Google+ is still officially in “beta” right now, but they’ve started opening up the invite process. According to this Wall Street Journal report, the service has garnered 18 million users in its first three weeks.

I was fortunate enough to get an invite early on and be one of the first wave of users to join Google+.  It’s growth has been terrific.  When people ask me “what it is,” I tell them it’s a service that combines the best aspects of Twitter and Facebook to create a social media service that truly values conversation.

That being said — social media tools are what you make of them.  If you’re a politician or political organization that has been fortunate enough to snag an invite to Google+, please read on. While the service is still in its infancy, we try to provide some pointers on how to get started and make the most of Google+.  (And, for the record, the two most high profile politicians to join the service in its early days were Newt Gingrich and Gary Johnson.)

• First, set up a personal profile and fill out as much detail as possible. Unlike Twitter, catchy acronyms or nicknames aren’t appreciated.  Use your (or your candidate’s) real name.  The profile is key, as it allows people to find you via keyword search. As you can see from this recent Google search of my name, your profile is the first thing people will see from now on when they do a general Google search of your name.  Search engine gold!

• You’re probably wondering: “Can I set up a page for my campaign organization, such as ‘Republicans for Fair Elections’ or “Citizens for Smith’?”  The answer is no — not yet.  Google is set to role out pages for campaigns/organizations/businesses later this year. Some organizations have jumped the gun and set up profiles already — and there are some early indications that Google may “clean out” these pages (i.e., eliminate them).  They really want to create a clear delineation between individuals and organizations, which is smart.  They want to do it right.  So, for now, hold off on creating an organizational page.

• Once your profile is set up, use the Search box to search for people who reside in your district.  Look at their profiles to find their interests.  Then start putting them into “circles.”  What are circles?  Basically, it’s a tool that allows you to segment the people you follow into groups, and then, if you wish, deliver customized messages to each circle.  For example, you may want to create circles for people based on the cities in which they reside. This would allow you to deliver messages only pertaining to those cities to the people in those respective circles.  Of course, you can always make your posts “public” so everyone can see them.  But the circles can be a useful tool.

• Start posting.  Not just news releases, but actual conversational content designed to engage fellow Google Plussers. As with other social networking sites, Google+ allows you to humanize your content and provide a personal connection that no other media have ever allowed us to provide.  Just like we tell our clients regarding Twitter and Facebook: 30-second ads can provide a snapshot, but not nearly as effectively as a humorous tweet from the road, or a Facebook picture of you visiting the World’s Largest Ball of Wax en route to an actual campaign event.  Like those sites, Google Plus allows your campaign to provide a real-time scrapbook — showing constant activity.  You can show your supporters and network how hard you’re working simply by posting from the road with anecdotes and pictures of where you’ve been.

• As social media guru Chris Brogan warns: “don’t just post and run.”  In other words — the strength of Google+ (and any social network) isn’t just broadcasting your message, it’s reading the feedback and commenting back and forth.  Throw out questions to see what kind of feedback you get.  It could be anything — from asking whether or not your followers support higher taxes … to asking if any of them have any good summer reading suggestions.  Just get the conversation started.

• The Google+ interface makes it a great photo sharing tool. But, please, don’t just share photos from campaign events.  Share photos of “Americana” as you travel your district, throw on some family photos … make it interesting.

• Sharing is appreciated. People always appreciate having their content shared.  If you see something you like, share it. The social media karma gods will repay you.

• Feel free to +1 the posts you like.  +1 is basically similar to a “like” on Facebook.  It shows you find a post interesting or simply like it.

• You can also +1 content on the Web.  Similar to how Facebook allows you to “like” content around the Web, whether it’s a story in your favorite newspaper, or a post on your favorite blog, +1 buttons are starting to pop up all over the Web.  In addition, if you do a Google search, you’ll also notice that you can +1 various search results.  Theoretically, this may help boost search rankings for piece of content — but these +1′s also are catalogued in people’s Google Profiles and can help lead to more viral traffic to your site. Encourage your supporters to +1 your Web content in the Google search results.

• Think of creative ways you can use “Google Hangouts.” In short, Google Hangouts is a group video chat tool.  You can have video “hangouts” of up to 10 people.  Yes, it’s limited, but it can be powerful.  Newt Gingrich got some buzz for being the first politician to hold a Google Hangout.  Imagine holding hangouts with 10 volunteers or voters in each town in your district.  Or perhaps holding hangouts with your regional campaign directors.  Conference calls are so early 2011.  It’s time to start hanging out.

