BEST SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES FOR CAR DEALERSHIPS

First, let’s understand a little bit more about the impact that your dealership’s social media presence could have on potential buyers. According to GoDaddy, seven out of 10 consumers expect a business to have active, regularly updated social media accounts.¹

With that kind of statistic at play, it’s apparent that running a healthy lineup of content-rich social platforms is crucial to the overall success and growth of your automotive dealer.

Now that we’re clear on that, check out these top social media strategies that’ll elevate your reach to new and current customers alike:

Get to Know the Team

For the most part, social media platforms, such as Instagram, should be used primarily to build relationships with your buyers and spread the word about your dealership.

Well, one of the best ways to nurture closer connections with your consumers is by helping them get to know the members of your automotive business’s team.

For instance, each week, you could feature an Instagram post of one of the sales professionals, service technicians, or anyone else who works at your dealership.

Then, add a short profile about their skills and a few fun facts about their lives, and there you have it: The perfect way to help your customers feel more connected to every member of your auto dealership.

Link Up with LinkedIn

If you think LinkedIn isn’t one of the main pillars of successful social media marketing, think again. A recent study showed that LinkedIn is 277 percent more effective for lead generation than Facebook^® and Twitter.²

Why is that the case? Due to the fact that LinkedIn is primarily used for business networking, there’s less content clutter—such as casual conversations, family photos, fun videos, etc. When less content funnels through a social media platform, it gives your dealership’s content a better chance of capturing the attention of your leads. As a result, your marketing posts are more likely to yield a better response rate from your targeted audience.

Moreover, luxury car dealerships can more accurately target car buyers within their ideal income demographic. This allows your team to home in on the customers who would be most interested in purchasing a vehicle from your showroom.

Local News Updates (Especially Traffic/Road-Related News)

Customers like to feel as though they’re cared about. Luckily, social media serves as a convenient way to provide your consumers with content that’s relevant to their health and safety.

Among all the social media platforms, Twitter is one of the best from which you can keep your buyers updated on local news that relates to driving.

Things like seasonal road closures, accident reports, and detour routes are all newsworthy updates that you can post on your dealership’s Twitter account.

Inventory Posts

This may seem obvious. You’re here to sell cars, so why wouldn’t you feature your inventory in your social media posts? As always, the trick lies in how you do it, not just the mere fact of doing it.

The more effort you put into creating high-quality social posts, the more return on investment (ROI) of your time you’ll see. Ideally, you want more than a picture with a quick, generic caption. Here are some content ideas for your posts:

• Pictures of specific new or pre-owned vehicles you’re trying to sell
• Walk-through videos that feature a specific car’s interior and exterior
• A specific car’s details: make, model, year, mileage, etc.
• General pictures/videos of models/inventory with links to the inventory page on your website

As you can see, it makes strategic sense to balance out posts that drive prospects to specific vehicles (perfect for pre-owned vehicles that are more “unique” in nature) and more general model posts (perfect for new inventory).

New Model Releases

Got a highly anticipated new model headed to your dealership? If so, your dealership’s Instagram is a perfect place to stir up excitement about the upcoming release. As the date of the vehicle’s arrival in your showroom nears, post weekly photos of the model with reminders on the exact release date.

By doing so, you’ll keep all interested customers in the know about when they should plan to visit your dealership. Plus, your consumers can comment back and forth on your post and tag their friends and family members, which ultimately helps spread the word about the new model.

Branding Videos

Think about it: Your dealership’s main focus is to promote, well, your dealership! That’s why running a brand video campaign is essential to any robust, automotive social media marketing campaign.

No matter what you decide to highlight within these videos, you want to make sure to target specific local towns by name. Doing so will create a direct link between car buyers in those specific areas and your auto dealership.

While branding videos work best on Facebook^®, there are plenty of other social media platforms that support video, including Instagram, Twitter, and others.

To make your dealership stand out, consider creating an animated version of your next video. This adds a fun, informal feel to your dealership’s videos and helps you stand out from other dealerships in your area.

Events, Deals, and Promotions

When something special—an extraordinary event—is happening, your customers should hear about it. Social media is the perfect place to announce when your dealership has something special in the works.

It could be a car show or a fundraiser—maybe even a celebration for the opening of a new location! It could also be your latest deal or promotion that’s designed to draw customers to the dealership with a deal on oil changes, perhaps, or a sale on used vehicles.

Be sure to use the same promotional copy and media you use in other promotional efforts, so your social media presence is consistent with your brand. This speaks to the importance of integrated marketing for your car dealership.

Facility Tours

The physical is more memorable than the digital (that’s why we recommend direct mail as part of your integrated automotive advertising campaign!). To make your dealership seem more real to your customers, why not give them an inside look at your facilities?

This could be the service center where they’ll get their repairs, the waiting room and its cozy amenities, and of course, the showroom and inventory where they’ll find their next new ride. Help your customers get comfortable with your facilities before they arrive.

You can break up your tour in multiple posts that highlight one aspect of the facility at a time. Sprinkle them in with the rest of your social media posts and show the best side of your dealership!

Highlight Customer Satisfaction  

At the end of the day, your customers are most likely to trust the opinions of the car buyers who have left your dealership feeling satisfied. To harness the strength of their positive experiences, create a series of customer testimonial videos and post them to your dealership’s YouTube channel.

These posts can feature one customer or a few different buyers who all had a satisfying experience at your dealership. In addition, videos that feature B-roll of a customer’s test drive are always a hit with potential leads.