Service Providers

Why dealerships shouldn’t just post inventory on social media

JimJabaayBlog2016This may sound harsh, but we know you are a dealership and we know you have inventory to sell. 99 percent of the time, there is nothing engaging or exciting about you selling inventory. Social media shouldn’t be a platform where you tell your current and potential customers what they already know. That’s what your website and online marketplaces are for.

Social media is social! Your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., should be used to engage your customers on a social level. Remember, they already know you have inventory. Focus on what they don’t know. Engage and give them a reason to like and follow you on your social media channels.

What Is Social Media Engagement?

Your dealership social media pages should be a platform for earning as many likes, comments and shares as you can. If you only post announcements and/or inventory, there isn’t a reason someone would like, comment or share that post with their friends. It’s boring! You should focus on making your page exciting and engaging!

Think of social media like a party. If you had a boring and uneventful time at your friend’s party, would you go back the next time they hosted one? Probably not. If your social media is boring, are you going to have people coming back?

Anytime someone likes, comments or shares your Facebook post, a Newsfeed story is created.

Ex. “John Smith Liked a Dealership’s post.”

That Newsfeed story appears on the Newsfeed’s of their friends. This level of engagement is what generates buzz for your dealership amongst their friends and their friend’s friends. This is how social media is going to get your dealership new customers. You should refrain from posting just inventory all of the time.

You shouldn’t just post your dealership inventory on social media because…

What I am interested in is…

  • Local events you are sponsoring where I can get free stuff
  • Articles from the manufacture of my most recent purchase
  • Service Specials
  • Referral Programs
  • Contests for prizes and gift cards

Do you notice a theme with the above suggestions? They all center around me getting something. What’s in it for me? Dealerships tend to use social media to find a way to get something for them (more sales). That’s the wrong approach and you will alienate your customers and potential customers.

If the focus of your social media is to…sell, sell sell, you’re going to…lose, lose, lose.

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I also want to challenge you to stop posting…

  • Screenshots of 5 star reviews. Your dealership is awesome. We get it!
  • Videos/pictures of your inventory for every post
  • Happy Customers with their new purchase.

This is exciting to only 1 person. You should focus on posting things that are exciting to many people. Take their photo, email it to them and have them post it on their own Facebook, instead of yours. When they post it and tag your dealership, their friends will see that.

How to Create a Winning Social Media Strategy for Your Dealership

Creating a winning social media strategy will take a shift in how your dealership approaches it. When your customers are doing their research online, they’ll undoubtedly land on your social media channels. Are you making the most of these frequently visited websites?

Having this mindset is only the beginning, knowing how to implement this type of strategy and having the time to do it, can be a daunting task for dealerships.

LotVantage customers who use our social media product have access to hundreds of thousands of pieces of engaging content that can automatically be shared on their dealership Facebook and Twitter pages. If you don’t have the time, man power or knowledge to run your own winning social media strategy, LotVantage can help.

The days of having to manually scour the internet for content and solely posting inventory on social media are over. Knowing that content is important is half the battle…having the time to find the content is the other.

Jim Jabaay is the vice president of Sales and Marketing for LotVantage, a leader in digital marketing for automotive, powersports, marine and RV dealerships.  Jim has grown up in the automotive industry with the family dealership in the suburbs of Chicago. Jim started at Manheim in sales and continued to grow his career running sales teams throughout Texas for nine years.  Following Manheim, Jim spent two years at Dealertrack expanding his career in the software side of the business.  LotVantage utilizes data to help dealerships understand which inventory to post and when to post it for a local, national and social presence.  Jim’s number one goal is helping dealers succeed in an ever growing and changing dealership world.

Website: www.LotVantage.com

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2 Comments

  1. Very good article and very good point. There is a dealer in the Midwest who deals specifically with old Broncos and does a great job of doing exactly what you’ve written about. Thank you for sharing Jim.

  2. Excellent article , I agree wholeheartedly with your theory. There is nothing engaging when you post the obvious. A car dealership has cars to sell , we already know this. And whether you think the car is special or rare it doesn’t matter. Show me a post of that car leading the parade in a local community . Or just maybe being washed by a local benefit high school car wash and now you have my attention. Well written and nice job.

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