I vividly remember a conversation I had with Wikimotive's Tim Martell back in 2008. Even four and a half years later, the conversation has remained in my mind. We were discussing the rise of social media. We both agreed that Facebook would be the big thing, but he told me something that surprised me.

"I actually get more traffic from my MySpace page than Facebook," he said.

We knew it wouldn't last, but it was hard to let go completely. His team maintained the strongest MySpace page in automotive for a long time until the social network stopped really being a social network. He then started focusing on the world of Facebook and the rest is history.

Today, Google+ is a "player" in the automotive social media field, but very few are sure how to use it properly. Some would say that at this stage it's a ghost town and isn't a valid part of the social media strategy. My argument to the contrary is similar to my argument against abandoning Twitter: it just doesn't take a lot of time to keep it ready.

Even if you don't believe it will materialize into anything, get these words stuck in your head: "Just in case."

There are reports of it helping from an organic search ranking perspective. These reports are confirmed, then unconfirmed, then refuted, then reconfirmed. Google has said that it is important. Then they've said it doesn't have an affect. What people often don't realize is that they're masterful at spin, particularly when it comes to their search algorithm.

In mid-2010 they vehemently denied that social signals had any effect on search rankings before stating for the record later the same year that they definitely had an effect on search rankings and had been having an effect for nearly two years. It's no coincidence that they made the latter statement six months before launching Google+.

With Google Local having a direct impact on business and being tied in with Google+, you can't afford to think that it will fail. Assume it won't. Assume it will be a thing. Here are three things to do to make sure it doesn't die on the vine.

1. Post on it Like Facebook - Whatever you're posting to Facebook, post it to Google+ as well. It's an extra step that takes about 2 minutes if you're slow and requires nothing more than copying and pasting.
2. Use Hootsuite - This shouldn't be your only method of posting as everything comes across as links (even images) but it's a good way to keep the page scheduled and going strong.
3. Manage Your Page Weekly - Posting is quick. Managing takes a little more time. You don't have to do it daily like you do with Facebook, but once a week check out your new followers, follow the appropriate ones back, and go through your feed (logged in as your page) giving +1s to good content. Total time: 10 minutes.

Nobody worth their salary has a ton of time to waste in the automotive industry, but it's important to keep this high-potential network from dying on the vine.

It's a question that is raised from time to time, particularly by sales managers and internet managers. Should employees, in particular the sales team, be allowed to connect with their customers through Facebook and other social media sites? It's not a question of whether or not they should encourage their customers to like the dealership's Facebook page or follow the dealership's Twitter account. It's about a personal relationship. Should employees become social media "friends" with customers?

For some, the answer is a clear "no". There is simply too much turnover in the automotive industry and allowing connections with customers can be akin to allowing a book of business to walk out the door. This is silly for many reasons but it's not the type of opinion that can be easily changed, so we'll leave it as an opinion with which I disagree.

The other big reason is time and distraction. Some dealerships and businesses in general do not allow their employees to use social media on company time. It's a time waster, after all, and one that cannot be easily monitored or controlled.

The argument against that thought is that unless you're willing to take everyone's smart phone away during business hours, you aren't really taking them off social media. They're still checking. They're still updating. They're still "LOLing" the viral cat picture that's circulating on any given day.

If we can assume that the negatives associated with allowing social media to be used as a business tool by individual employees can be outweighed by the positives, then you can continue reading. If you are unwilling to accept it, then there's no reason to read on.

Here, we get into actual strategies...

How Employees Connect with Customers

The toughest question asked about connecting through social media also has the easiest answer. "How can my salespeople connect with their customers on Facebook?"

The answer: "They ask."

The action is easy. As long as they give them a reason and use their sales skills to make it happen, they'll be surprised at how well it works. Here's a sample talk track:

"Mr Customer, I follow up with those who buy a vehicle from me from time to time, usually just a few times a year. What's your preferred method of contact? For me it's Facebook."

"I won't bug you on Facebook - I know it's a personal thing and I treat it as such. You won't see much of me other than an occasional follow up message and some pictures of my kids. Can I add you as a friend?"

You'll be shocked at how often they say, "Sure."

We're Friends. Now What?

This is where the real magic can happen. First and foremost, the employee must follow through with what they promised. If they said they're going to follow up with them from time to time, they need to do just that. Don't send a message the first day of the new friendship. Wait a week. Wait two weeks if you're organized.

