A car dealer guide to Facebook

Facebook is still number one when it comes to social media networks. Not only does it have the most users – it now has over 1 billion – but it also provides more referral traffic than any other social media platform, and therefore has the highest potential ROI.

Before you crack on with your Facebook experiment, it’s important to know just what you want to get out of it. Here at Friday-Ad Motors, we feel that you should be using the tool to create brand awareness within your local community, show off your expertise and credibility and increase your reach whilst generating new traffic to your website. But essentially, you want to increase sales.

First thing’s first, get your page looking sharp

You have plenty of space in which you can make your Facebook page look professional and represent your business well. Your cover image is 851 pixels by 315 pixels and is not allowed to include more than 20% text. It is, however, the perfect place for you to sell your business to anyone who lands on your page. It’s the first thing they’ll see so make sure you use it well. People should be able to see your cover picture alone and know exactly what sort of business you are and what you offer!

Your profile picture should also be used well. It is 180 pixels by 180 pixels (it shows at 160 pixels by 160 pixels) and we would advise you to use your company logo here. Nice and simple.

As well as your profile picture and cover picture, you will also want to ensure that the text in your ‘About’ section is nicely filled in and conveys your business well. You should also make sure that your web address is included here.

Get posting

It is important that you post regularly. When people land on a Facebook page that has clearly been left stagnant for a long time, they are not very likely to ‘like’ it. In order to engage your audience properly you will want to set up a regular stream of fun, interesting and relevant posts.

There are a number of things that you as a dealership can post about. From automotive news and car related posts, to photographs and other bits and pieces. Here are just a few ideas of things that you can post about on Facebook:

• Links to your stock – You do want to show off what you have to offer after all. However, it is important that you bear in mind that you should only posting about yourself around 20% of the time. The rest of the time should be taken up posting about other things, such as the following few points.
• Local news – Most of your customers will be local and from a certain catchment area. Why not keep them informed by reposting any local news that you feel they might need or want to know.
• Automotive news – Anything car related is worth a post. Bear in mind that you want people to engage with your posts, so try and stick with things that are interesting, informative and fun. People are more likely to share a fun and entertaining video than something that’s just a bit dull.
• Nice images – People share nice images all the time. And, with the internet being full of places where you can grab stylish and uber-cool car imagery, you have an endless pool to tap into.
• Photos from the dealership – If there are any strange or interesting goings on at the dealership then why not post them to Facebook? People love to get a glimpse of what’s going on behind the scenes.

No matter what you are posting, it is worth bearing in mind that posts containing images tend to get twice the amount of engagement that posts without images. Therefore, make sure that you always include an image with your posts!

Run a competition

If you want to increase the number of people who like your page or you just want to get your brand in front of a wider audience, a competition could be the way forward. If your garage carries out servicing and repairs then why not offer these as a prize? If you have nothing that you can offer yourself then you could always strike up a relationship with a local restaurant and offer a dinner for two as your prize.

Once you have your prize there are a number of different competitions that you can run. For example, you could run some form of caption competition, get people to send in pictures and choose your favourite, run a quiz or any other ideas that you have. Coming up with a good competition idea can be fun and very rewarding when the entries start flying in.

Respond to people

You don’t want to be seen to be ignoring anyone. Therefore, if someone leaves a comment or asks a question, make sure that you respond. This especially applies to any negative comments that you receive. If someone is complaining about something then you can show the public how well you deal with this situation. Be as accommodating as possible and ensure the individual that you will do all you can in order to help them out.

This way, anyone who lands on your Facebook page will see that you have dealt with the complaint well and your dealership’s reputation will go up in their estimation.

Insights

Facebook even has its own analytics tool called ‘Insights’. This is nice and easy to use and allows you to keep track on how well your posts are performing. You can see what has been successful and what has been unsuccessful which can help you keep your strategy moving forward. It is important to keep an eye on Insights so you can utilise what’s working well and do more of it, whilst avoiding wasting time on posts that aren’t performing well.

You can also track your new page likes and break down who follows you by a number of demographics. This allows you to make your posts more targeted meaning you aren’t leaving anyone out.

Another useful guide: Read Spidersnet’s Car Dealer Facebook Guide today!

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