Are you one of the few that blasts Social Media as a form of marketing? Maybe you just don’t believe that it works. Maybe you think it’s a huge waste of time. Well the good news is that you’re not alone. The bad news is that the numbers of non-believers are rapidly dwindling.

Let’s say that you’re on the fence about whether there’s actual ROI (return on investment) behind managing a social media page. I’m speaking on either budget or time as your ROI measurement. You may be asking yourself “Is this worth it?” Everybody seems to be doing it but does it mean you have to? I can assure you that a social media strategy not only works but it’s actually good for your dealership.

When it comes to running a dealership, there is basically one goal: to sell units. Of course, advertising and marketing are a huge part of achieving your goal. Most dealerships are used to the 3 conventional methods of advertising:

• Print
• Radio
• Television

To expand your reach and to hit your target market like never before, you MUST consider social media. If you’re thinking spending money on Facebook is a waste, you’re mistaken. The one thing to embrace about digital marketing is that it can fit ANY budget. It’s not a gamble and you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. Here’s an example of the potential and power of social media.

We work with a client in Long Beach, CA, and one of the social media posts we created (on May 31) went VIRAL. It’s not typical for a post to achieve viral status on the internet but the numbers that followed cannot be ignored. Another atypical detail is that this post included video (which will always bring up engagement). There was a fixed budget applied to that post (this is a daily practice) and it just took off. As of this writing, the post has reached 135,168 people. It was shared 1,206 times, gained 538 likes and received 117 comments. The video was viewed 41,079 times while the amount of total likes, comments and shares are well over 7,000. Organic reach was 130,625 and paid reach was ONLY 4,543! The good thing is that very little money was spent for these results. The amazing thing is that this was posted weeks ago and the numbers are still climbing daily.

Every dealer would be delighted to get similar results on their social media pages, especially Facebook. If you think that spending money on social is a gamble, that’s a legit opinion. 5 years ago, that statement would be accurate...today, this is a gamble that is surely paying off in huge dividends. Ignoring how essential social media is for a dealership is a bad idea. Are you willing to risk alienating an audience of potential leads and future customers?