Used Car Dealers Using Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to build trust and community linkage.
Although most franchise dealers have finally boarded the train of progress into the digital age, used car dealers have been slow to buy a ticket. As a content provider and marketing manager in the auto industry, I am constantly monitoring social media and engaging dealers across the big three platforms. I can see what works and what falls short of the mark. Before I dig in any deeper, let’s take a look at facts, and just the facts as you’ve possibly seen them before:
- *80% of all adults in the US are on Facebook, 32% Instagram, 24% on Twitter
- Instagram has 4x more engagement than any other social media form
- Facebook has 1.7 billion worldwide users
- Instagram has 400 million worldwide users
- Twitter has 320 million worldwide users
- Time spent by the average person on social media today is 116 minutes
- 80% of newspaper readers are 50+ years or older with 75% of that age demo 65+
The bottom line is that more people are on social media than any other media form available. On average, new car dealers now allocate ad budget at a 6:1 ratio of digital vs newspaper.
While traditional forms of media do not let the advertiser actively engage (in real-time) with the consumer or visa versa, social media provides them that opportunity. Newspaper websites attempt to bridge the communication gap by routing traffic to their client’s sites so the client can have that preferred interaction but few achieve the preferred results because frankly speaking, most of that traffic is display traffic which is mostly non-human traffic. I remember discussing with one of our area managers of the 2nd largest newspaper group in the US how poorly our digital arm delivered. He agreed that impression counts were skewed and digital real estate on the O&O sites were difficult to fill let alone provide any real value to the advertiser. Digital ads were being bundled at pretty low prices in order to get the print business. Truth be told, the ads may as well have been invisible.
As a former employee of that major newspaper group, I can assure you that newspapers still rely on car dealer ad dollars to keep the lights on, but those lights are growing dimmer and dimmer. On the other hand, radio has stayed buoyant as an advertising option for car
dealers. Since many folks are still car-bound commuting to and from work, radio has held steady as a solid ad platform throughout the expansion of the digital age. “As dealers bail off of newsprint, they are trying to find the right media mix which includes digital, cable, and radio” according to Ken Steele, longtime radio advertising professional. He says as newspaper began its rapid decline 8 to 9 years ago, new car dealers eventually adapted to digital but used car dealers don’t have the same mentality. “Where they should be aggressive connecting with shoppers online as new inventory comes in, most take a passive role for whatever reason”.
A study that we completed in July of this year clearly shows that used and new car dealers who stay consistent with their social posts promote a far more professional air, and are far more diligent at responding to leads and vehicle inquiries than those who do not. Those who have adapted to the 21st century are winning the dealer wars. Those medium to large-sized used car dealers who still stay with traditional media and kick it back on a rocking chair waiting for their newspaper ads to come out, are either in very small towns that skew “old”, or they have one foot on a claymore and the other foot on a mound of angry fire ants.
The same study suggests that dealers who engage in active social media (the big 3 platforms), actually follow up on leads at a much higher rate than those who do not. In fact, 79% of those who have an active Twitter and/or Instagram account responded to lead gen forms on their websites with personal emails and not with an auto-generated email reply. The squeaky wheel gets the grease (sales), and when compared the fact that only 19% of used car dealers without social media presence even responded to lead gen forms, we see dead people walking.
Here’s another amazing fact; used car dealers appear to be ignorant of the fact that the average age of a new car buyer is 49 years old! That means that “millennial” drivers more active in social media – make up the majority of used car buyers! (JD Power).
Embracing social media doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to suddenly lift your business, but the more successful small, medium, and large dealers that are embracing it also seem to exercise best practices through all phases of the sales process. Hence, they are posting more sales pictures than any of the others who aren’t as socially active. Social and Sales seem to go hand in hand. When you see your neighbors buying a car at Al’s via Instagram or Facebook, the more likely you are to consider shopping at Al’s.
The biggest elephant in the room that used car dealers seem to have issues with (aside from the lack of social media presence and following up internet leads), is the whole concept of review and reputation management. You can be doing everything right but if customers are ripping you on the web…it’s hard to build a healthy business. Social media may be a way to soften the blows but there are far better options available to dealers to manage reputation. We’ll address those in an upcoming article.
Below is a short list of dealers that are aggressive on social media platforms and appear to move units at a nice pace:
Memphis Auto Market at https://www.instagram.com/memphisautomkt/
Top Speed Auto Group at https://www.instagram.com/topspeedautogroup/
The Auto Center of Texas at https://www.instagram.com/autocentertexas/
Nice Car Hollywood at https://www.instagram.com/nicecarhollywood/
Huggard and Ewing https://www.instagram.com/hugcars/
Now celebrating 10 years in the digital marketing space, Kelly Kleinman’s experience includes working in a variety of marketing and advertising capacities with such iconic American entities as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, MLB, NASCAR, Sony, Universal Studios, MGM, Allstate Insurance and many others. He’s written blogs covering a wide spectrum of topics from the pitfalls of manufacturing in China to influencer marketing, the benefits of Pokemon Go obsession to the similarities of online dating and car buying. Highly experienced in the world of Google AdWords and B2C Social Media campaigns, he has also written dozens of websites across all categories and is a go-to digital media consultant for many companies looking to push the needle and get into the next gear. EMAIL: [email protected]
