Why Are Dealers STILL Not in Social Media?

[Mrs. Jones]

We have had great sucess with Facebook in our business. Our page has more fans than some of the large dealer groups I have looked at. I believe that is because we let everyone we talk to via email, in person, and over the phone know that we have a very interactive facebook page and it is a great place to view the pictures and testimonials of our customers. We even have the FB logo on our busiess cards as well as a Facebook Badge on every signature from the company email. We are looking at Facebook as a giant networking party and we are the hosts we invite as many people as we can and like to share information as well has have people get to know us as a company. Our entire business is about 70% internet and that is combined, Facebook and Website and other internet sources. Right now our Facebook is linked to the Twitter site, but we are changing that due to the fact that they are two different platforms and should be treated as such. Yes the salespeople get on Facebook for personal reasons, but they are also intrumental in gaining us fans, they have embraced the internet and as we tell our new hires-
We don't have an internet department. We are an internet dealership. We have embraced it and will use every aspect of it to our advantage. What new idea do you have to expand our internet presence?
They must be able to answer that question or they are not a fit for our team. We also don't have a whole lot of turnover. You are probably wondering if we can track sales to Facebook, well we have. We have gained a fans and within a few days they are contacting us via our webiste. This has happened twice in the last month. As far as traffic to our site last month FB was the #5 traffic driver and the #1 amount of time spent on the site at 22 min. Check out our FB page here:

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www.facebook.com

 

[Eric Miltsch (blog)]

@Jeff - Its still amazes how dealers, and even other businesses, still miss this mark.

While 99% of the people visiting this site understand the key tenets you spelled out above:

Branding and Awareness Opportunities
Search Engine Saturation
Build Link Popularity
Build Traffic to your Dealers Website
Interaction with the Public – Online Reputation

Most business owners either don't understand or "hear" what the this ultimately means with regards to improving their bottom line.

There is a direct relationship to the revenue generated by a company and their level of online engagement.

The results of the recent EgagementDB Study showed the highest engaged companies online saw higher year over year revenue increases than those companies who were not engaging their customers.

The most engaged companies saw revenue jump 18%, while the least engaged saw revenue drop by 6%.

Elements of engagement included:
Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
Wikis
Discussion Forums

Ultimately it all comes back to the bottom line. As time passes, it'll be easier to demonstrate the ROI for all of these efforts.

Nice thread Jeff.

Eric

 

[Steven Moore]

@ericka great job on your page. I love it that you are not that OEM dealership and that you are the pirates in the auto biz. More hustle and personality than you see in the big boys. You are the type of smallbiz folks that I have worked with my entire career and feel free to follow me on twitter @smallbiztwit. Again love the face you have put on your dealership. WOW

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Joe Pistell Social Media = Self Media. True true – Could you imagine a day when you could be hired (or fired) according to your online social status/worth? LOL

@Joe Webb “If dealers are not properly using it, social media serves no benefit.” Not only does it not serve a benefit, but IMO once you start something, you better be on board for the long run or it can have an adverse effect.

@Jim Bell – Nice job with your social

@Chris “but the customers I talk to don’t care – they just want the lowest price.” I hope you don’t truly believe that. Yes customers are looking for a price but I firmly believe most are looking for a great deal / value. And when value supersedes price, then the close becomes much easier. Customer are looking for someone they can feel confident in doing business with. Do you perhaps sell Honda's?

@Steven “It seems all the car guys care about or at least discuss is selling them. The best chance to engage and get them using your new tools is through service without a question.”

Dealers too often forget about the fixed ops side and focus all their marketing efforts on sales. That’s a huge mistake, not only with traditional but even more with social. Keep your customer engaged with your service offerings. Less likely they bounce or opt out.

@Erika Thanks for sharing!

@Eric Thanks for the stats and comments. “The most engaged companies saw revenue jump 18%, while the least engaged saw revenue drop by 6%.” There is no reason these percentages can not and do not apply to our business.

Side note: This is not a plug for DealerRater (since they are currently advertising here) BUT..they do offer the ability for you and your customers to post comments to your face book page. You can also grab the “post to facebook” link (use copy link) and post it to your facebook fan page as well! I through an example up on the DR fb fanpage DealerRefresh for reference.

