Make Money, Drive Dealership Traffic With Social Media!

January 4th, 2010 -

It’s Time To Make Some Money!

It’s time for you to get serious about social media. We’re beyond wondering if social is going to stick and beyond the waiting and wondering stage. It’s time to monetize social media for your dealership.

Dealerships are going to need an integrated social media strategy if you really want to see a social media payoff.  The payoff will be big but it won’t happen by accident.  A dealership’s  blog should be the central component. It will be the hub that drive’s dealership traffic.  You will drive traffic to your blog through SEO, Twitter, email newsletters, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Don’t forget this!  The blog is the front door to your dealership.   As important as it has  been to have a website,  it’s now equally important to have a dealership blog.

But … saying you have a blog is different from actually participating in social media.   To have credibility and generate dealership traffic your  blog must be developed the right way.

10 blogging Tips For The Social Media Dealership:

  1. Your first goal sounds simple but must be discussed in detail, “Who is your  target audience?”  Without answering this question you will find it extremely difficult to generate traffic. If your blog has no traffic, no audience, no community …you’ll have no ups.
  2. Descriptor Statement: Clearly state what your dealership’s blog is about. Go ahead and be creative with the title, but not with the subtitle, the descriptor statement. It needs to tell your target audience exactly what the purpose of your blog is.
  3.  Someone has to be responsible for keeping the blog’s focus, generating blog content and repurposing that content through other channels.  This is where you need to choose between someone in the store, your automotive ad agency or a third-party that can execute social media specifically for you.  Someone  has to be responsible!
  4. The less people you have to depend upon the better.  When the dealership gets busy Social Media can’t take a back seat.  So keep it simple,  you want to be able to make changes easily and quick. As much as possible keep sales and the internet departments out of the process.  I recommend you get outside help here to make sure you stay on top of it.
  5. A successful blog is going to require you set a goal to post a minimum of 3 times per week. It’s preferable to post each week day.  This is why you need to have someone responsible that can  be consistent, where writing  becomes a ritual. 
  6. Repurpose blog content. You can easily repurpose your dealership’s blog content through Facebook and LinkedIn using special applications available in each platform. You can create an Excel spreadsheet of your blog post titles and URLs and upload those into a special 3rd party application called Social Oomph to repurpose blog content through Twitter accounts.
  7. Focus on Customer Benefits. Blogging keeps you focused on what’s important to your target audience. It requires you to focus on their everyday needs. Don’t  fall into the natural tendency to sell your dealership.  Once you do this you lose your credibility.  
  8. Write to Scan. This is the Social Media style of writing. This may be difficult for a lot of automotive ad agencies.  Nielsen Norman Group ’s research found that 79 percent of their test users always scanned any new page they came across online; only 16 percent read word-by-word.“How do users read on the web? They don’t … they scan,” is a good resource article for writing your dealership blog.
  9. Be Transparent. You won’t appeal to everyone but those that you do it will be strong. People want to work with people they know, trust and like. Social media, blogging in particular, can create a strong relationship with thousands of people each day.  
  10. You must give to get. Show that you have a genuine compassion for your audience and a willingness to help with their automotive ownership challenges.  You give away valuable information.  Your ups in the future will be drawn by the helpful content. If they understand how you think, your points of view, you’re going to create dealership traffic.  When they’re ready, you’ll be the first one they contact.

It’s time to get REAL!  Real fast and get into the Social Media world.  

It’s for REAL!  And it’s time to make some money!

If you have any questions or additional tips, please don’t hesitate to share them in the comment section below or email them to me at   rwheeler@wheeleradvertising.com

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How Much Should I Budget For Social Media To Drive Dealership Traffic?

December 28th, 2009 -

Ok, by now you know you have to be in Social Media but you’re still not sure what it means.  With this uncertainty you don’t know how much money  to give your automotive ad agency to execute a social media plan.

Like any good budgeting process you have to have a plan first. Be sure you get a plan on paper and execute. 

A good plan is way better than waiting 6 months for a great plan. 

Up Your Ups has many good blogs on how you should execute your social media plan.  So let’s just talk budgeting today.

The definition of Social Media is to build relationships.  Nothing is going to be as powerful as Social Media or as cost effective.  Is 10, 20 or 30% too much to allocate to putting a fence around your customers and building bridges to conquest customers.  That’s a question your going to have to answer.

