• Branding and awareness opportunities
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Build link popularity
• Build traffic to your website
• Interaction with the public – online reputation

Ask any marketing guru and they’ll tell you that the 5 above points are concrete ways to increase your business via the web. But the question still remains…“Why aren’t car dealers social networking?”

Are you even convinced that dealers should even be focusing their efforts in this medium?

Let’s talk about why a car dealership should not be focusing their efforts on social media…

1. Most dealer still can’t answer the phone with professionalism while asking the right questions to get to know the customers’ wants and needs.
2. Most dealers lead response time is still over an hour on average AND when we do get a lead, most don’t know how to respond to the customer with relevancy.
3. Most quit following up with the customer after 48 hours and then wonder why the customer bought from the other dealer.
4. Most dealers still struggle with its “Brand” / its “Message”, a strong Why Buy from Me.
5. It’s too much work and most DO NOT have “that person” to manage and take ownership of it.
6. Dealers still struggle to fully embrace New Marketing and trying to understand today’s consumer.
7. Most vehicles comments are still “power windows, power locks and A/C”.
8. Most dealers have no email marketing strategy or better yet, have an email capture rate of less than 20% on the showroom floor.
9. Your Reason Goes Here…

It’s simple… Social Media, when done right takes real dedication, time, care and finesse. Don’t ask “how many cars will it sell me this month” because there’s no report that going to truly track it to a direct sale!! Hmm..maybe its time for your dealer to become its own “BRAND”.

Consumers are communicating more than ever online and making more of their choices based on the opinions of others – sometimes friends, sometimes experts and sometimes complete strangers. It’s about peers influencing peers and brands engaging with consumers’ on the consumers’ terms – wherever and whenever the consumers choose. But that doesn’t mean marketing should get the boot. Instead, enter the third dimension of marketing – Social Influence Marketing.