The internet and in particular social media serve as a very powerful tool in the automotive industry. Not only does this benefit businesses who wish to sell more products and services to their customers, it also greatly benefits automotive customers who wish to seek out those two services.

 

The key thing that connects both groups are automotive customer service representatives, and those who are responsible for creating a presence for the business on social media and the internet as a whole.

 

Firstly, it’s important to understand that ‘creating a presence’ on social media means having your automotive business represented on the various platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. While there are a long list of different platforms, the key to remember here is that there are no fixed rules about which ones your business should be present on and which ones it shouldn’t; all of it depends on your business’ objectives when it comes to social media.

 

Decide Your Business’ Objectives

Firstly, ask yourself what is the objective of your business being on social media in the first place? Is it purely for informational and promotional reasons, to give you another way to market your automotive products and services?

 

Or are you also using it to create a two-way interaction with your customers, using it as a tool for effective automotive customer service? Or perhaps are you planning on creating content to educate your customers and position your brand as a leader in your market?

 

Whatever the answers may be, it is important to have them before deciding how much resources your automotive business is planning to invest and on which platform.

 

Know Your Target Audience

It is important to understand your target audience from the start. For example, car enthusiasts and first-time car owners are two very different groups of people. Additionally, there are other subgroups when it comes to automotive customers, for instance those seeking to buy a new vehicle versus those seeking a place to source their repairs and spare parts from.

 

By knowing which groups your automotive business is targeting, this helps you determine what sort of content you need to produce and on which social media platform you need to be promoting your business.

 

Create or Improve on Existing Platforms

If the business already has accounts existing on various platforms, that’s great. It’s important not to create duplicate accounts on the same platform because that will confuse customers who wish to find out more about your business.

 

Creating an account is easy and usually free on most social media platforms. The thing that might take a bit of effort is verifying your business’ account. Each social media platform has different processes involved in verifying your business’ account, and while some may be challenging it is very much worth it because verification shows your customers that your account is authentic and that it truly represents your automotive business. This in turn increases the level of confidence the customer has in your business.

 

Understand The Differences Across Platforms

 

This is probably the most important tip. Different social media platforms are used for very different reasons.

 

For example, people go on Youtube to watch videos that inform or entertain them. People go on LinkedIn for professional reasons, either to understand your business better or to look for employment opportunities. Facebook is a great platform to interact with your customers and share feedback, whereas Twitter is typically used more for short textual updates, such as the arrival of new products or important updates about business hours.

 

This is important to understand firstly because it helps you decide which platforms are important to help your business reach its target customers. Secondly, it avoids the pitfall of many businesses, that is creating the wrong kinds of content on the wrong platforms; which shows customers how little your business knows about social media as a whole.

 

To do this, it's important to develop the social media knowledge and skills of the staff responsible for this area of your automotive business, or to hire social media managers from outside of your company’s structure.

 

While none of this comes easy, having a strong social media presence for your automotive business could be a very powerful tool to getting more customers walking into your business.