Just send a quick message, "Hi Mr Customer. I just wanted to check in and make sure that the Mustang was still cruising along nicely. Did you get your free oil change certificate in the mail yet?"

From there, it's a matter of acting normal and NEVER overposting. Two or three updates a day. All natural content. Thoughts, pictures, etc. - keep the business components away from your Facebook profile the vast majority of the time.

Once, maybe twice a month, put out a call for referrals. "It's been a slow month so far which is weird because we're loaded with inventory. Anyone in Cincinnati know someone who needs a car. We're dealing right now and I have some referral money to give you if you send anyone my way!"

That's it. Rinse. Repeat. Be a good social media user most of the time. Be a salesperson some of the time. Be a networker all of the time. Don't forget birthdays - Facebook tells you everyone who has a birthday today. Send them all messages. Post interesting content. Be real.

But, My Facebook Profile is MY Facebook Profile

Some people hold the sanctity of their social media profiles in high regard. If they love their Facebook and do not want it polluted with customers and promotions, so be it. Never force it. For decades, there are sales people who sell cars from 9 to 5 and there are sales people who sell cars anywhere and everywhere at any time.

You can't force one to become the other. It's inherent.

This stuff works. It's no different than keeping a rolodex of customers with pictures, birthdays, and the names of their kids on an index card. Facebook and social media in general can be your rolodex, but you have to be willing to make it happen.

* * *

This article originally appeared on Dealer Bar and is happily shared with Driving Sales community!

It's a question that is raised from time to time, particularly by sales managers and internet managers. Should employees, in particular the sales team, be allowed to connect with their customers through Facebook and other social media sites? It's not a question of whether or not they should encourage their customers to like the dealership's Facebook page or follow the dealership's Twitter account. It's about a personal relationship. Should employees become social media "friends" with customers?

For some, the answer is a clear "no". There is simply too much turnover in the automotive industry and allowing connections with customers can be akin to allowing a book of business to walk out the door. This is silly for many reasons but it's not the type of opinion that can be easily changed, so we'll leave it as an opinion with which I disagree.

The other big reason is time and distraction. Some dealerships and businesses in general do not allow their employees to use social media on company time. It's a time waster, after all, and one that cannot be easily monitored or controlled.

The argument against that thought is that unless you're willing to take everyone's smart phone away during business hours, you aren't really taking them off social media. They're still checking. They're still updating. They're still "LOLing" the viral cat picture that's circulating on any given day.

If we can assume that the negatives associated with allowing social media to be used as a business tool by individual employees can be outweighed by the positives, then you can continue reading. If you are unwilling to accept it, then there's no reason to read on.

Here, we get into actual strategies...

How Employees Connect with Customers

The toughest question asked about connecting through social media also has the easiest answer. "How can my salespeople connect with their customers on Facebook?"

The answer: "They ask."

The action is easy. As long as they give them a reason and use their sales skills to make it happen, they'll be surprised at how well it works. Here's a sample talk track:

"Mr Customer, I follow up with those who buy a vehicle from me from time to time, usually just a few times a year. What's your preferred method of contact? For me it's Facebook."

"I won't bug you on Facebook - I know it's a personal thing and I treat it as such. You won't see much of me other than an occasional follow up message and some pictures of my kids. Can I add you as a friend?"

You'll be shocked at how often they say, "Sure."

We're Friends. Now What?

This is where the real magic can happen. First and foremost, the employee must follow through with what they promised. If they said they're going to follow up with them from time to time, they need to do just that. Don't send a message the first day of the new friendship. Wait a week. Wait two weeks if you're organized.

Just send a quick message, "Hi Mr Customer. I just wanted to check in and make sure that the Mustang was still cruising along nicely. Did you get your free oil change certificate in the mail yet?"

From there, it's a matter of acting normal and NEVER overposting. Two or three updates a day. All natural content. Thoughts, pictures, etc. - keep the business components away from your Facebook profile the vast majority of the time.

Once, maybe twice a month, put out a call for referrals. "It's been a slow month so far which is weird because we're loaded with inventory. Anyone in Cincinnati know someone who needs a car. We're dealing right now and I have some referral money to give you if you send anyone my way!"