Another quick note to THANK everyone that has comment so far. We've seen quite a few new contributors..so I thank everyone. Let's keep the comments coming!!

Why aren't dealers social networking? Or share you success story.

 

[Jennifer Schrader (blog)]

What it comes down to is getting the right person and the support for that department to engage further into the social media / marketing / branding of the dealership itself. It also comes down to having the time to do it. I still speak with dealers that have the Internet Manager sell, take calls, respond to leads which prevents them to update their specials let alone their social media.
Branding is huge and surely should be taken advantage of. I suggest all dealers take advantage of this is as it is their reputation that is held in the consumers hands.
Great post Jeff!

 

[Stan Sher (blog)]

Some dealers still just have no clue. A lot of dealers do not take time to read Digital Dealer or AutoSuccess or even visit sites like these to learn about best practices. Those are the same ones that are failing becausethey are set in their own ways. The few that are successful ad clueless are just plain lucky. I learned that you do not have to spend most of your day on facebook. To work it propery you only need maybe 20 minutes per day with logging in about 3 to 5 times to check out messages and make status changes as well as grow your network. This is what I have been doing. This is one of the things that I do in addition to the 1000 other tasks I have.

 

[DigitalRalph.com]

This has been a fascinating post to watch and the comments show many different perspectives. I especially like Jeff Kershner's summary with acknowledgment to each of the more significant commenters, and support Jeff's kudos and responses. However, I would like to pose a counter observation to Alex's original assumption... While two years ago there was certainly cause to ask such a question, today as we are in the last quarter of 2009 the issue posed by Joe Webb is far more relevant than asking why more dealers are not yet using social media marketing tactics.

The fact is that out of the dozens of dealers I get to speak with every week, it is now the exception to find one that has not had an employee or the dealer principal create some degree of social media presence with at least a blog, a Facebook profile and or Fan page, a YouTube Channel and maybe a MySpace account. To reiterate Joe Webb's point, and capitalize on the issues raised by Joe Pistell's hiring criteria, the real question in my opinion is how to create some sort of cohesive social marketing strategy supported by tactics that do not use more dealership resources than justified by the benefits received. I have implemented what has become an ongoing series of social marketing strategy pilots in over 20 Dealerships since June 2008, with each one a little more effective than the previous one as me and my colleagues get to cull the chaff and focus on what achieves objectives. At this point we are working with dealers who are selling cars daily to people whose relationship with people at the dealership was created and fostered via social media channels. The early dealers we first started with have become the new sales volume leaders in their respective OEM regions. Bottom line is that we don't know all the answers, but now have a pretty good idea of how to recognize and measure success indicators long before people start coming in to buy cars.

I will present details and KPI's during the Tuesday morning general session at Digital Dealer 7 in a couple of weeks. Yes, Alex, that is an intentional "plug" for Digital Dealer 7 in Nashville... I have also published a virtual social
media implementation guide via dozens of articles and file uploads at http://www.autodigitalmarketing.com that are free to use. We are all learning how to leverage social media and the lessons will continue to be learned for a long time. The key, this time is to pay attention to lessons already learned by others and then buildvupon them for the benefit of your dealership.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Ralph - Plug Master! I say that with a smile on my face, as I did when I tweeted it too. Don't ever stop because you'll ruin all of our expectations. By the way, I'm expecting a call soon. We've got some business to conduct!

 

[Eric]

You’re going to laugh but I strongly believe that dealers are still somewhat skeptical of social networks branding their business online! Because their business models doesn’t support on-line efforts to “MAKE IT HAPPEN” have you ever listened to received calls from consumers inquiring on autos on line and hear what comes through phone very depressing! We’ll it is basics 101 dealers don’t take the time to effectively train their BDC/Internet Managers, Sales Staff to be in compliance with a process or procedures to = positive results! I see it every day in the field it really is amazing that dealers want to sell more cars via internet but forget training is the “keys to success”!

 

[Haleigh]

well. simple. they are lazy.