Brian Pasch, You started this thread, it's all your fault! 
I am 110% in Jeff Kerschner's camp. He totally NAILED IT.
"Can a Dealership be social? Not really, I don't think so."
"Can an individual (s) - sales, service, GM, Owner, dealer appointed online brand specialist be social? Absolutely."
When Rob Fontano Speaks, I LISTEN!
"The perception of Social Media to businesses changed when some genius added the word "Marketing" to it"
"We focused on “friending” other local businesses, and we all began to cross promote each other, gaining a crossover between clientele"
"I don’t know how many cars that I have sold because of facebook and I really don’t care, I didn’t come to the party to pitch I came to make friends."
"Any business that thinks that they need to be on facebook should take a good hard look in the mirror and make that their current reputation warrants it. This is not a place to change perception."
"the dealers voice and core beliefs should be the foundation of their presence on any social forum and that cannot be out sourced."
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-defines-successful-automotive-social-media-strategy-1435-7.html#post11998
The always wize Ed Brooks offers us...
"It's difficult to get people to "Like", "Follow" or "Fan" a dealer online when most dealers aren't really liked all that much in real life."
"Is Social Media worth pursuing? I think a dealer has to ask a few other questions first: Are my core processes in place and working flawlessly? Are my cars getting online with great photos, enticing comments and the correct price? Am I doing right by my customers - Do they like me in real life? If you can answer yes to those questions, invest some resources in Social Media. If the answer is no, fix those core problems first."
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-defines-successful-automotive-social-media-strategy-1435-5.html#post11974
Eric Brown drops a giant eye-popping data bomb on us all
"..We recently posted a free Social Media report in our data library that outlines Social Media usage among auto shoppers who access dealerships sites from a social media sites....less than 1% by the way. Usage data was pulled from activity of 1.5 million auto shoppers we tracked"
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-defines-successful-automotive-social-media-strategy-1435-9.html#post12041
Even Guys in Canada like Ryan Thompson are smart!
"I would intern for Joe any day of the week."
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-defines-successful-automotive-social-media-strategy-1435-4.html#post11936
hahaha
I can't tell you all how helpful this thread has been. I am in a SM beta with socialdealer.com. More as it comes.
