You can easily create a social media strategy for your dealership by utilizing the following tips to create and implement a plan for your social media.
Assess the situation
Your audience should come first, and in that, you should know what their needs are. If for any reason you do not know this, then take a few minutes and ask them. Survey Monkey makes a great tool that lets you write a quick survey that can get you answers.
Once you discover what they want from you, you can decide how to give them the content they care about and build trust by addressing their pain points. You can build your audience by being someone they can relate to and who is empathetic to their needs. Last of all, you can start to project yourself as the authority on the subjects.
The next step is to decide what it is that you want from them. Most likely, you want sales and loyalty from them, but you have to determine what is at the core of your business before you can move on. What does your dealership equal? Fair prices? Courteous service? No hassles? Focus on your core principle when creating your social media content.
As you decide the core of your strategy, you will need to decide how to measure it. Will it be in showroom traffic or website hits? Will you measure by the number of demos or ask prospects during pre-qualifying? If you are looking for sales, you have to look at what drew them to the dealership, so your sales staff should be asking that question when they are pre-qualifying their prospect.
Implement the plan
If your Content Manager does not already have an editorial schedule in place, now is the time to implement one. In addition, determine whom you are assigning projects to and decide which social media platforms you are going to use. You do not have to use them all. Assign tasks to staff that will align with the goals of the dealership.
You probably already have a content calendar, but if not, then sit down and decide how your content will help your dealership increase sales. You might want to mix up the content to include new model releases, news items, safety features and other things like your dealership's current events. You might want four or five different basic subjects that will give you different results.
How does the content follow your mission towards more sales? Who will write it? How often will they post? These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed as you plan your strategy.
Put together a step-by-step plan that lays out the path to sales growth. Make sure
that you are plugging your social media links into every bit of advertising you are doing in order to pick up other followers.
The relationships that you have cultivated within your social media platforms are going the help you grow your business, so make sure that you are engaging them even as you are planning. If you ask them, they might help you plan your next posts.
Measure the momentum
You cannot measure what you cannot see, so after a couple of weeks of your new strategy, analyze your results. Sit with your team and ask them for data. Has your sales manager seen an uptick in foot traffic or inbound call from people coming in from social media? Is there a specific effort that has drawn them in or are they generic? Maybe a post about a new model brought people in or a post about going green and saving money on fuel was the trigger.
If you see positive growth from your efforts, then bump up the efforts by running a promotion. It does not have to be big; you could give away a manufacturer's hat or an oil change.
If you are not seeing any results, then measure what you have done and modify it. A post about a new model does nothing for your foot traffic, so try to write about why that new model is well-suited for your climate or your audience. A small, efficient car makes a great graduation gift, or an SUV is perfect for a vacation.
The following is a simple example of how to set up your goals and implement them.
An Example Plan
• At our dealership, our core principle is fair prices, and our goal is to generate more sales.
• Our social media focuses on helping people make good buying decisions like how to look for rebates or financing specials. We post about end-of-year model changes, and we write blog posts about how to get the best deal on a used car. We let them know when we are having a weekend sale.
• Our sales staff tells us that the foot traffic is coming in when we talk about how to save money on buying a car, so we schedule more of these types of posts filled with money saving tips.
• We are seeing an increase in traffic whenever we help them save money by posting a service promotion.
Keep your finger on the pulse of the plan by scheduling routine meetings until you find a comfortable place and the increase is consistent.
Melissa Cadieux is the Social Media Manager at Turbo Marketing Solutions and you can email her here or reach her at Turbo Marketing