Toyota uses Social Media for discussion
Toyota COO and President Jim Lentz
As part of the campaign to get in front of the accelerator pedal recall Toyota COO Jim Lentz fielded questions today on Twitter. While it's not really earth shattering news, it does demonstrate that Social Media plays a vital role in the new marketplace.
Customers want transparency from companies that they deal with. It reassures them and shows what they can expect should any problems arise in the future. So while Toyota did not sell any cars directly during today's Q&A session, I have no doubt that they convinced more than a few people that will be buying soon, that Toyota is easy to deal with.
Dealerships can apply the same principle. Don't use sites like Twitter to try and sell cars, rather use them to sell your dealership. Show current and prospective customers that you are open, transparent and easy to deal with. You will find big dividends in retention and new customers as well.
As always, please feel free to contact if you have any questions how you can use Social Media as part of your overall online strategy.
Spring 2010 looks to be huge, is your dealership ready?
Marketing and advertising your dealership has gone from mass channels such as radio and TV to a more personal and on demand approach. Instead of repeating a broad message, today you need smaller more people centric messages. It’s not that marketing your dealership has died, it’s just changed. Today people have more power and more choices. So what’s the best way to reach them?
Be Accessible.
Whether it’s your website, your Facebook page, Twitter or You Tube or any other number of sites, there are more ways to reach more people than ever before. Can your prospects and customers engage you on multiple platforms? Some people prefer to submit a form, others prefer to call, many still use email and an increasing number would rather use Facebook or other social media sites. The lesson here is simple don’t limit access to your dealership to your website and phone.
Be Active.
You don’t have to sit at your desk and post Tweets all day. However, do post something regularly. I would suggest at least three to five times a week. More importantly set up alerts to notify you when your dealership is mentioned.
Short and Sweet.
Because of all the ways to reach people today, this is more important today than ever before. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to send a long email or posts on your social media sites. Use just 10% of your message at a time, so if you want tell prospects about a car and your description is 500 words send to them in 50 word increments. Brevity is king, when people see long email messages they tend to put off reading it.
In closing this is an exciting time to be in the car business. A lot of people have been waiting to buy that new car, waiting for the economy to settle down, waiting for credit to open back up. This spring should be one of the best in a long time. Now is the time to make sure that your dealership is ready. Feel free to call me if you have any questions on how you can put Social Media and your website to work for you.
Social Media Goes Corporate
An interesting study crossed my desk today, the 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Studyby Ben Hanna, Ph.D. the VP of Marketing for R.H. Donnelley Interactive.
While the study does not directly address the retail application of Social Media, it does reflect a growing trend of mainstream use of Social Media not only by individuals, but also by businesses. Over 4,000 respondents were surveyed and even though the study focused mainly on business to business use of Social Media there were some surprising revelations.
If you've read some of my past articles you know that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the age 40 to 50 segment. However, it may surprise you that know that of this study's respondents 58% were C-Level Executives (CEO, CFO President, etc.) One thing that jumped out to me was that only 2% of respondents listed their industry as automotive. In case you're interested the leading field was listed as retail followed closely by health care.
Information sources that did not require active participation such as webinars, podcasts reading ratings or reviews etc. were rated as more useful participating in discussions or forums. I found this particularly interesting because it has been said by more than a few experts that Social Media sites will soon be the new search engines. If this is the case then you might be wise to start advertising on these sites.
Webinars were listed as very useful. Is there an application here for the retail car business? Maybe a webinar to show owners how to perform routine inspections or how to use complicated features such as navigation?
Most were new to the business use of Social Media with 35% having spent less than one year managing or involved in the Social Media initiatives of their companies. Over 70% of the companies had less than two years of experience in Social Media.
So what are all these newbies doing for their business? The most popular was maintain company related accounts or profiles on the Social Media sites. Second was monitoring company related "mentions" on Social Media sites. Maintaining the company blog was a very close third.
A lot of companies (54%) reported using Social Media to monitor their users / customers ratings and reviews and 53% monitored their competitors mentions.
The 44 page study reveals that a relative new media is rapidly becoming a mainstream business tool. You can read the study at http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study.
Is your dealership engaged? If you want to find out simple and easy ways to get your store started call me at 502-689-5370 or contact me at Twitter, I am @dealerist.
Got 30 seconds, how about a walk-around?
The versatile Flip Video camcorder
Today’s road to the sale, Building Rapport and technology
This month I am taking a look at the Road to the Sale and seeing how I might adapt the steps for the new digital world. The other day we looked at the Meet and Greet, today let’s look at building rapport.
Deep down, I still think that the greatest job in the world is selling cars. I loved it on day and part of me longs to do it again. If I were selling today, I would be a Social Media PRO. Notice that I said “I” and not the store.
Personal Branding today is so easy and yet so important. If you sell cars today and do not have a Facebook page, you’re crazy. Not only would I have a Facebook page but I would buy those little ads in the youth league and school programs and point them to my Facebook site. I would have a Twitter account and talk about the car business, talk about new models that are coming, talk about your service department, send out seasonal reminders about wipers etc… The point is talk about anything that’s interesting to you.
On your Facebook page talk about your family, post pictures of Little League games etc.. but as Paul Rushing so aptly pointed out the other day, do NOT try to sell via Facebook. Instead use Facebook to “Sell Yourself.”
Remember this business always has been and will always be a people business. And one of the first lessons in this business is “People buy from people they like.” So use Social Media sites to show potential customers why they should like you, in other words establish common ground.
Previously, I mentioned that you as a Salesperson should have your own Facebook page. The store should have either a Fan Page or Group page. The store’s page should be used to send out “press releases” about your store, your brand, your market etc.
You should also use this page to provide customers an easy forum to communicate with your dealer. I am currently reading a book titled “Socialnomics” that cited a recent study that said a majority of people would rather do without their email than their social networking. Today’s consumers are far more likely to blog about you than email you. If you provide them the space you’re more likely to stay on top of potentially irritated customers and respond promptly to save a relationship. And in today’s market that’s what its all about.
If I were a General Manager, Owner or Service Manager I would make sure that my Service advisors have a Facebook page as well.
I believe that technology has actually made the “Establishing Rapport” part of the road to the sale easier than ever for those that are willing to embrace it.
Just a thought…
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