A little proof in the Social Media pudding?

[subi101]

Now, this isn't ONLY because the University at Buffalo is where I went to college... (but it is a little).

They did a study and put out an article that talks about research done to prove the positive impacts of Social Media done correctly. Full article : Social Media Pays Off for Businesses, Study Shows - News Center

Here are the key points:

1. "Customers who connect with a business through social media will go to the business more frequently and contribute more to its bottom line"
2. "Customers who participate in a firm’s social media visit the business about 5 percent more frequently than those who don’t."

THE KICKER : “There have been doubts about the effectiveness of social media for business because the link between a firm’s efforts and the return on investment hasn’t been established,” explains Bezawada. “Our results show that when customers engage with a business through social media they contribute about 5.6 percent
more to the firm’s bottom line than customers who do not.”

Oh. But Subi, how does one do it right??? I thought you might ask that!

“When building communities, businesses should craft personalized messages, encourage member contribution, integrate knowledge about customers from both online and offline interactions, and create specialized sub-communities for customers looking for premium and unique products.”

So let's sum up here: Social Media = GOOD. Create CONVERSATIONS and RELATIONSHIPS and show them how HUMAN your business is and that you're there to HELP. THEN.... Watch the loyalty and profit go UP.

I don't think anyone thinks it happens overnight or that what works for one "firm" or "business" works exactly the same for the rest. But it sure is a good place to start to convince Dealer Principles and Decision Makers how effective Social Media can be! There are tons of people who will tell you how to do Social Media right. I say, create a schedule of different kinds of posts.

I generally go 40% non-automotive/non-dealership (Entertainment news, This day in history, Random facts, Poll questions); 30% dealership (birthdays, accomplishments, fun stuff at the dealership, sales/service person of the week.. in essence humanizing the dealership); and 30% automotive (franchise info, car maintanance, new accolades for the franchise, and MAYBE one post about sale information).

This is what works for me. What about you guys? I'm helping Kelsey (a college student) write an article about people's thoughts on the article who work with Social Media... please sound off!

 

[kevinfrye]

You are on the right track Subi - great submission!

As dealers, we are conditioned to identify an ROI with each dollar spent. Take that conditioning and combine it with our primary motive which is to sell cars, and we have dealers looking to sell cars on Facebook, while screaming they have no ROI. Sound familiar?

Social media is about being "SOCIAL". Your comment Social Media = GOOD. Create CONVERSATIONS and RELATIONSHIPS and show them how HUMAN your business is and that you're there to HELP. THEN.... Watch the loyalty and profit go UP - is correct! And that means your social strategy should be based around:

Creating conversations
Creating relationships
Showing them your business is human
Showing them you are there to help!

It does NOT mean

Feeding your inventory to Twitter
Barraging your followers/fans with constant sales pitches
Buying fake likes/followers so that you can say you have more than your competition
And much more...

This is one area I am discussing in my DD14 presentation in Orlando - would love to quote your study!

 

[subi101]

Of course!! The university at buffalo did the study. I got it from them.

 

[robzidar]

I'd like to add that a lot of dealers and marketing staff don't understand the downside of using social media poorly. While many or most dealers do have Facebook and Twitter accounts, a lot of these accounts have been abandoned or have very little activity.

In this day and age, every dealer has customers who spend a ton of time online. If a customer like that searches for you on Twitter or Facebook and there is no activity, it might be a signal to that customer that you are not technologically "with it".

 

[Erica Sietsma]

Agree 100% with everything in here...love your breakdown Subi. I would also add, there are some great case studies (Subi reach out to me directly and I can get them to you: erica@digitalairstrike.com) of how dealerships can also convert those community members to in-store customers without doing the no-nos Keving mentions. We have a great examples of dealerships leveraging social media to promote great events at their dealership like Go Further Night or New Car Owner Clinics or model launches. I have so much I can get to your friend depending on what she is looking for!

 

[Jason Martin]

Great post guys. I am in the process of setting up a social network at the dealership I work at and this is very helpful. Thanks!

 

[ryan.leslie]

So let's sum up here: Social Media = GOOD. Create CONVERSATIONS and RELATIONSHIPS and show them how HUMAN your business is and that you're there to HELP. THEN.... Watch the loyalty and profit go UP.

I really like your summation Subi.

I'd add only this: Want your consumers to see how HUMAN your business is? Invest in your HUMAN CAPITAL!

I see quite a few of these throughout the day, but I know @AdamThrasher reads and posts here on DealerRefresh and I want to brag on one of his guys. Check out this tweet from Kurt Lytle, @KiaSalesGuy:



Kurt gets it! He's linking to the mobile version of his "Why Buy Book." People buy from people NOT from a business, right? CONVERSATIONS and RELATIONSHIPS are created, built, sustained and leveraged by the people at your dealership.

No offense intended to any posters in this thread, but while some dealers are hiring 3rd parties to post on their behalf, dealers like Carnival Kia, Jeff Wyler, and Oliver C. Joseph are leveraging their human capital to build relationships with their consumers. I've heard dealers say "I don't want to market my people, they will leave and might take my customers with them." That is 180 degrees from the correct path. If you don't invest in your people to give them the tools to compete with the Carnival Kia's and Jeff Wyler's in your market you are effectively asking your good people to leave you for greener pastures where they will ABSOLUTELY take your prospects from you.

I know it isn't a direct correlation, but I think we'd do well to take a page out of the Real Estate industry's book. The agent always wins the business for the brokerage house.

 

[Adam Thrasher]

Thanks for posting this Ryan. Kurt is a true sales professional and believes in the power of online reviews and social media. You can't buy your reviews...it takes hard work and a commitment to excellent customer service. People buy cars from people, not dealerships. Kurt gives his customers a WOW experience and his dealer rater reviews are proof of that buying a car from him will be a positive experience you want to tell everyone about.

 

[kevinfrye]

Quit giving away our secrets Ryan

DealerRater was way ahead of the social game when they started. We implement the "human capital" with DealerRater links in our email signatures, links on our staff pages, tweeting and sharing reviews on Facebook, and much more. It is a very simple - and effective way to leverage your online reputation with social media.

 

[Erica Sietsma]

Awesome example Ryan and kudos to your team Adam! Back in 2009, when I was still at my old Dealer group, we got really heavy into DealerRater and it was even before all the cool new features they have now. We had a guy at one of our Honda stores that got it before anyone else and skyrocketed his reviews. He sent an individual email to each of his loyal/favorite customers and asked them to put up a review for him on DealerRater. It was amazing to see fresh ups come in and ask for him by name or people call the dealership and ask directly for him.

You better believe when we started pointing this out in meetings/training sessions coworkers in his dealership (and a lot of our other dealerships - especially their rival, er, sister Honda store) were clamoring to get more reviews on DealerRater to compete with him. What would blow my mind though (and still does) were all those that saw the "proof in the pudding" and didn't do anything. Sure, in our CRM we built out templates that asked for reviews and linked to the sites, what not, but there was still a good amount of people that just didn't seem to care and put forth no effort of their own. This salesperson is still there and still getting great reviews and the dealership was actually DealerRater Honda dealership of the year for their state last year!