Micah J. Birkholz

Social media guru spam account

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:31:32 -0400

Social media guru spam account

Reputation Management for The Car Dealer What is...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:49:00 -0400

Reputation Management for The Car Dealer What is Next… What’s the Right to First Publish? And why is it crucial to your dealership’s reputation management? Performance Improvement Consultant Micah Birkholz explains, and offers 2 key ways dealers can start using their online reviews to help raise their dealership’s relevancy in search engines and drive more traffic to their site.

Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Social Media Bomb: Kathi Kruse from...

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:03:42 -0400

Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Social Media Bomb:
Kathi Kruse from Kruse Control Inc shared this disgusting display on her Facebook page earlier today. Amy and her husband were guests in Kitchen Nightmares, the only episode Gordon Ramsey said he could not help in 100 episodes.
Follow the links for more insight and to connect with kathi!(who is awesome!)

http://yelp.com/biz/amys-baking-company-scottsdale

http://m.eater.com/archives/2013/05/13/gordon-ramsay-kitchen-nightmares-amys-baking-company.php

Check it here https://facebook.com/#!/amysbakingco?__user=607687794

Jason Jasperson Art A Whirl 2013 Northeast Minneapolis. Follow...

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:46:41 -0400

Jason Jasperson Art A Whirl 2013 Northeast Minneapolis. Follow the link and see some if the work Jason will have on display at the festival. Support the arts!

Customer service is not limited to your customers alone but...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:15:00 -0400

Customer service is not limited to your customers alone but includes everyone you work with as well.

Automotive Industry Vendors, if your plan is to drive users to...

Fri, 10 May 2013 07:56:00 -0400

Automotive Industry Vendors, if your plan is to drive users to your site by discrediting the integrity of your paying customers your integrity is suspect.

“The opinions in this blog are mine alone and not the opinions of who I work for” More disclosures here… http://micahbirkholz.tumblr.com/post/49867830424/my-social-media-postings-are-my-own-please-see And here… http://micahbirkholz.tumblr.com/post/36708917141/the-opinions-in-this-blog-are-mine-alone-and-not

Automotive Industry Experts: Tell Me About Your First Up Tell me...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:33:00 -0400

Automotive Industry Experts: Tell Me About Your First Up

Tell me what it was like selling your first car… Slightly sarcastic but always authentic I Micah Birkholz promise to be true to myself. Tell me automotive industry expert, guru what it was like earning a living from selling…

All my posting are my opinions alone and not those of who I work for see disclosure here: http://micahbirkholz.tumblr.com/post/49867830424/my-social-media-postings-are-my-own-please-see

My social media postings are my own please see disclosures...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:29:35 -0400

My social media postings are my own please see disclosures everywhere!

shirtoid: Gallifrey Beach by Rob Go is $12 for a limited time...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:55:28 -0400

shirtoid:

Gallifrey Beach by Rob Go is $12 for a limited time at Limiteed

Want!

My auto marketing social media reputation management report

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:40:41 -0400

My auto marketing social media reputation management report

Automarketing Social Media Road Warrior Problems

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:24:05 -0400

Automarketing Social Media Road Warrior Problems

Morning (faithout) workout! Feels good after sick for a week!

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:05:00 -0400

Morning (faithout) workout! Feels good after sick for a week!

Real change can only happen when we band together socially to...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:25:15 -0400

Real change can only happen when we band together socially to make a political statement, even when we don’t know what that statement is.

Reputation Management, Bad Advice, Google + Local and Yelp

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:24:00 -0400

“The opinions in this blog are mine alone and not the opinions of who I work for” This is my fun stuff page…

“You can’t lose something you never had” How do you take a quote from a sappy romance movie like How to lose a guy in ten days and turn it into an automarketing blog about Online Reputation Management?Hang with me and I will show you.

Bad Advice

As a father of a teenage son I am tasked with giving advice as he becomes a young man. Part of my strategy is to challenge him with answers to his questions that are less than inspirational and make him consider my answers for discussion. I purposefully give him “Bad Advice”. When I do we talk about why it’s bad and we learn what is the better way to tackle a problem. Unfortunately in the automotive online reputation management space there is far too much “Bad Advice” that is not intentionally given. Let’s explore a few of these pearls of wisdom that may not be as valuable as we might think.

