What Defines A Successful Automotive Social Media Strategy

[kcar]

Social media DOES NOT sell cars. There I said it, it NEVER WILL sell cars. It's a way for customers to stay updated at their leisure and occasionally post when they have complaints or praise. Show me car dealers who are selling tons of cars on social networking sites, and you'll find absolutely none. It's another way for vendors to make $ off dealers.

Don't invest a ton of time or money into it, you'll NEVER see it back.

 

[kcar]

And people saying social networking will expand or become some dominating force are wrong, they've all been seeing a decline in usage for awhile now.. At some point they will not be strong anymore. For what it is, if you have a facebook up now or 5 years down the road, it's really not going to matter, minus a few hundred likes, which can easily be built. People can't see your posts/updates made YEARS ago unless they spend hours digging through it. Social networking now just isn't beneficial for car dealers in terms of selling cars.. Is it really that important to have a "Facebook" page, is it going to kill your business without one, is it going to skyrocket your sales with one? NO. Just stop with all this social networking is the next big thing for car dealers, and if they don't have one "they are quote, out of the game".. I think you get the point, it's not worth anything.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Social media DOES NOT sell cars. There I said it, it NEVER WILL sell cars. It's a way for customers to stay updated at their leisure and occasionally post when they have complaints or praise. Show me car dealers who are selling tons of cars on social networking sites, and you'll find absolutely none. It's another way for vendors to make $ off dealers.

Don't invest a ton of time or money into it, you'll NEVER see it back.

Is there a way to end this thread? We're beating a dead horse.

 

[ddavis]

Social media DOES NOT sell cars. There I said it, it NEVER WILL sell cars. It's a way for customers to stay updated at their leisure and occasionally post when they have complaints or praise. Show me car dealers who are selling tons of cars on social networking sites, and you'll find absolutely none. It's another way for vendors to make $ off dealers.

Don't invest a ton of time or money into it, you'll NEVER see it back.

Damn Kcar, I don't think that being a motivational speaker is in your future.

Actually, I feel that social media might be a better fit under the consumer relations department. A company that offers these services is less likely to target consumer relations because they don't have nearly the budget. Because customer reviews are important to the dealership, are you willing to leave this to someone else, inside the dealership, other than you?
As soon as you say social media can't sell cars, some innovative individual will prove you wrong. I haven't seen it yet.

 

[DavidJohnson]

Social media DOES NOT sell cars. There I said it, it NEVER WILL sell cars. It's a way for customers to stay updated at their leisure and occasionally post when they have complaints or praise. Show me car dealers who are selling tons of cars on social networking sites, and you'll find absolutely none. It's another way for vendors to make $ off dealers.

Don't invest a ton of time or money into it, you'll NEVER see it back.

You're right of course, social media doesn't sell cars, and anybody using it that way is using it wrong. To me social media is all about connecting and building relationships with both the dealers community and it's customers. Social media is all about influencing word-of-mouth and creating brand loyalty.

Social media doesn't sell cars anymore than the phone does, their both just communication tools, it's how their used that will dictate any amount of success gleamed from the use of either.

 

[kcar]

You're right of course, social media doesn't sell cars, and anybody using it that way is using it wrong. To me social media is all about connecting and building relationships with both the dealers community and it's customers. Social media is all about influencing word-of-mouth and creating brand loyalty.

Social media doesn't sell cars anymore than the phone does, their both just communication tools, it's how their used that will dictate any amount of success gleamed from the use of either.

I agree with those statements in bold.

Aside from that, read an article about a dealership growing 230%+ in sales because of social media and studied their process. Which turned out they don't even have over 1K likes, their second page has 20 likes, their page isn't really that active or teeming with conversations. They ran a few commercials for a "free iPad" (how original and creative) by telling them to write car dealer horror stories, and they barely got 10 people posting about it. I've been following them with their social networking development before they even got started, and it's not legit; I'm not buying it. It's another way to glorify something that people are hyping up, but getting let down on. Any person with a spark, is going to shine and people are going to overshadow the truth with huge false benefits.

Point is, I'm sick of people saying social media is the future, it's going to explode! It's going to define the way dealers do business. All a bunch of lies to get vendor sales and things to talk and debate about. The only thing it's going to do is: Connect with customers and keep them updated with short messages, influence them to write about positive or negative experiences, and occasionally remind them you are still in business. As far as brand loyalty goes, I've seen all the stats, and I don't really agree that it's going to be a solid form of keeping brand loyalty, it's a very small way to, but it's not the determining factor.

Okay; time to move on.

 

[kcar]

Damn Kcar, I don't think that being a motivational speaker is in your future.

Actually, I feel that social media might be a better fit under the consumer relations department. A company that offers these services is less likely to target consumer relations because they don't have nearly the budget. Because customer reviews are important to the dealership, are you willing to leave this to someone else, inside the dealership, other than you?
As soon as you say social media can't sell cars, some innovative individual will prove you wrong. I haven't seen it yet.

I'm not saying that since it doesn't sell cars don't use it. It has other small benefits, but it's not #1, #2, or even #10 in things to focus on in terms of being important. Also, if someone posts a review about you on Facebook, four months later when their post in all the way down, you really think a customer is going to click 100+ times to get down to the bottom to find it? No. It's going to be hidden, and no customer will ever find it after that point. When can discuss other people seeing it right when it's posted, but that's another story.

 

[kcar]

Is there a way to end this thread? We're beating a dead horse.

Yes, leaving it right now.

 

[davidmoon]

Social media does not fit with many dealer marketing practices. If you only find value in strategy that's instantly gratifying, don't waste your time. It's NOT a sales channel for the industry.

 

[Joshua Campbell]

I get over 200 customers a month that get to my website through my Facebook page. It can be a great tool if combined with a strong branding campaign. Facebook is the CRM of the future. Everyone and everything about them is on Facebook, and they just love to share. If you can harness a local community of friends you have a great free advertising medium. It's not easy, but when done right is better than word of mouth. http://www.facebook.com/JoelDeNooyer and I don't pay a dime for it. Now thats ROI