By now we all know how popular social media is with almost every age demographic. Many auto dealerships know that social media can be leveraged to help get more sales and build relationships with customers, but the best ways to use social media to help achieve your goals is constantly changing. 

In this post we will cover how to choose which social media platforms to focus on ways you can generate interactions on those social media accounts, how those interactions can translate to sales, and also the importance of reviews. 

Which Social Media Accounts are Best for Auto Dealerships? 

First, consider your target audience. They are primarily consumers, although your dealership may also cater to businesses. You also may be targeting several different age groups as potential customers. Different social media platforms tend to be more popular with different age groups. Take a look at this helpful infographic that depicts the various demographics of people that tend to use each social platform. 

Facebook is definitely still the social media giant out there and the one that most people tend to use. Other platforms that could be beneficial for auto dealers would be Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and possibly LinkedIn - which is good source for posting jobs. It can also be helpful to spend a few minutes looking at your competitors and see which social media platforms they're using and what they're doing on them. 

How Do I Get People to See What I Post on Social Media? 

While you'll eventually get people following you and interacting with your posts organically, when you first set up an account it can be helpful to purchase ads on the various platforms. Most platforms also have the ability to "boost a post" which basically means that you pay for that post to be shown to your target audience even if those people don't follow you just yet. 

Once you have followers and people who are interacting with you, that doesn't mean you should stop using paid ads and boosted posts, you just might not need to do them quite as often. Say someone writes a really good review about your company, you may want to share that to a wider audience so they can see how happy your customers are. If you have a promotion going on or a post that has been really popular with your followers that can be helpful to others, you'll want to boost that so that more of your target audience can see it. 

What Kind of Content Should I Be Posting? 

Using social media to post about your different promotions is the most logical choice, but there are other things you can post about as well. One idea to build some trust and familiarity with your customers would be to occasionally post a picture of one of your employees about what they do there and how they can help your customers. Buying a car or dealing with car repairs can be an intimidating experience, so if your customers come in already knowing a few familiar faces, it can help break down some barriers and increase the likelihood that they'll want to buy from you or get their vehicle serviced by you. 

Additionally, people love posting on social media when they have gotten a new car. Start a campaign with your own catchy hashtag where you post pictures of customers with their new set of wheels (with their permission of course). Encourage them to share their own pictures on social; they should tag you and use your catchy hashtag. Videos would also be great for this; is someone buying a car for someone else? Have them post the reaction video and tag you in it. People can even record and post their own video reviews. This is a great way to build loyalty with your clients and get credibility with other people who see those posts. 

A study done by Mediakix that analyzed the most popular types of videos on YouTube showed that How-To videos were the 3rd most popular type of content that people watched, right behind reviews at #2. Talk to some of the employees in each department of your dealership and see what the most common questions are that people ask them, then create some videos around those topics. 

Here are some topic ideas that could help entice people to come to your dealership and/or service department: 

• How to Know When You Need a Tire Rotation 
• How to Know When You Need New Tires 
• How to Check Your Oil 
• Features of ______ Model Car 
• Available Trim Packages of _____ Model Car 
• How to Work the Technology in _____ Model Car 

Create videos showcasing your current promotions. A dealership in Plano, Texas created a promotion that gives discounts on cars to Uber drivers. Something like this could be expanded to Lyft drivers as well, and a video about the promotion would be the perfect type of thing to share on all your social accounts. 

Make sure your videos are to-the-point and that they have available captions and/or have some written text within the video for people who are hard of hearing or just don't want to watch the video with sound. 

How Important Are Reviews When it Comes to Sales? 

In short, reviews are crucial when it comes to sales. Reviews and other user-generated content are what drive people to buy. According to a study done by the Spiegel Research Center, nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase. Additionally, displaying reviews can increase conversions by 270% (or even more for high-value items). 

While Facebook is the only major social media platform that has a review section built into it (and you'll need to set that up), there are ways you can share those reviews on other platforms as well. This article by Social Media Examiner gives you some detailed information about how to use Instagram for sharing reviews. 

Be sure to come up with a plan of how you're going to acquire reviews. After a customer makes a purchase is a great time to solicit reviews, while the experience is most relevant. You can also send an email to customers via an email campaign. For those who aren't customers, consider putting a QR code or a short URL on your business cards that will direct people to where you want them to leave reviews. That way, if they wanted to rave about how wonderful your staff was while they were just browsing your selection of vehicles, they know where they can go to post that information. This will also allow them to read reviews from other customers and increase the likelihood that they'll return. 

Time to Get Started! 

Now that you have some helpful tips and ideas on where to go from here, it's time to set up those accounts and get posting! There really are endless opportunities out there for ways to interact with your customers and draw in new ones using social media, so always keep an eye out for new trends and how other companies are using their accounts.