Strategy Recommendation Project
MBA6004
November 22, 2015

A new driving school, 3D Driving School in Buford, GA will open in 2016. 3D Driving School will offer Driver’s Education classes, DUI/Risk Reduction Program and Defensive Driving Program. Two of the three classes offered are mandatory from the state of Georgia. January 1, 2007, Joshua’s Law became effective (DDS, 2007). This law was named after Joshua Robert Brown. Joshua died in 2003 after his truck hydroplaned and struck a tree (Brown, 2004). Joshua’s parents blamed the accident on the lack of driver’s training and experience (Fish, 2003). Lobbying for this bill started in 2004 and was passed in the Georgia General Assembly in 2005 (Brown, 2005). Joshua’s Law requires class D drivers to complete a mandatory driver’s education program approved by the Department of Driver Services and complete 40 hours of supervised driving experience, including at least six hours at night. The other state mandated class is the DUI/Risk Reduction Program. This is an intervention program for people convicted of driving under the influence (DUI), possession of illegal drugs, underage possession of alcohol while operating a motor vehicle, or boating under the influence (BUI) (DDS, 2015). The third class offered at 3D Driving School is the defensive driving program. It is geared toward drivers who have accumulated points against their license and are at risk of suspension. This class will reduce the number of points against your license. Many drivers attend this class to avoid their license being suspended and lower insurance rates. These programs are all regulated by the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS). Each school has to be certified by the Georgia DDS.
Implications of Internet and Social Media
Current Use of Internet and Social Media Since 3D Driving School is a newly formed company, there is no current use of the internet or social media. However, there are numerous regulated schools in the state of Georgia that use the internet and social media. Majority of the schools are using the internet and/or social media outlet to promote their business.
There are 283 certified schools in the state of Georgia (DDS, 2015). 72% of these schools use a website that provides students with information regarding classes offered. There are 23 schools in the same and surrounding counties of 3D Driving School. All of these schools with the exception on one have websites. Along with schools having an actual website, there are other popular social media outlets that can be used to keep students informed of classes offered.
SWOT Analysis
3D Driving School will open in a great location in 2016. The location is near a lot of residential homes in the area. The growing need for convenient classes is a nice lucrative market than can be taken advantage of. The owners are well established in the community. They will be able to gain recognition immediately from their community. By hiring others from the community to work at the school will also be a great strength. Understanding their weaknesses of a potential saturated market, they must remain diligent to their class offering times and overall customer support. Below are summarized strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths * Heavy internet and social media use * Positive testimonials * Owners established in the community
Weaknesses
* Potential saturated market * Location
Opportunities
* Lack of schools in the area * Corporate driver education * Offer online certifications
Threats
* Closest school is 8 miles away * Driver’s Ed is offered at the local High School
Future Use of Internet and Social Media
Competitor’s Use The schools in the same county and two surrounding counties have 23 certified schools currently open (DDS, 2015). All but one has a website. Most websites are basic and they include classes offered, locations, and contact information. There was nothing that really stood out on any of the closest competitor’s websites. None of the immediate competitors are currently using any other form of social media like facebook, twitter, instagram, and pinterest. With the increased use of social media by everyone, it only makes sense to tap into that potential. Especially with the young drivers, they are extremely active in all forms of social media. Imagine one retweet by several hundred. That is a huge opportunity for new students who may be in need of some type of driving class. After reviewing nearby competitors, it became clear that none of them targeted corporate customers. Many companies provide vehicles for their employees to drive during work hours. “With on the job auto accidents at an all-time high, companies all over the country have begun sending their accident-prone employees to defensive driving (L.M., 1997, 3). Many of these drivers are older adults who have been driving for years. They are experienced drivers compared to a young driver taking a course in order to obtain a valid driver’s license. However, this does not mean that they are better drivers than the teenagers. “Corporate employees drive only marginally better than 16-year old. Vehicle accidents are the No. 1 cause of death on the job, according to the Department of Labor. In 1994, the last year for which data are available, nearly 22,000 people had auto-related on-the-job accidents, up 25% from 1992. Fleet administrators estimate that each car accident costs a company $5,000—not including lost work time from injuries (L.M., 1997, 7). With these staggering numbers, it only makes sense to target corporate customers in the area via social media and other internet means. The company could quickly see a huge ROI from mandatory defensive driving courses.
Schools in Other Areas
North Georgia DUI School uses a facebook page to keep their followers updated on the upcoming classes (North Georgia, 2015). They also include posts that include links to their website. 1st Act DUI School has an Instagram account that has pictures of educational information regarding state laws, their locations and testimonials (1st Act DUI, 2015). Peachtree DUI School frequently tweet about their prices and classes offered (Peachtree DUI, 2015). Driver Safety LLC has a pinterest account that post defensive driving tips (Driver Safety, 2015)
Since the schools near 3D Driving School are not taking advantage of any of the other social media outlets. It would be a huge advantage for them to tap into each one. Having a huge presence in the internet and social media worlds, can only be an advantage over the competition. The internet and social media has to capture one’s attention. 3D Driving School has to stand out and become noticeably different from the competitors.
Ethical Concerns
Privacy
With so many data breach violations, it is critical to secure customers information. Name, address, telephone number, and credit card information are extremely important to keep confidential. This information in the wrong hands can lead to a major data breach. This would not be a good look for the school. There has to be precautions put in place to avoid this from happening. 1st Act DUI and DD School has the following statement regarding their privacy policy on their website. “1st 1 Act DUI & DDS, LLC is in communication with the Georgia Department of Driver Services regarding your attendance in one of our classes. This information is handled in an approved and regulated matter so no information is compromised. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information. We have put into place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. We value your business and are committed to protecting you privacy. Should you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy please contact us (1st Act DUI, 2015). These steps are important to customers. This type communication gives the customer the satisfaction that their information is safe.
Medical
Currently in the state of Georgia, there are no laws preventing anyone with a medical condition from driving. This can be an extremely sensitive issue to many. It is private information that many will not want to share. Georgia will only take action if they receive written correspondence from anyone in regards to another person diminishing driving ability (DDS, 2015). At this time, they require a medical evaluation in order to keep license.
However, in the UK, the government is becoming more involved in making sure people aren’t driving with certain medical conditions. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for ensuring that all licensed drivers are fit to drive (Gibson, J. & Whiteman, L., 2012). Since they are responsible for all drivers, they have placed the burden on the doctors. Their General Medical Council states that, “doctors have a responsibility to try and persuade their patients to inform DVLA (Gibson, J. & Whiteman, L., 2012). This is a huge responsibility on the medical staff. If they determine that this has not taken place, they are required to report their patient to the DVLA immediately.
The objective behind the UK requiring doctors to report patients makes sense and it would ultimately increase the overall safety of the roads. However, there are so many privacy act laws in the United States that would probably that would be violated with this type of requirement. One would hope that each individual and their immediate family will take the appropriate actions by ensuring that anyone with a serious medical condition is not on the road driving. This would be not only for their safety, but the safety of others that they share the road with.
Recommendations
With social media being the number one daily activity among American, it is imperative that 3D Driving School take advantage of the use of them (Wordstream, 2015). 1. Creating a website is the first thing that has to take place. Hire a reputable company to create and maintain the website. Once the website has been established and tested, 3D Driving School should hire or appoint a staff member to be in charge of the internet and social media campaigns. 2. This person will then create a facebook page, 3. This person will then create a twitter account, 4. This person will then create a Instagram account and a 5. This person will then create a pinterest account.
Each of these accounts should have the company’s logo as the profile picture. The contact information for 3D Driving School should also be included on each of these accounts. Classes offered with dates and times are extremely important items that are required on each account. Once all of the essential details have been added to the accounts, it is now time to begin making posts.
The posts on these accounts should always include a photo with the verbiage. According to Kevan Lee of Buffer App, this will increase views, likes, comments, click-throughs, and re-tweets (Lee, 2015). See graphs below for twitter data.

