4 steps to success on social media
the social media strategy for car dealers is here

Many auto retailers understand that there is a need to implement social media marketing strategies. Usually, their efforts start with a dealer principal or general manager who says: “We need a Facebook page. Make that happen.” The problem is that Facebook isn’t a strategy in itself, it’s a tool.

Ira Wolfe, a Lancaster, Pa.,-based social media consultant and instructor at the college level, advises that to build a social media strategy, car dealers should follow four steps with the acronymPOST:

1. The first step, P, stands for people. “Who is your audience, and what level of participation do they have in social media?” Wolfe says. Facebook “is really good for the car industry. The largest demographic is 35 and younger; the fastest-growing demographic is women 50 and older. If women are still making the majority of buying decisions, go where they are. They’re on Facebook.” If your audience is over 40 and makes more than $100,000, they’re on LinkedIn, Wolfe says. “Twitter is a great place to be – it’s quick and easy. … If it’s going to snow, put out a bunch of tweets about safety; if you’re not real busy that afternoon, get people in to change their tires.”

2. The second step, O, is objective. You need to decide why you want to use social media. It can be used for three different reasons - marketing, networking or search engine optimization. It’s a great tool for marketing because most people use social media to build relationships. “You want people talking about your products,” Wolfe says. “You can make an announcement and get feedback. The Internet put word of mouth on steroids.” Networking is about building communities, such as car enthusiasts. It can be used to measure customer satisfaction and engagement. Those might be done through a Ning community or vehicle owners’ forums. For search engine optimization, the top tool is a content-rich blog.

Pittsburgh-based Baierl Automotive saw an opportunity to connect with female customers a couple of years ago; Dave Marrangoni, vice president of sales and marketing, investigated adding the AskPatty.com women’s automotive advice blog to the dealer group’s website. However, with 17 years in the car business and a toddler at home, their own Susan Baierl was a natural — and local — connection point for area women looking for advice on shopping for and servicing their cars. Her blog, SuzieKnows.com, is promoted as a “safe haven for women to get their car questions answered,” Marrangoni says.

3. The third step, S, stands for strategy. This step is about determining who will be involved in your social media efforts, what kind of information you’ll share and where it will be placed. It’s a good idea to have several people at the dealership reaching out to customers through social media, says Carol Flammer, partner in Atlanta-based mRelevance, an online marketing firm that specializes in providing blogging and social media posts for its clients.

A store could have blog posts authored by the service manager, the showroom floor, the F&I department and the dealer principal. "Different people will attract different audiences," Flammer notes. To attract search engines and to provide enough content to keep followers interested, Flammer recommends a minimum of eight blog posts per month. The optimum post length seems to be about 300 words — three or four paragraphs. That doesn’t mean, however, that your store’s employees need to do those posts themselves. Baierl isn’t spending all her time writing blog posts, updating the blog’s Facebook fan page or tweeting about the latest posts. For the most part, it’s handled by social media pros who know how to maximize each post for readability and search engine optimization. “Anybody that wants to take this in-house is asking for a huge bottle of Tylenol,” Marrangoni says. “It needs to be outsourced.” The key, he says, is working with people whose passion mirrors that of the dealership so that the messages are consistent with the experience at the store.

4. The fourth step, T, is for tools. The tools include Facebook, blogging, YouTube videos, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course, your website. “Most people start at the fourth step and work backwards,” Wolfe says. “You still have to know what your demographic is. If you want a younger crowd, then you want to be on Facebook. If the market is 45- to 60-year-old white males, not so much.” Customer profiles and testimonials offer big wins, especially since those customers are likely to post those to their Facebook pages or tweet about them. “If you have raving fans, let them rave,” Flammer says.

SuzieKnows.com did this recently, posting a testimonial from a service customer who talked about how impressed she was with all the men who assisted her, including Baierl Automotive's shuttle driver, who picked up her tote back and opened the door for her. “Polite, personable and a pleasure to ride with,” she wrote. “When he picked me up at work yesterday afternoon, the gals in my office were even impressed with him and the way he runs his shuttles!”

The one thing Flammer recommends not doing in your social media efforts is slamming your competition. “With all the recent recalls, I don’t think you should ever pick on someone else’s problems because someday it could be yours,” she says. “You can do some comparisons, of course.” The bottom line is that a social media strategy gets people talking about — and recommending — the dealership to their friends. At this stage of social media’s evolution, the return on investment isn’t sales, it’s relationships and the influence that those provide. And that’s exactly what’s happening with SuzieKnows.com. “What we’re getting is more influence,” Marrangoni says. “People are repeating things back to me that came from the blog.” >>>

 

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