Automotive Social Media Marketing Series Part 2: Twitter for Dealers

In part two of our automotive social media marketing series, we look at why Twitter is a great social media network for your dealership to interact with potential customers, in addition to best practices that your dealership can implement.

Twitter has over 500 million users, with 135,000 new users signing up every day – including your potential customers. Auto dealerships can use Twitter for everything from keeping customers updated about new promotions to learning about their customers and even making sales like in this Twitter success story.

As we discussed in part one, social media plays a huge role in a car buyer’s decision making process when they are selecting a dealer. This is good news in that you can jump into the conversations that are already happening and help influence their decision.

Twitter allows people to ask their followers for car model and dealership suggestions, gather more information about car shopping, and more. This makes it a powerful tool for auto dealerships to engage and interact with people who are actively car shopping. The Twitter Search makes it incredibly valuable, allowing you to search terms such as “buying a new car” and then target results by geographic location. This article does a great job of showing how it’s done.

If you do not already have a Twitter account for your dealership, this is a great time to join in on the tweeting action. But don’t just start tweeting randomly – read our list of best practices for dealerships on Twitter:

1. Have a complete Twitter profile – This includes a quality image (which will most likely be your company logo) and cover photo. Read this for more help with getting started.
2. Don’t forget to add a link to your company’s website in the section under your bio.
3. Use Twitter to listen – Monitor the social network for mentions of your dealership, car brands that you sell, and your Twitter handle. Then go and reply to these mentions.
4. Make conversation – You should only be marketing yourself 20% of the time; the rest is for conversation because your goal is to create relationships.
5. Ask Questions – When you jump into Twitter conversations, make sure you aren’t going right for the sell. If you see that someone in your area tweeted about going car shopping this week, ask them if they have anything in mind. You might have what they are looking for or be able to find it for them.
6. Tweet photos – Posts with an image attached statistically get more engagement.
7. Encourage your salespeople to use Twitter – Chances are that your salespeople are already on Twitter. By passing on best practices to them, you can help them leverage the social network. Salespeople can interact with customers before, during, and after their purchase decision
8. Be consistent – Like all social media, if you want it to make any impact, you need to keep up with it. Aim to post between 3 to 5 times per day. If you don’t think you will have time for this, hiring an intern to manage your social media presence might be a good idea.

By keeping your Twitter account active and following these tips, you can connect with car buyers, spark referrals, and create an engaging experience that will encourage people to visit your website and book an appointment.

Now you’re prepared to go out into the Twitter-sphere and connect with all of those potential customers! Good luck, and remeber to keep in mind those best practices.