SocialDealer.com

Social Media for Service = Customer Retention.

2010-04-01T07:22:00.001-07:00

SocialDealer.com is designed to generate leads and increase sales in your dealership across all departments. Although a large part of the power of SocialDealer.com is designed to sell more cars we know the important role fixed operations play in the overall profitability of a dealership. With stores achieving up to one-hundred percent fixed absorption your service and parts department is the back bone of your operation having three to ten times more customer contacts per day then your sales department. The contacts these departments make, when properly utilized, can be used to grow your social media community and increase service, parts and sales to service customer retention.

The specific content posted to your social networks by your parts and service departments will vary from dealership to dealership depending on the role they play in your overall message. Distributing recalls and maintenance reminders regularly will encourage your community to check your pages frequently. From there the possibilities are endless. Have a mechanic write about warning signs of car trouble to look out for. Share videos on how to change the tire of a SUV and upload it to your YouTube account. Post personalized appointment reminders and even leave progress notes for customers with a car in the shop. In the Prospecting tool service and parts departments can set up their own keywords to find in market buyers for their product or service.

When your dealership joins a social network it has to be an entire dealership effort. All departments must know what social media message you are trying to convey and constantly be making effort to grow your community in their daily dealership lives. Collecting email address' and asking people if they are on a social networking sites when they are in the store is a crucial first step to making connections. Social media should be the buzz throughout your dealership because the more people that know about it the more opportunities you have to sell.

It All Starts With Your Community

2010-03-09T11:14:00.001-08:00

For years dealerships have been collecting email addresses in an effort to stay more connected with their customers. If you haven't been doing this, START NOW! If you have, you've already taken the first step to growing your social media community. Your existing customers know you and trust your dealership.

Using your email database, SocialDealer allows you to connect with your previously sold customers, service customers and even parts customers through our applications "my community" tab. Existing customers are more likely to accept your request and check your pages regularly.

Social media marketing all starts with your community. Unless people are connected to your dealership via social media, time and effort properly maintaining your sites is wasted. Extra effort should go into connecting with your existing customers especially in the beginning of your social media marketing campaign. Entering into social media with a large following not only makes your dealership look established it also creates a bigger buzz and makes growing your community easier.

Maintaining your community is an integral part of your social media marketing campaign however the importance of seeking out new customers must not be minimized. SocialDealer gives you the tools to connect and engage with new customers using the "prospecting" tab in our application.

Social media should not replace follow up emails. Instead, it should be used as a way to grow your community. Include links for people to connect with you via social media in your follow up emails. Have your staff spread the word about your social networks and encourage people to connect. Social media will play an important role in the life and longevity of your dealership.

At SocialDealer we understand that entering into social media is a challenge and we are here to make it easier.
online- http://www.socialdealer.com/
Call- 877.326.7624
email- sales@socialdealer.com
Fan us on facebook
twitter.com/socialdealer

Don’t forget to take your inventory with you!

2010-03-01T14:08:00.001-08:00

The internet is the present and the future of the car business. The more places you can post your inventory the better off you are going to be. While embracing the latest trend of social media marketing it is important not to forget that without the inventory, you don't have a business to run or a reputation to manage. If your dealership is going to use social media then your inventory needs to be there as well. Like everything else there is a right way and a wrong way to go about sharing your inventory on social networks. Should you post all your cars on your wall and try to manually manage them? No! Fans do not want to come to your social media pages and see nothing but inventory. It is important to keep interesting industry relevant content on your wall and make your inventory accessible but not plastered all over the place. SocialDealer.com has created a custom Facebook application that does more than just host your inventory. Our application creates a separate tab at the top of the wall labeled "inventory" that allows your fans to see your cars when they want! Inside our application we integrate with your photo company so your inventory is displayed and laid out just like it would be on a larger vehicle search engine such as Cars.com. With multiple filtering options your fans can find the car they want and with one click they are linked to a dynamically created landing page specific to each vehicle. This page features a full photo spread and, because of integration with Autodata, the pages offer a complete and accurate VIN decode. Other features include: a custom dealer comment section, link to Google maps showing the dealership location allowing customers to map themselves right to your front door, a link to vehicle history reports and so much more. Every landing page opens in a new window creating a URL that you can share across all social networks.