That's it. Rinse. Repeat. Be a good social media user most of the time. Be a salesperson some of the time. Be a networker all of the time. Don't forget birthdays - Facebook tells you everyone who has a birthday today. Send them all messages. Post interesting content. Be real.

But, My Facebook Profile is MY Facebook Profile

Some people hold the sanctity of their social media profiles in high regard. If they love their Facebook and do not want it polluted with customers and promotions, so be it. Never force it. For decades, there are sales people who sell cars from 9 to 5 and there are sales people who sell cars anywhere and everywhere at any time.

You can't force one to become the other. It's inherent.

This stuff works. It's no different than keeping a rolodex of customers with pictures, birthdays, and the names of their kids on an index card. Facebook and social media in general can be your rolodex, but you have to be willing to make it happen.

* * *

This article originally appeared on Dealer Bar and is happily shared with Driving Sales community!

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook started cracking downon fake accounts and false likes. The network is finally at the point to where they believe quality is more important than quantity for their advertising model to work and they're right. Dealers should do the exact same thing, maximize quality of the people liking their page, if they want to delve into the high-potential world of Facebook sponsored posts.

The last statement needs some qualification. If, like many, you do not see the value of Facebook sponsored posts, we'll start there. If you have seen the value and you're already playing with it, skip ahead and let's learn about pruning.

If You Do This, Facebook Sponsored Posts WILL Work

There has been an open debate for a couple of years now about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising in the automotive industry. The reality of it is that it will notwork for most dealers. If your Facebook page is weak, if your fans are not localized, or if your goals are not geared around branding and exposure, then Facebook ads won't work for you.

If, on the other hand, you:

• - ... have a strong Facebook presence with multiple daily updates, an active community who like, comment, and share your content, and a strategy that is geared towards ramping up your EdgeRank before blasting out your "money shots", AND...
• 
  - ... your fans are mostly localized, AND...
• - ... you view social media as more akin to television advertising where you're getting your brand and message out to people when they're not necessarily looking for a car but when they are psychologically in a place of enjoyment and relaxation...

... then Facebook advertising can be of great benefit to you. The primary reason for this is the cost. It's cheap! You can blast out a sponsored story to be viewed by thousands of people for tens of dollars. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, a strong Facebook page can outperform television for branding and exposure as long as you understand that the goals are the same.

If your goal is to generate direct leads from Facebook, there are definitely strategies that can work for you but that's extremely specialized. It can be done, but it's not easy. It requires some commitments at the dealership that most are not willing to do and I could argue that the same amount of effort put into search marketing has a higher yield. That's a different blog post altogether, but if you're Facebook page is a strong branding and exposure tool, then you should...

Prune

Size isn't everything. It's important, probably more important than most would give it in today's cynical-towards-fake-Facebook-likes world, but it's not nearly as important as focus on the local market.

Facebook offers localized advertising options to allow you to grow your local market. That's what you use to get fans. Keeping them and actually appearing in their news feed is a function of quality and engagement, but getting them is done through marketing, Facebook ads, and in-store promotions.

Facebook sponsored posts do not target a geographical location. They work on your fans and friends of your fans. It's for this reason that you create your own targeting by limiting your fans to the local area.

You do this by pruning.

If you do not run sponsored posts and have no intention of doing so, there's no real need to prune. The distant likes aren't necessarily hurting you that much. Sure, it's a perception concern (another blog post altogether) but the real damage comes from affecting your sponsored posts budget.

If you go through and remove the fans that are not in the local area, you will be able to maximize the relevant exposure of your sponsored posts. Does that mean that all of your fans should be in our direct market area? No. Having someone in San Diego like your Los Angeles Honda dealer Facebook page is fine. What you don't want is that person in Dallas liking your page and taking up budget with her Dallas-based friends.

Even worse is the person in Indonesia who likes your page. Foreign likes, particularly those in east Asia, have friends who are much more likely that domestic fans to like your post. While this might seem like a good thing for artificially inflating your numbers, it's not. It's better to have one local like your post than to have 10 irrelevant likes. Yes, the exposure would go up with the irrelevant likes, but it would not be exposed to anyone you actually want to see your posts.

If you have enough fans, you can prune down to 1000+ local people. This is a great starting point and Facebook sponsored posts sent to those people would give you incredible exposure for very little money. It's true bang for the buck.

