I’m sure all (or at least most) people who frequent the on-line automotive forums have at least heard of the new book coming out, The Unfair Advantage. Being in a dealership myself, I knew nothing like this book existed, and I was looking forward to reading it. 

I had attended a panel with 6 of the 17 authors including, Craig Lockerd, Jerry Thibeau, Troy Spring, Tracy Myers, Marc McGurren and Brian Pasch who were answering questions and commenting on the book.

I’m sure all (or at least most) people who frequent the on-line automotive forums have at least heard of the new book coming out, The Unfair Advantage. Being in a dealership myself, I knew nothing like this book existed, and I was looking forward to reading it. 

I had attended a panel with 6 of the 17 authors including, Craig Lockerd, Jerry Thibeau, Troy Spring, Tracy Myers, Marc McGurren and Brian Pasch who were answering questions and commenting on the book.

Ahhh Facebook.  Dealers for several years now have been posting things to their Facebook Wall. If it’s new car specials, pictures of “Happy Customers” or service promotions.  Someone is behind all that social media madness.  

Not too long ago, Facebook added a “Share” button to all status updates and pictures.  See something you like (whether it is an ‘E-Card’ or a touching picture), click ‘share’ & put it on your own wall, or on a friend’s wall!   This ‘share’ button allows your pictures and other things to become more viral. 

Occasionally, I ‘share’ something on my personal page from my store’s page I think is important (for example, we were just named one of Automotive News’s ‘Top 100 Dealerships to Work For’ which is a pretty big deal – so that I shared).  But I don’t share everything. I encourage people to visit my store’s page, I have it listed in my “About” section. 

Sure, your friends may interact with your shared information on your personal page, but they know where you work anyway (or they should).  What about the ‘fans’ of your page who aren’t your friends? Get them involved, too!

But how much is too much?

If you share everything (or just about everything) from your store’s page, to your personal page, what point do people have to Like, Subscribe or Visit your store’s page?  

What are your thoughts?

Ahhh Facebook.  Dealers for several years now have been posting things to their Facebook Wall. If it’s new car specials, pictures of “Happy Customers” or service promotions.  Someone is behind all that social media madness.  

Not too long ago, Facebook added a “Share” button to all status updates and pictures.  See something you like (whether it is an ‘E-Card’ or a touching picture), click ‘share’ & put it on your own wall, or on a friend’s wall!   This ‘share’ button allows your pictures and other things to become more viral. 

Occasionally, I ‘share’ something on my personal page from my store’s page I think is important (for example, we were just named one of Automotive News’s ‘Top 100 Dealerships to Work For’ which is a pretty big deal – so that I shared).  But I don’t share everything. I encourage people to visit my store’s page, I have it listed in my “About” section. 

Sure, your friends may interact with your shared information on your personal page, but they know where you work anyway (or they should).  What about the ‘fans’ of your page who aren’t your friends? Get them involved, too!

But how much is too much?

If you share everything (or just about everything) from your store’s page, to your personal page, what point do people have to Like, Subscribe or Visit your store’s page?  

What are your thoughts?

Did you watch the Daytona 500 last night?  Typically, there were quite a few crashes (after all – how exciting would it be for cars to turn left 4 times in a big circle without them?). One inparticular sticks out – the fireball which erupted when Juan Pablo Montoya careened into a Jet Dry Druck.  Check the video here.

I was awake.  I saw it on Twitter and then I turned on the TV.

All this time, twitter was erupting.  Driver, Brad Keselowski tweeted a picture of the fire (from his car!) Many believe it was the first time ever a tweet was sent from the racetrack. 

After several hours – the crews for NASCAR brought out boxes of Tide to clean up the jet fuel.  Talk about product placement and great PR! 

Now, Tide’s twitter username isn’t hard – it’s @tide.  But someone was asleep in the land of Social Media Management.  Tide’s twitter account was silent from 2:25 PM yesterday until 6:53 AM today.  No live tweeting at all during the race, when millions of people were mentioning their brand on Social Media. 