See below for facebook.

With the huge increase in traffic to post and tweets, it is essential to include a photo with majority if not all posts. According to Lee, 3D Driving School should post to facebook five to ten times a week and to twitter five times a day. If there are a lot of likes, comments, and re-tweets, the number of times to post should be increased. The times recommended by Lee is 1-3pm weekdays for twitter and 1-4pm and 2-5pm weekdays for facebook, 5-6pm weekdays, 8pm on Mondays for Instagram, and 2-4pm and 8-11pm weekdays and weekends for pinterest (Lee, 2015). It is important to follow the items that must be posted along with the suggested times to post. Following these guidelines will prove beneficial to the success of internet and social media use for 3D Driving School. It is also important to internet and social media portray the customers that you’d like to target. New Zealand performed a study of students in their health education class. This study evaluated a 10 lesson drivers education sessions. The study revealed that males display riskier attitudes and participate in unsafe driving practices more than females (Harre, N., & Field, J., 1998). With this type information, it is recommended that the website and social media accounts post more male pictures than female pictures. With all of these different avenues for students to be able to keep in touch, do not forget customer service. When feedback is received, whether positive or negative, 3D Driving School has to respond. Always keep it positive and provide first-rate customer service. Regardless of the amount of traffic the website and social media sites receive, if customer service and positive feedback is missing, it is actually a hindrance. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain the highest standards of customer service.
Conclusion
3D Driving School will have superior internet and social media presence once it opens in 2016. Majority of the schools in Georgia have a website for their respective school. All of the schools in the proximity of 3D Driving Schools have a website except one. However, none used any other form of social media to promote their schools. With 3D Driving School taking advantage of facebook, twitter, Instagram and pinterest, they will be well ahead of the competition. These outlets will have to be maintained on a daily basis in order to remain relevant. This maintenance will also be critical once the competition start to use social media outlets. The key to the use of the internet and social media outlets is always provide accurate information and superb customer service. Never forget to cater to your students and their needs.

References
1st Act DUI School (2015). Retrieved from https://instagram.com/1actduischool/
Brown, A. (2003, July 3). Bringing Driver Education into the 21st Century. Retrieved from JoshuaBrownFoundation.org: https:// www.joshuabrownfoundation.org/Goals.htm and https:// www.joshuabrownfoundation.org/Joshua.htm
Cunha, M. (2015, January 19). 6 Media Marketing Strategies to Drastically Improve Your
Efforts in 2014. Retrieved from WordStream.com http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/
2015/01/19/social-media-marketing-plan
Department of Driver Services. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.dds.ga.gov/joshua/index.aspx https://www.dds.ga.gov/dui/schoolmatrix.aspx https://www.dds.ga.gov/dui/
Driver Safety LLC (2015). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/drivesaferllc/ defensive-driving/ Fish, M. (2007, April 18). Joshua Robert “Joshua’s Law Brown(1985-2003). Retrieved from Findgrave.com: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18995413
Gibson, J., & Whiteman, L. (2012). DrivAbility: teaching medical aspects of driving. Clinical Teacher, 9(3), 164-167.
Harre, N., & Field, J., (1998). Safe driving education programs at school: Lessons from New
Zealand. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 22(4), 447-450.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/
Lee, K. (2015, July 20). How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan from Scratch. Retrieved from BlogBufferApp.com: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-marketing-plan
L.M. (1997, May 20). People on the move are going back to driving school. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/
North Georgia DUI School. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/ northgeorgiaduischoolinc/?fref=ts
Peachtree DUI School (2015). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/peachtreedui