There is a lot of talk these days about blogging and Web 2.0 for car dealers. But when you cut through the fluff of what is discussed on these topics what you will find is that there is an abundance of “dealers should use Web 2.0″ proclamations and not much in the way of how, i.e. REAL SOLUTIONS.

Over the past couple weeks I have come across emails from companies touting messages to car dealers on the use of blogging and social media, driving high-quality or residual site traffic, and building long-term relationships with customers. While these topics alone are not particularly new for dealers, they do signify to me a new era in Automotive Internet Marketing because of the source of these marketing messages and their timing and context.

While there certainly is value in blogging and social media, this is still uncharted territory for car dealers. Primarily because these forms of marketing, these “tools” so to say, do not in-and-of themselves produce results. Rather it is in how these tools are utilized throughout your dealership that will make a difference in your business.

A good analogy to contrast the use of Web 2.0 as part of your marketing strategy is to consider your DMS and your CRM. Dealers typically make a pretty hefty up front investment to implement such systems into their business and then spend months training and learning the systems before they really experience the full benefits, sometimes even a good year or so.

With Web 2.0 dealers can expect to spend several months building what we call their virtual infrastructure just to have a chance at cultivating a truly engaged customer audience fit for doing business in your interactive marketing arena. All things considered, I suggest writing off the first 6-9 months as R&D versus marketing and advertising.

I am weary of venturing into the early web days of the auto industry where dealers were battered into making web investments because “they should” that not only didn’t prove fruitful but also that created a rift between car dealers and the “Internet Customer” that dealers are still paying for today.

If you want to get in to Web 2.0, start by defining what you want to see it accomplish and then work with your providers to obtain those objectives. This will prove more beneficial than throwing money at it and waiting around for something to happen because someone suggested to “just get into it”.

When you consider the irony of America, what comes to mind for me is how soft we are.

Highly polarized social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and terrorism perpetuate anger and confusion while real economic situations such as declining real estate values, limited credit, and widespread corruption restrict the people, and soon our own governments.

A Morality Issue

The United States is clearly on the brink of moral insensitivity. This would be grim for us. It never works out for civilizations. Liberals blame conservatism and the Bush Administration for global chaos while keen citizens and individuals have forewarned us about these circumstance for the past 20-plus years.

For instance, In 1989 Charles Colson suggested in his book Against the Night that government policy was “mortgaging our future”. Seems obvious now, right? Of course. But not so then.

Another example is this citizen in Ann Arbor Michigan who in 1999 calls out the Clinton administration for urging sub-prime lending on its banks like Fannie Mae. Sub-prime as we know descended upon multiple industries including automotive.

Automotive Economics

With credit now less available for automobiles, legislation is in the works to put money into consumer wallets for the purpose of buying automobiles. Consider this Maryland Tax Bill referenced on DealerRefresh.com and ADM. This is a good idea, but why don’t we also sever our economy from the source of the problem while we have the chance - UNIONS.

Re-vitalize our Unions

Eliminating unions is not a populist choice and I realize that, but clearly something needs to be done about our worker unions. They hold us back. Giving money directly to consumers is good medicine but unless we address the source of the problem we will just re-visit this situation again.

Now, as Emeril Lagasse would say, let’s “kick it up a notch” and re-purpose automotive unions altogether. We should be able to lower production costs and make American automobiles more valuable. This also would free up workers for use in areas more in tune with our future such as Energy.

Shift Workers to Domestic Energy

By freeing up the unions workers could be applied towards a variety of other job types and industries, particularly in Energy Supply. The economic possibilities of this would restore value in the U.S. dollar making our own goods and services more affordable. Bring provision back to the Home Land.

These things could happen but it may be a rough road. With social integrity on the brink of collapse we risk being continued targets to global hatred indefinitely. We must establish our own beacons of light to weather through this period that could concievably last beyond your own lifetime.

With the growing awareness and interest in “Web 2.0″ for car dealers, the pressure is on to conceive truly impacting ways for dealers to sell more cars with today’s web technologies. I for one have no doubt that Web 2.0 is key to the success of car dealers, but I also realize the climb has hardly begun.

It’s important to consider proven marketing practices and techniques when leveraging technology. Often people shift towards tools and technology because they are new and then try to find clever ways to make them viable. Take something like Facebook for instance. It’s free and available to everyone so dealers are signing up for it and then wondering how they can put it to good use.

Facebook is a sophisticated application and there are numerous ways to utilize it for sales and marketing purposes, but its not going to be easy. First you have to develop an audience which takes time, commitment, and creativity. You don’t develop an audience in social networks by advertising and soliciting to people. You develop it by observing your connections, interacting with them, and creating interest in them for you. Not realistic if you have an ulterior motive. But that’s the reality of social media networking.

So what can dealers do with Facebook? Well, I think a good start would be to keep it simple by using the Events functionality. Let’s say you are having a tent sale in a few weeks. First you would create an event on your Facebook to announce the event. Then you would blast an email to your permission-based email audience about the event, maybe using a short video to introduce it and invite people to connect with you on Facebook.

Then, at the event, set up a table with a Facebook banner and some materials to educate people at the event about your efforts on Facebook. Take lots of pictures, some videos, maybe even get some written testimonials. Essentially, document the event with multi-media. Heck you might even consider hiring a professionals to do this like you would for your wedding.

After the event, update your Facebook with all the pictures and videos and such, like a journal entry. Make it look sharp, fun, and appealing. Now shoot out another email to your list thanking them for attending and encouraging those that weren’t there to make a check out the pics and stuff anyway.

Hopefully you get the idea. This is no easy task but you want to start somewhere. To pull this off you need buy-in from staff and possibly professional help from select partners, and of course an audience interested in your efforts. But it’s these sorts of efforts that will allow you to build trust with your audience, evolve your dealership, and selling more cars (and service them too). Do this regularly and you could be on to something.