• Remember that Google+ is going to keep evolving, so be ready to adapt.

Most importantly — always be testing.  See what works.  Learn what doesn’t.  Measure the feedback you get on certain kinds of posts — and watch closely the analytics on your Web site (which posts drive most people to your site, keep them there longer, etc.)

As with any social networking effort, have fun, be conversational, and act like a human.  The days of one-way broadcast communication are coming to a close.

It’s all about engagement.  See you on Google+!

Please also check out these additional resources:

• Google+: The Complete Guide (Mashable)
• 10 Things You Never Knew Were Possible on Google+ (Business Insider)
• Google Plus Best Practices: Trey Ratcliff, Artist (ReadWriteWeb)

We prefer the latter, and believe this long-term relationship building is the true strength of online communications.

Anybody can press a button and blast out a message.  And there are a lot of consultants out there making a pretty penny off broadcast-model-tactics-based programs that have their clients pay for formulaic, short-term bursts of activity that do little more than blast out impressions and messages.

We choose a different path and believe in the strength of integrated, outcomes-focused campaigns that allow you to build long-term relationships with hundreds/thousands/millions of people in the areas that matter most to you.

To do this requires five steps that are fully intertwined and occurring simultaneously:

• Develop Online Messaging
• Take Message Public: Creating the Narrative
• Engaging Voters
• Creating/Identifying Advocates
• Mobilizing Activists

To simply explain how this works, I’ll share the metaphor of a restaurant owner:

• A restaurant owner opens up shop and then develops and runs ads to tell the story of his restaurant and build awareness.
• A customer becomes engaged when he or she comes in and eats at the restaurant.
• If the customer likes the food, the ambiance and the friendly wait staff, he or she will come back again and again — allowing the restaurant to identify that person as a potential “advocate” of the operation.
• The restaurant then can use a variety of tactics (maybe its Yelp or Foursquare or Facebook) to provide that person with the incentive and tools (mobilizes) to advocate for the restaurant — by spreading the word to his/her network and recommending the restaurant.

Too many consultants focus on the last step — mobilizing current advocates — without the continuous outreach and education for which we strive. It is, in fact, this continuous outreach and education that makes effective advocacy campaigns unique and powerful.  The key is not only finding those already passionate and asking them to advocate — it is reaching the undecideds and converting them into advocates.

Online tools allow you to build programs that work like an ongoing machine to constantly find interested audiences, educate them via your point of view, get believers to become advocates, and constantly generate supporters between the campaign’s launch and the end date.

Don’t just broadcast.  Don’t just deliver messages.  Start building relationships.

As a simple comparison to help us make our point, we use the example of online advertising vs. direct mail.

Here’s our simple answer: You can do it online for $50,000, or via direct mail for $250,000.

It’s important to realize that when we say “have your message read 200,000 times” — we aren’t talking about simple ad impressions, or pieces of direct mail.  While these impressions have value, they represent more cost than value.  What we are talking about are actual engagements.  Not just an exposure, but people who actually read your message.

After all, that is what issue-advertising is all about.

We recently completed an online ad campaign in which we spent about $40,000 to deliver slightly more than 4 million impressions.  For the purposes of our comparison, let’s equate those 4 million impressions with 4 million direct mail pieces.

Now, out of those 4 million direct mail pieces — how many people do you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, picked up your direct mail piece and read it?

Unfortunately, you don’t.  With direct mail, you can certainly measure how many pieces you mail, but you can only guess at how many people are actually “engaging” with your mail pieces.

Not so with online advertising.  For our recent campaign, out of those 4 million impressions, we had 202,000 engagements with our ads.  These were expandable, rich media ads — so what this means is that the ad was scrolled over, expanded and read/reviewed more than 200,000 times.

Further, we know how long people engaged with the ad overall — as well as what links they clicked in the ad, and how long they interacted with specific ad panels/features.

So, how much did it cost?  About $40,000.

How much would it cost to get the same amount engagements (202,000) through direct mail?  $250,000.  Here’s how we figure that:

If we liberally estimate direct mail readership at 20% and conservatively averaged the cost per mailer at 50 cents each (includes list, design, print and postage).  To generate 100,000 readers, he would send 500,000 pieces at a cost of $250,000.

