Many dealers are trying and failing at social media. Some are succeeding. One of the keys to finding success is in taking on an “always open” mentality.

Just like a website should always be on, social media requires constant attention, particularly Facebook. It doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t take weekends off. In fact, some have seen that the weekends are when the real activity happens. For some pages, they’re receiving more interactions on social media during the weekends or late at night than they do during business hours.

How can a marketing manager or internet manager be successful on something that is constantly nagging at you? One of the ways is through tools. The best tool, of course, is sitting in your pocket or on your desk right now. Mobile devices give us the ability to be on pretty much all the time. One doesn’t have to have Facebook or Twitter open in the web browser at all times. They simply need to have their push notifications set properly.

Make sure that you have the appropriate apps on your phone and that they’re pinging you any time someone is engaging with you on your social networks. If they Tweet at you or send you a direct message, you have the opportunity to interact with them while they’re still on Twitter. If they post a comment on one of your posts or to your Facebook wall, you can get a conversation going even if you’re not in front of your computer.

Some people prefer email. Those of us who are constantly on email can set notifications on our social networks to email us when there’s engagement. On some networks, you can even reply through email directly to the networks – Google+ is great at this.

Regardless of the method, keeping an eye on what’s happening is a must. Here’s graphic showing a business engagement level by day followed by a quote on automotivesocialmedia.com:

You can see from the graph above that this particular dealership gets the most interaction on Sundays. Would this be possible if we weren’t there replying to their weekend comments and posting relevant content? Of course not! People don’t wait around. They don’t want to hear a reply on Monday. They’re ready to engage when they’re ready to engage and if you miss the opportunity, there’s a good chance you won’t have another.