Twitter has been a great tool for our dealership to connect with local businesses, organizations, and charities. Just 1 retweet from our local Downtown Alliance (who we followed and in turn followed us) got 1,000 additional people to potentially see and interact with our dealership's content. Our local pizza place frequently retweets and "Likes" our stuff as well. We happily return the favor because it builds good will, shows we're involved with the community, and gives us the ability to put content out there that's not "car" related. We still have a long way to go with Twitter but we're taking small steps forward every day.
Can I just say that I'm a little frustrated with all of the vendors that come in and throw around the words 'SEO' and 'Social Media' in the same sentence without any real understanding of what they're talking about? I notice in the original post she mentioned that having a Twitter account would provide 'SEO value' -- to what extent? Please be more specific.
I always try to ask salespeople this question and most of them don't have a very good answer. Sure, the twitter page might show up on a branded keyword search below several other pertinent pages, but beyond that, what REAL SEO value does it provide? I understand that having a social presence is important, but is it really necessary for every salesperson to try and tell me that their service is great for SEO? Let's be honest here, you don't make a twitter account to boost your SEO. In our niche, having a strong twitter presence doesn't affect dealer website rankings very much. Let's just call it like it is and say that it's a branding tool.
/rant