Bottom line: Online provided comparable results for 84% less money.  Additional benefits to online include 1) real measurement 2) give interested audiences an immediate gateway to get more involved 3) ability to make changes during the campaign.

The bottom line:  anyone can know the cost of an issue campaign.  But being able to quantify the value and cost savings is what professionals do for their clients.

Our firm specializes in designing and placing expandable ad units that measure engagement levels.  We target political audiences from both parties and the large and undecided group of fence sitters in the middle.  We place tens of millions of impressions;  use cutting edge targeting;  designs for effect;  optimize and measure — and deliver results.

And, by results, we mean actual engagements — not just impressions.

Selsberg writes about the importance of learning to write concisely — not only for media, such as Twitter and text messages, but as a useful work and life skill.

Selsberg writes:

A lot can be said with a little — the mundane and the extraordinary. Philosophers like Confucius (“Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is perilous.”) and Nietzsche were kings of the aphorism.

And short isn’t necessarily a shortcut. When you have only a sentence or two, there’s nowhere to hide. I’m not suggesting that colleges eliminate long writing projects from English courses, but maybe we should save them for the second semester. Rewarding concision first will encourage students to be economical and innovative with language. Who knows, we might even start to leave behind text messages and comment threads that our civilization can be proud of.

Read the full op-ed here.

As a company that specializes in online content, we are strong believe in the power of online government transparency to foster trust in our elected officials, while allowing taxpayers to hold those officials accountable.

That’s why we’re so happy that one of our clients — Homer Glen, IL Mayor Jim Daley — today announced that he was going to put his Village’s check register online.

“We owe it to the Homer Glen taxpayers to be fully open and transparent with their tax dollars,” said Mayor Daley. “Through our fiscal responsibility, we have protected their tax dollars and kept Homer Glen’s budget balanced. Now, the taxpayers will be able to see exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.”

The mayor knows it will allow his constituents to hold him accountable — and he’s perfectly fine with that.

In this time of economic challenges and budget shortfalls, it would be nice to see more elected officials follow Mayor Daley’s lead.

(And, yes, if you’re wondering, Jim Daley is the cousin of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.)

Check out the responses here.

For what it’s worth, here’s my response:

I posed the question, but my answer is this: good content is good design. Some of the best websites are those with the simplest designs — but the best content. When I was in the PR industry, I always used to say that it didn’t matter if a press release was printed on letterhead or handwritten on a cocktail napkin: it was the content that mattered most.

But did you actually watch it live on TV?  And did you watch it on a cable network or broadcast network?  Or did view the livestream on the one of the numerous media Web sites that carried the speech?

How about the Republican response?  Did you watch that live — or did you view it via House Speaker John Boehner’s Facebook page?

Yes — the State of the Union truly has changed in the past few years.  And, while much of the hoopla surrounding the address is formulaic — it truly has become a battle for content.

What do I mean by that?  Well — not only did the President and the Republicans (and, yes, Rep. Michelle Bachmann for the Tea Party Response) deliver their speeches.  Every member of Congress sent out a statement, or live tweeted, or blogged or distributed a video.

President Obama sent out his preview video a few days ago.  Newly-elected Senator Rand Paul sent out his video response earlier this morning.

While the State of the Union Address gets decent ratings for the networks — what it’s really about is the address, responses, counter-responses and media reaction to all of the above.

Many Americans never watched the speech — but will have their opinion of the speech shaped by the politicians and pundits who are delivering content to their email inboxes, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts throughout the week.

In some ways, the President doesn’t even have to deliver the speech.  As he remarked to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on his way to the podium, everyone in America had already read the speech due to the advance copy leaked on the Web.

This is the 2011 content war at its best (or worst).  Politicians, interest groups and pundits using every communications tool available to communicate their message and fight for that edge that will either make the President’s address a success — or a failure.

Was the Address a turning point in the political debate — or just a blip on the screen?  That will be determined by who wins the content war, and we may not know for days … weeks … or even months.

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project sheds some light on the issue:

75% of all American adults are active in some kind of voluntary group or organization, and internet users are more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet users participate in groups, compared with 56% of non-internet users. And social media users are even more likely to be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of Twitter users are group participants.

So much for the theory (by non Internet users) that Web is full of anti-social people who shut out the outside world.