Didn't know you could tweet a car? With SocialDealer.com you can!

SocialDealer.com is integrated into your DMS. That means when you make a sale the vehicle comes out of your system, out of SocialDealer.com and out of your Facebook application making it maintenance free for the dealership.

Your inventory is one of the biggest parts of your operation, as your dealership surges forward and grows through the use of social media don't forget to take it with you! SocialDealer.com can give you the knowledge and the tools to get your inventory all over social networks and show you how to master social media marketing!

Give us a call now! 877.326.7624 or email us at sales@socialdealer.com.

2 Social Media challenges

2010-02-22T11:30:00.001-08:00

Social media is here to stay. Dealerships and other businesses that refuse to get on it are going to get left behind. So, what are the challenges facing businesses as they attempt to take on the fast changing world of social media?

The first challenge becomes understanding how to properly utilize social media as a far reaching and cost effective advertising outlet. To do this you must understand that people are constantly on social networking sites; updating them several times a day and viewing their favorite pages for new content. If you create a page that features updates on dealership events, as well as industry related articles and videos, you can become a part of your customer's daily life. Doing this in a non-confrontational way and becoming a resource for your community allows you access to your customer like you have never had before. Ignore the urge to blast people with inventory and post hype ads on your walls! Remember in the world of social media the soft sell is the only sell. Try to use social media as a way to force your dealership in front of people and you will be wasting the best customer retention resource available.

The second challenge a dealership is going to face, choosing what social networks to join. An internet manger can't possibly be expected to control their department and manage all the popular networks. Spreading your staff too thin can produce unwanted results. What a dealership needs is a tool that will control all of their social networks, monitor incoming communication, find interesting articles and videos as well as the latest industry news and allow you to share from one network to another. With a tool like this a dealership would not have to make a choice of what network to join but would instead join them all. Social media control suites such as SocialDealer.com give dealerships that ability.

Having a tool to monitor and control several social networks from one location allows dealerships to properly utilize this new technology and not have to choose the networks they join. Staying active on all your networks and keeping your customers engaged with your dealership on a daily basis will allow you to grow your community into the most valuable resource your dealership possesses. If you don't get on social networks, right now, you are going to miss out.

SocialDealer.com gives you the tools and the power to be a profitable and cutting edge dealership during this down economy and into the future.

If you are interested in seeing the power and learning how to be a social media dealership please give us a call at 877.326.7624 or email us at sales@socialdealer.com

What we learned at NADA

2010-02-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

We are back! NADA in Orlando, Florida was a blast. What did we learn while we were there? We learned that social media is all the buzz. We witnessed classes on social media moved to rooms three times the size they were scheduled in due to overwhelming demand.

Have you seen the data? Do you know how big social media is?

Facebook added 100 million users in under 9 months.

If facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world between the United States and Indonesia.

The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube.
Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web!

Have YOU ever put an ad in the paper that reached 100 million people? Instead of standing in the showroom looking out the windows and wondering where the customers are, sit down in front of a computer and log on to http://www.socialdealer.com/ and let us show you where they are!

Engage with your current customer base and expand your community through the use of social networks and socialdealer.com.

Have question? Want answers? Call us at 877.326.7624 or email us at sales@socialdealer.com

Why Bother?

2010-02-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

For some reason we continue to see dealerships running large ads in the newspapers and paying BIG money to put up billboards. What is the last bilboard you saw for a dealership? If you are like most people you don't remember. That's because mass marketing, like billboards, is great for increasing brand recognition but doesn't do much to influence the buyer when it comes to making a decision.

Leave the big money ads to the manufacturer!

What you need is cost effective personalized advertising with a measurable return on investment. What better way to achieve this then with the use of social networks? Social networks, when used correctly, allow you to establish relationships with your current customer base and increase sales.

Keep an eye on our blog for more tips on the proper use of social networks, the downfalls of traditional advertising and the exciting and innovative ways SocialDealer.com can benefit your dealership!

Interested? Give us a call at 877.326.7624 or email us at sales@socialdealer.com