Dud3s

Blogging is all about creating a personal connection and, for car dealers, trying to get past the sleazy rip-off-artist persona. If they actually put honest time and effort into it then it's a positive. If it's just another "hey, we need a blog" idea they'll setup, never update, and everything they right is a press release with no humanity behind it, it will fail.

I'd love to see more people embracing the idea that companies are not these stuffy old suits, unable to speak is everyday language. Take off the tie. Unbutton that top button and talk to us like we're people and we might be more amorous towards your offerings.

Very true peroty, though it's funny that you say dealers should unbotton and untie, when I think one of the biggest turn-offs for customers is the utter lack of professionalism displayed by dealer personnel. Blogs would only make most of them look worse, due to the fact that they can't spell, and WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPS BECAUSE IT REALLY DRIVES THE POINT HOME.

Well, the professional yet intimate route is the one I'm going down with this Dealer blog, so hopefully you're right, and people will appreciate the dedication.

I know that 99% of dealers are ridiculous. Do you have the honor of seeing "Mark Down" on your TV? ;-)
There's a difference between being a real human being and using PR-speak. And you can do so with the professionalism and class.
Carmax does an excellent job being professional but also cutting through the BS. We've got cars. You've got cars. We'll take yours. You might take ours. If not, we're cool with that too.
Really, all the dealers need is someone with half a marketing brain, some design sense. I mean think of what the design talent behind The Car Blog could do if given control of a dealer's site. ;-)

Great topic. I vote lovely and here is why...

But before I start, I would like to note that when it come to the idea of blogging for auto dealers, you have to distinguish between blogs themselves, blog technology, and the blogosphere.

With dealer blogs themselves, I recommend them be used as a component to their CRM process, not as a soapbox. If a dealer runs a blog, he should use it to produce search-engine friendly entries that mirror other marketing and CRM efforts going on. Take a moment to visit this post on my blog to see more about the AutoBurst project I am launching.

As for blog technology and the blogosphere, these are real tools and resources that dealers must learn to tap in to for marketing purposes. Even without running their own blogs, dealers need to consider this consumer market. Dealers that can successfully do this will gain a competitive advantage.

The word "blog" is a buzz word now. I say its good if the dealership is using it to keep their customers informed, but if they're just posting stuff so that they can publicize the fact that they have a blog, then its a waste of their time to write it, and a waste of anyone else's time to read it. Thats my humble opinion anyway.

They're fine when they don't spam our f***ing site. Not you, but a few months back, we had over 100 spam messages from car dealerships flood 9rules Notes, super annoying.

Yeah Mike, car dealers have a knack for exploiting advertising opportunities in an extremely blunt fashion. If it's free eyeballs, they'll probably be the last to know about it, but once they do, you'll be lucky if your whole network doesn't get clogged up with it.

Lenwood, I definitely agree that assembly-line blogging (posting random PR messages that they paid some firm to create, posting their "big sales", etc.) is missing the point entirely.

I set up our dealership's blog so that the public could recognize that we're people too, that we want to help in the car buying process, and that we truly do love talking about and working with cars.

I appreciate the feedback btw!

It depends on what they write. Car Dealers, I think will have some interesting things to write about. Still, it will all boil down on how they present what they want people to look at. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of car or auto related blogs out there, and many of them are successful. Indeed, one cannot run out of topics in this genre, from modded cars, to car maintenance, from vintage collections to auto parts installation guides.

Blogging is an art of expression that requires passion and dedication though, at least for it to be a success. If they do it for the wrong reasons, they won't have a chance of lasting or making it big at all.

Blogging also carries with it opening yourself up to people which is good. It will open up a company's image to people allowing interaction which could prove to be beneficial for both parties.

It's all about the content, the motive and the means by which it is done.

I guess it depends. Your "dealership" is spending more time posting blogs instead of caring what happens in the service department. A $3000 job and the tools in the back can't keep my service light off. 3 trips already.

Oh, and the window regulator some douchebag in service broke when he slammed my door (thats right, I picked it up and in your parking lot the window fell into my door) cost me $300. I had to pay for something your idiots broke.

Worry less about a blog and worry more about how I'm gonna use the internet to keep business away from your dealership! (and the huge sign I'm gonna sit with on the shoulder of Route 4).

If you feel like you want to help, which I doubt, email me OR come out to the curb on Monday. I'll be there.

I am going to subscribe the the idea that dealerships blogging is not any more trustworthy than the individual dealers themselves. It would all depend on how honest they were about what they posted. If they had recalls and other things on there as well as just plain interesting information, then yeah.

I imagine it would be just junk though. Like they latest BIGGEST SALES EVENT EVER and how whatever new car they got in was super fantastic. I couldn't think if it being useful. Just salespeak.

I'd give them a chance, but maybe for, like, a day.

Blogging must be done right for no matter what type of company you work for. Whether its a dealership or any other type of company. The key is having the right personel to manage it. Without that its pointless and most times detrimental. I work for a technology company that creates websites for automotive dealers www.dealeron.com. We started a blog several years ago ( www.dealerrevenue.com ) that originally did not have the right people managing it. It wasn’t until the last 6 months, that we have finally started to see some returns from our blog. This is only because we now have the right people managing it, who are in turn creating quality content.

After reading this, I would be interested in some feedback on a blog I've been working on for a client (who is a car dealer). You can check out their blog at http://blogs.newdealernetwork.com/fsautomall. Any feedback (good or bad) is appreciated as this dealer is really looking to try and connect with the community it does business in. Thanks!

I'd rather read and memorize Consumer Reports or some other normal (not tech speak) independent consumer-driven information.