If you do not have enough fans, keeping domestic likes is fine but still get rid of the foreign likes. Build your page up with as many localized fans of possible until you're to the point that you can start hyper-targeting the locals only.

When you get to that point, the $10 here, $20 there that you spend on sponsored posts will get you as much (possibly more) quality branding and exposure than thousands of dollars worth of television advertising.

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook started cracking downon fake accounts and false likes. The network is finally at the point to where they believe quality is more important than quantity for their advertising model to work and they're right. Dealers should do the exact same thing, maximize quality of the people liking their page, if they want to delve into the high-potential world of Facebook sponsored posts.

The last statement needs some qualification. If, like many, you do not see the value of Facebook sponsored posts, we'll start there. If you have seen the value and you're already playing with it, skip ahead and let's learn about pruning.

If You Do This, Facebook Sponsored Posts WILL Work

There has been an open debate for a couple of years now about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising in the automotive industry. The reality of it is that it will notwork for most dealers. If your Facebook page is weak, if your fans are not localized, or if your goals are not geared around branding and exposure, then Facebook ads won't work for you.

If, on the other hand, you:

• - ... have a strong Facebook presence with multiple daily updates, an active community who like, comment, and share your content, and a strategy that is geared towards ramping up your EdgeRank before blasting out your "money shots", AND...
• 
  - ... your fans are mostly localized, AND...
• - ... you view social media as more akin to television advertising where you're getting your brand and message out to people when they're not necessarily looking for a car but when they are psychologically in a place of enjoyment and relaxation...

... then Facebook advertising can be of great benefit to you. The primary reason for this is the cost. It's cheap! You can blast out a sponsored story to be viewed by thousands of people for tens of dollars. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, a strong Facebook page can outperform television for branding and exposure as long as you understand that the goals are the same.

If your goal is to generate direct leads from Facebook, there are definitely strategies that can work for you but that's extremely specialized. It can be done, but it's not easy. It requires some commitments at the dealership that most are not willing to do and I could argue that the same amount of effort put into search marketing has a higher yield. That's a different blog post altogether, but if you're Facebook page is a strong branding and exposure tool, then you should...

Prune

Size isn't everything. It's important, probably more important than most would give it in today's cynical-towards-fake-Facebook-likes world, but it's not nearly as important as focus on the local market.

Facebook offers localized advertising options to allow you to grow your local market. That's what you use to get fans. Keeping them and actually appearing in their news feed is a function of quality and engagement, but getting them is done through marketing, Facebook ads, and in-store promotions.

Facebook sponsored posts do not target a geographical location. They work on your fans and friends of your fans. It's for this reason that you create your own targeting by limiting your fans to the local area.

You do this by pruning.

If you do not run sponsored posts and have no intention of doing so, there's no real need to prune. The distant likes aren't necessarily hurting you that much. Sure, it's a perception concern (another blog post altogether) but the real damage comes from affecting your sponsored posts budget.

If you go through and remove the fans that are not in the local area, you will be able to maximize the relevant exposure of your sponsored posts. Does that mean that all of your fans should be in our direct market area? No. Having someone in San Diego like your Los Angeles Honda dealer Facebook page is fine. What you don't want is that person in Dallas liking your page and taking up budget with her Dallas-based friends.

Even worse is the person in Indonesia who likes your page. Foreign likes, particularly those in east Asia, have friends who are much more likely that domestic fans to like your post. While this might seem like a good thing for artificially inflating your numbers, it's not. It's better to have one local like your post than to have 10 irrelevant likes. Yes, the exposure would go up with the irrelevant likes, but it would not be exposed to anyone you actually want to see your posts.

If you have enough fans, you can prune down to 1000+ local people. This is a great starting point and Facebook sponsored posts sent to those people would give you incredible exposure for very little money. It's true bang for the buck.

If you do not have enough fans, keeping domestic likes is fine but still get rid of the foreign likes. Build your page up with as many localized fans of possible until you're to the point that you can start hyper-targeting the locals only.

When you get to that point, the $10 here, $20 there that you spend on sponsored posts will get you as much (possibly more) quality branding and exposure than thousands of dollars worth of television advertising.

There have been debates in the past about whether or not it's good for businesses to follow everyone who follows them. The old way of thinking (for some, including me) was that if they take the time to follow you, that you should be courteous and return the favor.

