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When is it Right to Hire a Third Party for Social Media?

By Jim Bell on Jan 18, 2013

We all know there is a big push for getting social in the automotive industry, but when is it the right time to hire a company to oversee you social engagement? There are a few companies out there that will oversee your social marketing, but you have to be careful who you choose and how they spend money to gain likes, followers, etc. 

What prompted this post is a post from one of the more well known companies out in the industry. They posted a link that was obviously promoted within Facebook and it looks like a disaster when you dig into it a little bit. On the surface it looks great! They have over 1100 likes on the post and 5 shares, but when you look at the comments and who liked the post, it's a mess. All of the comments are in a foreign language. When you click on who liked the post, it is a ton of people, but a good portion of them are from overseas and have 25 character plus names. 

DAS2

So how do dealers get true likes to their Facebook pages that will actually engage? 

1. Ask your customers at delivery to like your page. 
2. Ask your customers at delivery to like your page. 
3. Ask your customers at delivery to like you page. 

Yes, you can run promoted posts, but you will see a lot of the same results that this company saw. I have tried it myself, and saw similar results. I was thrilled to see there were 60+ likes on one of our dealerships posts, but I dug in a little, and saw something similar. 

If you want to get social, do it yourself, or with someone that you know and trust. Get involved with your posts. Yes, you can do some advertising, but make sure that it is geo-targeted. If you don't geo-target the ad, you may end up with a lot of likes from 3rd world countries. 

What processes do you have in place to generate more likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter?

Comments


Jim - such strong points. Thanks for sharing this.

Again, we're talking simple structure with regards to how your attack plan is designed. There is no short cut method - other than creating absolutely incredible content. Sure, everyone will tell you the same things, but if it was easy, we'd see a lot more incredible content out there.

Push the needle and make something remarkable - that's what gets shared, liked and commented on.

January 18th

  • Internet Performance and Marketing Director

I think it's interesting that the company took over 15 hours to respond to the 'spam' on their pages. I have always been leery of promoted posts and this just justifies my thinking on this. Keep it pure and in house.

January 18th


This is a black eye on SMM providers that are doing it right.

January 18th

  • Internet Performance and Marketing Director

You are right there Joey.

January 18th


Jim, thanks for the share. Great Post.

January 18th


Thanks for sharing this, Jim. This is a remarkable find, but also pretty unsurprising. As we move forward, I'm guessing we'll see more pushback against organizations who choose to farm out their social and more loyalty for the ones who keep it personal.

January 21st

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