WALTHAM, Mass. -

Digital marketing company IMN recently revealed it has launched a new social media management service designed to distribute custom dealer content across the Web.

IMN Social Driver is a service that “extends IMN’s automotive industry intelligence and content publishing expertise beyond the digital newsletter to social networks," and is designed to  “enable dealers to take advantage of social media-based reputation management, socially-driven marketing strategies and enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities by distributing custom content across blogs and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter," the company explained.

What sets this social media solution apart?

The company contends it is differentiated based on IMN’s “ability to provide and distribute compelling content, integrate reputation management and email communications, drive SEO results and create reliable return on investment (ROI) that delivers exceptional value to dealers.”

IMN Social Driver builds on the company newsletter service for dealerships Loyalty Driver. The company also broke down the new offering into key areas, which are focused on “keeping the dealer in control of the customer relationship.”

—Reputation Management: IMN explains that the product is designed to extend the dealer’s brand through a highly customized blog and social media presence promoting a consistent brand and voice.

Moreover, IMN’s social media consultants monitor more than 35 sites for dealer coverage and reviews, and work with each dealer on strategic responses and action.

—Content: “IMN’s team of industry experts has deep experience developing high quality branded content, as well as general interest, advice and trend articles that engage readers and ultimately increase dealer revenues,” officials asserted.

In this segment, the new product aims to create a “seamless customer experience across email and social media channels.” Also, the company noted it optimizes original content to suit the needs of each communications channel, including email, in an effort to increase social network engagement and improve SEO.

—Combine Email and Social: “IMN’s industry-leading content is created specifically for each channel; yet, can be shared between the newsletter, the blog and social media,” the company shared.

Also, this content can be distributed in what the company calls a “social digest”, which is an aggregation of recent blog posts. Then, this content can be shared with newsletter subscribers to create deeper engagement and increased participation across all channels, officials stressed.

—SEO: “Addressing a significant digital marketing concern for dealers, IMN’s approach is to think beyond traditional paid search options and focus on generating new content that will drive organic search traffic. IMN’s expert team distributes relevant content more frequently than most dealers can,” the company explained.

—Closed Loop Analytics: On top of delivering information to fans and followers, the company noted the new offering “captures behavioral cues, providing intelligence on what topics generate the greatest response.”

And since this past December, IMN has been conducting a TestDrive program with both new and existing customers, representing dealerships from across the U.S.

A few dealers shared their enthusiasm for the new offering.

"I am thrilled with all the valuable content that has been posted to our new blog, and our Facebook and Twitter followers feel the same. Hillside Honda is looking forward to seeing the increased benefits of involving IMN with our social media plan,” said Erin Ehrling, eCommerce marketing manager at Hillside Honda.

Heather Wheeler, social media manager at Lia Auto Group, went on to note,"So far, we are loving IMN’s Social TestDrive. The blog articles are original and interesting. They are informative and get our name in front of customers without the pushiness and obtrusiveness of a hard sell. We’ve seen increased traffic flow to our social media sites, and the IMN team is great to work with!”

And on top of rolling out there new program, IMN recently conducted a survey with more than 500 North American dealers, as well as nearly two dozen in-depth interviews with representatives from major automotive brands.

“The goal was to benchmark marketing priorities and identify common trends associated with emerging social media requirements,” the company expalained.

And according to survey respondents, the number one marketing priority was reputation management, followed closely by email marketing and the need to integrate email and social media activities.

"Based on our research, the majority of dealers expressed relatively low confidence when it came to their current social media strategies. They communicated the need for an experienced partner that could help with the content, distribution and analytics to enable them to use social media to become more competitive, and more connected, with their customers," said Ben Levitan, chief executive officer of IMN.

"With IMN Social Driver, we are offering dealers a comprehensive, fully managed service that will not only increase their confidence about using social media tools, but also provide the reporting and analytics to prove its impact on customer loyalty and revenues,” he continued.

To learn more about the new program, see http://www.imnsocialdriver.com.