Reviews on Personal FaceBook Walls or Google

[Jerry Thibeau]

I like the digital framed picture idea- can I use it?

Dealers have been doing this for a while. There's even a thread here with some great examples. Go search it out.

 

[davidmoon]

Reviews on Facebook are not going to happen without some deep customer incentive. Even so, It's going to be better to quality control opinion with a photo wall, as Jerry suggested, or an in-store short video review that an administrator can post on the wall is best. Email the customer and let them know where it's posted and hope they "like" or share with their friends.

The best reviews will come at the time of purchase. Offer a restaurant gift card if they participate in a short video, and take a photo.

 

[joe.pistell]

If your looking for FB best practices, and no dedicated Social Media staff, IMO no one does better than Jesse and MB Motorsports http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/gaining-facebook-friends-1317-2.html#post10882

I am not worthy

 

[Loun]

Anytime you can get your dealership mentioned in a positive light its a good thing. Having customers review you on their personal walls may work for branding but as mentioned the chances of it being put in from of people ready to buy are slim. In that sense google reviews would win out on this one.

You may want to take a photo with the smiling customer and their new car. Get them to sign a release to put it on your dealership facebook and tell them you will email them a link / tag them in the photo to make it easier for them to share it with their friends. Then use the caption area to add the customer review. It will build content on your FB page, it will get sent out to all of their friends when they are tagged in the photo, and then possibly get sent out again if they decide to "share" the photo.

 

[Andrew Ward]

Anytime you can get your dealership mentioned in a positive light its a good thing. Having customers review you on their personal walls may work for branding but as mentioned the chances of it being put in from of people ready to buy are slim. In that sense google reviews would win out on this one. .

That is exactly right. Both are long term strategies. Reviews picked up by Google drive short term decisions for sure, but reviews on facebook carry the influence of a personal referral. Dealers that can do both will increase the competitiveness of both their short term and their long term game.

 

[Andrew Ward]

Reviews on Facebook are not going to happen without some deep customer incentive. . . .

Offer a restaurant gift card if they participate in a short video, and take a photo.

Your first point supports the thought that a post on a personal wall carries a lot of power.

As to the last point incentives definitely increases a happy customers motivation to write a review, just as long as the incentive is for the review and not the content of the review. Paying someone to write a good review for promotional display without disclosure is illegal otherwise its just advertising.

 

[davidmoon]

The wall is a very personal space, and you'll find that people are reluctant to use it for commercial promotion.

Let me back up and edit my thoughts. Rather than a review, if you came up with a simple tagline like, "I just bought my new ride at Royal Nissan, where they treated me like Royalty!" Have them stand in front of the car, get a release, post it online, send them an email. Something like that is going to be more likely to be shared in the personal space on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It'll show enthusiasm and a positive experience to prospective customers and a little bragging rights for the buyer. If they don't want to be videoed, take a photo with the tag as a caption. It's a win/win value proposition.

 

[Andrew Ward]

The wall is a very personal space, and you'll find that people are reluctant to use it for commercial promotion.

Exactly. That is why a review on a person's facebook wall is so valuable, it won't be construed as an ad.

Consumer reviews make great content for social media. It's easy content to create, it very credible and it's not viewed as a sales message - a very nice social media fit!

I like the idea of giving FB users the ability to post either a "structured" message with a link to their actual review or to post their actual review.

 

[Andrew Ward]

Andrew - Do you mind if I change the poll to reflect Google reviews along with your facebook options?

Alex.

This poll has garnered many valuable comments, but misses my original point, which was to spark a conversation that brings to light the perceived value, risks and challenges of having customers post reviews on to their personal facebook walls.

I didn't mean it to be an either or scenario, but rather - what is the incremental value of having a review that gets pick up on Google also posting to a persons Facebook wall?

Can we change the poll to reflect this?

 

[Alex Snyder]

The way you originally worded the question it seemed you were asking whether to concentrate efforts on Google or facebook, but the poll questions weren't very clear with the question being asked.

What would you like the poll questions to be? It is more about the responses anyway - and those have been great :thumbup:

By the way, I only use polls to build stats for something later. The trick to them is making them as simple and concise as possible, which is mostly in the wording.