Setting up your dealership social profiles - who do you use?

[Jeff Kershner]

Setting up your dealership social profiles - who do you use?

With every new social website like facebook, pinterest, foursquare, comes a new user profile.

Too often I'm in the middle of setting up a new user for a new social share/media website, only to stop in the middle of the registration to determine whose information I'm going to use.

Let's take foursquare for example. It makes no sense to associate the account to "me". I already have a foursqare account, not to mention what if I would move on and no longer work with the dealership. I would then need to relinquish the account and move it over to someone else - if that would even happen. Plus many times moving a social profile over to another owner has proven to be a complete headache.

What do you do?

Unbeknown to the GM/owner of my Nissan store - he has a few social profiles floating around (actually they're not unbeknown, but more less forgotten about).

Let's be real - trying to get a GM or owner to manage and set up a new social profile can easily discourage one from taking the next step.

In the end I believe the Owner of the dealers should be/own the user profile for the social sites. Therefore I have a separate designated email associated to the owner (with the email forwarded to my account). I use the owners info and photo for the profile (with his consent of course).

All these social profiles can become quite messy - so I keep everything logged in a spread sheet and share with the owner and comptroller.

This is what I do -what do you do?

Whose information do you use to build out the profile for your dealerships social media websites?

What issues have you run into using your own profiles to claim business profiles on sites like foursquare?

 

[john.quinn]

For Facebook, although our Dealerships page started with me as the lone admin, I made sure there were may admins added along the way. So when I left, there was no problem -- one or any of the others could step-in seamlessly.

Have NO IDEA if that flexibility exists on other sites... My doctor told me to stay away from Twitter and 4Square and Pinterest for fear of contracting Socialitis... (penicillin shot ineffective at curing...)

 

[ryanabbott]

I agree with JQuinn. Our Facebook page has myself as the Admin. If I were to ever leave (which I hope I never do), I can switch over the Admin rights to someone else. My email is tied in to so many things here that it would be a nightmare for the next person. I am invested 150% to my position though and I can't imagine working anywhere else, so hopefully I won't have to worry about it!

 

[DrewAment]

Just a side note - about vendors. Found this on a dealers Facebook page. 3 tiles from different vendors. I really dislike the fact the the vendor is using the dealer's Facebook app integration it as a branding platform for their product. Do the first 2 really tell, or give the customer a reason to click on them?

My hats off to DealerRater - they did it right. Nice call to action. :thumbup:

Check your Facebook apps that have integrated with your dealership -- do they create action? or brand the vendor?

 

[TuneyFish]

This is a tough one to manage, I'd say the best way is to create a single gmail account specifically used to register, claim and manage the accounts. Then just setup email forwarding to your primary email so you can get notifications. I'd also use the same email to setup google alerts for the dealership name to be notified when your brand is mentioned in a forum or in a review, etc.

Hootsuite is a good one because you can manage and post from one central location, as well as add users to the team so your not duplicating posts, and you can assign tasks to people on the team. For example, someone mentions your dealership on twitter, you can assign the task of responding to the person responsible for social media at that store and ensure they responded.