Social Media Marketing — You’re Posting Content But Not Taking It Seriously
When it comes to social media, everyone has heard of the 20 or 30 something year old entrepreneur that built a clientele and customer base through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. What businesses are capable of in 2017 wouldn’t be possible had social media never been invented. Traditional marketing is expensive and primarily used by larger companies which makes growing a startup business extremely difficult. As we inch closer to a new decade, the world of marketing has reversed where if your business is not on social media, it will be a very adverse journey to become an influential brand in your niche market.
For old school industries such as automotive and real estate, many businesses in these sectors rely upon the necessity of buying, owning, and maintaining houses and automobiles. They believe that traditional marketing methods still work, not only because it’s what they’ve always done, but the fact that consumers at some point in their lives will have to buy a home or car automatically drives sales to their respected companies. In 2017 it’s a big mistake to have this mentality, especially when the margin of error is very thin in an industry where social media is a new concept.
Do a Facebook search of local car dealerships in your area. I’m 100% confident you’ll find Facebook timelines littered with boring content that you’ll find irrelevant, that doesn’t motivate you to make a purchase, or fails to explain why the vehicles they sell fit your needs or why you must buy from that particular dealership. When it comes to social media, car dealerships do everything but market and sell cars, skirting around the vehicles they sell all-together by sharing posts on local news, weather, or future cars that have no timetable on when they’ll be in the showroom.
As a result there’s little engagement from current followers, the social media manager doesn’t run any advertisements, there’s no high quality content, and this eventually leads to less posts and reliance upon social media platforms. To be good on social media, objectives have to be created. Are you going to be “social” on Facebook by sharing posts on “How to wash your car” and “Five places to go on summer road trips”, or are you going to be fully committed to increasing the turnover rates on the vehicles you sell by creating content around the models in your inventory? You can’t achieve the goal of increasing sales if your content doesn’t drive consumers to your location.
Whether you’re selling Jaguars or Hondas, you must take social media marketing seriously like you would with newspaper, radio, television, and billboard ads. Instead of posting sporadically, share a post daily on Facebook, Instagram, and if you produce videos, YouTube as well. Become a part of the consumer market you’re trying to reach rather than sitting behind a desk waiting for a potential car buyer to drive onto the lot. You need to be proactive in your search for customers, and thanks to Facebook, you can reach the ideal consumers who are in the market for the cars you’re selling.
Polk Data allows us to pinpoint consumers who are going to buy a new or used car within the next 90–180 days. More than that, we can also get specific, to the point where your Facebook ads are reaching buyers in the market for a particular brand and type of car (i.e. sedan, crossover, SUV, and sports car).
It’s important to note that advertising alone doesn’t equate to sales, which is why there needs to be a dedication to the creation of high quality content that adds a new dimension to your car dealership. In the 21st century, businesses are being forced to become media companies, where they’re producing videos, photos, and spending a large amount of time on social media platforms. To see any results from Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, you have to treat it as a full-time position, and not a side job you give to a sales rep waiting for car buyers to walk through your showroom’s door.
At the end of the day, you must decide what your intentions are on social media. Are you going to use Facebook and Instagram to increase sales, or are you going to continue to post statuses that resemble our parents and grandparents who share the most irrelevant stories on their timelines? Remember, this isn’t the 1990’s anymore where video wasn’t as prevalent on the internet as it is now. Social media relies heavily upon digital media content, and that’s what drives engagement and sales in 2017.
It’s time to take social media marketing seriously and use the tools Facebook has given you to get a competitive advantage on the rival dealership down the street. Sales are the lifeblood of a business. Whether you’re the owner, general manager, or sales rep, without sales you’ll be out of a job. Social media is how you retain those jobs, and increase the performance of all your employees. Don’t make the mistake of using Facebook as a personal account; be a real business by posting content that gets aging inventories off your dealerships’ lots.
