CHICAGO — Whether you’ve updated your Facebook status, Tweeted or looked up parts information, you’ve probably gone on the Internet at some point today. Incorporating more of the Internet and its offerings into your business and marketing plans is becoming easier and more necessary.

“Today the Internet is much more than e-commerce,” says Rick Schwartz. “There are so many Internet initiatives that can have an impact on your bottom line that the much more appropriate term is e-business.”

Schwartz, managing partner Schwartz Advisors LLC, served as moderator of the panel discussing “Internet Business Models in Today’s Aftermarket” at the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium (GAAS). From incorporating search engine optimization and social networking into your marketing plan to contacting customers via e-mail and enhancing the supply chain, the Internet if affecting businesses everywhere.

Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to get your business’ name out there, says panelist Thomas Aliotti, senior vice president and general manager, Automotive Group, Activant Solutions.

“At the industry level, we need to start spending money on people who do nothing but social networking for us,” he offers. “To get the message out that fixing your car in the aftermarket is as good if not better than taking it to the OE, that’s an opportunity for us. WDs, jobbers, retailers, chains all have the same type of opportunity.”

Schwartz points out that with an anticipated 20 million new drivers over the next five years, these new drivers will be more in-tune with social networking, especially through social networking. Panelist Tom West, CEO, Whitney Automotive, says these drivers use the Internet and these sites as research tools more than previous generations of drivers.

“They want to be able to go onto Shopzilla and type in cam shaft and be able to identify that here are the top 10 brands of cam shafts and start their shopping immediately,” West says.

Scooter Brothers, co-owner and director of R&D, COMP Performance Group, the third panelist, also has seen consumers being much more educated in terms of what they want.

“The consumer is the river that is trying to change course, and as much as we want to try to keep the river going this way, if the river wants to go this way, it’s going to,” he says. “And I think the consumer is going to be the one that’s going to decide if he does it digitally or face to face or by mail.”

Getting people to recognize you
One of the first things to look at when getting involved in the Internet is to learn about search engine optimization (SEO). SEO are methods you can employ on your Web sites through key words and phrases to get your company to pop up at the top of searches on sites like Google and Yahoo!.

Brothers has implemented a teams to make sure his site is meeting the changing ways people search for products on the Internet.

“It’s important when someone types in cam shaft, you want to be the very first one,” he explains. “You want to have that shot of creating that link with the consumer. It’s an ever-evolving thing to figure out how to do.”

You can tie in print advertising and marketing to draw in more customers to your Web sites, the panelists suggest. But you can take the little bit that you offer in print pieces and really expand upon them online. This can be an asset for your shop, as Aliotti says he believes there are going to be more people doing automotive work on their own or researching best prices in the near future.

Once you get the customer – whether it’s shop or consumer – to your site, you need to make sure the way they can search for the product is easy, says West.

“We try to make it so in the shopping experience, you can take these millions of parts and whittle it down quickly to this is exactly what I want,” he adds. “You’re trying to do this with a number of audiences in mind. You have the DIY consumer out there, but then you have the small mom and pop garages out there…And not necessarily do they have the same types of shopping patterns.”

Train and implement
Using the Internet also is a way to incorporate training to your customers, consumers and counter people in your store. You can get information out there on using your parts properly or about the products you offer. Brothers training on how to use the Internet through things like videos on You Tube and interacting on Facebook, MySpace or other networks also is key for your employees.

Panelists discussing the Internet in today's aftermarket are (from left) Tom Aliotti, Tom West and Scooter Brothers.

That means you have to get a strategy in place, taking a look at what you do now and what you can do in the future.

“It tends to be an overwhelming thought, especially if you haven’t developed an Internet strategy yet,” West says. “I absolutely believe that the market is going in this direction and so it’s about taking it on in bite-sized chunks. You can’t eat the elephant in one day. You need to learn how your brand interacts on the Internet.”

He suggests setting up Google alerts to see when stories pop up about your brand or product, and looking around to see where people are talking about you online. Aliotti also suggests joining those social networks and communicating with others.

“The e-commerce and the Internet can provide a great opportunity for us,” he concludes. “the more we can do to leverage that, the better I think we’re going to be in this industry. The days of selling in the traditional brick and motor stores, no matter what industry, they’re going. Brick and motor is important, but selling on the Internet is important.”