Most dealership fan pages on Facebook are a lot like really bad first dates, they won’t stop talking about themselves.  The words “I” and “we” tend to be the most used words when dealerships post to Facebook.  Check your last 10 posts or your last 10 tweets. Are they all about you? Are they all about your vehicles, services or whatever you are pushing?  How many are about your dealership versus those that are about engaging your fans? The truth is that your customers don’t really care about those things. They care about themselves.

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan famously said, “ The Medium is the Message”. He was referring to how the advent of different media itself has had profound impacts on culture, business and society at large.  Back in McLuhan’s time, marketing messaging was more difficult.   Buying media was expensive and kind of a big deal. You had to make the most of it. 

But the web age has changed the medium and therefore the message. 

Unlike TV, radio or print, the web now allows us to communicate endlessly for very little cost. Yet we are constantly amazed at how many dealerships still treat their Facebook fan page as a precious brochure, radio pitch or tv commercial! It’s not.  Connect with them like it’s a cocktail party, not a speech. 

Back in McCluhan’s day, if you wanted to learn about products and services you had to suffer through sales pitches and advertising.  It was the media’s world and you were just living in it. You had no choice. 

Now customers do. 

In a world of instant information and limitless choice, customers have the freedom to quickly explore a hundred different options before making one.  Now the relationship is more like a cocktail party. And just like in a cocktail party, don’t talk about yourself too much. Its boring and you loss those valuable “likes” to spent time and money on to collect.

So if you’re going to use Facebook to sell something, don’t talk about yourself, you won’t get a second date.