We talked to quite a few dealers last week at the Global Tire Expo/SEMA Show about what kind of results they’re seeing with Facebook.
Generally speaking, most dealers are finding value in their Facebook marketing, but as with most marketing initiatives, many of them are trying to quantify the bottom-line results.
Here are some thoughts on the matter.
If you’re running specific promotions on Facebook, you can certainly measure the number of clicks, sales, etc. But that is only part of the story.
Some of the best attributes of Facebook are impossible to measure in specific dollars and cents. For instance, what’s it worth to turn an unhappy customer into an advocate?
We recently had an experience with one of our clients in which a very unsatisfied customer posted a comment on their Facebook wall. We (on behalf of our client) responded immediately and got the person in touch with the right people – in this case, the warranty department. Last message posted by the formerly unhappy customer was: "I’m going to tell everyone what a great company you guys are!"
What is the value of one customer service incident like this? Given the nature of today’s connected world, I would say, "A lot!" And I think we can all agree that word-of-mouth is probably more important in the tire/auto service industry than most.
Talking About This
To make a quick analysis of your Facebook page’s performance in terms of engagement, look at your number of fans and the number of people “Talking About This” for the past week. Using these two numbers you can make a ratio of “engaged fans.” To obtain this percentage, divide the number of people “Talking About This” by the total number of fans and multiply that number by 100.
If your score is less than 1%, your Facebook page is under-performing, according to recognized benchmarks.
Whether you’re doing Facebook promotions are not, engagement is critical. When your fans are talking about you, more people are seeing your content and you’re taking advantage of the viral nature of Web 2.0.
I would love to hear about your experiences on Facebook. Is it working for you?
Christine Taylor is vice president of social media marketing for JTMarCom,a Nashville-based marketing agency that helps companies with online reputation management and integration of social media into their traditional marketing programs. With a combined 35 years of experience in the tire industry, the agency places a special emphasis on working with tire and automotive aftermarket companies. Follow Christine on Facebook and Twitter (@chrisgtaylor). She can also be reached at 615-714-5469.
