Here I disagree 100%. Social Media - to really be effective at a car deal level is easy. It is the same thing as selling a car to your wife's co-worker, son's basketball coach or someone on the church council. It is the same thing all successful salespeople do. Interact with the community around you. It is just a different community - and it happens to be infinitely easier to interact with.
There is no game plan, no money needs to be spent. It is as simple as, "Hi. How are you. My name is Clay. Nice to meet you." and then, at some point in time they might ask what you do. And then a year or two later they may say - "Hey, you have any deals on Highlanders?" And then you can work a deal and make a sale.
This is no different. Anybody trying to spend a bunch of time and money on making social media a marketing playground is going to fail miserably. Social media is anti-marketing. In the end, all you will end up doing is making a bunch of friends wtih a bunch of other marketing people - and everyone will be happy they have 1,000,000 friends or followers. Too bad their message won't go anywhere and they won't be selling anything.
Embrace social media for what it is.
Here's a quality question ... Has Toyota's effort in social media trickled down into qualified leads or sales for Muller Toyota?