This would have been an amazing PR opportunity for Tide.  “Tide was ones who saved the Daytona 500” I saw quite a few people put up.   Why wasn’t Tide tweeting this?  They should understand that just because their people sleep, doesn’t mean their audience sleeps (especially when there’s a major sporting event on.).

What does this lesson tell you? 

Monitor your brand.  If you know a big event is going to happen and your brand may be part of it (I’m sure the people at Tide knew their product could potentially be used in a fuel spill clean-up), be alert! Or if you don’t have the ability to monitor your brand, find (or pay) someone who can! 

Social Media doesn’t sleep – make sure you don’t miss golden opportunities for your brand.  

Did you watch the Daytona 500 last night?  Typically, there were quite a few crashes (after all – how exciting would it be for cars to turn left 4 times in a big circle without them?). One inparticular sticks out – the fireball which erupted when Juan Pablo Montoya careened into a Jet Dry Druck.  Check the video here.

I was awake.  I saw it on Twitter and then I turned on the TV.

All this time, twitter was erupting.  Driver, Brad Keselowski tweeted a picture of the fire (from his car!) Many believe it was the first time ever a tweet was sent from the racetrack. 

After several hours – the crews for NASCAR brought out boxes of Tide to clean up the jet fuel.  Talk about product placement and great PR! 

Now, Tide’s twitter username isn’t hard – it’s @tide.  But someone was asleep in the land of Social Media Management.  Tide’s twitter account was silent from 2:25 PM yesterday until 6:53 AM today.  No live tweeting at all during the race, when millions of people were mentioning their brand on Social Media. 

This would have been an amazing PR opportunity for Tide.  “Tide was ones who saved the Daytona 500” I saw quite a few people put up.   Why wasn’t Tide tweeting this?  They should understand that just because their people sleep, doesn’t mean their audience sleeps (especially when there’s a major sporting event on.).

What does this lesson tell you? 

Monitor your brand.  If you know a big event is going to happen and your brand may be part of it (I’m sure the people at Tide knew their product could potentially be used in a fuel spill clean-up), be alert! Or if you don’t have the ability to monitor your brand, find (or pay) someone who can! 

Social Media doesn’t sleep – make sure you don’t miss golden opportunities for your brand.  

I like twitter.  I’ve met lots of people using my personal twitter account.  I see also the value of Twitter for Automotive Dealerships.  I maintain a list of Honda Dealerships on twitter that has 265 dealers on it. While I’m looking for new dealers, and viewing the Honda dealers I already have on my list, I get frustrated by 3 things.

1.   A constant stream of Facebook Posts (you can tell which these are because the links are “fb.me/xxxx”)

2.   A constant stream of inventory.

3.   Dealers who don't interact with their Twitter Community!

We’ve all heard the term “Social Media.”  Let’s break this down even simpler: “Social” and “Media.”  In order to be social you have to interact with people!  Someone isn’t very social if they don’t talk to anyone, are they? 

I use a twitter client called “Hootsuite” which allows you to schedule tweets (which I’m somewhat against, but that’s a different topic), but it enables me to set up a keyword search based on how close the tweet is to me geographically. I have several set up, including, “Ciocca” “Honda” & a few of my competitors.  For example, I have a fellow “tweep” (or “friend” on twitter) who quite often post pictures of his CR-Z’s MPG. I “RT” (re-tweet –  aka, forward), his picture to all of my followers.  We typically have a short conversation (sometimes, it’s about the weather!) after I RT him.

People need to think of you as a person, not just a business.  I mean, they obviously know someone is behind the tweets, but does this illustrious person have a personality? Of course they do and that’s part of the importance of Twitter!

As far as linking your Facebook posts to Twitter – I don’t do it – why do you?  When using a client like HootSuite, or others like it, you can select multiple social networks post your message to.

But just because you can; does that mean you should? 

You have to remember that Facebook and Twitter are 2 different networks with 2 different purposes and their audiences are looking for different things.

