When Your Dealers Social Media Goes Extremely Wrong

[Jeff Kershner]

I was cruising around this evening looking for some examples of dealers knocking it dead in Social Media.

Boy, did I hit a landmine?

Who the heck is running the social media presence for the Phil Long Auto Group???

Dealers - if you decide to get into "social"...

1. Be sure you're working with the right vendor if you're going to outsource this venture.
   
2. If you decide to get in then GET OUT - take some time and DELETE your social presence.
   
3. Do a freaking search for your dealers name every now and then (or you can be obsessive like me and do it almost every day).
   
4. Add your #4 in the comments!!

I've never seen worse case of self inflicted unfavorable online reputation.




WARNING - before you jump on the read more link - images could be offensive.



Prescriptions Drugs Anyone?



Ladies?



I guess it's better than having your inventory fed through twitter?

 

[DrivingSales - Jared]

Ouch - A powerful message.

When people ask me how much social media they can outsource I tell them to think of their kids. You can hire a babysitter to lighten the load, but you would never outsource 100% of your relationship with your kids. Your relationship with your customers or "your community" is the most important thing for your dealership. Keep a close eye on it.

Its your brand. Own it and stay on top of it.

Thanks for example jeff.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

That's a fantastic analogy Jared. I'm going to borrow it if you don't mind....full credit to you.

 

[Guest]

I love this article, well done! Jared your comment is spot on. This catastrophe would have been avoided if they had a Facebook mom. I became "friends" with my Mom on Facebook and she's like my moral content police. If any inappropriate content gets posted by myself or others I get a scolding text (almost immediately) It's a quite reliable system. Almost like Google alerts but with more shame.

 

[Brian Pasch]

Great post Jeff and a strong reminder for dealer principals to be educated on how to inspect their online visibility.

This is a great example of why it is important to inspect the work of vendors and brand messaging. Others possible landmines include ex-employee attacks, competitors attacks, and disgruntled customers posting blogs about the dealership.

I've seen many ugly things, but this example is at the top of the list.

If this article does just one thing, I hope it causes all stakeholders at dealerships to invest just 5 minutes a week doing a few searches on their brand name in Google, Twitter, and Facebook. Also, to click on the review sites rolled-up in Google Places.

Yes, there are tools to automate this but dealers may not want to login to another dashboard, read another email, etc. The hands on 5 minute a week experience is much better. It creates a brand inspection discipline.

 

[Glen Garvin]

Great post, Jeff... The scary reality is that so many dealers are in this same boat with no awareness or knowledge. When and if they do, so many don't know what to do or where to turn. Good analogy, Jared.

 

[WorldDealer]

Great post, Jeff; thanks for sharing this important example of how NOT to handle your social media presence.
It's important for dealerships to be aware of the fact that they DO have an online presence, whether they realize it, or are a part of it, or not.
Share the work when you can - have a reliable company help promote and monitor your brand, invest in some solid advertising - on and offline - and make sure to be adding valuable content and speaking to and with your audience consistently. That way, if you come across bad reviews or spam, you can catch it immediately.
And most importantly, as your blog post demonstrates so clearly, at the end of the day, make sure you personally inspect your dealership's online reputation.

 

[Alexfsch (blog)]

As a side note, this is exactly what can happen to your online community if spammers find it and you don't stay on top of it (and even if you do stay on top of it, they can make your life a living ____). There are a number of ways to fight spam on an automated basis and investing in them can be well worth the money so something like this never happens.

 

[Terrence Gordon]

WOW!

Disclaimer: As their used car website provider, it wasn't us. We will bring it to the store's attention. However, I couldn't relocate the "ladies" page

Nice find, Jeff!

 

[Tired of the Hype]

Ha, ha, ha. LMFAO! What I think is funniest about this are the comments from people who provide outsourced Social Media services... In the end, if a dealer has to fake Social Interactions (by using an outside company), then they have no business being in Social Media.