The paparazzo isn’t hiding in your bushes trying to get a picture of you. Media sources aren’t following you on vacation to capture a picture of you in a bathing suit. No need for security when you leave the building. If there is, you have bigger problems!

People don’t have the same passion level for your dealership that they do for their favorite TV stars or sports athletes. When it comes to social networks, people aren’t posting on your timeline saying “I will have your baby ABC Motors!” Typically, people will like your page and rarely revisit. It is estimated that 84% of people who like a business Facebook page will not see their updates and I will step out on a limb to say that is higher for car dealers. Reality is people don’t typically like to be friends with car dealers.

Quality vs. Quantity

Most dealers’ goal when they start their Facebook page is to have tons and tons of likes so they can be the envy of all their competition. Having the biggest is great but if you don’t know how to use it, you won’t reach your goal.
What should be your goal is to increase the passion level about your business amongst your Facebook community and get them to want to visit your page, often! Okay okay, I know you have probably already heard this but let’s get to how it’s done.

Engagement

Oh no, not that word again! Yes, the secret to your Facebook success resides with this one noun. Let’s look at the definition of the word: A hostile meeting of opposing forces during the course of a war.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…. Makes you’re really wonder why people use the term engaged when they are due to be married!
Let’s look at another definition: of the word: The act of sharing in the activities of a group.

Now we are onto something! We want people in our group to share information, opinions and ideas.

OMG, Why is Engagement so Important?

Simply said, if your community isn’t engaging you, they aren’t seeing your message. You may be sharing the most incredible information about the chemicals used in the soap you detail your cars with but without a captive audience, it’s falling on deaf ears.

Take a look at a comparison of dealerships (this is real results of two same brand dealerships in similar sized markets):

• Dealership A - This dealer posts a lot of self promotional information and has very little engagement from their community. Here are their Facebook insights:

o 11,495 total likes but their total weekly reach is only 4,544 and at its highest during this time are only 6,444.
o Only 65 people are talking about this business
o Opportunity: 2,492,770 friends of fans!

• Dealership B – This dealer has a very engaged community and shares a lot of fun information including service coupons and contests.

o 2,222 total likes but they are reaching so many more 57,852 this week and at a high point of 277,958 in a week.
o 6,449 people talking about this dealership (Note: this was right after a contest and normally this dealer has around 400 people talking about it at any given time.)

What’s the solution?

Well I wish there was a magical solution but we live in the reality world. To help, we will be starting a daily series entitled “Daily Dealer Engagement Tips”. Each day we will have at least one tip of something your dealership can do that day to increase the chatter amongst your Facebook community. Most tips will work on any social network but let’s get great at Facebook instead of spreading yourself too thin.

Please feel free to contact me with any specific questions or if you would like to take advantage of our free social media analysis at RobH@NextGenDealer.com