Car dealerships love the idea of using social media to reach more people, but often worry that maintaining a robust and growing social media presence is just too much work.  The fear is, and it is a healthy one, that maintaining a large social media presence may not pay out in the end.  There are ways of addressing the time-sponge that social media can be and, in the process, keep your car dealerships cost low.

Consider a Virtual Assistant

The first point that we should discuss is the hands on cost of maintaining a social media presence.  Social media tools are “free,” but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay for the man hours it takes to use them.  Having a decent size social media presence, complete with attentive followers and friends, means a substantial investment in time.  Virtual assistants can be remarkably helpful in this regard.  After all, the very last thing that you should do is have one of your salespeople sitting all day working to build a Facebook profile.  A virtual assistant will cost a mere fraction of what you pay one of your salespeople, and the end results will likely be similar.

One optimal way to work with a virtual assistant is to have someone at your dealership oversee and communicate with this individual.  As long as your virtual assistant follows whatever strategy and requirements you’ve outlined, all should go well.  The next step is to periodically follow up, review the virtual assistant’s work and evaluate it for effectiveness.  You may want to switch strategies depending on the results you garner.

Hootsuite is a Tool You Should Check Out

Another way to reduce the man hours involved in maintaining a strong social media presence is to use tools, such as Hootsuite.  Hootsuite allows you to enter a large number of Facebook and Twitter updates into its system and then decide what hour and day these updates will be sent out.  In this way, you don’t have to constantly worry about maintaining and updating your presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.   There is no way around it, software like Hootsuite really cuts down on the time and effort it takes to maintain your social media presence.

Of course your virtual assistant can also take advantage of the tools provided by Hootsuite.  In turn, this will allow your virtual assistant to focus on other key aspects of building up your social media presence, such as making new friends and following up on new leads.  We should note that the most important aspect for your car dealership when it comes to using social media is to be responsive and follow up on leads.  If your virtual assistant fails to quickly hand over inquiries from prospective customers to you, then it is time to find a new one.

Social media tools are vast and can help you generate more leads in a range of ways.  Yet, these great tools can also take up a good amount of time.  By adopting the right strategies, it is possible to enjoy the fruits of social media with far less effort.