It is understood that Online Reviews have an effect on the customer’s purchase process;

74% of consumers report choosing a brand or campany based on online reviews

and we know that

90% of consumers say they trust reviews

This in and of itself gives a strong argument as why reputation management is imperative as part of your online strategy, unfortunately many experts will have you focus on volume, the more reviews you have the greater the influence right? NOPE!

Bad Advice #1: too many fall for getting a high volume of reviews with good star rating and feel that this task is done. I submit we should not focus on the volume but rather the content of the reviews. The reviewer has poured their thoughts, concerns, praises or rants into what they wrote, acknowledge that and learn from it.

In my opinion the more reviews a business has, the less authentic they are, if you do not see action taken from the reviews.

What Advice did the dealership take? “Volume of reviews sell cars so get all your HAPPY customers to write them” “Set up a kiosk at the store to get more reviews”. What is the context of why the review was written and at what time in the process was the customer asked to write the review?

Bad Advice #2? Onsite review writing. A customer should only be asked to write a review at their own discretion and in a place of authenticity. When a dealer asks a customer to write the review during the transaction the integrity of the review is now suspect. At no point should a customer feel pressured to share their thoughts. If we are looking at the importance of reviews in the correct light, an opportunity to improve the purchase process and learn from our mistakes and merits,then we should only offer up the opportunity to create a review of the dealership when the customer is completely comfortable to do so. The dealership is not a place of solace or comfort for our customers, their home is.

Bad advice #3?Well I guess its more of a misconception. Google+Local and Yelp hate car dealers, “that’s why MY reviews are disappearing. These review sites don’t believe that MY customers are real people”.

First we need to clarify what these “review” sites actually are(very abbreviated version).

Google + Local is the business listing extension of their monetized search site Google. It is a platform to drive intending customers to a business. As reviews became more prominent, Google didn’t want to not be a player in this space, they tried purchasing platforms to fulfill the review portion of their strategy, failed a couple attempts and eventually bought Zagat to boost their content.

Yelp is an advertising platform built around a social community with review functionality. Yelp was one of the businesses that Google attempted to purchase, and helped to change the landscape ever since.

Google + Local deletes reviews at their discretion based upon their perceived authenticity and integrity of the review written. If they feel at any time a business has attempted to manipulate their reviews, deletion occurs.

Yelp has a review filter used to protect three entities, The dealership, the consumer reading the reviews and the integrity of their own site.

So where does the bad advice come into this? Remember my quote from How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days? When a dealership attempts to turn their customers into review writers within these networks they are attempting to manipulate these platforms not manage to them. When a Dealership has reviews disappear or become filtered they feel as though they have “lost” something. Fact of the matter is that the reviews are not owned by the dealership. Ownership of the reviews is that of the network and the review writer, NOT THE BUSINESS.

In the case of Yelp, when a user is filtered 99% of the time it is not because they don’t believe that the customer is real, it is because the writer has not earned the right within the Yelp network to have their reviews easily accessible to the network. The review writer has not proven themselves to Yelp.

Buying advertising does not, I repeat does not stop the reviews of your business from being filtered. However you may begin to see more reviews of your business that are unfiltered…How does that happen? When you manage to the network(engage in advertising, use announcements, check in offers and rev share) as opposed to attempt to manipulate it you are now speaking to and reaching active yelpers. You are reaching active users on the site who write reviews, check in, engage in forums and discussions, you are now reaching those who have earned the right to have their reviews read.

Google + Local is on clean up mode. Bulk reviews generated in a short time period become suspect. Slowly but Shirley(see what I did there) reviews that were once written by gmail users are disappearing. In an attempt to make sure that they are serving up the best content with the greatest of integrity they have required Google + log ins and participation. Now you can see all the reviews written by the user. Now you can see what type of person is attempting to attract or detract from the business.

Third Party review sites are not your digital assets. They are owned by companies who are looking to monetize “your” data against you. If the review was not generated and integrated into your own website, it is not yours, it’s theirs!

So what is the “Good Advice”?

1. Source Your Customers: Know what networks they participate in.

2. Don’t try to turn your customers into Yelpers, turn Yelpers into your customers.Look into Enhanced Listings and advertising opportunities.

3. Invite your customers to write reviews, all your customers even the upset ones, but do this after their experience at their own timeline not yours.

To learn more about what I believe makes a good review click here

The difference between Manipulation and Managing To click here

Vacation is not about escaping from something but rather using...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:32:10 -0400

Vacation is not about escaping from something but rather using that time to focus on the “why” of what you do.

