Twitter, Facebook and blogs ignored by car dealers

Despite the fact that these sites are free to use, easy to maintain and have the potential to reach tens of millions of British internet users each month, only 18 dealer groups in the Motor Trader Top 200 are currently using any form of social media to support their external communications activity.

Business opportunities
Tim Smith, GForces' commercial director, said dealers not embracing social networking sites are losing out on business opportunities.

"The utilisation of blogs, Facebook and Twitter can be useful additions to a dealer's marketing arsenal. Having a blog improves a business's online visibility by using keywords related to their activity and products, and back-links to their website, to improve traffic. It can influence the importance search engines place on their websites. This has an effect on how high a website ranks, as the content produced within social media can help generate relevance around your products and services," he said.

Twitter ignored
Despite other sectors embracing Twitter, its penetration among UK dealers remains low.

"The percentage of companies using Twitter for marketing purposes has jumped from three per cent to 49 per cent in the last year. Car dealers can certainly use it as an avenue through which to shout about new offers and the latest additions to their stock lists Forward-thinking dealers, such as Peter Vardy, are already using their tweets to promote weekend vehicle launches, the latest deals and scrappage incentives," he said.

"Social media on its own won't help you sell cars. It isn't any kind of silver bullet. However, if you think of it as a form of online public relations and integrate it into your overall marketing plan it can help create a buzz around your business".

Community support
Social networking sites can also help dealers form stronger relationships with the local community. Essex Auto Group (EAG) maintains a Facebook page on which it talks about its involvement in charitable activities, such as the local Celebration of Youth Awards scheme. Facebook, which records over 10 million unique users each month, has proved to be a useful promotional tool according to EAG's group marketing director, Matt Brown.

"Facebook allows us to showcase our non-commercial activities to local car buyers. People see our relationship with charities and local sporting teams and then seek us out when it comes to buying a new car, " he said.

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UKCarExchange.com said:

... Interesting article, I'm sure that the numbers are on the up. At UKCarExchange.com we use Twitter to listen and respond to customers, keep up to speed with what's going on and "tweet" about our blog at www.ukcarexchangeblog.com. We try to keep things helpful and interesting. We've also created a Facebook page so people can see what we are up to if they choose to. It's important to be in the same space as our customers so we can listen, learn, respond and evolve.

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February 08, 2010
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