Let’s face it, with the Internet making it so much easier to search multiple car dealership’s lots quickly and effectively, it has never been easier to lose a customer.  Which is why it is so puzzling to us that we see so many dealers not taking full advantage of the benefits of Facebook for Car Dealers and the usage of Twitter, after all, Facebook is the single greatest customer retention tool available to car dealers.  That said, after researching Facebook and Car Dealers usage of social networks, we have come across three myths that could be costing you a great deal of money, in lost revenues and lost customers!

Myth 1: Facebook doesn’t generate sales! On the surface, this myth is absolutely 100% correct.  In the short term, Facebook is not known for generating the same types of sales numbers that an Auto Trader account will, however, this is only true for short term sales and completely ignores the potential for increasing revenues from other departments like Parts and Service.  By using Facebook to keep your existing customer base engaged with your dealership, you increase your ability to be there when they begin looking for their next car, usually three to four years after purchasing their existing vehicle.  To be quite candid about this myth, no one has used Facebook nearly long enough to know how well Facebook does at generating sales.

What have we discovered in our own use of Facebook correctly?  With a current fanbase of roughly 500 existing customers and potential customers, our test dealership experiences an average of 5 to 10 visitors to their website from Facebook each day.  That may not seem like much until you consider that over the course of a month, that equals 150 to 300 people visiting the dealer’s website looking for information about Parts and Service, and New and Pre-Owned cars!  By keeping them engaged, the chance of losing that customer to another dealer goes down drastically!

Myth 2:  Anyone can do it! On the surface, this Myth has a logical basis, sort of.  The thought seems to be, “Everyone uses Facebook so anyone can use it to market my business and keep my customers connected.  Seems like a sound philosophy and to be honest, we agreed with it until we started seeing Twitter and Facebook streams for businesses containing divisive religious and political content, or so overloaded with non relevant information that followers and fans had no choice but to turn off the updates!  Facebook is a Marketing and Public Relations dream for car dealers, but it should be managed by those who know how to craft the correct message, walk the fine line between fun and information, and be able to competently manage any negative comments that may appear from a customer.  You wouldn’t ask a marketing person to sell cars, yet it seems perfectly reasonable to have a salesman do your marketing.

A secondary reason for not just throwing it to the receptionist is reliability.  If for some reason your current Facebook person exits their position, who fills in with the Social Networks?  And when you do hire a replacement, will you have added Facebook marketing  to the job description?  Probably not!

We are experts at using Social Networks to retain your customer base and boost sales in your fixed and variable revenue centers.  With over 5 years of experience using Facebook for businesses large and small, we know how to get the most out of Facebook and deliver sound results for your bottom line.  Contact us today to see how we can improve your social network presence tomorrow!

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