"Like and share is today’s equivalent of yesteryear’s email chains of Send to 10 friends..."

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:45:00 -0400

“Like and share is today’s equivalent of yesteryear’s email chains of Send to 10 friends if…As a Community Manager, if this is your strategy please stop”

- Micah

I am convinced God has a sense of humor.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:39:45 -0400

I am convinced God has a sense of humor.

Social Media Bridges the gap from ecommerce to in store process....

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:45:00 -0400

Social Media Bridges the gap from ecommerce to in store process. It is said that social media is integral in your marketing efforts, I would respectfully disagree with that. In my opinion Social Media is integral for your communication strategy, best utilized in complimenting your marketing and advertising efforts. Consumers will find the “what” of your business easily enough, now is the time to seize the opportunity to channel the “why” of your business. Through great customer service businesses experience greater success. Be there to communicate with your consumers.

How Your Social Media Use Could Begin To Affect You (and Your Business) Financially By Arnold Tijerina

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:15:00 -0400

Below is an exert from Arnold Tijerina’s post from his blog. This is a must read. Social Media is a living breathing entity of our society that now affects our real life interactions.

Recently, there have been several cases in which employers were requiring job applicants to give them access to their social media profiles to be considered for employment. This practice has been shut down by a few states already but not all of them and, in some states, the FTC has even backed the employers. While this is certainly one way social media could affect you financially, it is not in this way that this article is about.

What if banks started looking at your social media profiles to assess your credit-worthiness?

What if lenders started using your social media accounts to assist in deciding whether to approve your car loan?

What if credit card companies started changing your interest rates based on your social media use?

Well, these aren’t “what-ifs” anymore. According to a recent article by The Economist, these practices are already happening. “There is a start-up that assesses the credit worthiness of car-loan applicants” ….

To read the rest of the article please click here now and share it with your friends, family and co workers

http://bslashc.com/2013/03/11/how-social-media-use.aspx

Below is a video I created about Social media and Hiring:

http://youtu.be/Za_qUgNkJ5U

Automarketing Social Media Conversations-This Just Happened...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:17:51 -0500

Don’t ask just read…..

Ron Henson

about an hour ago ·

‎Micah Birkholz and Arnold Tijerina, do you like puppies?
Like · · Unfollow Post · Share · Hide from Timeline

Lindsey Hamilton likes this.

51 of 85

View previous comments

Megan S Barto No, he’s looking for a Long John Silver’s.

23 minutes ago · Like

Micah Birkholz So youre not a “kitten” Chris… I thought that was some old school Ricky Walteraction you were playing

23 minutes ago · Like

Chris Costner Isn’t that what SPAM is made out of?

23 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Stan Sher I like waffles too

22 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Ron Henson Hey, where are JD Rucker and Ric McCoy?

22 minutes ago · Unlike · 3

Stan Sher Ok what is going on here?

22 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 2

Megan S Barto Stan & belts?

22 minutes ago · Unlike · 2

Stan Sher I always wanted a puppy

22 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 2

Stan Sher Um

21 minutes ago via mobile · Unlike · 2

Ron Henson Engaging random conversation Stan Sher!

21 minutes ago · Like · 3

Micah Birkholz is that Kelly Wilson hopping on? Great now the great puppies vs kittens vs waffles vs pancakes debate will be posted on DealerRefresh forums….

21 minutes ago · Like · 3

Megan S Barto Where’s Nancy???

21 minutes ago · Unlike · 3

Ron Henson Now that is funny Micah Birkholz!

20 minutes ago · Like · 2

Megan S Barto I’m surprised Ed hasn’t jumped on yet.

20 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher Where is Joe Webb?

19 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Micah Birkholz I think Ed Brooks likes his puppies in moderation now….

19 minutes ago · Like · 2

Megan S Barto Coke v Pepsi?

19 minutes ago · Like

Ron Henson Stan Sher someone bet me a stack of waffles that you couldn’t add 1000 followers to my twitter account. Partners?

19 minutes ago · Like · 1

Ed Brooks For lunch or dinner?

19 minutes ago via mobile · Unlike · 3

Renee Stuart Let’s all adopt a Sloth

19 minutes ago · Unlike · 2

Megan S Barto Yes

19 minutes ago · Like · 1

Ron Henson Diet Coke! Pepsi or battery acid?

19 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher Ron Henson for real?

