The social media world opens up many opportunities for dealerships to strategically connect with car buyers outside of the showroom, engage with them in positive ways and attract more customers.

A recent Automotive Social Media Trends Study revealed that “75 percent of car buyers and 68 percent of service customers say Internet research, including social media and review sites, was the most helpful medium when picking a dealership to visit.”

Today, dealerships are well-advised to interact with their current and potential consumers through platforms like Facebook and Twitter in order to make the most impact in the market.

COMMUNICATING VALUE

To successfully gain customers through social media, your dealership will need to positively represent its brand and promote important value messages. Value messages will illustrate the benefits of working with you and give customers incentive to buy or lease a vehicle through your dealership over another.

For example, start by familiarizing yourself with vehicle service contract value messages to see how positioning emotional advantages and options like installment payment plans (IPPs) can help drive home the worth of a vehicle service contract. Understanding how potential buyers feel about certain products or services will help you speak to them in more powerful ways. If you are communicating about IPPs, leverage the fact that IPPs give consumers buying options for vehicle service contracts, which provides the ability to get better service for their vehicle, and in turn gives them more confidence in their purchase and your dealership.

If you can send the right messages about your products and services in the right ways, you can reach more car buyers, support more positive relationships and eventually turn your followers into loyal customers.

SOCIAL MEDIA DOS & DON’TS

Beyond sending the right messages, there are a few recommended social media guidelines to know and follow.

When used in the proper way, social media can be highly effective in further establishing a positive reputation for your dealership. After a while, you’ll start to see that clicks, likes and shares have meaning and can translate into more test drives, more sales and more customers that keep coming back to give you their business.

Social media has proven to be an incredibly powerful tool, which is why we use it ourselves! Connect with Budco Financial on LinkedIn and Twitter.