Social Media for Dealers

A resource from HuebnerPetersen's Dealer Marketing Services

February 15, 2012 • 2:44 pm 1

Social media: How much is enough?

With so many outlets for social media today it can be extremely overwhelming to keep up. Your dealership wants to have a strong presence in social media, but you also don’t want to be stretched too thin. This article from Jeff Bullas details how many outlets certain type of companies should be using.

For RV dealerships, we think an optimal number of social media channels is four:

1.  Blog – Your dealerships social media “home base”.  This is where you build content, boost SEO, and develop your voice.  A blog is a great tool to converse with your customers. When you utilize a blog you can show your customers how your dealership works. A blog provides a place where you can expand on thoughts from your Facebook posts or tweets.

2.  Twitter – Easy to use, easy to link to your blog, perfect place to listen to customers and build industry knowledge. Twitter provides a forum where you can easily communicate with your followers or customers. Twitter is a more abbreviated social media outlet and it is easy to tweet daily about the happenings at your dealership.

3.  Facebook – Facebook is a great place to get followers for your dealership.  More and more people are using Facebook as a place to take care of customer service issues or ask questions. Facebook is a very friendly atmosphere and is place where your customers want to see you interacting. The more customers see you making conversation on Facebook, the more comfortable they will feel talking with you.

4.  YouTube – We’ve talked about video many times before.  Video is perfect for an RV dealership because it allows you to show off your product and it gives customers a solid reason to stop by your dealership. When a customer researches before purchasing, you want your dealership to pop up on their radar. There is no better way to do this than to have a video showing what off what you have to offer.

In the end, the more you are using social media, the better your dealership will appear to potential customers. With these four channels, you will be able to keep up with Social Media without being stretched too thin on quality posts.

Filed under: The Basics, , , , , , , ,

January 12, 2012 • 9:00 am 0

What Is a Hashtag? And Why Should I Use It?

 

Often, when dealers begin using social media, they become overwhelmed at the new vocabulary that is used on Facebook or Twitter. It’s confusing at first, for everyone!

One of the most common trip-ups is Twitter’s hashtag. Most dealers new to Twitter have no idea what a hashtag is, so they end up using it incorrectly or not using it at all. We are here to help you. Let’s begin with: hashtag = #. A hashtag is simply the number sign.

Hashtags are used in Twitter to categorize topics. Since Twitter’s setup is pretty simple, they developed the hashtag so people file their “tweets” under particular topics.

Example: You post a comment telling everyone to pop into your dealership this weekend. “Hey guys, check out our new inventory this weekend before you head out on your adventure! #camping”

What the #camping does:

  1. Since you placed a “#” before “camping” it will automatically make it a link.
  2. You (or anyone) can click on that link and it will take you to a page of every other Tweets that used “#camping”.
  3. Your tweet will be held in this archive of all other tweets mentioning #camping.

The hashtag is a powerful tool because it allows people who are not following you to see your tweet. A person who has never heard of you but is interested in camping will search #camping and see your tweet. This helps expose your dealership to a wider audience, and it helps establish you as a key leader on topics.

Want to know more? There are tons of websites promoted to helping you understand social media vocabulary. If you are still a little fuzzy see how Twitter describes hashtags. Also check out this blog post that describes more Twitter vocabulary. Happy #Tweeting!

photo by ccsdteacher

Filed under: Twitter, , , , , , , ,

December 7, 2011 • 11:35 am 0

Social Media & Small Business: Infographic

Social media and online interaction between dealerships and their customers is growing at an astounding rate — and the success of these endeavors is growing just as quickly. With statistics on usage, success rates and other more details being released each day, infographics are popping up all over the place to make sense of the numbers. You’ve probably seen different types of infographics in magazines, news channels and across many of your favorite websites. In case you’re not familiar with infographics, they are simply graphic representations of information (or statistics). Below is a great infographic based on how small businesses (and dealerships) are currently using social media. Here are a few key facts we’ve pulled out:

  • 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of
  • 62% of adult US Internet users watch videos on video sharing sites
  • 61% of small business owners now use social media to attract new customers

Source: Crowdsourced Logo and Graphic Design by crowdSPRING

 

Filed under: Statistics, , , , , ,

November 29, 2011 • 1:15 pm 0

RVIA is getting social!

RVIA Expo in Louisville

It’s that time of year again — time for the big RVIA Louisville show. A week of checking out all the new products and getting sneak peeks for what the industry has in store as we all head into 2012. With so much excitement and change literally under your nose, you’ve got the perfect opportunity to update your social media program based on all the new things your learn and see. Here are a few ideas to get you started, but keep in mind that the options are endless.

1.  Write a blog post about the updated “green materials” and aerodynamic profiles you see in the 2012 product

2.  Post pictures of the most impressive new units (and their interiors) on your Facebook page

3.  Twitter positive quotes & ideas from the Outlook Breakfast

4.  Make LinkedIn connections with the different people you meet

5.  Take pictures of new units you’ll soon have at your dealership, make a gallery on Flickr or share teasers on your Facebook page

6. Blog about what makes you most excited the upcoming 2012 product and what it means to your customers.

RVIA is all about the changes and new products. Make sure you use this opportunity to share all the excitement you have for the upcoming year with your customers!

Filed under: Quick Tips, , , , , , , ,

October 20, 2011 • 11:45 am 0

Friend Collecting.

This whole blog is about social media – specifically social media for RV dealers. There are articles that show you how to reserve your name, why pictures are engaging and why the heck you should consider using Twitter. All of these posts are geared to help you succeed, help you move forward and most importantly to help you build a strong social media strategy.

But, (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers game. It’s easy to try to track down as many followers as you can hoping that they’ll engage in your brand – meaning you’re going for quantity not quality. At the end of the day, the goal of social media isn’t to collect followers, it’s about collecting the right followers. The people you want to reach are online — somewhere — and it’s only a matter of finding and engaging them.

When you find your Twitter Direct Message full of irrelevant notes and your Hidden Posts on Facebook chalk full of random offers it’s a sure sign that you’re playing on the wrong side of the numbers game. While the breadth and size of your social media network can potentially be beneficial for spreading the word, building up your name recognition and customer base, most of the time it isn’t.

So, what’s the solution? Spend your time connecting with current customers that can benefit from what you’re offering, past customers that want to engage and future customers that don’t know what they’re missing. Stay on target and don’t let the number of followers be an indication of your success.

*Image Credit: FindYourSearch

Filed under: Quick Tips, , , , , ,

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