19 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Megan S Barto Captain or Bombay?

18 minutes ago · Like

Micah Birkholz Skeetle are you talking the beverage or what that white dusty powder under sales desk in the 80’s was…. please define…

18 minutes ago · Like · 2

Stan Sher Not a soda drinker

17 minutes ago via mobile · Like

Ron Henson Yes Stan Sher

17 minutes ago · Like · 1

Megan S Barto Watch video for explanation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9IoTnDqgJ4

The (De?)Evolution of the Internet Sales Manager

http://dealerknows.com/ - Joe Webb and Bill Playford of DealerKnows Consulting s…See More

17 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher It will take me 1-2 weeks but I can do it.

16 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Micah Birkholz Sloth like in The Goonies? I’m in… now to just find an abusive bank robbing mother with a saliva issue…. Renee Stuart

16 minutes ago · Like

Megan S Barto Joe & Bill should remake this video and add Google+-Pinterest-Instagram-Reputation Management-Data Mining-Auto Trader Spotlight Ads-LinkedIn-FourSquare

15 minutes ago · Unlike · 1

Dara Moore You guys are too much today! Oh & Micah no they are NOT cute. I don’t care how comfy they may be Megan those would never touch my feet lol.

14 minutes ago · Like · 2

Ron Henson Let’s win some waffles Stan Sher! @ronhenson68

13 minutes ago · Like · 1

Micah Birkholz this is slowing down way to much…. quit working and comment people or the puppies will never get adopted….

12 minutes ago · Like · 2

Stan Sher Your killing me…I been too busy to grow my own twitter lol

12 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Renee Stuart HEY YOU GUYS…. http://youtu.be/R1Zw1AjW7Zs

Best of Sloth

Sloth from the Goonies and my favourite scenes of his in the movie. what a badass character!

11 minutes ago · Like · 1

Megan S Barto That’s “Werking,” Micah - have you learned NOTHING from CJ???

11 minutes ago · Like

Ron Henson Hey Stan Sher the man! We always have to leverage our friends!

9 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher Agree

9 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Ron Henson Micah Birkholz, keep this alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you! Name that movie.

8 minutes ago · Like

Nancy Simmons Sorry…I was reorganizing my sock drawer! I am back! I like puppies, and movies with puppies in them! 101 Dalmations….Fave!

8 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher This conversation is too random

6 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1

Stan Sher Right Rachel Haro?

5 minutes ago via mobile · Like

Ron Henson No such thing Stan. Random is very chic right now. Right Bill Simmons?

5 minutes ago · Like · 1

Ron Henson Name this movie for 10 its: “I’m gonna punch you in the ovary, that’s what I’m gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the baby maker.”

4 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher Anchorman?

3 minutes ago via mobile · Like

Ron Henson Bingo Stan. Did you use Google?

2 minutes ago · Like

Stan Sher No I love that movie

about a minute ago via mobile · Like · 1

Stan Sher I’m driving I answered too fast to search

a few seconds ago via mobile · Like · 1

Stan Sher For 10, what did the girl say back in response to that comment?

a few seconds ago via mobile · Like

Ron Henson Bravo!

a few seconds ago · Like

Micah J. Birkholz

Social media guru spam account

Reputation Management for The Car Dealer What is...

Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Social Media Bomb: Kathi Kruse from...

Jason Jasperson Art A Whirl 2013 Northeast Minneapolis. Follow...

Customer service is not limited to your customers alone but...

Automotive Industry Vendors, if your plan is to drive users to...

Automotive Industry Experts: Tell Me About Your First Up Tell me...

My social media postings are my own please see disclosures...

shirtoid: Gallifrey Beach by Rob Go is $12 for a limited time...

My auto marketing social media reputation management report

Automarketing Social Media Road Warrior Problems

Morning (faithout) workout! Feels good after sick for a week!

Real change can only happen when we band together socially to...

Reputation Management, Bad Advice, Google + Local and Yelp

Vacation is not about escaping from something but rather using...

"Like and share is today’s equivalent of yesteryear’s email chains of Send to 10 friends..."

I am convinced God has a sense of humor.

Social Media Bridges the gap from ecommerce to in store process....

How Your Social Media Use Could Begin To Affect You (and Your Business) Financially By Arnold Tijerina

Automarketing Social Media Conversations-This Just Happened...

‎Micah Birkholz and Arnold Tijerina, do you like puppies?