread got ugly real quick. I came on to join the conversation about contests and whoa! :lol:

Anyway, if you would allow me to I would love to give my half cent to hopefully push this conversation back in the right direction. First I'd like to say that there are 4 steps, or levels to community engagement. Call them the 4 C's of social engagement if you will:


  • Consume
  • Curate
  • Create
  • Collaborate

As we all know the majority of people, upwards of 95%, are consumers. They consume your content but don't say much of anything else, they sure don't "share" anything you create. A great way to get people to engage with the dealership community, by the way a truly engaged community happens when you have three things,

  1. Engagement between "dealership" and community member
  2. Engagement within the dealership
  3. Engagement between community members
Anyway the best way to get people to start engaging the dealership community is through contests, of course you start small, get the community to curate, that is you get them to "like" something. What we like to do is set a series of challenges, for instance we are giving away a $200 gift card to Del Friscos at Central Florida Chrysler Jeep Dodge.

Challenges will start small maybe we will give 10 points for the first person who can answer a trivia question. 10 more points for everybody that posts a picture of themselves with the dealership name somewhere in the picture with another 10 points for the picture with the most likes (this gets people to curate). From there once we get people engaged with the contest we ask them to create more and more stuff, and they will to as long as the point totals are close and the prize is good.

Now here comes the tricky part, how do you get people to collaborate? Well, and this is where I will say that if Grant doesn't capitalize on all the conversations that are happening surrounding this campaign then everything will stop once the contest is over. That's why it's important to build relationships while you are doing these contests, strike up conversations and really get people involved. Ask the community how you can create a better customer experience, I wrote a post on that topic called: The Most Powerful Part of Social Media that You're Not Using. (Sorry for the link, it relates and I hope its allowed)

From there move on from contest and search for a higher calling (by the way I wrote an article for F&I and Showroom magazine that will be in your NADA totes so make sure you check that out). Right now we are doing a promotion called Union County School Pride with Metro Honda in Union County where the winning school gets $5,000 to do whatever they want with. In the past 3 days we have already received almost 1000 likes, at the end of this thing we will see north of 10k.

Think about what this is doing... this is creating a connection that's bigger than the dealership, that's bigger than the community and connects with peoples children and their schools. Get the school involved and not only will it get people engaging with the dealership but you will create buzz like no other. Not to mention free TV and Radio spots because who doesn't want to help the future of the community (the children) to receive a better education.

So, a dealership should start with contests to energize the community then align themselves with a social cause and ram it home.

Sorry I took up so much thread space but I hope this maybe that could help point a dealership in the right direction.
 
Wow, this thread got ugly real quick. I came on to join the conversation about contests and whoa! :lol:

Anyway, if you would allow me to I would love to give my half cent to hopefully push this conversation back in the right direction. First I'd like to say that there are 4 steps, or levels to community engagement. Call them the 4 C's of social engagement if you will:


  • Consume
  • Curate
  • Create
  • Collaborate

As we all know the majority of people, upwards of 95%, are consumers. They consume your content but don't say much of anything else, they sure don't "share" anything you create. A great way to get people to engage with the dealership community, by the way a truly engaged community happens when you have three things,

  1. Engagement between "dealership" and community member
  2. Engagement within the dealership
  3. Engagement between community members
Anyway the best way to get people to start engaging the dealership community is through contests, of course you start small, get the community to curate, that is you get them to "like" something. What we like to do is set a series of challenges, for instance we are giving away a $200 gift card to Del Friscos at Central Florida Chrysler Jeep Dodge.

Challenges will start small maybe we will give 10 points for the first person who can answer a trivia question. 10 more points for everybody that posts a picture of themselves with the dealership name somewhere in the picture with another 10 points for the picture with the most likes (this gets people to curate). From there once we get people engaged with the contest we ask them to create more and more stuff, and they will to as long as the point totals are close and the prize is good.

Now here comes the tricky part, how do you get people to collaborate? Well, and this is where I will say that if Grant doesn't capitalize on all the conversations that are happening surrounding this campaign then everything will stop once the contest is over. That's why it's important to build relationships while you are doing these contests, strike up conversations and really get people involved. Ask the community how you can create a better customer experience, I wrote a post on that topic called: The Most Powerful Part of Social Media that You're Not Using. (Sorry for the link, it relates and I hope its allowed)

From there move on from contest and search for a higher calling (by the way I wrote an article for F&I and Showroom magazine that will be in your NADA totes so make sure you check that out). Right now we are doing a promotion called Union County School Pride with Metro Honda in Union County where the winning school gets $5,000 to do whatever they want with. In the past 3 days we have already received almost 1000 likes, at the end of this thing we will see north of 10k.

Think about what this is doing... this is creating a connection that's bigger than the dealership, that's bigger than the community and connects with peoples children and their schools. Get the school involved and not only will it get people engaging with the dealership but you will create buzz like no other. Not to mention free TV and Radio spots because who doesn't want to help the future of the community (the children) to receive a better education.

So, a dealership should start with contests to energize the community then align themselves with a social cause and ram it home.

Sorry I took up so much thread space but I hope this maybe that could help point a dealership in the right direction.

David,

Great to see you posting on DR!! Your input is really valuable and I'm a big fan. Stick around.
 
Contests in general are good way to engage with an online audience. But they are not something you slap together without thought our strategy. Of course, you can say that about a lot of things.

ContestBurner seems a bit invasive, and frankly could do more harm than good.

If you are going to run contests, give multiple prizes away and do it on an ongoing basis. If it's a gift basket with a gift card, have them stop in to pick it up -- give them the in-person royal treatment and an unforgettable experience that they won't forget and want to brag about with their friends.