Social Media Domination in Automotive Business

The use of social media in car dealership is different today than it was just a few years ago. It's interesting how over a short period of time being active on social media platforms has evolved from something that was considered "free" and optional to something that's necessary and requires an investment of time, resources and money.

During your journey with social media marketing there are several points to take in consideration if you want your business to thrive. In order to establish your social presence on the internet; I suggest that you should follow this social media blueprint.

Rules for social media domination in the automotive business:

• Define your social media mission.

Before you undertake any major initiative, you need a solid foundation to what you're doing. This step starts by writing a mission statement. Your social media mission statement is your compass that will help guide you, your team and your employees throughout your journey.

After defining your mission it's time to stick firmly to it. Every piece of content your business post or share via social media platforms needs to meet this mission. If it doesn't, then stop sharing it.

• Identify your team.

As most of us know social media marketing isn't easy. It takes time and resources and often can be overwhelming for just one person to manage on a consistent basis. Most social media experts agree that for a small business to be successful on Facebook and Twitter alone, they should invest one hour per day into their social media.

Most dealerships however don't just utilize Facebook and Twitter. We're on Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and maybe Instagram or Pinterest. Let's say that adds up to an additional hour per day you need to spend on your social media.

So that's a total of two hours per day dedicated to the social media for your dealership. This doesn't sound too challenging but what if you have 5 dealerships you will need to dedicate at least 10 hours a day just to our social media if you want to be successful at the store level.

It is quite clear that one person can't handle that. If you have more than 5 dealerships you need to hire a team. Your social media team will handle the rigors and
challenges associated with social marketing.

• Focus on how to be social.
  There's a difference between doing social and being social. One common mistake I have seen in many dealerships is that they took their focus off our social media to focus on other aspects of digital marketing; by doing so they are slowly losing their audience. Being social, i.e. engaging with your audience, other businesses and pages on Facebook is different than doing social.

• Always write back.

This step is related to the previous one, but deserves its own mention because it is so important. Have you ever tagged a brand, athlete or celebrity in a tweet or Facebook post and gotten a response? Made you feel pretty special, didn't it?
If someone of your audience says something to you via social media, respond. Every time. No exceptions. Not only does it show to anyone who is paying attention that you are active and engaged on your social networks, but it will make the person who took the time to say something to you feel special that you noticed and replied. By this you're delivering that you notice your audience as much as they notice your business.

• Social is on 24/7.

I think a lot of us fell in to the trap that social media channels for our dealerships were on only during business hours. If something was tweeted our way or a post was being engaged with on Facebook after hours, it was just going to have to wait until the next day for our response. Just know that social never sleeps and the actions you take before and after business hours will set you apart from the competition.

• Stay on Target.

People do care about what you had for lunch…if you're a food brand. But you're not a food brand, are you? No, you are a car dealership. So when planning content to post, try not to fall into the game of posting the popular types of content you see in your own stream.

Posting pictures of food, cats, babies, memes, etc. may incite some extra engagement, but you won't leave a lasting impression of your brand once you disappear from the social stream. Part of the fun of social media is being able to figure out what content works best for you and your dealership.

• Be Real.

People want to talk to you not your business. Insincerity is just as easily detected on social media as it is in intimate and personal encounters. If you're not genuine in your comments, connections and mentions it won't go unnoticed.
A great self-test you can do is before you send a tweet or reply to a comment, read it aloud and ask yourself would a real person talk this way?

If it sounds conversational and rolls off the tongue easily then you are good to go. If it sounds like stuffy corporate chat, then you may want to consider editing your copy for more of a casual feel.

Fact: People talk to people, not to brands.

• Be clever.

This is an important one. If I to choose one thing that will set your social media apart from not just other dealerships, but from most other businesses as well, it's how clever you can be.

And unfortunately, cleverness isn't something that's easily taught or learned. Most people either have it, or don't. If you don't have it, find someone on you team who does.

• Social media is neither free nor easy.

Some may argue with me that social media can be free; well I do believe that social marketing needs effort and resources. To be successful you'll need to invest in employees, partners, infrastructure and equipment. Not to mention having a campaign budget for your marketing campaigns that you're running on Facebook, Twitter and/or YouTube.

• Not everything will work.

There's going to be a time when you feel like you've crafted the perfect post, your co-workers have given you the thumbs up. You post that winning post and put it out there. You kick back and wait for the red notifications to start lighting up but instead you get nothing. The post goes unnoticed.

Whether it's due to Facebook's algorithm, the time of day, the type of audience or any other numerous things that could go wrong the fact is no one saw it or engaged with it. When this happens you just have to be able to get over it.

• If you're not consistent then you're nonexistent.

Once you become inconsistent with your posting frequency, you'll lose your audience. Facebook's algorithm is unforgiving, and nothing will diminish your organic reach like a lack of content will. I don't know if there is a magic number of posts we should be sharing per day, but I do know if you're only posting once a week you're not going to reach your audience at all.

What do you think about these 11 rules? Is there one or two that resonate with you? Is there anything else you'd add to your plan? Let me know in the comment section below.