Think of it this way:

I get home from work; I look back through my Facebook “News Feed” for the day.  Some of them can be a few hours old.  But with twitter, I barely go back more than an hour previously when I’m looking at my feed.  There really isn’t a point!  Most people tweet for an immediate conversation, or at least for a reaction.  If you reply to something they sent hours ago, it probably isn’t relevant to the current conversation.

If I feel something is important to tweet, I may tweet it 3 times a day: morning, afternoon and evening.  While if I put the same thing on facebook 3 times in one day, people may start to look at me funny.

Social media isn’t just a way to post things no one is going to react to.  It’s a way to engage your customers!  Don’t always post about cars or service, but rather tweet about things that are going on in the community. It will help your business and be a lot more enjoyable along the way.

Megan S. Barto has been in the car business for 5 years at Ciocca Honda in Harrisburg.  She started with both floor sales and Internet sales.  In November of  2009, she was promoted to Internet Sales Director.  She has since launched Ciocca Hyundai of Lebanon, and manages a team of 4 Internet Sales Coordinators at Ciocca Honda. You can reach Megan at mbarto@cioccahonda.com or on Twitter @skeetle.

I like twitter.  I’ve met lots of people using my personal twitter account.  I see also the value of Twitter for Automotive Dealerships.  I maintain a list of Honda Dealerships on twitter that has 265 dealers on it. While I’m looking for new dealers, and viewing the Honda dealers I already have on my list, I get frustrated by 3 things.

1.   A constant stream of Facebook Posts (you can tell which these are because the links are “fb.me/xxxx”)

2.   A constant stream of inventory.

3.   Dealers who don't interact with their Twitter Community!

We’ve all heard the term “Social Media.”  Let’s break this down even simpler: “Social” and “Media.”  In order to be social you have to interact with people!  Someone isn’t very social if they don’t talk to anyone, are they? 

I use a twitter client called “Hootsuite” which allows you to schedule tweets (which I’m somewhat against, but that’s a different topic), but it enables me to set up a keyword search based on how close the tweet is to me geographically. I have several set up, including, “Ciocca” “Honda” & a few of my competitors.  For example, I have a fellow “tweep” (or “friend” on twitter) who quite often post pictures of his CR-Z’s MPG. I “RT” (re-tweet –  aka, forward), his picture to all of my followers.  We typically have a short conversation (sometimes, it’s about the weather!) after I RT him.

People need to think of you as a person, not just a business.  I mean, they obviously know someone is behind the tweets, but does this illustrious person have a personality? Of course they do and that’s part of the importance of Twitter!

As far as linking your Facebook posts to Twitter – I don’t do it – why do you?  When using a client like HootSuite, or others like it, you can select multiple social networks post your message to.

But just because you can; does that mean you should? 

You have to remember that Facebook and Twitter are 2 different networks with 2 different purposes and their audiences are looking for different things.

Think of it this way:

I get home from work; I look back through my Facebook “News Feed” for the day.  Some of them can be a few hours old.  But with twitter, I barely go back more than an hour previously when I’m looking at my feed.  There really isn’t a point!  Most people tweet for an immediate conversation, or at least for a reaction.  If you reply to something they sent hours ago, it probably isn’t relevant to the current conversation.

If I feel something is important to tweet, I may tweet it 3 times a day: morning, afternoon and evening.  While if I put the same thing on facebook 3 times in one day, people may start to look at me funny.

Social media isn’t just a way to post things no one is going to react to.  It’s a way to engage your customers!  Don’t always post about cars or service, but rather tweet about things that are going on in the community. It will help your business and be a lot more enjoyable along the way.

Megan S. Barto has been in the car business for 5 years at Ciocca Honda in Harrisburg.  She started with both floor sales and Internet sales.  In November of  2009, she was promoted to Internet Sales Director.  She has since launched Ciocca Hyundai of Lebanon, and manages a team of 4 Internet Sales Coordinators at Ciocca Honda. You can reach Megan at mbarto@cioccahonda.com or on Twitter @skeetle.