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Facebook: Making People Appear Busy At Work Since 2008.

Katie

Over the Curb
Apr 10, 2010
71
0
First Name
Katie
Being in the business, of course I network with fellow dealers often. I understand the use of Facebook and Twitter. Heck, I use them. I can't stand however, when dealers utilize Facebook for obscure updates. Example:

"We have a special today."

or

"It's sunny out!"

I know branding is important, and casual conversation is equally as important, but updates with no pertinent information grind my gears like no other.

Sometimes I feel like they get Facebook just to have another medium under their belt and have something to "look busy doing".

[/End Rant.]
 
Hi Katie,

I think you're making the same error most sales oriented businesses make when trying to utilize Facebook. I blame mainstream media and hype for creating the confusion. Creating a Facebook account for a Dealership won't hurt, but it won't help a whole lot.

However, if you can convince your sales staff to utilize their own accounts and begin prospecting their 'friends' then you will have stumbled upon the game changing secret to leveraging 'social networks'.

Do you see the difference? Who wants a 'Dealership' as a friend? It doesn't make sense. It defies logic, yet Dealerships are trying it every day, and most get no where with it and don't understand why. The success they do achieve is almost never what they desire. This is because people don't want to be friends with Businesses or with anyone who is constantly pushing marketing material at them.

If individual members of a Sales Team leverage their social networks and prospect from their friends then the results are dramatically different. The key is to use a soft sell approach. Instead of a business pounding you with marketing, you have a flesh and blood 'friend' who is doing nothing more than sharing the fact that today at work they got in 5 new mustangs (insert pictures) and how cool they were.

It is not uncommon for me to see sales people sell 10 cars to people they know just through Facebook or through several forums (FYI - forums are better than Facebook at generating leads...if you're on the right forum that is).
 
BINGO!!!

I do, since I sell phone training services to dealers.

Jerry,

Like that you pointed out that vendors want Dealers for "friends" and salespeople need customers as friends.....or friends of friends(2nd Generation contacts are great suspects).

So many Dealers are modeling their own Social Media strategy after their vendors.........no need for other Dealers in our friend pool, I am happy to sell our vendors that may or nor be "friends" but my personal opinion as well as the strategy we have adopted is to have our Salespeople leverage their individual networks by sometimes sharing our newsletter or maybe a fresh trade that has something special about it.

Nobody wants or needs to harass their network to buy a car.......but nobody likes to hear about their "friend" buying a car elsewhere because they forgot or worse, didn't know they sold cars. Share something Automotive related, Reviews from happy customers, Funny stories or PG rated videos, don't try to sell something and answer Automotive questions that come up so when someone does need a vehicle you are the natural answer.........that's Car Sales Web Social Style.

We'll take selling vehicles to people our people know over stacking our Dealership Facebook page with vendors all day long.