Social Media and Blogging for Dealers

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Nice article Ryan. You have to look at the social medias as Public Relations on speed. PR used to take a really long time and was extremely expensive. And PR for car dealers was typically a defensive tactic most of the time.

Old model: customer goes on news broadcast saying nasty things about you. Hire Public Relations agency. Through PR Agency press release are made to the local newspaper and news stations. Letters are sent out, etc. etc.

Cost: Money, Brains, Luck, and Time

New model: online media is free so we're proactive. Speaking to our customers before they're ever thinking about us. If someone is upset, you might catch it before it ever escalates. In the meantime you're learning more about your customers and they're enjoying talking to you because you're not trying to sell them something.

Costs: Brains and Time

 

[Ryan G]

That is sage input Alex and a good retort that addresses Jake's question above. Not to say you won't generate leads from these tools, quite the contrary you will generate leads and they will be higher in quality as you hone your process. But making leads your ultimate goal bypasses the spirit of the game. Thank you Alex.

 

[Scott Hepburn]

Thanks, Ryan, for sharing your insights. As much as I hate the strategy vs. tactics debate (most people who invoke the debate couldn't tell you the difference between the two), it's very relevant for auto dealers.

Social media tools are easy enough to master. Knowing how to respond to a critic with a blog, whether it's okay to jump into a conversation about your brand, and whether it's okay to ask for someone's business on Twitter is the tough part.

The best dealers take the time to listen first, and to have a well thought out plan for engaging with customers, critics and enthusiasts.

 

[Sid Savage Auto Dealer Supply]

Great article, I agree that determining the right process to partake in is very important to the increased success of the business.

 

[Richard (blog)]

If you are expecting to sell cars the "old fashion" way with social media, you will be sadly disappointed. When I say "old fashion", I'm talking Internet sales.

Whether you like it or not, your customers now discuss, review and share your brand with each other and it will continue to become more prevalant. Simply put, your brand is now in the hands of your customers, not you.

The goal with social media is to be part of the conversation. Having your dealership engaged in conversation that is open to the world provides alot of credibility and trust. Something that will ultimately result in more sales.

As Alex stated above, it's proactive and free PR. Those that take advantage of it today will see it pay dividends tomorrow.

 

[DigitalRalph.com]

Ryan, thank you for an insightful article, and of course, the honorable mention you shared referencing both Jeff and Myself, as well as our blogs (Jeff) and communities (Ralph). I have been blessed with getting some funding from a car company that was brave enough to support developing a strategy for dealers to get engaged with social media and social marketing. Sure, everyone has their favorites, with some people taking Twittering to a new level of stature for 140 characters per tweet... Still other dealers have done remarkable jobs with Facebook and YouTube... All worthy efforts. But the most long lasting, high impact approach I have helped progressive car dealers (with a little OEM funding for all that travel) and leveraged specially developed OEM social media assets to create a "network" for several dealers that is yielding various results, all of which the dealers seem quite excited and happy with. The idea is to have a hub and spoke strategy. For example, Twitter is a spoke, not a hub. We set up one, or more, Twitter accounts for certain dealer asset streams... For example, inventory deletions and additions. Each Tweet is a car that was sold, with description and selling price... Actual. Each new inbound new or used vehicle going into inventory is a tweet. Other Twitter accounts send Tweets out that describe the latest activity in the dealer's online community. The community is the hub for our system... Examples of community sites include:

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www.myjeepcommunity.com

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www.fordcommunity.com

And, we have about a dozen more prototype installations. Basically, we use database mining to generate the invitations after we flush out the sites with content, most of which is automatically updated daily via OEM provided asset distribution widgets, RSS feeds and Photo Galleries and slide shows. We also have developed some great inside tracks to OEM supplied Video content that is hosted within the Hub Community and then fed out to the various "name brand" social media UGC sites using as much automation as possible, but often times requiring some level of human interaction... I guess that's why they call it "social"!

 

[YourWebGurus]

I'm trying to figure out what is a good realistic goal for social media.... is it realistic to drive 500 uniques per month additional from social media? If so, how long should that goal take to achieve and how many man hours per week is probably needed?

Any insight would be apprciated.

 

[MBR Marketing Auto Dealer Supplies]

Using twitter, myspace, facebook, etc... is not a magic bullet. On the internet, content is king. If you provide people with valuable information, they will patronize your business. A twitter account with tweets about an auto dealer's inventory will not accumulate many followers and will not result in customer loyalty. A twitter account that publishes honest tips about vehicle maintenance or how to purchase a car can help a company attract new customers.

 

[Ryan G]

One possible use for Twitter (and facebook for that matter) is to offer savings and incentives exclusive to followers/fans/members. This way, you give these sites utility experienced only by being engaged with your dealership on these sites.

In my experience, it takes much effort and persistence to truly engage your dealership audience in social media, but I think that is because it is so new not only to dealers but also to customers as well.

 

[Nick Cybela]

Very nice article, I think you touched on lots of great points.

What are the key areas you'd suggest they use? Which of course is my leading question into recommending the right resource (like Cuneo's team) for developing those KPI's, processes and goals as well as reporting and analytics to develop ongoing initiatives. Are there other vendors or consulting agencies you'd recommend?

I often find that dealers can be too focused on direct sales. Social is less a prospecting tool as it is a retention. Would you rather have a customer that knows and loves you, or have to spend the advertising to get a new one? Would you rather be an expert in the field, or a reactionary?

It's worthwhile to mention that dealers really don't need to be on MySpace anymore because it's changing from a social network to a media portal. Also, Facebook has made some updates to business profiles and pages to be more engaging.

I'm always curious how dealers remain socially savvy, ensure their efforts are maximizing their SEO potential, and considering the best practices and processes for encouraging their customers to submit positive reviews on the sites like Edmunds.com and DealerRater.com with everything else going on. Those will be increasingly important both as Gen-Y ages and as more maps/GPS begins to take reviews into account.

Social is definitely not something that turns around overnight. There are several components in my mind.

1) Social monitoring-- finding the advocates and haters and addressing them as appropriate.

2) Reputation management-- making sure your identity is positive: in search, reviews, and on the niche forums

3) Customer loyalty-- ensuring you keep top of mind with your current customers

Note that prospecting really isn't in there. You could certainly do service specials and hope to grab a few new customers but there are far more efficient ways of gaining new customers.