When a Dealer Wants to Take Social Media Baby Steps
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Permalink Reply by VJ on -
When indeed the dealership had already secured all their possible profile names on the most common Social platforms he shoud be ready to start with hies "social media crawling session".
I would brake each day into 3 different segments. The first segment is the "listening" into the market and sphere seeing what customers of theirs or of their OEM are speaking about the brand. When I come into my office each morning, the habit needs to be created to check first on all reputation tools or listening tools the dealership hopefully had installed. The first 15 minutes of the day (dedicated to your social media strategy) is dedicated to check the Google and Yahoo alerts, checking on Socialmention, twilert if during the night a new thread was posted on a blog or twitter.
The second segment I would have dedicated to putting the dealership out there, which means posting, micro-blogging or tweeting about my organization. Therefore I will dedicate another 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the early afternoon, and 15 minutes in the late afternoon to posts new owners pictures on facebook, answering possible posts or questions on twitter of my followers and so on.
So far I have already spend 6 hours (1 hour a day x 6 working days) of the possible 10hrs of dedication. I will futher in stage three of my strategy review (let's say) Tuesdays and Fridays possible open forum questions on automotive car enthusiasts forums (like Bimmerfest, Vortex, etc). Because a "sales spin" on these forums is a big NO-NO, engaging with answers or posting of new information on possible new upcoming models is the right way to go. I would plan to work on the forums short before I switch off the lights in my office, evening hours; for 30 minutes.
3 more hours available. These hours are dedicated for my efforts to have a blog updated at least twice a week. With Wednesday and Thursday on my schedule I am using 90 minutes each on these dates for gathering news from different news aggregators I had signed up for and an rewriting their possible chosen content in a short info post on my blog. Because the outbound linking strategy on my blog is one very important aspect of my social media and SEO strategy I have to spend some time to create these outbound links and linking them to my different pages of my dealer URL. I further will copy and paste OEM provided car model information into my pages (with naming source of course) and possible connect this story to my blog as well. The idea is to offer the customers who found your page, blog or Facebook a space where she can find almost all information without anytime "leaving your circle of influence". You can see an example I had created for my BMW dealership during my time as an e-Commerce director. The blog itself created over 200k unique BMW enthusiasts visitors in less than 24 months and was retired in November 2009 (the crazy thing is the SEO is still showing strong and the blog still gets visited even so no new news were spread).
That was on a fast blink my 10 hours/week approach to start "crawling" into the Social media Arena. Looking for further get into the stages "Walking" and "Running"? Don't hesitate to contact me for a dealer visit and to let me assist you with the strategy.
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Permalink Reply by Kelsey Jones on -
I agree with VJ. He definitely has the right approach.
VJ said:When indeed the dealership had already secured all their possible profile names on the most common Social platforms he shoud be ready to start with hies "social media crawling session".
I would brake each day into 3 different segments. The first segment is the "listening" into the market and sphere seeing what customers of theirs or of their OEM are speaking about the brand. When I come into my office each morning, the habit needs to be created to check first on all reputation tools or listening tools the dealership hopefully had installed. The first 15 minutes of the day (dedicated to your social media strategy) is dedicated to check the Google and Yahoo alerts, checking on Socialmention, twilert if during the night a new thread was posted on a blog or twitter.
The second segment I would have dedicated to putting the dealership out there, which means posting, micro-blogging or tweeting about my organization. Therefore I will dedicate another 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the early afternoon, and 15 minutes in the late afternoon to posts new owners pictures on facebook, answering possible posts or questions on twitter of my followers and so on.
So far I have already spend 6 hours (1 hour a day x 6 working days) of the possible 10hrs of dedication. I will futher in stage three of my strategy review (let's say) Tuesdays and Fridays possible open forum questions on automotive car enthusiasts forums (like Bimmerfest, Vortex, etc). Because a "sales spin" on these forums is a big NO-NO, engaging with answers or posting of new information on possible new upcoming models is the right way to go. I would plan to work on the forums short before I switch off the lights in my office, evening hours; for 30 minutes.
3 more hours available. These hours are dedicated for my efforts to have a blog updated at least twice a week. With Wednesday and Thursday on my schedule I am using 90 minutes each on these dates for gathering news from different news aggregators I had signed up for and an rewriting their possible chosen content in a short info post on my blog. Because the outbound linking strategy on my blog is one very important aspect of my social media and SEO strategy I have to spend some time to create these outbound links and linking them to my different pages of my dealer URL. I further will copy and paste OEM provided car model information into my pages (with naming source of course) and possible connect this story to my blog as well. The idea is to offer the customers who found your page, blog or Facebook a space where she can find almost all information without anytime "leaving your circle of influence". You can see an example I had created for my BMW dealership during my time as an e-Commerce director. The blog itself created over 200k unique BMW enthusiasts visitors in less than 24 months and was retired in November 2009 (the crazy thing is the SEO is still showing strong and the blog still gets visited even so no new news were spread).
That was on a fast blink my 10 hours/week approach to start "crawling" into the Social media Arena. Looking for further get into the stages "Walking" and "Running"? Don't hesitate to contact me for a dealer visit and to let me assist you with the strategy.
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Permalink Reply by Timothy Martell on -
I disagree in that I don't accept the terms. 10 hours a month would be time well spent. Social media is not a baby steps program. I think the problem dealers have getting involved in new marketing platforms is that we treat them as something different.
Imagine applying this thought process to other marketing media. It would probably look something like this:
"I just want a "baby steps TV campaign. So instead of that 30 second commercial, let's just try 5 second commercials to start..."
"I just want a baby steps radio campaign. So instead of all those morning drive rotations just give me a few 3am spots..."
"Well we're thinking of trying out the newspaper for advertising. But instead of a full page weekend ad we'll just put one car in on tuesday morning's first edition..."
"Well we know we need a comprehensive marketing strategy, but instead of developing a consistent brand message using TV, Radio, Print and mailers, we're going to put ll our money into sponsoring the local little league uniforms..."
Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, are just where the wise market now. It's not something you try out. What's worse by dipping your toe in the water you risk alienating those folks that you do expose to your lack of commitment. If you're only willing to commit 10 hours a month to your dealerships reputation, what message does that send to your staff or your consumers?
In the immortal words of Yoda, "Do or do not... There is no try..."
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Brown on -
Very well said. I completely agree 100%.
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Permalink Reply by anthony galeano on -
Thats is so well said and so true. This is part of the new way to market and you have to engage or risk being left behind.
Timothy Martell said:
I disagree in that I don't accept the terms. 10 hours a month would be time well spent. Social media is not a baby steps program. I think the problem dealers have getting involved in new marketing platforms is that we treat them as something different.
Imagine applying this thought process to other marketing media. It would probably look something like this:
"I just want a "baby steps TV campaign. So instead of that 30 second commercial, let's just try 5 second commercials to start..."
"I just want a baby steps radio campaign. So instead of all those morning drive rotations just give me a few 3am spots..."
"Well we're thinking of trying out the newspaper for advertising. But instead of a full page weekend ad we'll just put one car in on tuesday morning's first edition..."
"Well we know we need a comprehensive marketing strategy, but instead of developing a consistent brand message using TV, Radio, Print and mailers, we're going to put ll our money into sponsoring the local little league uniforms..."
Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, are just where the wise market now. It's not something you try out. What's worse by dipping your toe in the water you risk alienating those folks that you do expose to your lack of commitment. If you're only willing to commit 10 hours a month to your dealerships reputation, what message does that send to your staff or your consumers?
In the immortal words of Yoda, "Do or do not... There is no try..."
© 2012 Created by Brian Pasch.