Of course, this tracks with what we wrote here in 2009 — that the Internet isn’t creating a society of introverts, but exactly the opposite.

The Web allows us to come together with like-minded people about specific interests or issue (or to debate with people who disagree on these issues).

It allows voters to join together around political candidates and policy issues.

It allows us to come together in what we have referred to as the “New Town Hall” — bringing us all together in new local communities, allowing us to connect, discuss issues and bring back the good, old-fashioned American Town Hall meeting.

With the New Journalism — every business, organization or campaign has the opportunity to become their own news organization. Collecting, editing and disseminating their news content to a wide audience — or as targeted an audience as they choose.

Old media isn’t dying because people aren’t hungry for news and content. People are simply consuming this content is new ways that fit into their workflow and daily lives.

Organizations will succeed when they fit the new communication tools into a strategy that allows them to be part of the New Journalism by collecting, editing and disseminating their content in ways people will easily consume.

We still 100% believe in what we wrote in that post.  And, since we wrote that post, even more communications tools have been introduced that allow us to more effectively disseminate our content.

There is no excuse for an organization that does not engage in an aggressive content strategy.  The Web levels the content playing field — and, in our opinion — the traditional media (due to financial difficulties and outright failure) is not able to compete effectively.

So, instead of complaining that the “media” isn’t covering you fairly (or at all) — become your own news organization.  But beware:  you must be credible, accurate, and authentic, or your efforts will backfire.

P.S.  On that note, here is a great new blog post from Tom Johansmeyer, “Use Your Corporate Blog to Bypass the Media.”

We love video content, and studies show that consumers do, too.

But how can you develop ideas for unique, compelling video content on a regular basis?

Well, we provide some ideas here.

We also urge you to read Pete Savage’s great recent blog post, “Eight Ways to Create Enough Video Content to Last Eighteen Months.”

See, you had a ton of ready-to-go video content right under your nose, and you just didn’t realize it.

Now grab your video camera and get to work!

In reality, I believe that the press release has simply taken different forms.

We’ve garnered media coverage from journalists picking up 140-character (or less) Tweets.  We once launched a statewide political campaign using nothing but a video on YouTube (and garnered hits in all the major publications).

What are some of other replacements (er, alternatives) to the press release? Heather Whaling provides some good ones in her recent post, “10 Alternatives to the Press Release.”

Heather includes tweets, social media releases, Tweet chat tours, videos and, our favorite — the virtual scavenger hunt.

For those of you who continue to resist the death of the press release, we implore you:  if you’re going to continue pushing out your releases, at least start using these other tools as additions to your communications tool chest.

Not anymore.

Media continues to fragment, as consumers rely and new and different ways to get their news and content.

The Internet has been gaining on television for some time now in terms of where consumers get their news.  A new report shows just how much the Web has gained in the past year — especially among young people.

Take a look at some of the results of a new study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

• Television remains the most widely used source for national and international news – 66% of Americans say it is their main source of news – but that is down from 74% three years ago and 82% as recently as 2002.
• 41% say they get most of their news about national and international news from the Internet — up 17 points since 2007.
• In 2010, for the first time, the Internet has surpassed television as the main source of national and international news for people younger than 30 (65% from the Internet/52% from TV).
• Among those ages 30-49, the Internet is the main news source for 48% — a gain of 16 points since 2007.

What does this mean for marketers?  Simple:  if you’re putting all your eggs in the TV and “broadcast” basket, you’re not serving your clients well.

This isn’t to say that you should put all your eggs in the Web basket, or any basket, for that matter.  But you need to diversify your media mix, take a hard look at at the ROI of your more “traditional” means of marketing, and increase your investment online.

That’s exactly what we’re doing here at Merc Strategy Group.

Good job.

But how, exactly, are you delivering these videos?  Where are you sharing them?

A new report from Brightcove and Tubemogul can provide some valuable insights on where you can get the most “bang for your post” with your online video:

• When it comes to getting people to watch online videos from media sites, Google is still the largest source of outside traffic (with more than 50% of all traffic).
• Facebook passed Yahoo in the third quarter to become the No. 2 source of traffic to online videos at media sites.
• When it comes to actual engagement in terms of minutes watched, however, viewers coming from Twitter watch longer on average than people coming from either Facebook or search.

