With the amount of time that people spend on social media platforms, it’s clearly an area that dealerships must consider in digital strategy. It is important to establish a presence for your dealership on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where customers actively look for the companies they do business with and will expect to be able to reach you.
The popularity of social media can be a good and bad thing for businesses. On one hand, it provides a place for your loyal customers and fans to connect to your dealership, stay updated on events and sales, share pictures of their purchased units, and more. But it also provides an easy way for unhappy customers to do a lot of damage with negative comments and bad reviews.
The best way to stay on top of both the positive and negative content that users share on your social platforms is to pay close attention to these sites and all the interactions that take place on them – but that’s easier said than done. If you have a designated staff member to monitor social media accounts, that could be a great resource. However, many busy dealers simply don’t have that option.
That’s why dealers should be eager to learn about Social Listening. This tool, which is available through Marketing Automation, allows you to monitor interactions across multiple social media platforms all in one feed. It allows your dealership to place value on customer interactions with your brand and respond to interactions (good or bad) in a timely manner. You can even schedule social media posts through the Social Listening feed, creating an easy and convenient way to maintain an active social presence. Additionally, Social Listening gives you the opportunity to research industry-related buzzwords and hashtags and keep an eye on the competition by providing a full overview of social media activity that relates to your dealership.
One of the most beneficial aspects of Social Listening is that you can continue to track leads through their actions on social media. If an established lead comments, posts, or otherwise interacts with your social media accounts, that activity will appear in your feed along with the person’s lead score. This lets you easily identify high-priority prospects and respond accordingly.
We’ve talked about the importance of Reputation Management quite a bit on the blog, and Social Listening is a great tool to help you stay on top of this. When you’re running a business with many moving parts, it’s easy for things like social media comments and customer reviews to fall through the cracks – but your dealership’s reputation could suffer because of it. Just like Marketing Automation itself, Social Listening gives you the assurance that important interactions and valuable leads are receiving the follow-up they need. Delegate this important task to an automated process that keeps your business from falling short on social media.