We've "scene" it all--The SceneExchange Blog

Networking for Auto Collision Repair Professionals

I just saw that there is a new social networking site specifically for the auto collision repair industry - it's called Collision Hub. I recently signed up—it is free and pretty user-friendly. It looks like a great way to network with people in the industry.

You can set up your profile with information about yourself, add photos, and even create your own blog. Like other social networking sites, you can invite friends, and join groups that interest you. You can add events for others to see, or search for events to attend. There is a lot there—I still have to figure it all out.

Check it out! Collision Hub is encouraging technicians, shop owners, vendors, consultants, insurance companies, rental agencies and salvage companies to participate. 


Let me know if you are a member and what you think of it.

--Shanna

The Shorty Awards

No, they have nothing to do with height (although at 5' I've had my share of jokes over the years!)...

The Shorty Awards are for the best content producers on Twitter--which means they are limited to 140 characters. The first-ever awards received more than 50,000 nominees. The categories range from business to food. Here's a link to more about the awards.

Regardless of whether you use Twitter or not, the sheer numbers highlight the range of ways this new media is being used to share and communicate. Just a little something for Marketers and Management to keep in mind.

--Beth

Keeping up with your favorite blogs

Obviously, if you are reading this, you are already on the blog bandwagon. How do you find out about new blog posts? Do you check your favorite blogs websites daily, or weekly? Or do you use an RSS feed to a web-based news reader?

I was talking to my husband last night and was telling him about some of the blogs that I read and how I use Google Reader to keep up with all of the blogs that I am interested in. I was surprised to find out that he didn't know what Google Reader was. A news reader keeps track of all of your favorite blogs and shows you when a new post has been added to that site. You can either read the post right from the reader, or click a link to go to the blog site. I find that using a news reader is the most efficient way for me to keep up with the blogs and to stay on top of what is going on in our industry. So I thought that if my husband didn't know about this great technology, maybe I should pass along the information to you as well.

Getting started with a news reader
If you aren't familiar with news readers, here's how you can get started. First, choose the news reader that you would like to use. There are quite a few out there - MyYahoo, newsgator, myAOL, Bloglines, netvibes, Google, and Pageflakes, to name a few. Create an account and you are on your way to subscribing to your favorite blogs using the RSS feed.

Subscribing to blog feeds
Most blogs have a link that allows you to subscribe to the blog using an RSS feed. For example, for our blog, 'We've "scene" it all - the SceneExchange blog,' if you scroll to the bottom of the page,  in the right menu you will see a link to 'Subscribe to this blog's feed.' If you don't see a link to subscribe to a particular blog, then simply add it as a subscription within your news reader. You will be asked for the website of the blog, then the news reader will handle the rest (at least that is how it works with Google Reader). Also look for the 'RSS Feed' icon on your favorite blogs, and that should lead you to the right area to subscribe to the blog.

Finding industry blogs
The next question by my husband was, 'how do you find blogs in your industry?' First, when you start reading a blog that you like, many times the authors will link to other blogs in the industry when they find something interesting posted. Check out those blogs, and if you like them, add them to your news reader. That's how I found most of the blogs that I read. I also checked out the 50 Best Business Blogs of 2008 and found some of those to be interesting.

Here are some industry blogs that I follow if you want to check them out:

ASA Blog  - It is written by the President of the Automotive Service Association. He provides commentary about the automotive repair industry.

BodyShop Business Blog - This is written by Jason Stahl who is an editor at BodyShop Business. He talks about what he sees going on in the industry.

AutoMuse - Erica Eversman discusses automotive legal and consumer issues in this blog.

If you find some other interesting blogs in our industry, please pass them along.

--Shanna

Online Communities Article (web exclusive) for Claims Magazine

If you receive Claims Magazine's e-News, the top story is from none other than our own Chrisa Hickey. If you are into auto claims and online communities, this is the story for you (in fact, even if you just want to learn more about online communities, you'll come away better informed).

Let us know what you think of the article.

Follow this link to read it.

--Beth

Getting ahead with New Years resolutions

Although I no longer subscribe to the idea of making a list of New Years resolutions, I do have a rolling list of goals that I hope will help me improve both professionally and personally.  One of these is to keep more up-to-date on the goings-on of the world of business.  Very generic, I know, but I have faith.

Along this thread, I recently stumbled upon a list of the "50 Best Business Blogs of 2008", thanks to the Duct Tape Marketing blog.  Some of these I already have in my Google Reader while others are quickly making me a fan.

The article, from Business Pundit, categorizes the top business blogs as well as giving a brief description of each.  For those who, like me, are still searching for some good reads this list proved to be a good starting point.  In general blogs can be iffy, many turn into little more than individual rants or PR machines, but the good ones are worth digging for.  A couple of my new favorites are Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk and Toyota's Open Road blog.

What is everyone else reading?

--Jen

My gift to you--randomly generated car wallpaper

In honor of those of us working today, a quick little bit of fun for your desktop.

GetCarWallpapers.com--A site that displays a different picture from their huge gallery of car wallpapers each time you click. Enjoy a random image from the gallery of 10,000+ unique wallpapers.

My favorite so far is this one, a Lamborghini Murcielago Spyder 2009

--Beth

Targeting Your Customers Via Social Media

As a follow up to my post about "couch commerce", I promised a rundown about how to decide what social media is a good fit for your target customers. Here's my how-to.