There are additional interesting data points in the study study, so we invite you to check it out.

And, of course, we remind you to track all of your analytics to find out not only which sites are most effective — but also the types of video content that are getting the best response.  This process of evaluation should be a constant in your communications program, as it will lead you to tweak, cajole, revise and maximize your effectiveness.

“Instead of marketing, we’re just going to communicate. We’re going to talk to your customers and explain who you are, how your thing will make their life better, and then we’ll spell out exactly what they should do next.”

— Great advice from Sonia Simone, writing at Copyblogger, about her response to a client who says they “don’t want to do any marketing or selling.”

Of course, that’s been true throughout history.  Any communications tool — be it Twitter, Facebook, a typewriter, a phone — is only as effective as the content being delivered.

So it should come as no surprise that the fast-growing online “coupon” company Groupon is staffing up with … writers.

That’s right, Gigaom has this great story today (we love it because it exemplifies our core philosophy):

“…while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts for a large part of the company’s growth, many supporters say that a key strength is the writing talent Groupon displays in its email offers. A piece in The Atlantic entitled “Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy” notes that the company has more than 100 writers, editors and fact-checkers on staff — more than a lot of medium-sized newspapers — and adds that “journalism majors should rejoice” because the company is hiring and training writers.”

I hope all the businesses, non-profits and political campaigns who are currently suffering from “shiny new object syndrome” read that article.  Groupon is focusing on content first — and growing as a result.

The content is what matters.  Start with hiring great writers.

Take, for example, our client, the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR).

ILR is the nation’s leading lawsuit reform advocacy organization, working for state and federal reforms that protect individuals, employers and health care providers from the threat of lawsuit abuse.  They realize that one of the most effective ways they can accomplish their mission is by telling America the stories of real-life victims of lawsuit abuse.

Enter the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign.

If you go to FacesofLawsuitAbuse.com, you will find a collection of short videos telling the stories (and featuring the victims themselves) of these victims of lawsuit abuse.  Not only do they use this Web site and social media sites to features these stories — they also put these stories in national broadcast ads, and even in movie trailers that run in key parts of the country.

This week, this released their newest “Faces” video, this one featuring a school district in Cabell County, WV that had to remove swing sets from their playgrounds due to a series of lawsuits filed by a parent.  Whether or not you agree with ILR on the issue of lawsuit reform, you’ll no doubt agree that this use of online video is a very effective way to tell the organization’s story — certainly more effective than any chart or table of economic statistics and numbers.

If you’re interested, you can watch their newest video of the West Virginia school district here:

As an update to that post, I noted that the dealer from whom we did end up buying our new Toyota Sienna sent us a nice, personalized email note.  That was good stuff.

The follow-up, however, from the Honda dealer (from whom we didn’t purchase a care) was not so good.  I originally wrote that, unlike the Toyota dealer, the Honda dealer didn’t capture any of our contact information.  I stand corrected.  They made a copy of my driver’s license when I test-drove a minivan.  So, in other words, all they have is my snail mail address.

That’s why, almost a week after we graced their showroom, we received a piece of mail in our chilly mailbox.  I don’t even know what it said, because I didn’t read it.  It looked like a bill, or a computer-generated form letter.  Further, we already purchased our car almost a week ago.

This is follow-up circa 1999.  It makes me feel like they really didn’t care whether or not we bought a car at all.

As I wrote last week, they should’ve captured our email, cell phone, Twitter, or Facebook information as soon as we walked in the door.  We certainly acted interested in the Honda minivan, and the dealer knew we were headed to the Toyota dealer to test drive the Sienna, so they could’ve hit me with an email or text while I was on my way to the Toyota dealer.  They absolutely could’ve made me think twice about buying the Toyota.

But, alas, we purchased the Toyota Sienna.  We had a pleasant experience with the Toyota dealer, and now we’re receiving form letters in the mail from Honda that makes us feel underappreciated.

Still think engaging online can’t make a difference at the cash register?  Think again.

In our humble opinion, it’s the most valuable storytelling tool out there.

The most recent comScore U.S. Online Video Rankings shows why — namely, the sheer, massive amount of Americans who are tuning in to online video.

172 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in November. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in nearly 5.2 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month.

That’s a lot of people.  And a lot of video.

