World Hyundai has been recognized by Auto Dealer Monthly for their progressive approach in the social media market. World Hyundai has been ahead of the game from the beginning, using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, FourSquare, Merchant Circle, the World Hyundai Blog and Newsletter, multiple blog sites, and so much more!
Internet Marketing is Alive and Well: 6 Channels to Extend Your Reach
Online reputation management (ORM) is a relatively new term for dealers. The best description of ORM is to imagine putting search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and public relations (PR) in a blender and hitting “mix.” The goal of ORM is to influence your online dealership prospects in a positive manner.
In the past, dealers worked to manage their reputations through their local media, charity involvement and a variety of community-related projects. They may have even employed PR firms to assist them in their efforts to spread positive news about their dealerships. The ultimate goal was to create not only top-of-mind awareness but to ensure that all dealership information was portrayed in a positive light.
ORM has the same goal but with a much larger venue to work in. Today, instead of waiting weeks and months for the impact of PR efforts, Internet connectivity has whittled that time down to hours or in some cases, minutes. Additionally, it is your customers, not you, who have the power to make the most impact to your online reputation.
There are many online review sites, and more are popping up every day. As a business owner, you have to face the fact that no matter how perfect your customer interactions are, somewhere along the way you will have a customer you cannot make happy. As much as that might bother you, the salt in the wound is that griping customer’s review may be online for a very, very long time, and there is little you can do about it—unless you are focused on ORM.
Positively influencing customer perception is at the heart of ORM. One thing a dealership can’t measure, regardless of how 
high-tech the operation is, is the number of people who decided not to do business with the dealership based on something they read about it online. If a customer searches for your dealership, especially by including the word “reviews” in their search, and finds something negative, regardless of how inaccurate it is, they’re likely to switch gears and go looking elsewhere unless you have something more powerful to influence that decision.
Many dealers who are only now considering ORM believe that it will be too difficult to get customer reviews. Scott Falcone, dealer partner, World Hyundai, said, “If you treat customers right and you build the review request into your process, it’s easy to gather reviews.” Falcone must have that process down to an art because his World Hyundai review site has more than 1,000 customer reviews posted. The one thing Falcone does that many dealers who are contemplating a customer review process forget is to also engage service customers in the review process.
What could be a better combination than your customers posting positive reviews about their sales or service experience and optimizing those reviews for the search engines?
Dealerships with a Great Customer Review Plan
H&H Chevrolet (HHChevyReviews.com)
Marlboro Nissan (DealerRater.com)
Mossy Toyota Scion (DealerRater.com)
Suzuki of Wichita (SuzukiGossip.com)
World Hyundai Matteson (WorldHyundaiReviews.com)
World Hyundai, H&H Chevrolet and Suzuki of Wichita have all chosen a site that is dedicated to their dealership, and the dealerships seem to have the same mindset. If you can drive a customer to your reviews, why give them access to your competitors at the same time? All of these sites also give the dealership considerable control over links, ads and their message, which isn’t offered by all review sites. The Presto Review site, which is the provider used by World Hyundai and H&H Chevrolet, has the advantage of a city aggregator, as well as a strong SEO component that even boosts the power of a dealership’s primary Web site.
More than 80 percent of your customers are online researching vehicles and who they want to do business with. You should be concerned about what they “hear” online.
From a May 2010 article taken from Auto Dealer Monthly.
