3 posts tagged “car dealer social media”
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.
I know most are used to catchy titles and snippets of secret wisdom flowing from this blog. Today, we're going to keep it simple. Car dealers, you need social media.
I could end the post there and we would be okay. The question, of course, would then become "How does a car dealer use social media?"
That's not such an easy question to answer.
For the most part, car dealers have rightfully embedded the mentality of advertise and promote to the public while building relationships face-to-face at the dealership. It just makes sense to be in "promotion mode" during commercials, in newspaper ads, and on their own websites and microsites.
Social media is a completely different beast. This is where most dealers (and most business altogether, for that matter) miss the boat. Social media is all about building relationships first, then promoting oneself second.
I'm going to (reluctantly) use myself and my own branding first as an example. Right now on Twitter I have just over 75,000 followers. I interact with them when they interact with me. If I see something in my public stream that someone else posted that I like, I'll respond to it. I engage those who follow and converse with me and therefore I am in a constant state of building relationships.
When I tweet a link out that I want people to see, anywhere from 300-3,000 visitors check out that link depending on the title and how often it is "retweeted" by my peers. I can do that because I have built relationships. I have not spammed the network from the start by telling my followers to go visit this link or look at that image or check out this video. Instead, I engaged. I listened. Over time, I was able to build up a strong following.
Car dealers (and most business altogether, for that matter) need to do the same thing. This is just using one microcosm of a network in Twitter to demonstrate, but it can be said pretty much across the board. If you engage, you are doing it right. If you build relationships and have an interest in what others are saying, you're doing it right.
If you join Twitter and start posting your inventory or specials, you're doing it wrong. People don't go to Twitter to find a car (yet). They go because they want to engage. Participate. Play the game. Enjoy.
Now, the big question comes up, "But when do I get to talk about my dealership, my cars, or my specials?"
Once you've established some credibility by being engaged with your followers, talking to local Twitter users about local things, brand enthusiasts about brand related things, and everyone else about everything else, you are ready to start letting a little "self-promotion" seep into your stream. Keep it interesting. Posting your special on a 2005 Ford Focus isn't going to do the trick. On the other hand, if you get in a 2000 Ford Focus with under 10,000 miles, a 2009 Ford Focus with over 100,000 miles, or a lime green Ford Focus, you might want to tweet about it. These are exceptions. They are not available at anydealer, anytown, USA.
This is just the beginning. With more social media products rolling down the pipe, it's important to understand what to get involved with and what not to. We will be covering it more in-depth here, but in the meantime, feel free to contact me.
jrucker@tkcarsites.com
Talk to you soon!
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Read more about automotive social media on this blog.
Friends, I owe you all an apology. This blog, which according to analytics has had a nice amount of traffic over the last several months, has gone terribly inactive. With my workload expanding and new adventures starting helping others improve their status, I have simply had much less time than I would have liked to blog.
That will be changing.
Now.
With my old automotive SEO video desperately needing an update, that will be the first priority. I will shoot more of a tutorial rather than rely on the interview itself. We are rolling out a more comprehensive social media package for car dealers that will greatly increase the visibility for all involved.
Perhaps most importantly (to you) I will be dedicating myself to post at least one blog post a week to help those in the industry, whether automotive or search engine optimization, to learn and grow in this every-changing realm.
Come back soon!
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Read more about car dealer SEO on this blog.
