Being a car salesperson used to be easy. All your potential customers came the same way, through the front door. Sure, some would call, but that's fairly easy to handle. Now, everyone is online, checking review sites, Yelp, Facebook, and asking what their friends think. The simple truth is that when someone comes into a dealer or a car shop, they already know what they want, and they've formed their opinion online. In fact, if they didn't see you on those web sites, why would they be interested to buy from you? This is why you need to adapt, and you need to use social media to promote yourself. It's not hard, you just need to know how to do it.

Do you have a computer, and an Internet connection? If so, that's all you need to get online, and start working on your viral campaign. Here's how you can go from a complete unknown on the Internet, to the one dealer everyone will turn to when they're looking to buy cars, because your establishment, and your sales pitch, will have spread throughout the web. First, you need to make sure you have a corporate presence online. Here I don't mean just a web site. When people want advices on what the best car is, they don't look through the yellow pages, they ask on Facebook. That means you need to have a Facebook fan page, and you need to post to it regularly. Find people talking about cars on the site, and find groups dedicated to cars. Everyone knows cars are a popular subject, and there's a lot of groups discussing the subject right now. Why not go there, and show them how great your deals are?

But it's important not to stop there. Getting some social media attention is great, but when someone is about to spend a few thousands dollars on a new vehicle, they don't just ask their friends, they want reviews from people who bought from you before, to see if you're trustworthy. That's why you need a presence on all the big car review sites like cars.com, dealerrtaer.com and edmunds.com. Review sites are crucial, because that's where people go now. So make sure you're on each of those sites, and regularly check your rating. Are people talking about you? If so, you want to make sure they say nice things. If they don't, why not give them a call and offer them a better deal? If you take 5 minutes to contact an unsatisfied customer, they may change their review, and bring your overall rating up. As thousands of people read that site, think how much of a difference those 5 minutes may have done.

So as you see, adopting new technologies and social media isn't hard, it's not even that demanding. All you need is to know where to start, and make sure you stay on top of it. By monitoring review sites and social media, you can be ahead of the competition, and next time someone looks for a new car while online, they'll find you, and your efforts will be rewarded.