13 Mar 4 Social Media Mistakes Your Dealership Might Be Making
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool for both new and used car dealerships. Connecting with communities and building audiences to engage with existing customers propels dealers’ reach. If used wisely, social media can transform “likes” into sales.
Too Much Self-Promotion
As with anything, balance is key to bringing subtlety to your brand and engaging customers. Over-promoting your dealership can result in low engagement and high unfollow rates. A common place dealerships can make a mistake is on Twitter. Tweeting the same message multiple times a day clouds your followers’ feed and makes your buyers look elsewhere. Bring subtlety to your page by mixing your message and content.
Followers and potential buyers want to hear updates on sales and stock, but they also want to learn about company news and culture. Dealerships should aim to post a mixture of content every day that can range from automotive industry news and brand updates, to a picture of a proud new car owner or even the company breakfast spread!
Lack Of Visuals
Video and images reign supreme in the social media jungle. Striking visuals separate content on user feeds and grab attention from active shoppers.
The McKinsey report says that the average buyer visits just 1.6 auto dealerships while car shopping. Unlike buyers of yesteryear who would travel to many dealerships to learn about offers and deals, today’s buyer is more educated than ever and will most likely look online to see your inventory before they visit your showroom. Using your social media pages, take advantage of the opportunity to display pictures and videos of your inventory models and their features.
Taking advantage of the small opportunities to incorporate attention-grabbing content means you will always have buyers rather than shoppers.
Lack Of Interactive Posts
Visuals are key, but posting content isn’t enough to get the most out of your social media. Failing to interact with followers can be a huge downfall for many dealerships. Responding to comments, reviews, and shares is critical to humanization and recognition by your followers.
Easy ways to interact with your followers include asking questions on engaging content, posting polls and competitions, or giving away free deals like a car wash or maintenance check! Set it up so your followers have to spread the word, and watch your online community flourish!
Stay Local
Staying engaged with your community is vital. In addition to having engaging and interactive posts, dealerships should work to tap into their communities. This can be in the form of inviting them to neighborhood-friendly events at your dealership or arranging a team building exercise to give back to the area!
Making sure to document your dealership’s interaction with the community will plant deep roots and build loyalty with your locals.
Last but not least, pay attention to what platform your local buyers are most active on and interact with them there. It is better to be fully engaged on one platform than partially engaged on two!
A mistake dealers can make is trying to engage with customers that aren’t active buyers. You can avoid this mistake by using the right tools. Conquest Automotive buyers at the bottom of the purchase funnel are ready to buy. You can see your dealership’s active R.L. Polk® identified buyers when you request a demo below!