I switched my way of thinking in 2009 but for many it continued. Many today still feel that way. It's no longer the right way to work with your Twitter account regardless of what business you're in. Here's why:

So Much Spam

Twitter has always been loaded with spam ever since the days of Ashton Kutcher trying to get to 1 million followers. Once it hit the mainstream the spammers saw an opportunity and they've seized it ever since. Twitter does what they can but with half a million users, the spammers and bots are impossible to keep down without damaging real accounts.

They are often easy to spot and if you are already only following important and relevant people, vetting your new followers is easy. If you follow too many people, it's time to start vetting. Unfortunately, this can be a manual process, but it's worth it.

Start Vetting if the Volume is Low Enough

For those with under 2000 followers, vetting them is something that can be done a little at a time every day until you're done. This is still tedious but if you commit to check out 100 Twitter accounts a day, you'll be done in a month (assuming you end up skipping some days).

It's not as hard as it sounds. If you're at least a little active on Twitter you'll be able to recognize many accounts by name. No need to check them out - just whitelist them and move on. Others will be obvious spammers based upon their name, avatar, or both.

The others will need to be opened manually and checked out. Here's what you're looking for:

• - Autoposters: If they are simply using their Twitter account as an RSS feed, you won't see any @replies from them. These are relatively worthless to follow as they aren't going to engage with you or anyone else.
• - Overposters: To some, this isn't a problem. For me, I can't stand following someone who Tweets hundreds of times a day. Nobody's life is that interesting to me and I don't need their posts flooding my stream.
• - Inactives: It doesn't apply to everyone and some would say that following someone who posts 5 times a year is harmless because they aren't filling up your feed, but there's something that can be said about selectivity. As you can see by the @TKCarsitesInc following, we've knocked it down to where we're only following 700 accounts versus being followed by 19k.
• - Spammers and Bots: You'll be able to tell the difference.

Get it down to a manageable number and your feed will be useful, your account will look good, and Twitter can be useful.

But I Followed Thousands!

There is a major challenge facing some Twitter accounts. If you have an account that's simply too large to go through manually, you'll have to start from the bottom up.

It's impractical to think that you can vet tens of thousands of accounts. If, like the TK Carsites account, you followed over 10k (or over 2k for that matter), then it's easier to simply unfollow everyone and refollow the important accounts.

To do this, you'll first want to make a list. If you're using lists on Twitter or other tools like Tweetdeck, this is easier. You've already identified the people you definitely want to follow so unfollowing everyone and refollowing them is a piece of cake.

If you don't have lists, make one. Twitter itself has a decent List option, so build your list of accounts that you want to follow. Then, send out a message to all of your followers letting them know you're about to unfollow everyone.

"Hey everyone. I'm purging my list and following everyone I really know. If I unfollow you, please send me a reply and I will refollow you."

Now, it's time to unfollow. I use JustUnfollow. It's not free, but Twitter is very picky about following and unfollowing, requiring a direct click to do the action. They cut off any programs that allow you to bulk follow or unfollow without individual clicks on each account, but JustUnfollow has the easiest interface that allows you to click straight down the line and unfollow hundreds per minute depending on how fast your index finger can hit the mouse button.

Once you make it through the list, add everyone back that you really want to follow. Then, Twitter gets easy. It will help you by recommending other similar people you might want to follow. By having an accurate following, Twitter can help you find others.

When you're done with the process, the doors to using Twitter as an actual communication and marketing tool swing wide open.

There have been debates in the past about whether or not it's good for businesses to follow everyone who follows them. The old way of thinking (for some, including me) was that if they take the time to follow you, that you should be courteous and return the favor.

I switched my way of thinking in 2009 but for many it continued. Many today still feel that way. It's no longer the right way to work with your Twitter account regardless of what business you're in. Here's why:

So Much Spam

Twitter has always been loaded with spam ever since the days of Ashton Kutcher trying to get to 1 million followers. Once it hit the mainstream the spammers saw an opportunity and they've seized it ever since. Twitter does what they can but with half a million users, the spammers and bots are impossible to keep down without damaging real accounts.

They are often easy to spot and if you are already only following important and relevant people, vetting your new followers is easy. If you follow too many people, it's time to start vetting. Unfortunately, this can be a manual process, but it's worth it.

