Looking for new ways to engage your customers on Facebook? Ask them a question that is not too personal, but fun to answer! Recently, one of our customers had a hefty response when they simply asked, “What was your first car?” This question seemed to hit their followers’ sense of nostalgia and they enjoyed a full day of engagement sharing about their pasts. Obviously this question might not bring in the repair orders like an oil change coupon, but it did a lot to keep their brand in the front of their customers’ thoughts, and fostered that friendly bond so many dealers seek to strengthen.

The internet has lead to more people shopping around for service, but it is still important for dealers to offer more than just coupons to keep their customers coming back. When you read yelp reviews, rarely are the 5-star businesses just the ones with the cheapest deals. They are the places who make their customers feel valued, show their employees are approachable and maintain a reputation of being on the customer’s side. Little bits of engagement on a personal level with your customers can show them you are not just another coupon page or online scheduler. Your dealership is a family of real people, working hard to ensure they get the greatest service at the best prices. People want to do business with people they trust, not just the website who offers a $5 oil change. In the end, it’s these interactions that will help your dealership stay in the forefront of your customers’ minds when they need help. Facebook and Twitter are precisely the platforms to use for these discussions. Spend some time this week thinking about what you can ask your customers that gets them excited about their cars and helps them see your dealership’s real character at the same time.

We at CIMA Systems are continually searching for new ways to promote your dealership offerings in an effort to drive more traffic into your dealership. Many of our dealers have had us design their Facebook and Twitter accounts, which have resulted in additional ways to market to your customers, their family and friends. We are proud to announce our new partnership with Thrupons (competitor to Groupons) which allows us to announce your CIMA generated email promotions automatically to your dealerships Facebook page, Twitter page and now Thrupons Social Buying Network. With CIMA Systems Now your customers can access all your deals through your CIMA generated emails, your website, your Facebook account and now via Thrupons.

For a small FLAT monthly fee, we will add custom features to your Facebook page, including a “Special Deals” tab that will always house your latest and greatest coupons. it’s automatic, you do nothing! Plus, we will work with you to gain more followers and traffic to your social sites, website and dealership. Partner with us to make the most out of your online presence. Ask us for a demo today!

Embarking on a social media strategy for your dealership can be a daunting task! Setting up facebook and twitter sites is enough work, but that’s only the beginning. The real blood, sweat and tears come in developing and sharing effective content. If you can engage your customers effectively through relevant content, your effort will be more likely to pay off in real dollars.

This article serves to share three main principles of developing effective content for your social media sites:  Content should be unique, dynamic, and transactional.

1. Your Content Should Be UNIQUE

When someone visits your social media site, they should find an environment different from your website, different from your email newsletters, different from your mailers. Your facebook and twitter sites should complement your other marketing efforts, but in order to get people to spend time on your social media sites, you must offer them something new. Add articles that might interest car enthusiasts, post about your Service Advisor’s new baby, or share an inspiring story. But let’s face it, your customers will most likely head to your social media sites for some kind of coupon or offer, so give it to them! How about an additional 5% twitter discount, or just post your monthly coupons on your facebook site where they can easily be printed, or shared. People have so many places to go on the internet these days, it’s important to engage them as quickly as possible and offer them what they are looking for.

2. Your Content Should Be DYNAMIC

As important as it is to draw customers to your social media sites, it is infinitely more important to keep them there. You can do this through the use of dynamic content. Offer monthly or quarterly drawings for gadgets such as ipods, or navigation systems…or even drawings for free vehicle details, or oil changes. Use monthly or quarterly events to incentivize your friends and followers to stay. Make sure to vary your content and keep it fresh so your customers remain interested and engaged. Don’t know what to post that will be dynamic? Ask your audience! Send questions out through facebook and twitter like “What’s interesting you guys this month?” or “What’s your favorite coupon to receive?” or “What feature do you want to see on the cars of the future?” It doesn’t really matter what the questions are, as long as you are keeping your customers talking and coming back, although you can gain some valuable feedback from customer input. The bottom line here is, keep your content changing, relevant, and constantly offer incentives and offers to ensure that staying connected with you on facebook and twitter is more valuable than leaving.

