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FOCUS PSB Digital www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • June 16, 2014 • 15 14 • June 16, 2014 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com Facebook changes mean more original content CRM offers boost to generating leads Latest update leads to a lessened organic reach BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR Facebook business page users with a firm grasp on their insights have likely noticed a change over the past few months. Facebook has imple- mented another update, again filtering content that's delivered to newsfeeds, leading many to see a decrease in their organic (non-paid) reach. "They've changed their algorithm, which in layman's terms means they changed the workings of Facebook to determine what shows up in individuals' newsfeeds," explained Samantha Scott, owner of Pushing the Envelope, Inc., a Florida-based marketing communications firm. Scott, also a 2013 Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo speaker, has read stud- ies that say many businesses have seen their organic reach drop more than 40 percent, with some reporting decreases of more than 80 percent. However, she says, the new algo- rithm can be positive for dealers and consum- ers in that it's asking companies to step up and offer higher quality content. "This isn't the end of Facebook for busi- nesses. It's just a change in the game, and from our perspective, it's actually good. It's going to make businesses perform better and provide more genuine content for their con- sumers and fans," she said. Genuine and original content is key to being seen on consumers' newsfeeds now. Facebook is discouraging over sharing of others' posts, while encouraging businesses to post more of their own photos, videos and links. The "share" button is still available, and Scott recommends dealers use it with busi- nesses that will reciprocate, but she says all posts can't be shares, or fans will see fewer and fewer of them. So what can a dealer post to still land in newsfeeds? Scott advises dealers to post infor- mation about local riding trails; photos and introductions of staff; links back to website content, such as tips about each model sold; and similar information. The goal has to be to solve customers' problems and give them value as frequently as possible. "It can't just be the message that that dealer or that business wants to communicate … it has to be what the consumer wants to know," Scott said. To discover what customers truly want, dealers should ask. Sites such as SurveyMon- key.com offer free surveys that are 10 questions or fewer, and those surveys can be sent out to social media audiences, e-newsletter subscrib- ers and in-store customers. "Ask your audience: What do what you want to hear, when do you want to hear it and on which channels?" Scott said. One of her clients, for example, was shar- ing a lot of industry news and membership information on social media. However, after conducting a survey, the client learned custom- ers only wanted member benefit details, as they were receiving industry news elsewhere. Another was insistent on using Twitter until a survey discovered only 2 percent of that client's customers were using that social network. Another way to better focus Facebook efforts is to look into the insights the site offers to page administrators. From there, users can look at their frequency to determine if they're posting too often (such as several times per day) or not often enough (such as once per week). Insight data also shows when fans are using social media, allowing each dealership to cater to their own customers. And, if customers are more active at night or some other time staff isn't at the dealership, posts can be scheduled in advance to reach the desired audience. The reason Facebook made the switch is because the company wants to make the site more user-friendly, Scott said, much like Google did with its Hummingbird update late last year. "The bottom line, really, for businesses with this change is Facebook has gotten a lot cleaner and a lot simpler, and it's really going back to how Facebook started, which is connecting people to people," she added. Facebook is also moving to a change the layout of business pages, returning to a more streamlined one-column look, similar to past iterations. All pages will be shifted to the new layout by June 13. PSB QR codes for each deal, digital raffles for sales staff just the start BY DAVE McMAHON EDITOR IN CHIEF Dealers who use the HyperDrive CRM from More Than Rewards are experiencing a variety of digitally enhanced opportunities to help grow their leads. An extremely well done 15-minute video at www.hyperdrivecrm.com offers a glimpse into some of the latest features of the Milwaukee- based company. And by using HMTL5 and AngularJS frameworks, the pages meet excep- tional speed requirements that keep dealership employees returning to it. "People think CRMs are slow, complicated and a time-waster, so we built HyperDrive for people looking for something simple that they can log into, log deals, log notes, schedule calls and have a fun time doing it without burden- ing their day," said Brandon Siegesmund, vice president of communication at More Than Rewards. "It provides the speed and ability to log deals in 15-20 seconds. And it's eas- ily implemented at the dealership level. We know dealerships don't want to put their staffs through hours of training, and take people off the floor to do it. We can't make you use it, but at the same time we didn't build it to seem like a burden — we want you to want to use it." We'll look at a few of HyperDrive's fea- tures here. Use of QR Codes This feature allows the staffer to save a deal in PDF format on a smartphone or tablet, directly from the computer screen. Each deal has a QR code in the upper corner of the deal page. Staffers can simply scan the QR code to see the PDF on their mobile device. Being able See HyperDrive, Page 15 to view the deal on the show floor, or after hours, has its benefits, and includes all notes regarding the deal. "We've been finding the sales staff mem- bers want to use tablets or phones, and they want to be able to view the deal away from the computer or desk," Siegesmund said. "Some of them will use the PDFs from the QR code as a repository of information, and grab 7-10 of their deals at once so they can access them from their phone and not need to get back off the floor and behind a desk." The QR code function, Siegesmund notes, is most often implemented by larger dealerships, with higher traffic counts. Social network profile picture integration Dealership staff members can enter a cus- tomer's email, and the CRM does a web search of applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others to find a photo of the customer. "When you enter an inbound lead, you might recognize them when they come in, but this is less intrusive than asking them for a picture. I like to see a photo of who I'm work- ing with, who I'm talking to, and we're finding out that members of the sales staff feel the same way," Siegesmund said. Text reminders to keep meetings between salespeople and prospects "People are simply more comfortable with texting than they are with emails. It's less intrusive than email, and it forces people to be straight and to the point in 144 charac- ters or less," Siegesmund said. "This allows a sales staff member to send a reminder via text about a meeting with the customer. So when the person says they'll be in again on Saturday at 11:30, the sales staffer asks if he can send an automated text message with the pertinent reminder information. Or the sales staff can send a reminder to himself, with the text coming 15 minutes before he needs to call a customer." Sales staffers can also text PDFs, photos of the bike that the customer is considering, or photos of a variety of bikes for those custom- ers early in the buying process. This add-on service costs an additional $50 monthly, and offers the dealership's phone number as the location of the inbound text that the consumer sees. Siegesmund said More Than Rewards is the only company that offers such a vanity phone number option. There is no texting limit in the package. HYPERDRIVE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 "People are simply more comfortable with texting than they are with emails. It's less intrusive than email, and it forces people to be straight and to the point in 144 characters or less." Brandon Siegesmund, vice president of communication, More Than Rewards Samantha Scott, owner of Pushing the Envelope, Inc., was a speaker at the 2013 Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo. RESOURCES Want to keep up with Facebook's constant changes? These are the resources that Samantha Scott, owner of Pushing the Envelope, Inc., uses: AllFacebook.com — an unofficial Facebook blog Blog.Facebook.com — Facebook's official blog Facebook.com/page_guidelines.php — Official guidelines for Facebook pages, which Scott references monthly for updates Mashable.com — a source for news and resources in the digital world P12x15-PSB8-FOCUS.indd 14 6/4/14 2:15 PM