Start Vetting if the Volume is Low Enough

For those with under 2000 followers, vetting them is something that can be done a little at a time every day until you're done. This is still tedious but if you commit to check out 100 Twitter accounts a day, you'll be done in a month (assuming you end up skipping some days).

It's not as hard as it sounds. If you're at least a little active on Twitter you'll be able to recognize many accounts by name. No need to check them out - just whitelist them and move on. Others will be obvious spammers based upon their name, avatar, or both.

The others will need to be opened manually and checked out. Here's what you're looking for:

• - Autoposters: If they are simply using their Twitter account as an RSS feed, you won't see any @replies from them. These are relatively worthless to follow as they aren't going to engage with you or anyone else.
• - Overposters: To some, this isn't a problem. For me, I can't stand following someone who Tweets hundreds of times a day. Nobody's life is that interesting to me and I don't need their posts flooding my stream.
• - Inactives: It doesn't apply to everyone and some would say that following someone who posts 5 times a year is harmless because they aren't filling up your feed, but there's something that can be said about selectivity. As you can see by the @TKCarsitesInc following, we've knocked it down to where we're only following 700 accounts versus being followed by 19k.
• - Spammers and Bots: You'll be able to tell the difference.

Get it down to a manageable number and your feed will be useful, your account will look good, and Twitter can be useful.

But I Followed Thousands!

There is a major challenge facing some Twitter accounts. If you have an account that's simply too large to go through manually, you'll have to start from the bottom up.

It's impractical to think that you can vet tens of thousands of accounts. If, like the TK Carsites account, you followed over 10k (or over 2k for that matter), then it's easier to simply unfollow everyone and refollow the important accounts.

To do this, you'll first want to make a list. If you're using lists on Twitter or other tools like Tweetdeck, this is easier. You've already identified the people you definitely want to follow so unfollowing everyone and refollowing them is a piece of cake.

If you don't have lists, make one. Twitter itself has a decent List option, so build your list of accounts that you want to follow. Then, send out a message to all of your followers letting them know you're about to unfollow everyone.

"Hey everyone. I'm purging my list and following everyone I really know. If I unfollow you, please send me a reply and I will refollow you."

Now, it's time to unfollow. I use JustUnfollow. It's not free, but Twitter is very picky about following and unfollowing, requiring a direct click to do the action. They cut off any programs that allow you to bulk follow or unfollow without individual clicks on each account, but JustUnfollow has the easiest interface that allows you to click straight down the line and unfollow hundreds per minute depending on how fast your index finger can hit the mouse button.

Once you make it through the list, add everyone back that you really want to follow. Then, Twitter gets easy. It will help you by recommending other similar people you might want to follow. By having an accurate following, Twitter can help you find others.

When you're done with the process, the doors to using Twitter as an actual communication and marketing tool swing wide open.

Social media is about conversations. It's not a broadcasting platform like traditional advertising, search marketing, or other forms of internet marketing. Conversations on social media happen all over the place and are pertinent to your dealership's local area. YOU should be involved in as many of these conversations as possible.

The reason is multi-layered but easy to understand. First, it gives the human component that is so often missing from dealerships' social media marketing strategy. You want your dealership to have a personality on social media. People don't like robots. They don't like automation. They don't like broadcast messages.

What people do like are conversations and businesses willing to take part. When your dealership makes comments on posts from other pages that serve the local area like the one displayed above, people become acutely aware that there are real humans behind the operation of the Facebook page. They will be more willing to check you out. They will be more willing to follow you.

Second, the exposure that you gain through a thoughtful comment that takes 20 seconds to write can be wonderful. In the example above, both students and administrators of the page will see the comment and take note of where it's from. Believe it or not, these simple little interactions are often known or even subconscious factors that help them to consider your dealership now or in the future whether they're aware of the connection or not. The thoughtfulness of this single sentence registers with them. In a split second they're minds understand at a subconscious level that your dealership (1) supports education, (2) is active in the community, and (3) thinks highly of the cause being highlighted by the post.

Again, this post took 20 seconds to write but brings goodwill (even at a subconscious level) to your dealership.

