This Friday's social media tip comes from the old expression......

"It's all about the 3 L's: Location, Location, Location."

The real estate industry has used this expression for eons as a way of putting a value on a piece of property. "Prime real estate" is dependent largely upon where it is located, and the kind of person who buys it is looking for a specific set of qualities. It won't matter how nice the house looks if no one wants to move to where it is located!

Of course, this concept is still relevant today, and not just for someone looking to buy or sell property. "The 3 L's" rule also applies to restaurants, retailers, gyms, clubs, laundromats, coffee shops, hotels -- you name it, location plays a role.

The automotive industry is no different. In fact, auto marketers are particularly aware of the local community their dealerships are a part of, and successful campaigns are able to bring in customers from their surrounding area. Sure, some customers will come from further away - but the majority of the people who will be reading the paper with your ad, driving by the bill board with your latest specials, or watching the local program on TV that airs your 30-second spot will all live relatively close by.

Bottom line: your dealership's sales depend largely on a local audience, and your marketing campaign should be aligned accordingly.

Some dealerships get discouraged by social media for this reason. It sounds tough to encourage a specific set of people to 'like' your fan page and visit your sites, and if no one who follows your page is going to buy a car, why waste your time?

But just like bill boards and TV, Facebook also has a few tricks that help you reach out to local and specific followers.

One very easy trick can be found right on your fan page wall:
Just to the right of the status update box (where it says 'Write something…') is the word 'Public' and a drop-down arrow. Select 'Location/Language' and voilá - a customizable range of followers to target for your post!

For instance, I can choose to  make my next post visible to U.S. residents living in Pennsylvania, and select my languages to be English and Spanish.

You can narrow your fields down to whatever you like, and write message that speak to a specific audience to aid in target marketing.

Bonus: if that isn't cool enough for you, try monitoring your demographics via the 'insights' tab on the left hand side of your page.
Track the age range, location, and activity of everyone who interacts with your page for better marketing planning in the future.

So don't be afraid of social media's broad reach - capture its power and use it to make 2012 your strongest social media marketing year yet!