Is there Egg on your FaceBook?

[davidmoon]

I use every tool available to make a big purchase decision. Although I'm not going to poo-poo a company that doesn't have a FB page. But if it helps me better understand their reputation of good service, it's a plus as a consumer.

Car shoppers do research online more so than any other purchases. Social media is a good way to support and control reputation.

 

[JohnScott]

Social media is a good way to support and control reputation.

The article on front page "carmax twitter" has some good examples of managing your rep using social media.

 

[Andrew Ward]

This is a great thread. Reputation management is becoming much more visible with Google recent changes that link 3rd party reviews with their organic results. Since over 80+% of car buyers use the Internet as key resources in their purchase, dealers most get proactive with managing their reputations. But given the rising popularity of FaceBook and that most personal pages are private FaceBook is a real challenge. The most influential reviews are those that FaceBook users write on their personal pages. These have the same weight as a personal referral and yet your dealership has no way of knowing of the existence of the conversation or participating in it.

So work on improving your people and processes to insure that you set proper customer expectations up front and than consistently meet those expectations. I don't know about you, but I want to buy a car from a dealer that listens to me and takes care of me without me having to waste more time complaining online in order to get some satisfaction.

 

[joe.pistell]

I imagine that it starts like this. "Quick, quick, we need to get into Social Media. Everybody is talking about it and we NEED to have a presence in order to keep up with everybody else. Start us up one of those FaceBook Fanpage thingies. What do you mean you don't have time to manage it? Just start the ball rolling and we'll figure out the rest of it later."

Great, the ball is now rolling and gathering speed and dragging your dealership's reputation down the hill.

Ever see the Wiley Coyote chase the Roadrunner at full speed off a cliff? You know that look on his face as he hangs suspended in the air the exact moment he realizes that there is nothing between him and a painful plummet? Well, look in the mirror, friends, the Roadrunner is your Fanpage and you might just see Wiley Coyote staring back at you. Don't look down now, it will only make it worse.

I'm not a social media guru, but seeing a lot of dealer's efforts has taught me one thing. Social Media, specifically your Fanpage, is not a "set it and forget it" effort. The Facebook stats page says the average user has 130 friends, I'd say the people willing to write a negative review of your business likely have more. One of the folks in the following examples had 919. One of these examples has multiple users commenting bringing that negative comment into another sphere of user influence for every new comment in the thread. Wake up Wiley Coyote, your neck is starting to stretch out!

The point of this lighthearted post is to make sure that if you have a Fanpage you have restricted, or at the very least, moderated content in your reviews tab. PM me if you don't know what I'm talking about and I will be glad to explain. ACME can't help you recover from this:

EX 1:

EX 2:

The owner did get involved here, but 30 days late. No resolution was mentioned.

EX 3:

Ryan,

14 months later, this is still the best ever title line in DR history!! Love your work!!

 

[ed.brooks]

FACT: Social media is like any other from of electronic advertising. If left alone and not followed up on, it will provide you nothing as many Dealer websites do nothing for them.

If you think of SOCIAL Media as "electronic advertising" you are bound to fail (in my opinion). Social is designed for two-way communication, NOT a one-way push.

 

[joe.pistell]

If you think of SOCIAL Media as "electronic advertising" you are bound to fail (in my opinion). Social is designed for two-way communication, NOT a one-way push.

Nailed it Ed.

Way back, when I was one of the rare voices raining on the FaceBook parade. So many decision makers were totally missing this simple fact that Ed's pointing out.

WHO WANTS TO FRIEND A CAR DEALER? Or, in other words, if you're store is FaceBook'ing now and you've got little to no comments and likes, then YOU are pissing time and money away. You're singing in the desert and no one cares.

 

[joe.pistell]

Dealer's think FaceBook and then somehow think TV and Radio, then they think FaceBook again and then they smile. They totally miss the simple fact that the Billion people on FaceBook are ISOLATED from each other in tiny rooms of about 150 pals each. They also forget that the 150 pals are ALL OVER THE USA.

FaceBook is grassroots, not broadcast.

Grassroots only works if you or your product is UNIQUE. Most car dealers think they're unique... hahaha NOT.


Here it is... 2 years old now:

"May the Social Media fairies continue to spew rainbows and unicorns so all my competitors take their eye off the ball."​