I’m in Denver for the  Colorado Automobile Dealers Association‘s  first-ever Innovative Dealer Summit. A day-long event that starts with 7:30am breakfast, I’ll be covering it here and for CIR, but I’ll also be tweeting about # ISD10 as ClassifiedTiger.

There are many simultaneous sessions and a few  keynotes but I’ll primarily be in the sales and marketing or social media sessions, as that’s what our media-industry clients need to hear about.  First up is Jared Hamilton of Driving Sales ,talking about Aggressive Search and Social Strategies for Proven ROI.

AutoTrader.com’s CEO Chip Perry speaks at the noon luncheon sponsored by his firm. His topic: Automotive Advertising: Embracing the Internet as an Influencing Medium.

Representing the non-profit  Television Bureau of Advertising, Scott Roskowski will discuss Automotive Marketing and Media today.

AskPatty.com’s Jody DeVere talks about Marketing to Women on a Zero Budget. That’s at 2pm.

There’s lots more – a jam-packed day and early evening, for sure. More later.

CarDealerWiki.org is the new creation of PCG Digital Marketing CEO Brian Pasch. Created as a free place for auto dealers to showcase their services, testimonials, vehicle videos and even auto listings, and to talk among themselves, the wiki also allows consumers to write dealer reviews. Not many have so far – it’s that new – but Pasch has uploaded several categories of manufacturers by state, and posted a walk-through video about creating a dealer profile.

While publishers and broadcasters probably won’t be welcome to showcase here (each profile has to be approved before publication) it soon might be  a good place to find auto dealer advertiser prospects, and find out what the dealers need from their marketing resources. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian home buyers can now start their search from the Yahoo home page, thanks to a collaboration with Zoocasa and Yahoo.  The Canadian real estate search site just announced a new application that enables 17 million Yahoo Canada visitors to look for their new home via Zoocasa search on Yahoo.ca. It’s as easy as signing into Yahoo and downloading the app.

“Our vision is for Yahoo.ca to be the best guide for Canadians for both their online and offline worlds,” said Laurie Maw, director, Business Development for Yahoo Canada, in the announcement. “The Zoocasa application is an important addition to Yahoo Canada’s current line-up of online apps that includes everything from Flickr and Facebook, to links to our Sports and Finance channels.” Read the rest of this entry »

Look out San Diego Union-Tribune daily deals managers,  local consumer review site Yelp is in your area with its own competitive online coupon product – no tipping required.

From the Yelp blog:

“Staying true to our roots, we’re excited to feature special offers from great local businesses that are worthy of our community’s attention…More to come as we continue testing deals in markets like San Francisco and New York, but we’ve been pleased with the feedback received from the community thus far.

You can read more details on Mashable.

We’re so happy to hear this – traditional media publishers are starting to create their own homegrown or vendor-enabled daily deals / coupon products. While there’s nothing wrong with collaborating with the likes of Groupon, Snag and Save, Team Save and the other daily deal providers, if you’re big enough or well-staffed enough or IT-capable enough, why not keep all the traffic and revenue for yourself?

PaidContent.org reported on  homegrown daily deal products by Star Tribune of Minneapolis / St. Paul, San Diego Union-Tribune (theirs isn’t new) and Yellowbook. Read the rest of this entry »

If the vote later this week goes as anticipated, it will soon be illegal for Germany’s employers to check out job candidates’ private lives on Facebook and other social-networking sites.

The draft law was reported in the English version of Spiegel Online, one of Germany’s pre-eminent magazines, which quoted coverage from two leading newspapers, Die Welt and Süddeutsche Zeitung. The German Cabinet is expected to vote on it on Wednesday, as part of a package of privacy reforms.

Recruiters will be allowed to google prospective employees, and anything they might find beyond social sites is fair game: LinkedIn and other professional-networking sites, for example.

The article didn’t say how the government would enforce the policy, or what the consequences would be for breaking the law.

Recruiters routinely use social-networking sites to find out more about prospective employees, as a sort of cheap-and-easy background check. A 2009 survey commissioned by CareerBuilder said that 45 percent of employers used social-networking sites to research candidates, and about 35 percent admitted to rejecting applicants based on what those searches uncovered.

Think of it as a sneak peek at things to come: Oodle announced the launch of its Marketplace app for the iPhone, combining the mobile, social and buy-sell experiences of both Oodle and Oodle-powered Facebook Marketplace.

Oh, and you can also use it to peruse listings from Craigslist. Read the rest of this entry »