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No, I’m Not Going To Accept Your Invitation. Well, Until You Get It Right

They're there. Every day. New ones. Old ones, Slim ones. Fat ones. Some are red and some are green, many are boring and some obscene. What are they? Well, they're not from Dr. Seuss. Invites, followers, request for follows, join my growing community and more. And most are just plain crap.

As the pandemic of automotive social media, that didn't exist until Q2 or Q3 of last year, bangs on our in boxes and cell phones, it seems that most are happy to take it all in. That is until you actually look at the content, the platforms, the lack of connection and the rampant automation. It's been said before but needs to be said again: There is nothing social about automation, unneeded irrelevant retweets, inventory, prices and more that doesn't promote brand, opportunity, connection, community, events or gosh-I-needed-to-know-that-stuff kind of stuff.

Also, in a world that is supposed to be conscience of terms of use/terms of service, why are dealers still setting up friend pages? Every so-called 'expert' that dealers are listening to must be watching the money and not the process. So here's a free tip: Set up Fan Pages so you don't get the boot when Facebook finally does sweeping audits and you find your page, in technical terms, gone. In simple terms, there are things that you can't get with a facebook friend fage that you get with Fan pages, the correct set up for your business. And once you get to 100 fans, you can change to a vanity URL in Facebook.

If you've set up a Twitter page, please watch your followers. Unless you're intentionally inviting or ignoring the bots out there, you don't want to show the world that you care more about not paying for white teeth, earning $5,000 a week from Google or Stephanie3624236's free naked pictures. Everyone can see your followers and you may be limiting your social media success, at least to a degree, if you don't have a clean welcome mat.

YouTube is a huge opportunity on many levels so why don't you start with the basics? They're out there for free on any blog or support channel around the website. One is to start with is the naming convention of your movies. Another is the tagging. There are more so that you can leverage the network correctly (including embedding your own videos in your own website as well) but the focus here is just get the correct assistance in setting up your social media networks. Attempting to go 'viral' with a car walkaround with 4 visits isn't likely going to happen.

Take the time to set up your presence correctly, get the right advise and simply look around so when you get your answers and they don't make sense, ask more questions.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

Come On! What’s Social About A Price? Nothing!

After tip-toeing around this subject
for most of the year, it's time to take a more direct approach.  With more
car dealers using "social' media these days, seeing the overwhelming
amount of non-conversations are staggering!  A quick visit to the majority
dealer accounts on Twitter and Facebook reveal the following:

  • use of what are supposed to be social sites and
    services for essentially 'unpaid' advertising
    • The home of the $199 lease
    • Largest volume dealer in the
      area
    • Amazing inventory
    • More models arriving daily

  • use of auto-follow and auto-retweet programs to 'simplify'
    building followers
    • 30-day old accounts with
      2,000+ followers
    • Retweets of Automotive News
      articles
      • Consumers can't access as
        it's subscription only, and why share?
  • limited contextual links and content
    • video links are exclusively to
      store's site or YouTube inventory/walk-arounds
    • Using same links over and over
      with only slight modifications


Here's the hint that will hopefully get you to use social media for what it's
intended for: it's called social for a reason.  There is absolutely
nothing remotely social about car prices, lease specials, inventory, and 'buy
here!'.

Social is about conversation, influence, sharing, participation and ultimately
growing your virtual community.  And take note: this happens after
time.  It's organic and you have to learn.  It's not about control,
rants (although those can be fun in moderation), telling, limitation or
virtually throwing the keys on the roof.  Nobody cares about 100 tweets
telling how much you'll promise to save them, less the fine print.

Share funny stuff, eye-opening stuff, cool videos, first-to-market stuff,
did-you-know stuff, share fun events, invite people over to do things for free
and ultimately build a relationship around having conversations.  You'll
be amazed at how many customer service situations you can remedy, how many
times you can correct someone's misunderstanding about a capability or spec on
a vehicle and ultimately plant some seeds so that, when it's time, you already
have a customer that doesn't give a rat's behind that you are giving away gross
on "1 car at this price'.

So take some time and learn, understand and start participating instead of just
posting.  Just participating in social media doesn't give you any passes
or kudos.  Be real, be original, be compelling and be relevant.  If
you know you're market, friends, followers and customers, chances are you'll be
more successful.

Dealership staff: Don't talk to people.  Talk with people.  Listen to
people.  Create a valid, unpaid following that is interested in what you
share.  Be fun.  Be intentionally unintentional.

Go ahead, dare to be unique and different.  You might just end up being really social…

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results