Create a Human Story

First of all, remind yourself that today represents entirely new ways to cultivate customers. Using social media is one way to facilitate interactions between people online. They make it easier to listen to and respond to people directly.

How can you humanize your company's story? Go deep into your target demographics and discover the people--and what is important to them about you and your industry.

(And be sure not to push your messaging at them--you have to bring value to the conversation. Think of social media as one big holiday party--who are the people you enjoy talking with the most? The ones who listen and ask you great questions about yourself--not the people who just talk and talk to hear their own voices.)

Evaluate your customers' habits

Ask yourself the following:

• Do you know what your customers are doing?
• Do you know if they are active with social media? If so, how active?

People online contribute in a myriad of ways. Here are several categories they might fall into (credit for these goes to Josh Bernoff at the groundswell blog)

• Creators--Create and publish their own content (in blog, video, photo, etc. format)
• Critics--React to the content of others by posting, editing and commenting
• Collectors--Organize content by organizing or voting
• Joiners--People on social networks
• Spectators--Reads and consumes some level of social content

Next, it's time to survey your customers to gain an understanding of their habits. This will give you a starting point--a baseline understanding, if you will. It will let you watch how they engage and behave.

The next steps are up to you and your company. First you need to determine if you have the resources and gumption to open things up for two-way dialogue. At our company, our management team was split about starting with social media. There was a great deal of fear about "what if people say bad things about us?". Now we all understand that a "bad" comment can be a starting point for making something better--or explaining why we did what we did. The point is that social media gives us the opportunity to have a conversation we might not otherwise have had.

Are you truly ready for social media? It takes time and resources internally, but the rewards are worth the effort.

--Beth

Report from the frontlines-Chrysler's CMO talks about marketing the brand

Deborah Meyer is the VP and CMO of Chrysler; she spoke at the Mixx conference in New York City last month. Here's a recap.

She's the first CMO ever at Chrysler--so kudos to them for elevating marketing to the top executive-level. So, what's Chrysler doing to connect with potential customers in an age when 80% of all car buying begins online. (I know I did all my research online before I purchased my last car. By the time I got to a dealership, all I needed to do was test drive a couple of models I had identified as good fits for me to see which one I liked best in person.)

Online buyers, she stated, require a different form of marketing engagement. The goals are:

• Authenticity
• Deep information
• Building a message (or taking it) to a pre-existing community

Okay, so far so good. They have launched, for example, a microsite for the DodgeRam Her goal is no actors, real America (sounds kinda like a campaign theme) and their everyperson opinion of what they think about the Dodge Ram. However, the implementation looks like a Hollywood summer action flick--complete with helicopters, rock & roll and explosions. So much for representing the average person. (I know I tangle with plenty of helicopters on the drive to work).

So, what are good ways to connect with communities that already exist on the internet? Consider these ideas:

• Think about how to make your communications authentic--engage, build relationships, add value to the community you are participating in
• Treat your social media campaign like any other marketing campaign--set goals, plan your rollout, categorize your efforts (know what you are going to talk about where and when)
• Stay on topic and be relevant

There are lots of great ways to engage in social media, so be sure to align your goals with your tactics and engage, engage, engage!

--Beth

How does SceneExchange benefit vehicle owners?

Hey drivers, since--on average--you have a claim once every 7 years, how do you know a good shop to take your vehicle to for repair?

How SceneExchange Works for You

If your insurance company offers SceneExchange as an option, you can select SceneExchange as the way to handle your repair claim. What does this mean?

• Everything is handled online
• The shops that are interested in doing the repair come to you. You can look online instead of having to run around town trying to get 3 estimates.
• You can read ratings and reviews of the shops submitting proposals on your job
• You get to pick the shop you want--no pressure
• You can track the progress of your repair online
• Support is available through live chat, online tutorials or via email
• The cost of repairing your vehicle is set, so each shop (and you) knows the costs upfront

Here is an overview of the information you can find out about the shops in SceneExchange

You have the ability to select a shop based on the following data:

• Feedback from other vehicle owners
• Accuracy rating
• Certifications
• Warranty
• Start and end date of the repair

This way you have an easy, side-by-side comparison of each shop.

How it works

Once the insurance company submits your claim, you will be contacted by an independent appraiser who will inspect your vehicle and write a report of the damages. Then shops in your geographic area are notified of your repair. Shops will submit proposals and you get to make your shop selection for the repair. After your vehicle is repaired, you have the chance to leave feedback about the shop and repair to help other vehicle owners in the future.

It's very straightforward--and we think it really makes the process easier.

--Shanna

Twitter with us

Since our recent forray into the world of blogging has been so successful we're now taking on Twitter. Some of you may already know about twitter, but for those who don't it's essentially a microblogging site that allows you to 'follow' other Twitterers. You receive the updates of the individuals you follow and those following you receive your updates.

The company now has a Twitter account for SceneExchange, in addition to which Beth, Chrisa and Jen have individual accounts. Best of all you don't need an account to check them out! If you'd like to check out their updates use the following URLs:

www.twitter.com\SceneExchange
www.twitter.com\Chrisa_Hickey
www.twitter.com\Beth_Bailey
www.twitter.com\JJaworski

Be sure to check back often, especially during NACE, as we'll all be keeping everyone up to date on the latest happenings inside our company, in the world of SceneExchange, and the industry in general.