Finally, and there are other factors to consider but these three are the most important ones, you get more branding for your dealership while the potential customers' brains are in their most receptive state. Science has proven that one of the reasons that television commercials are so effective for some is because the messages are being placed in the mind during "TV time", an experience that many people have every day when they are more relaxed and enjoying the day rather than doing something strenuous, tedious, or unpleasant (such as work).

Facebook falls under the same category. Our brains or more active while on social media than while watching television but we're still in a "good place" and the branding that happens during this time will make a deeper impact than normal branding. It's one of the reasons that some are shying away from billboard and radio advertising. That's not to say that you should take down your billboards or stop your radio spots but unfortunately the brand is often exposed during a bad time - while sitting in traffic. You want your brand exposed during happy times.

Find local businesses and organizations. "Like" them on Facebook while logged in under the dealership's account. Follow them on Twitter. Interact with them. Unfortunately it's not the most easily trackable ROI activity but if you understand the importance as well as the ease in which it's done, you can find a way to squeeze in the 10-15 minutes a day it takes to make an impact.

Social media is about conversations. It's not a broadcasting platform like traditional advertising, search marketing, or other forms of internet marketing. Conversations on social media happen all over the place and are pertinent to your dealership's local area. YOU should be involved in as many of these conversations as possible.

The reason is multi-layered but easy to understand. First, it gives the human component that is so often missing from dealerships' social media marketing strategy. You want your dealership to have a personality on social media. People don't like robots. They don't like automation. They don't like broadcast messages.

What people do like are conversations and businesses willing to take part. When your dealership makes comments on posts from other pages that serve the local area like the one displayed above, people become acutely aware that there are real humans behind the operation of the Facebook page. They will be more willing to check you out. They will be more willing to follow you.

Second, the exposure that you gain through a thoughtful comment that takes 20 seconds to write can be wonderful. In the example above, both students and administrators of the page will see the comment and take note of where it's from. Believe it or not, these simple little interactions are often known or even subconscious factors that help them to consider your dealership now or in the future whether they're aware of the connection or not. The thoughtfulness of this single sentence registers with them. In a split second they're minds understand at a subconscious level that your dealership (1) supports education, (2) is active in the community, and (3) thinks highly of the cause being highlighted by the post.

Again, this post took 20 seconds to write but brings goodwill (even at a subconscious level) to your dealership.

Finally, and there are other factors to consider but these three are the most important ones, you get more branding for your dealership while the potential customers' brains are in their most receptive state. Science has proven that one of the reasons that television commercials are so effective for some is because the messages are being placed in the mind during "TV time", an experience that many people have every day when they are more relaxed and enjoying the day rather than doing something strenuous, tedious, or unpleasant (such as work).

Facebook falls under the same category. Our brains or more active while on social media than while watching television but we're still in a "good place" and the branding that happens during this time will make a deeper impact than normal branding. It's one of the reasons that some are shying away from billboard and radio advertising. That's not to say that you should take down your billboards or stop your radio spots but unfortunately the brand is often exposed during a bad time - while sitting in traffic. You want your brand exposed during happy times.

Find local businesses and organizations. "Like" them on Facebook while logged in under the dealership's account. Follow them on Twitter. Interact with them. Unfortunately it's not the most easily trackable ROI activity but if you understand the importance as well as the ease in which it's done, you can find a way to squeeze in the 10-15 minutes a day it takes to make an impact.

There are plenty of tools out there that help people post the same piece of content across multiple networks. Sendible, Hootsuite, Buffer - all make posting easy and convenient. While they can be great time savers and allow heavy social media users the ability to scale properly and plan accordingly, they also create problems and do not always maximize exposure.

Facebook will "batch" images posted from the same tool when more than one is posted through it in a 24 hour period. This is a big problem for extremely active profiles and pages because these batched albums do not have a like, share, or comment button when they appear in the newsfeed. For someone to interact with the image, they have to click through to it. Most people won't. They'll just pass it right up.

Google+ poses another challenge as there are few tools that work with it. Hootsuite and other tools can post to Google+ pages, but they always post as links even if it is an image that is being uploaded. These get much less engagement than if the actual image was posted. Also, they only work with pages; Google+ does not have profile integration through these tools.

Most importantly, broadcasting the exact same message across multiple channels does not always take full advantage of each individual network's strengths. One would have to keep all posts under 140 characters, for example, if they wanted to post the content to Twitter while also posting it to other networks. This forces the posts to cater to the all networks and limits the ability of the post to flourish.

