How Google’s Real Time Search Can Help You Expand Your Shop’s Presence – Part V

So, which factors of Real Time Search and Social Networking would benefit auto repair shops?

• All of the items mentioned in Universal Search plus;
• Twitter used appropriately, can be an excellent marketing tool. However, you don’t market or advertise your services, that is an absolute no-no. You use it to provide answers, help, cooperate. If you do it that way, you don’t have to seek your customers, they will seek you, or “Follow” you. If you would like a free copy of “How to use Twitter for Business” email me at ocautoservice@gmail.com and I’ll gladly send you one.
• Facebook with 400 million users, can be very effective in promoting your services. Here again, if properly implemented. You need to create, or have, a Facebook Business page. Not your typical friends and family, rather one for exclusively for business.
• LinkedIn A well written professional profile is a must! Did you know that ASE Automotive Service Excellence is one of the largest groups in LinkedIn? LinkedIn and Facebook have practically taken over Monster.com when looking to hire professional recruits.
• YouTube Videos Smart shop owners such as John Modesti of Modesti’s in Culver City, Ca. had a company create a video tour of his facility and narrated it himself. That is quite an effective method of making the consumer realize the professional operation he runs. If you can not afford to hire somebody to produce a video, you don’t have to be an expert cinematographer to create short videos of your operation. All you need is a Flip Video, or Kodak pocket video camera, to produce short videos about your operation. I will be explaining more in detail in a future posting a few effective ways to create short videos and post them in YouTube, Vimeo and many other video sites. The more videos you post the more relevant they’ll become in Real Time Search.
• Automotive Forums Back in 2003 when Autowave Inc. in Huntington Beach (Honda, Acura, NSX), got a new Dyno I did a couple posts in two Honda Forums. I typed the posting as a young guy with a Honda Civic that had not enough power. I explained that I had been lucky enough to find Autowave and that they had recently got a Dyno and had managed to get 12 more HP’s out of my Civic and had turned it into a pocket rocket. Go to Google and search for Autowave both ways autowaveinc and autowave inc and when the search results appear, look at the top right below the search box to see how many mentions they now have all over the Web. That’s the power of Automotive Forums, they grow exponentially through the times.

I sincerely hope that if you implement all my suggestions in this Blog, that you would be kind enough to drop me a line to let me how effectively it worked for you, or feel free to post a comment here.

Ed Burckhardt 

Our next issue will cover how to use Social Networking and Automotive Forums to promote your business and services effectively. No, you don’t try to sell your services! The concept behind Social Networking is to provide solutions, answers, cooperate, assist, educate, and the customers will come to you.