1900 down. More expected to fall. For many, it isn’t the best time to be a car dealer.
The silver lining, of course, is that those who have survived cuts by GM and Chrysler are in better position to succeed thanks to less competition. Still, the outlook is well below the glorious prospects around 2004 when dealers truly started embracing Internet marketing as a way to not only increase business, but cut costs and improve ROI of marketing dollars spent.
Websites have improved dramatically. Search engine optimization has become a point of interest over the last year. Secondary web properties are starting to pop up and generate leads for dealers. All of these have been aspects of other verticals for a while. As with most things online, car dealers have finally caught on.
Now automotive social media is starting to become a buzzword and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Between the economic woes causing credit issues across the board and the general attitude of doom and gloom in the industry, dealers who properly embrace social media now will be in position to take advantage of the coming advances in Web 2.0 and the future of Web 3.0.
The important word in that paragraph was “properly’.
The problem that I’m seeing is that, as with any hot topic, dealers are jumping in headfirst and vendors are there to collect them up and offer spammy or inferior products. Social media is not like any other form of marketing. It is a living, breathing force that can turn a hero into a zero more quickly than most understand.
Here is an example of how an attempted social media marketing campaign went terribly wrong for Motrin. When they put out this Motrin Ad in hopes of appealing to their target audience, they did the exact opposite. They insulted and alienated the very people they were trying to impress.
That was well publicized and not necessarily within the realm of the mistakes that car dealers can make, but the point was made. What car dealers in social media face is the problem with a community that doesn’t want to hear what they have. In other words, with so many services offering to put dealer inventories on Twitter and enhance marketing through Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks, many car dealers aren’t seeing the reality that it just doesn’t work like that.
Automotive Social Media the Right Way
Before any car dealer embarks on a social media marketing campaign, they must either understand how the game works or hire someone who does. Most who are offering services on Twitter, for example, barely have an understanding of Twitter themselves. How can they help you on Twitter if they don’t have a Twitter following of their own? Would you promote a kid to sales manager because he says he’s good at it even though he’s never sold 10 cars in any given month?
I will follow up this article with more information about the other social media outlets that car dealers can use, but for now we’ll focus on Twitter. It’s a great example of something that is so easy to use, yet so easy to completely mess up. First, the expectations must be set. In any business, understanding what Twitter can and cannot do is very important. Read Twitter for Business for more details.
You’ll notice that Twitter accounts for TK Carsites, Los Angeles Honda, and Richmond Ford do not focus on selling their products. That comes later. For now, the focus is on getting involved with the conversations, initiating interaction, and creating a genuine following. These Twitter accounts, properly managed, will be able to help in search engine rankings, offer a way for customers to interact with the companies, and offer technological “street cred” to an industry that often falls behind on the latest and greatest on the Internet.
If a potential customer visits your Twitter page, which will be more likely to compel a contact: an account with 200 followers that feeds their inventory into an arena where nobody is searching for cars, or an account with 2000 followers that engages with potential customers and brings real value to the community?
Bringing value is the most difficult part for car dealers and vendors attempting automotive social media. This is the first part of a series that will go into how dealers can be more involved and make the most out of a social media marketing campaign, but for now, ask yourself 2 questions:
- Am I willing to dedicate the time daily to monitor and grow my social media profiles?
- Do I want to hire someone who offers a cheap solution with zero ROI?
Regardless of your answers, visit again on Wednesday for hands-on information about automotive social media.
UPDATE: Change of plans. We are launching a new service for Twitter and compiling the data onto a different site. More to come.
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Read more about social media for car dealers on this blog.