These are only a sampling of the problems. The right way to do it is to post manually, to mix up the posts using social media sites themselves as the tools through which to post. Done right, it can increase the exposure of your content and give people reasons to follow you one multiple networks.

Here is a sample of how a piece of content was posted across multiple networks appropriately. In this example, we're using this infographic called "Battle of the Sexes" and getting it properly posted to Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Step 1: Prepare the Post

Since this is a vertical infographic, it will not appear properly on Facebook or Google+ as a single image. Both networks have height restrictions, so posting it as a whole will make it unreadable.

Thankfully, we have it "chopped" into its various components will allow us to take advantage of the album feature on both networks. Unlike the batched albums described above, images uploaded intentionally as albums do have like, comment, and share buttons when seen in the newsfeed.

I will want to have a long text description for Tumblr, a slightly smaller one for Facebook and Google+, and under 120 characters for Pinterest and Twitter. Once all of this is together, it's time to post.

Step 2: Post to Facebook and Google+

It's not hard to post albums properly on Facebook and Google+ if you know some of the pitfalls to avoid. First, both sites are tricky when it comes to the order in which the images appear. Just when you think you have it figured out, they make a minor change that affects it. The easiest way to do it is to name them "1", "2", etc.

In this case, the infographic has been broken down into 8 pieces. We'll have the header called "1" and work our way down to to #8.

I will title the album after the name of the infographic itself. Then, in the description I will put the text I already created describing the infographic and I will include a link to the source. This is important to do in this order - adding the link first will turn the post into a link-post rather than an image. While the click rates on the link are lower by doing it like this, the overall exposure of the content is much higher when posting as an image rather than as a link.

Here's how the post appears on Facebook:

Step 3: Post it to Tumblr

There are a couple of different ways to do this on Tumblr. You can keep the split images and post it as an attractive gallery, something that Tumblr does exceptionally well. This hurts continuity, however, so we'll post it as the full infographic.

Now, the choice becomes whether to post it as an image or as text. The image option is best IF the content is small enough. Depending on the Tumblr theme, some tumblogs have length limits similar to Facebook and Google+, but only when posting as an image. When posted as text with an image inserted into the HTML through an embed code or image code, there is no link limit for most themes. Also, it allows for an actual title to the post versus posting as an image which only allows a caption.

The disadvantage to posting it as text is that the image does not appear on Tumblr feeds. If your primary audience is within Tumblr itself, you may want to lean more towards the gallery or single image option. If you're bringing most of the traffic in from outside sources, text posts are best.

The image or post should click through to somewhere. Don't waste the link on the image source itself. You can link it to your original content if it comes from a blog. You can link it back to your Google+ post to get more exposure to your page. Facebook is an option unless you posted it to your profile, in which case the permalink wouldn't be effective. Just make sure the image links to somewhere important to you.

Here's the post as it appears on Tumblr.

Step 4: Post to Pinterest and Twitter

From here, it's time to continue the trail from the other important social networks. In this case, we're going to pin the Tumblr post onto Pinterest and Tweet it from there. We're only going to use the title itself, but we're going to add hashtags.

Here it is on Twitter:

Battle of the Sexes: How Men and Women Use the Social Web #socialmedia #infographic pinterest.com/pin/1633259239…

— JD Rucker (@0boy) October 8, 2012

Switch It All Up

This is only one path you can take. There are other ways to flip it around and diversify your posting styles to take full advantage of the various social sites and the interconnectivity they posses. You can post it to Facebook from Pinterest or Tumblr directly instead of starting there. This isn't the best way; again, images do better than the links that Tumblr and Pinterest post. Still mixing it up from time to time makes your pages more interesting.

The urge to simplify by using posting tools is strong. We naturally want the path of least resistance that these tools offer us. However, with the goal of marketing being exposure, branding, messaging, engagement, and all of the other things that social media offers, doesn't it make sense to mix in a little manual effort every now and then to make your social presence as strong as possible?

Author's Note: This article originally appeared on Social Media Today.

* * *

+JD Rucker is President of Hasai, Inc, a Social Media Firm, Director of New Media for KPA, an Automotive SEO firm, and Editor at Soshable, a Social Media Marketing Blog. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.