4 Ways Auto Dealers Can Use Social Media to Boost Sales

The auto industry is synonymous with loyalty. But as the automobile business landscape becomes even more competitive, savvy dealers are doing all they can to foster long-term relationships with customers through social media. Used in conjunction with email campaigns and a strong web presence, auto dealers who use social media can boost sales not only of vehicles but also of parts and services to repeat, happy customers.

Let’s take a look at four effective strategies for using social media to drive auto sales.

1. Promote Content

Many auto dealers send out emails offering discounts on parts and services, as well as specials on new and used cars or updates to inventory. This email content gets an even bigger audience when shared on social media. Your followers may also share, like, retweet or comment on your post, which then becomes visible to their friends. The most highly shared content is content which readers find valuable – so if you’re running a deal, make sure you’re posting about it on social media.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Sharing content frequently on social media helps boost your SEO, as well as your rankings in social media news feeds. Both search engines and platforms like Facebook favor sites and pages who have regularly updated content.
• Posting on social media opens your company up to comments and questions – and they’re not always the nicest. Make sure you have someone monitoring your social media pages every day to respond to each comment or question in a friendly and timely manner so people see you care about your customers.
• It’s a good idea to think critically about a strategy for you’ll promote content on social media. Don’t just throw something up there whenever the mood strikes – have a plan in place that will support your goals and let it determine what and when you post.

2. Advertise

Many social media platforms now offer advertising, especially the big ones like Facebook and Twitter. These ads mostly appear just like regular posts, except you pay to promote them to a very targeted audience that isn’t limited to your current followers. You can target users by interest, location, demographics, conversation and more. By extending the reach of your dealership, these ads can increase brand awareness, site traffic and social media presence.

3. Build Trust and Loyalty

As mentioned earlier, loyalty is big in the auto dealer industry, and social media is an excellent tool to foster that loyalty and build trust. It’s rare that someone use social media to buy a car outright, but your presnece can go a long way in making that customer trust you enough to buy from you.

Social media allows you to listen to your customers and know what it is that they want and then deliver. The more often people see that you’re delivering what they want, the more loyal they’ll be.

Also we talked about earlier, a social media presence opens your business up to comments and questions – and people airing their complaints. Monitor what’s being said about your company – the good and the bad – and respond as soon as possble to everyone, regardless of what they say. People will see that you take your customers’ experience seriously and that you value them and their opinions.

4. Generate Leads

You may not sell a car on social media, but you can use it to generate qualified leads. Here are a couple tips to collect information on people who are looking to buy.

• Offer coupons and deals – “buy three tires, get one free” or a half-off oil change – on social media that fans can claim and even share with their friends. When new customers redeem their coupon, you’ll be able to collect valuable information from them like their email, the make, model and year of their current car, mileage and more.
• Run a sweepstakes – give away a new set of tires on social media, or a complete car detailing package. In order to enter, users must like your page and provide their email address, which then gets added to your database.