3. Your Content Should Be TRANSACTIONAL

If you are thinking about using social media for your dealership, you are most likely looking to draw business and increase profits, so keep this goal in mind as you are posting content. If you are having a slow day on the service drive, tweet out a “TODAY ONLY: $10 Oil Change Special” to bring customers in, or if you are trying to move cars off the lot, share photos and videos of those vehicles on facebook along with a cash bonus coupon. Your social content should not solely be about business, but in order to bring dollars in, you have to make it easy for your customers to see a value on your site, and turn it into a real transaction at your dealership.

In all, there is no specific recipe for posting content to your social media sites. Pretty much anything is fair game, and everything varies depending on the demographics of your customer base, and the current situation in your local area. The best thing to do, is to take the time to get to know your customers, consistently post a variety of content they are interested in,  and offer them valuable incentives to not only remain connected with you, but to come back to the dealership and spend money. Social Media marketing is relational and requires a steady commitment to maintain, but it will be worth the effort in the long run when you can retain customers and gain new ones.

Check out this great article on how to leverage social media to turn your disguntled customers into fans!  Not sure how you can use social media for your store? Talk to us! Just send an email to pmason@cimasystems.net and we’ll be happy to help.

source: Automotive News | April 19, 2010 | Lindsay Chappell | located here

Anyone who was a friend of Florida resident Thomas Alascio might have gotten the following Twitter tweet from him last October:

“Took the kids to Sonic for dinner. Great food and service. Route 60 Hyundai should take lessons.”

Tolstoy, it isn’t. But as millions of Americans link together on chatty outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and Internet message boards and product review forums, auto dealers are grasping that social media offer an explosive new opportunity to market themselves and their vehicles.

They are also an explosive new source of negative publicity and customer kvetching.

Just as customers easily can tell the world about the wonderful dealership experience they just had, they also can blanket the nation’s laptops and Blackberries with angry denouncements and warnings to stay away.

Dealerships are scrambling to protect their reputations online, and ad agencies and online marketing shops are offering to help.

Speeding word-of-mouth

The Alascio case illustrates how social media can propel bad word-of-mouth far faster than ever before.

Alascio had received a loaner car from Route 60 Hyundai in Vero Beach, Fla. The dealership said he had damaged it. The two parties disagreed over Alascio’s financial obligations.

So last October, after an altercation at the dealership, Alascio took his beef to the airwaves, tweeting critical remarks about the store once or twice a day.

A typical post: “Beautiful nite. Pretty moon and btw. Route 60 Hyundai sucks.”

The dealership wasn’t amused. In December, Route 60 had its attorney write Alascio a letter demanding that he “cease and desist” making what the attorney called defamatory comments. The letter warned Alascio that his Twitter comments “entitle Route 60 Hyundai to bring an action against you for defamation and tortuous interference with an advantageous business relationship.”

The letter closed with a stern warning to the customer in all capital letters and underlined: “PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.”

That warning sparked a longer letter from Alascio’s own attorney. It challenged Route 60′s legal claim and urged it to drop the matter or face a lawsuit from Alascio.

In a more conciliatory conclusion, Alascio’s attorney proposed that Route 60 instead consider actually inviting the unhappy customer into the store to discuss ways to improve its customer service.

That never happened, and the case simply disappeared, says Alascio’s attorney, Marc Randazza of Miami.

Stark advice

Randazza offers some stark advice for dealers upset at comments posted by disgruntled customers.

“If you are confronted with a consumer complaint and you pick up the phone to ask your lawyer to try and intimidate the consumer into silence, you should fire yourself for being an abject imbecile,” he says.

“Even if the consumer is wrong, it might cost you a few hundred bucks to make the consumer happy, which then would turn into positive word-of-mouth advertising.

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