3 Guidelines for Superior Social Media Strategy
Maintaining an active and effective presence on social media can be anything but simple. Make it easier on your dealership by following these three rules that can help, plus allow you to drive results in the process.
First Impressions are Everything
In a perfect world, your dealership would be gaining new followers on social media every day, right? If that was the case, every time you posted, you would be making a first impression on those new followers.
While in reality this may or may not be the case, it’s an excellent rule of thumb to write and format every social media post as if it is someone’s first introduction to your business. In other words, don’t just throw something together so that you have a post for the day – give your social media content some thought.
Everything that you post should provide value, and it’s important to pay attention to details like spelling, grammar, and the quality of your images. It is also wise to have at least one other team member look at your post before it’s published – Is it written well and formatted correctly? Will it make sense to your followers? Does it provide value?
It’s All About Your Audience
We tend to think about what will benefit us when we post on social media. For example, if your dealership has a lot of winches in stock, you may want to post something encouraging trailer owners to buy them. But how many of your followers will truly be interested in a post like this?
It’s likely that sharing, for example, a video showing customers how to clean their trailer at home would be both interesting and useful for a larger amount of your followers. While this kind of post may not directly contribute to dealership sales, it does contribute to your dealership’s outreach and level of engagement on social media. Building a high level of engagement will help increase visibility for your other social media posts. More views leads to increased exposure of your page, which leads to more followers - AKA prospective customers who are now exposed to your business every day on social media.
It’s a Social Platform, Not a Sales Platform
Social media provides a way to reach new customers, engage current ones, and drive sales conversions – especially if your dealership pays to advertise too. But it’s crucial to remember the real purpose of social media and the reason that any of your followers are on it in the first place – they didn’t come to buy something, they came to engage with your business. While there is opportunity to “sell” or promote your products in an organic way, the goal of your dealership’s social media activity should be to create genuine connections with your followers.
Forming and maintaining strong relationships on social media will benefit your dealership and help strengthen your brand, but only if you go about it in the right way. Aiming to be helpful for your followers and engaging with them openly and honestly is far more appealing than treating your social media presence as a sales pitch. Focus on the true purpose of social media and align your strategy to these three simple guidelines for the best results.