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.
By the end of 2011, It’s projected that over half of the U.S. population will be using smartphones. This means your customers will be opening your emails more frequently on their phones instead of computers, and will likely not be connected to a printer while they are viewing your coupons. It’s time to start shifting from printable coupons, to mobile coupons.