As a company that also builds successful online video advertising campaigns for our clients, we were also pleased by this statistic:

Americans viewed more than 5.4 billion video ads in November … Video ads reached 49 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 36.8 times during the month.

Newspaper consumption is declining.  Viewership of network news is on the downswing.

But online video keeps rising.  Are you taking advantage of it?

They started out as web designers, but the members of the 37signals team have shown themselves to be excellent content producers, having authored several successful books, and maintaining a blog that garners several hundred thousand visitors per month.

To be sure, I highlighted a number of great excerpts throughout the book, but one particular quote sums up our philosophy here at Merc:

You can also see it in people who want to blog, podcast, or shoot videos for their business but get hung up on which tools to use. The content is what matters. You can spend tons on fancy equipment, but if you’ve got nothing to say … well, you’ve got nothing to say.

As we’ve posted here, here, here and here – it’s not your “Facebook strategy” or “Twitter strategy” or “Flip Cam Strategy” that matters.

Focus less on the tools.

What matters is your content, plain and simple.

My wife and I spent last Friday car-shopping — an effort that ultimately resulted in us purchasing a new Toyota Sienna minivan.

We love the van (it’s basically a computer and sound system on wheels) and had a very pleasant experience with the great team at Thomas Toyota in Joliet.

As the days passed, however, I began thinking about some simple ways the dealership and Toyota corporate could implement some basic online tactics as part of their sales and ongoing customer relationship program.

• Get All Foot Traffic ‘Hooked’. Earlier in the day, we had visited a Honda dealership, spent time with a salesperson, and even test drove a car.  They didn’t capture any of our contact information (big fail).  Toyota, however, captured my basic information (name, phone and email) as soon as we entered the building (kudos).  They should go further by capturing cell phone, Twitter and Facebook information from everyone who enters their dealership.

• Immediate Follow Up. Let me once again reiterate that the team at Thomas Toyota was very helpful and pleasant.  But imagine if I had received an email, tweet and/or Facebook message the morning after purchasing my car, asking me if I enjoyed the ride home and had any further questions?  Or, if I hadn’t purchased a car, if I had received a message later in the day highlighting great features of a car I had test-driven?

• Ongoing Follow Up. Having all of my online contact information would allow them to link me to their Facebook page, where I could learn about future specials, and even read “human interest” posts about their personnel, etc.  I could receive tweets and emails about special new features on my new car.  They could solicit testimonials from me (more below) and allow fellow customers to share tips.  And, of course, they could communicate with me to remind of of things like oil changes, or upsell me on things like satellite radio or their “SOS” communications system.

• Get Testimonials. By communicating with me on an ongoing basis, they would be able to proactively deal with my concerns or issues — and learn about if and why I am a happy customer.  Then, they could reach out to me to solicit a testimonial.  Perhaps it’s a quick, written testimonial — or maybe it’s even a video testimonial that they can share across all their communications media.  That would be gold.

• LinkedIn. They should get every member of their team on LinkedIn.  Their customer relations manager, or even salesperson, could add me as a connection a few weeks after I purchased the car.  It would be yet another way to keep an ongoing discussion with existing clients (which, hopefully, would translate to repeat sales from me and my family.)

• Monitor and Respond to my Twitter Comments.  Since I purchased the car on Friday, I tweeted about my Toyota Sienna several times.  They were positive comments.  At the very least, the Toyota corporate communications team should have been monitoring this and thanked me for my purchase.  But the local dealership could do this, too.  Again, I’m not upset that they didn’t respond — but it would be a great, simple way for Toyota to add to their customer relations program.

• Monitor Social Networks for Potential Customers. During the week before I went car-shopping, I tweeted the fact that we would be shopping for a minivan.  I even mentioned that we were focused on the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.  There are countless people sharing the same type of information on a daily basis.  All you have to do is go to http://search.twitter.com to type in the word “minivan shopping” or “Toyota Sienna” to find out who is sharing this info.  And, local car dealers, can search by location to mine for new customers and reach out proactively.  It’s that simple.

These are just a few of the quick ideas I’ve had since purchasing my car.  They could be applied to any storefront business.  The first step is capturing the opt-in information of anyone who enters your doors (and especially those who becoming paying customers).  Then determine your content strategy to help build a relationship with those people and keep them coming back through your doors.

P.S.  Please also read our prior post to show how car dealers can use Facebook ads to more cost-effectively target new customers and increase sales.