This is Part II of an interview with Richard Valenta, CEO of TK Carsites, an automotive internet marketing firm. You should read Part I: Social Media for Car Dealers first.

“The simple fact is companies no longer control their brand. People control their brand.”

There’s no better way to start this second part of the interview than with a statement like that. It’s true. Very few people trust advertising anymore, while a huge percentage do trust consumer reviews and opinions. With sites like RipOffReport and DealerRater offering venues for people to vent about their bad experience, it makes sense that car dealers should start taking social media seriously.

“The customers control their brand,” Valenta said. “And the faster they can get themselves into the social media sphere or social networking sphere, the better it’s goin/> [...]

Sun Nov 29, 2009 21:20 pm

Pepsi will reportedly be skipping its annual Super Bowl commercials, and will instead invest the money it would generally spend on those, in social media marketing. This would make the first time in 23 years that Pepsi will not have Super Bowl ads.

Larry D. Woodard, President and CEO of Manhattan ad agency Vigilante writes in an ABC News piece:

Pepsi represents one of the stalwarts, not just of the Super Bowl advertiser lineup, but of broadcast TV in general. In 2006, spending on brand, Pepsi was at about $150 million. Although brand spending has been decreasing in recent years, Pepsi has continued to spend tens of millions on TV. And the Super Bowl annually has the largest audience of any TV show.

As television viewership has gone down, Internet usage, particularly social media interaction, has increased. The 2009 Super Bowl attracted an impressive 95.4 million viewers (approximately 42.1 percent of U.S. TV homes) and many of those watch the commercials as attentively as the football game. By contrast, in the important 18-34 demographic, a whopping 85 percent use social media (texting, blogging or social networking), and the phenomenal growth of social media has the attention of every major company. This holiday season, Toys "R" Us developed a Facebook page that grew at the astounding rate of between 40,000 and 95,000 fans per day after its late November launch.

As the numbers Woodard mentions would indicate, the Super Bowl is always an advertiser's dream. It costs big bucks, but there are so many eyeballs on those ads, and some people even watch the event just to see the commercials. Pepsi's move real/> [...]

Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:50 am

The New York Times confirmed today that beginning in early 2011 the company will adopt a paid model for its web site, NYTimes.com. The move comes at a time when much of the newspaper industry is searching for a way to stop the bleeding brought on by the Internet and the much smaller revenue streams provided by online advertising.

Many fear that putting content behind a wall of pay-only use will just drive readers to go to other sources, but perhaps the Times' approach will help to combat that issue.

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The company will adopt a different approach from the most famous already-pay newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, which offers just a paragraph or two before hiding the rest of the content for subscribers only. The Times will use what it is calling a "metered model", which will allow users to gain free access to a yet undetermined number of articles per month before a subscription is required.

The announcement comes light on details of the plan, such as the number of free articles, how much the subscription will cost or precisely how it will work, but one thing is for sure - New York Times' readers are going to have to pay to play. The company's press release does tell us, however, that subscribers to the print edition will continue have access to the onli/> [...]

Wed Jan 20, 2010 08:50 am

Provided Courtesy Of:  

A quip on Twitter by a snowbound traveller has led to his arrest and bailing on suspicion of communicating a bomb hoax.

Tension over genuine threats to air travel led to the police move, thought to be the first arrest prompted by a tweet, the system's summaries of no more than 140 characters on what users are doing or thinking.

Frustrated by delays at Robin Hood airport, near Doncaster, 26-year-old Paul Chambers keyed in: “Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!” Police arrested him shortly afterwards under the Criminal Law Act 1977.

Bailed after more than six hours of questioning, Chambers also had his computer and iPhone briefly confiscated and the message was deleted from Twitter's website. Tweets of support and incredulity have since been posted by some of the 769 people regularly following his page, along with requests for interviews from journalists.

South Yorkshire police said that Chambers remained bailed because of the Twitter comment and added: “We advise members of the public to use such sites appropriately, as they are easily accessible to the public and any inappropriate use could cause unnecessary concern and lead to comments being reported to police.”

Mike Morton, director of Robin Hood airport, said: “The safety of our passengers and staff is of the highest importance to us and we work closely with South Yorkshire police to make sure that any kind of unacceptable behaviour is dealt with immediately. We simply will not tolerate such activity.”

Chambers describes himself on his Twitter profile as a “film-watching, football-loving, rubbi/> [...]

Thu Jan 21, 2010 15:20 pm