[Alex Snyder]

Dealers - has facebook sourced you any extra car deals?


Vendors - I respectfully ask that you DO NOT answer the poll in regards to whether you have sourced any business for your product off facebook, but I welcome you to answer on behalf of any of your clients who are not participating on DealerRefresh.

I just got back from a Dealer.com visit and when I visit they ask me to spend some time with their Account Management/Support team for some Q/A time. The biggest question I was asked was "should dealers be on facebook" and I not only gave my opinion, but promised I would write a DealerRefresh Blog article that they (anyone) could use as a reference for dealers who ask if they should start a facebook account or fan page. I don't want to only include my own experiences though, so I'm asking for your help first.

I would also like to see any opinions or best practices you may have for doing business on facebook. Vendors - this is something you can talk about in regards to how you've faired on sourcing clients from facebook for your non-driveable product.

[Jerry Thibeau]

Alex,

I use it to promote my business on a daily basis. For the last few months I have been sending friend invites to dealerships at a rate of about 10 per day. I just recently added a fanpage and I'll invite dealerships and industry professionals to become a fan. I've posted some links which are generating hits to my website, I am able to track this by using Google Analytics. As a result I've had some dealers take the mystery shop challenge and have closed a deal. In my opinion it's only going to get better. Many dealers are not aware they need phone training right now, but hopefully when that day comes and the bulb turns on, they'll remember Phone-up Ninjas.

I also tried the FB adword pay feature, but did not find any value with it since the bounce rate was so high. Last time I did it there was not a good way to drill down to the client type I was looking for. Until they come up with a better way to search out the right clientele, I'll not be using that feature.

[ghen]

we only use facebook for SEO and brand recognition. I would expect facebook to sell a car about as much as a billboard would.

[Mitch Gallant]

We've sold a unit where there was some interaction on FB then boom, she showed up as an inventory lead from our website so I've answered "not sure if true source" We are however excited about 2 Fiesta leads that are stirring around and interacting on FB, no doubt a result of the amazing work by the Ford digital marketing team.

That reminds me to get a couple Fiesta posts on our blog and send them an email. *applies yet another sticky to the monitor*

[Jerry Thibeau]

Originally Posted by ghen

I would expect facebook to sell a car about as much as a billboard would.

Some billboards are better than others!

Let's assume you have 1000 (achievable number) friends on FB who drive cars. If the average person purchases every 4 years (it's actually 4.1), that means in any given year you'll have 250 friends who might be in the market. That works out to be 21 people per month. Just like birthdays that pop up on your wall, these people will be in the market for an automobile. Now if I am like my new pal Ken Beam and I am posting videos and specials on my facebook page, I've got to think some of those people are going to contact me when the time is right.

I like to think of facebook as an interactive CRM tool. That's why it's only as matter of time before a CRM company launches a facebook interaction tool. Come on CRM vendors, who's going to be first? I want to see this yesterday, drop what you're doing and build it already!

So back to the numbers game, I bet If I were working in a dealership today, I could have 5000 local market facebook friends within a year. You wouldn't catch me looking out the window for an up.

The math on 5000 people, well that's 1250 per year looking, or 104 per month. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to generate a six figure income in this business.

All that I just wrote above is a small part of my 8 hour "Phone-up Ninjas" presentation to salespeople.

[Jerry Thibeau]

So imagine the look I give a dealer when they tell me they've blocked facebook in their dealership.

[Jarrett]

Pushing Honda's owner loyalty discount for Accord and Civic via facebook. Hard to say if any floor traffic was generated from it.

[JoePistell]

IMO, FB is intimate, not corporate. It's best deployed from a reps desk, not the marketing dept.

FB Fan Page zelots, what is the "quality" of YOUR facebook visitor as seen on Google Analytics? Here are my numbers, I don't see high ROI here...

Face Book

• Avg. Time on Site: 02:12
• UsedCarKing.com Site Avg: 00:07:28 (-70.41%)

• Pages/Visit: 2.88
  UsedCarKing.com Site Avg: 13.38 (-78.45%)

• Bounce Rate 65.12%
  UsedCarKing.com Site Avg: 13.58% (379.61%)

...looks like tire kickers to me.

[JoePistell]

From my desk, FB has value, but it comes with a cost. I am a one man show and my time is not infinite. I have to allocate time where it will produce the highest ROI.

I challenge you to a Marketing ROI duel.

How many of you FB zelots are creatively working and optimizing your web site to generate leads? (Alex dosent count, he's ALWAYS way ahead of me and is ALWAYS the exception ;-)

But seriously, think about it. 98% of your web site visitors DO NOT buy from you.
#1). Why work on driving referral traffic to your site when 98% of your effort will... go elsewhere?
#2). If your store sells 200 cars a month, then look at your Google Analytics records, you have roughly 9800 unique shoppers pawing around your site that DID NOT buy from you... EVERY MONTH.

Compare 5-20 hours of your "creative FB social building efforts" and place that time and effort on working your silent un-sold majority on your site.

IMO, FaceBook is a billboard (aka branding tool). I will work "building our brand" after I've work every angle I can think of on our main site.

[JoePistell]

Originally Posted by Jerry Thibeau

... Now if I am like my new pal Ken Beam and I am posting videos and specials on my facebook page, I've got to think some of those people are going to contact me when the time is right.

Exactly how I see it. Person to person.
Intimate Connections = FaceBook.
Broadcast Messages ≠ FaceBook