It's the Holiday Season - A Hectic Time

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but I am in full holiday crunch mode :). In addition to the usual holiday tasks of baking, entertaining, cleaning, shopping, wrapping, ect, there are a bizzilion things to do for my clients. With the end of the year comes a bevy of holiday sales, charity events and that all important end of the year crunch to clear out their lots.

The best part about this time of year is that so many people and businesses take a few extra moments to do something nice for someone else. Yesterday I was in the grocery store picking up some last minute baking supplies when a woman approached me and asked me if I wanted her Turkey Points (points you earn by shopping at Shaw's and can redeem for a free Turkey). I told her that I didn't use them and instead had been giving mine to the local homeless shelter. She thought that was a good idea and said she would stop by on her way home and donate hers as well. Everyone in the line with us gave their points to her as well, in the end she had enough points for 4 turkeys!

With the world being so crazy these days it's nice to see that some people still possess the ability or maybe it's desire to help someone they may never meet. So here is my holiday challenge to all of you: Find a way to make another persons day brighter. Donate to a charity like Donors Choose, Caring Bridge, & Make A Wish or simply hold the door open for someone who's hands are full of packages. After all it's the little things that make the season bright.

Weathering The Storms of Automotive Change

Today I was doing some research on one of my clients market areas (Harrisburg, PA) and I stumbled across this website : http://mccafferty.com/index.htm for a dealership has been open since 1954! My little Friday addled brain just boggles thinking about all the events and crisis's they have successfully navigated around. I wish all my clients this much success and longevity!


Happy Friday!

Ad Words: Revenge is Cheap in 2007

First off let me say that I do not condone this sort of activity, however it is rapidly becoming more common place. In the spirit of the season I am going to tell you about a scary new way that people can be destroying your reputation for a couple of bucks a week.

Let's take the fictitious story of Jimmy and his local Porsche dealership. We will pretend that Jimmy went out and bought a brand new 2008 Boxster in his favorite color of Sea Foam Green. Jimmy loved his car for the first 150 miles or so until the engine fell right out of the car in the middle or rush hour traffic. Suddenly Jimmy isn't very happy at all, so he calls the dealership asking them to come get him, the car and what is left of the engine. Well things go from bad to worse and Jimmy is left with his very expensive car and a box of engine pieces standing on the curb.

Our hero eventually gets his car put back together but at an extreme cost and so he vows revenge against the dealership. How does he plan to get revenge? He starts a smear campaign using a "disposable" blog and his adwords account. Jimmy writes an SEO friendly blog and then sets up an adwords account with 20 bucks and just lets it run.

For most dealerships a smear campaign like this would be earth shattering, because the average dealership does not have a reputation manager on staff. If this were to happen to a dealership without a website, or a poorly designed website the ramifications could be catastrophic. It would take the dealership forever to get that link buried if they ever even found out that someone had done this to them.