If you are like most tire dealers, managing your social media channels is a random mix of postings from time to time, done when time permits. Measuring performance on your channels is pushed to the back burner – way, way back – since just figuring out content is time consuming enough.
This article will help you create a social media marketing plan that works for the long term. The information provided here includes proven strategies specifically for dealerships; your part is committing to three things: resources, time and budget.
Social media is free – As you probably now know, although it’s “free” to sign up for social media channels, managing these channels requires a budget and qualified staff. On average, dealers should be spending 10-20 hours per week on social media marketing, including performance reporting. This time equates to either a part-time or full-time internal position, depending upon the size of your dealership, objectives and goals.
I Want ROI, NOW – No doubt about it, social media marketing requires patience. This arena of marketing is by no means turnkey, but I can assure you I have never seen a dealer fail if they commit to this effort. You should be seeing foot traffic marching into your dealership within 3-6 months – even sooner if you start out of the gate offering social media-specific coupons or offers.
Driving Customers
The biggest hurdle to driving foot traffic to your dealership is you. I speak from experience; each week my highly motivated, extremely passionate team meets to discuss (whine about) our dealer clients who promised to track our well-executed Facebook promotions through to sales conversion – but then the dealer doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain. We cry, we scream, we vent, and then we work out potential solutions. To date, we have not discovered one go-to solution, so if you have the magic answer, please tell me.
You must require your entire staff to track social media-driven promotions at check-out. Here’s where it gets tricky; customers may come in with printed coupons, but more likely they’re going to flash their mobile phone with the Facebook offer displayed on it to your cashier. If your cashier gazes back, dazed and confused, it’s a problem.
Your cashier must track this sales conversion. The tracking can be as remedial as a checkmark on a piece of paper, but just make sure this gets done. Every single coupon/offer redemption must be tracked, or what’s the point?
The Right Resources
Let’s start with what may be my biggest pet peeve of all time – dealers who say something like this: “My daughter is coming home from college for spring break and she’s big on all this social stuff, so she’s going to handle it from here on out.”
This is so foolish. You are running a business. People’s livelihoods depend on your success. Don’t be a cheapskate, and don’t underestimate the power (positive and negative) of social media marketing.
Just because your kid spends 18 hours a day on Facebook doesn’t mean he/she knows how to market your business. Second, I don’t care how old you are, you need to learn about this stuff. Don’t pawn any marketing responsibility off on others and expect it to get done correctly. It’s time to get your hands dirty and learn it at a high level so you can assign resources appropriately.
If I were a dealer, I would have the best-qualified internal resource manage my social media marketing. This person would generally be your marketing person, but not always. Perhaps your service manager or IT person has the right skills and aptitude for the job.
If I didn’t have an internal resource, I would hire one on a part-time, hourly basis. Word of warning here: everyone is a social media specialist these days, so do your due diligence in reviewing past work samples, client references and resumes.
Outsourcing
In both scenarios, I also would outsource with a company specializing in the tire/automotive industry to work as a mentor/trainer for your internal staff member. The social media market is changing and evolving so quickly, my company even has a hard time keeping up with it.
An example is Facebook or Google+ enhancements or product updates, which are literally made on a weekly basis, resulting in some big announcements posted on Mashable.com or Techcrunch.com (two great resources for the techie dealer who likes to keep up with the latest and greatest in the world of social marketing).
This information can make or break your social media efforts because your marketing person is moseying along with no sense of industry best practices in security, privacy or current feature set (read: security breaches to your customer data, lack of reach to target demographic, and content postings that sit and spin when they should be informing your social communities of your dealership happen-
ings). All of this results in lost revenue for you.
Channel Relevancy
Facebook is by far the most utilized social channel by dealers, and with good reason: It has the highest number of subscribers in every single demographic. This means you should dedicate at least 50% of your social media marketing time to Facebook efforts, which includes Promoted Post Advertising campaigns (facebook.com/help/promote).
Google+ and Twitter are the other two channels that I consider must-haves. The thought of managing three channels is daunting, however the use of tools like Hootsuite make this problem disappear.
Hootsuite (hootsuite.com/features/social-networks) is a social media management tool that allows you to post to multiple channels simultaneously, and it only costs $9.99 per month. Even better, Hootsuite allows postings to be scheduled, so content can be planned ahead of time and posted when your fans are most active.
YouTube is the most powerful social media marketing tool. The ability to express company culture, personality and style via video is second to none. Further, 30-second walk-around videos sell tires or vehicle services like there’s no tomorrow. Dealers who dive into YouTube are the most successful I have seen.
The hard part is figuring out who is going to put their face on camera and who is going to shoot the video (which, by the way, is a simple process when shot from a smartphone with the YouTube app for automatic upload). Also, don’t just “wing it;” take the time to plan out your video and even some of the dialogue. You want it to look as professional as you want people to see your business being.
Finally, we have two other visual-based tools, Pinterest and Instagram. Instagram is owned by Facebook and it can be integrated into your account, so that is one plus for its usage.
Pinterest is known for its “boards” format, which auto-magically sorts your images into an eye-pleasing display that begs to be viewed and repinned by any enthusiast with a passionate bone in their body.
My advice here is to take one of these channels on, if and when you have mastered the management of the big three – Facebook, Google+ and Twitter utilizing Hootsuite.
Performance Reporting
Facebook insights are right there for the reading, so you must take the time to review the reports. The demographic and city reports tell you who your fans are and where they live, and you will likely be surprised to find your in-store demographic is different than your online demographic – which is something you need to consider and accommodate for when planning your content and promotions.
Next, the daily performance reporting on key metrics is essential. The key metrics include: Reach, Likes, Engagement, Talking About This, and Virality (hover over each metric on your report to learn what each statistic means for your business).
Your website reporting tool, such as Google Analytics (which is free) will tell you the referral traffic from your social media channels. Read about the reporting tools for the other social media channels mentioned in this article at the following URLS:
Twitter: http://hootsuite.com
Google+: http://www.allmyplus.com/
Pinterest: http://bit.ly/13XLYlV
Instagram: http://statigr.am/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/Qov7m2
Heather Blessington, CEO of Duo Web Solutions, is an accomplished blogger receiving press from CNN, USA Today, BBC and Forbes. Her company specializes in creating and managing blogs for powersports dealers. Contact Heather at [email protected].
