...if you do not have the people to support it. Just about every type of business is involved in someway shape or form in promoting themselves through social media. Companies are spending record amounts of advertising dollars to be visible to the public. They want people to "like" them. They want to tweet them and so on. 

Nothing is worse than getting customers to find you, only to find out that there's nobody to answer their question. 

The customers of 5 years ago are gone. Dealers are questioning what to promote and where to promote it. Sending a direct mail piece out once a month doesn't cut it as advertising anymore. Like me, if it doesn't come up on my iPhone, I'm probably going to ignore it.

Dealers will continue to look for the latest and greatest in communication and companies will be out there developing ways to do it. The REAL training and money should be invested at the dealership. Are your employees followers on your Twitter page? Do they "like" you on Facebook? If a customer walks in the door and asks a service advisor about an offer they saw on Twitter that day, are all your advisors ready to answer?

Your internet or BDC department cannot just be an extension of your sales department. They are part of your dealership as a whole. Make sure parts counter people, technicians, advisors and everyone else in your store know every piece of info being sent to your customers. 

Communication begins and ends at the dealership. Social media is here to stay folks. Imagine the reach you will have through all your employees and their own social media. 

Setup employee Twitter and Facebook pages. Have contests to see who can get the most customers to follow them or like them. Imagine an employee sending a customer a happy birthday message on Facebook. On a slow day, Tweet a $5.00 tire rotation first thing in the morning. 

Use the Social Media to promote the dealership but on a smaller level, have your employees use it to build that all important relationship with YOUR customers.