Car Dealer Social Media Basics: Blogging
One of the questions that many dealers ask me when we talk about Web 2.0, social media, and the automotive industry is where should they start? If I could pick one type of site that is a "must have" for car dealers wanting to get started in social media, what would it be? My answer, hands down, is a dealership blog. Before Facebook, Twitter, or any of the others, a blog is the best place to get started.
This is one part of a five part series that will be posted on various sites. It covers the basics: a 30,000 foot view of the various social media sites as well as easy, practical ways that the sites can be used.
Why Do Car Dealers Need a Blog?
One of the primary reasons that dealers need to get involved with social media is to put add "humanity" to their web presence. Just about every dealer in the nation has a website. This website will probably have a certain level of personality and branding. They may also have an About Us or Why Buy Here page that goes into more detail about who they are and what makes them special.
It isn't enough.
A blog has 4 primary functions:
- Reputation Management - With 3rd party sites, directory listings, and competitors filling up searches for you by name or city, it's important to have an additional web presence to take up a spot.
- SEO - Fresh content is one of the keys to optimization. A blog offers a way to target specific keywords that are difficult to achieve on standard dealer websites. There is also the linking aspect - a blog linking to pages on your websites can assist in getting those pages ranked.
- Humanity - Consumers know you're a car dealer. They need an opportunity to know that you're more than that. A blog is the perfect venue to make this happen.
- Controlled Response - If they have something to say to or about you online, people want a place where they can be heard. Having a blog gives them a place to say good or bad about you. If you think that not having a blog will prevent them from saying bad things about you, think again. If they can't post a comment to your blog, they will find a place that you don't control such as RipOffReport.
Starting a Blog
If your website provider can set a blog up on your site, there are advantages and disadvantages. Having fresh content added to your primary site helps with SEO and helps to make the site more sticky, but it also weakens the influence of links to other pages on your site and won't be as useful in search engine reputation management.
If you have the time available to create a blog on its own domain and hosting, that is better. Here is how:
- Get a domain name. I use GoDaddy. It can be something simple like www.dealershipnameblog.com or something more creative like www.chicagohyundaitimes.com.
- Get hosting. A shared hosting service is fine and normally less than $10 per month. I recommend HostGator as they have a simple interface that will allow you to install Wordpress blogging software quickly.
- Pick out and install a theme. Simply searching for "Wordpress Themes" in Google will give you more choices than you can imagine. The process for installing the theme is more in-depth than this blog post can cover, but a step-by-step process will be available during the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp (detailed below).
From there, you're ready to get started.
What Should Car Dealers Blog About?
The simple answer is "everything". If it's associated with the dealership and would potentially be interesting to visitors, blog about it. Vehicle reviews, employees of the month, special events at the dealership, customer experience stories, and extra special trade-in, factory incentives... everything is open game.
One thing that many dealers who are currently blogging often forget to mention is off-site events. Something as simple as sponsoring a little league team and posting pictures and recaps of the game will draw people in. Blogging about people or events in the community is an easy way to get people to direct others to your blog (and from there to your site). Nothing says "tell your friends and family" like pictures of little Timmy crossing home plate or a video of little Sally scoring the winning shot.
Use your blog to help support charities that the dealership sponsors. Remember, people often forget that car dealers participate in the community. If your dealership helps local charities or supports other events, putting that information on your blog can help with your reputation.
It's your blog. Publicity on it is absolutely fine.
So Much More About Blogging
This post barely scratches the surface when it comes to the art of effective blogging. Those who are concerned with the time expenditure should consider that putting together a good blog post can be as easy as an hour every week or two. The only thing that one needs to remember is that updating the blog regularly is important. Letting it go for months at a time without updates can do more harm than good.
Blogging will surely be one of the topics at the upcoming Automotive Marketing Boot Camp being held in Orlando the day before NADA 2010. A comprehensive, step-by-step training session on blogging would help car dealers to determine how to integrate a strong blogging strategy into their marketing campaigns.
For now, you can continue to the next part of this series, Car Dealer Social Media Basics: Facebook.
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Read more about Automotive Blog Marketing on this site.