If it was my store I would start with at least 10% of my budget focused on Social Media.   As a minimum number I would start with around $3000 per month.  This amount would allow an Automotive Ad Agency that understands Social Media to execute a very good plan for you. 

Besides budgeting dollars you need to budget buy in. 

What I mean here is you’ll need to put a few processes in place to make Social Media work for you.

You’ll need to set up a system to engage ups at the dealership to become a follower of your dealership.  You’ll want to make sure every customer that comes through service becomes a follower.  You’ll want some POP in the showroom and service drive explaining what your blog is all about.

Make Social Media a priority. Make a plan, budget for dollars and commitment.

WARNING:  DON’T FALL INTO THE INTERNET TRAP OF PAST YEARS WHERE YOU JUST THROW MONEY AT IT THINKING ANY ACTIVITY WILL WORK.  IF YOU DO YOU’LL BE DISAPPOINTED.

Let me know if you have any questions or additional thoughts. 


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How To Design Your Blog To Create Dealership Traffic

December 22nd, 2009 -



 DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A LIBRARY?

 Does your blog look like a blog or a website?

 The natural tendency of a dealership is to over produce their blog. Your competitive nature will drive you towards developing a blog that looks like a website.  A blog is not a web site.  Your blog is for building relationships and trust.  Your website is for selling.    

There’s a book that has been on the market titled Blink.. It describes how human beings are able to subconsciously thin slice life experiences.  The book believes thin slicing drives our first impression.  The author (Malcom Gladwell) believes thin slicing puts past experiences up against what ever we see and then we make a quick thin slice of the situation.  It happens instantaneously. It is what we also call our gut instinct. 

You need to be aware of this and use it to your advantage. You need to be sure when the consumer thin slices your blog you get the outcome you want.

Don’t let your automotive ad agency try to impress you with the blog of all blogs.  If your blog smells commercialized, smells retail, then it will be branded a selling site and nothing more. Once again this is not a retail environment. This is not the outcome you want for your blog.  You will not be successful in social media if you don’t protect yourself from selling.

Social  media will drive traffic but it’s a different path.

I understand there’s retail blood running through the veins of successful dealers. However you want your blog to be thin sliced and interpreted as a resource, a depository for automotive information.

Imagine pulling up to a library that looks like a night club.  You’d thin slice this very quickly and keep driving.  It’s not what you expected and you would quickly judge it to be a poor choice. 

Just remember if it looks  RETAIL it probably is.  If it does you’ve missed the boat.   Don’t sell your friends. Let your friends sell you.

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3 Social Blog Platforms For Driving DealershipTraffic

December 22nd, 2009 -

  The car dealership  world of social media must look like a maze.  

One GIANT maze with dealers bumping into each other as they search for the  social cheese.  The social media mother load.  The one all mighty answer to the blog sweet spot.   Is there just one blog strategy for a dealership to find?  I don’t think so.  

I think there are three.  

I have outlined the basic strategies available to each dealership.  You need to choose the one that best fit’s your individual needs.

1) The individual stand alone dealer will want to create their own blog.  The face of the blog should be the owner or the GM.  However, don’t make the GM the face of the blog if  you change GM’s frequently.  The best bet is for the owner or someone in the owners family to take the lead.  Remember, the blog is used to build a relationship and should come from someone at the store.

2) The Dealer with multi franchises in one market  can do a brand blog.  One that represents the entire organization.  This blog can come from either the dealer, family person, or the brand.  The brand can be the relationship.  It’s not as personal but it may be the best strategy for your group.  Your auto ad agency should be able to help drive the content.  It will also be cheaper to do one blog than to tackle multiple executions.

3) The third execution available to you is the group or association.  You may have a small association of like franchises where a group blog would make sense.  This type of blog can be created by your automotive ad agency.  You might be part of an auto mall or a street association.  Your goal for both groups is to increase your credibility and marketing presence within the community.  Your goal should be for the  group or association to build a relationship with your market.  There’s no need to compete with the other dealers here.  Join together!   It will be easier and cost all of you less money.   Two great things!

Take your pick and get started.  You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Let me know which way works best for you.  I would love to hear about how you made your choice.

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