Experts, across the board, will agree that developing a solid strategy for your brands social media efforts is the most important driver of success.  Your strategy should be built around your long-term goals, your capabilities and resources, and your audience/customers.  While the framework for your social media strategy can be developed at the corporate level, it’s easy to overlook how you’ll integrate your dealer network.

For OEM’s a holistic social media strategy is one that functions at both the corporate and retail levels.  When developing your strategy, don’t forget that every department, every employee, and every one of your dealers represents your brand – and every one of them has access to social media.  How your dealers utilize social media will directly affect your brand.

Google has recently introduced Sidewiki, a tool that allows anyone to comment onanyweb page (review here). Facebook has added tagging, allowing updates to identify people and companies. Google Wave is hitting the masses, making email social (maybe not masses, those lucky enough to scrounge up an invitation). Google Maps is becoming “hyperlocal”, making it easy to find and review small businesses. Thousands of Twitter applications are flooding the Internet, creating endless uses for Twitter, and everything is going mobile and real-time.

The meat of your message, the tools, and the tactics you use to reach your audience should always depend on who you audience is. Now, in the digital age, its more important than ever to have a solid understanding of your customers. All the hot platforms (social media, digital advertising, search engine optimization, corporate blogging, etc.) will do you no good if your customers aren’t active or effected by those mediums.