Automotive News - June 19, 2017 - v2 - A15

Car buyers turning to social media

People shopping for cars are doing more and more of their research online-
and social media platforms have become a regular part of the process.
of shopping time is spent
online, among car buyers who
used the internet, according
to a 2017 study by Autotrader
and Kelley Blue Book.

of new-car shoppers who used
social media said it influenced
their decision about what to
purchase, according to Nielsen
research conducted for Twitter.

Do it right in social media

Social media has become a big part of our lives.
In 2016, American adults spent an average of ﬁve
and a half hours a week on social media-up 36%
from 2015, according to Nielsen. With the right
approach, you can use Facebook, Twitter and other
platforms to ﬁnd customers and build loyalty.

auto-related items were pinned from January 2016 to January 2017, Pinterest reported. Also, autorelated pins were up 77% in January, compared with January 2016.

ADVICE FROM: Allison Musante, general
manager, Kuhn Honda, Tampa
"Consumers go to social media to see not just
what should I buy, but who I should buy from.
You need to have a good reputation online. The
buzzword this year is trust: How do you win the
consumer's trust? Family and friend referrals and
consumer reviews matter. Facebook now has a
recommendation feature, where people can ask
for dealership names. And in terms of marketing
campaigns, social media is targeted and the cost
per dollar is a lot lower. You need to be there."

ADVICE FROM: Emal Noor, general sales
manager, Biggers Mitsubishi, Elgin, Illnois
"Social media is one of the most diﬃcult things
for car dealers and even manufacturers to
wrap their heads around. Remember that it's
something a lot of people hold near and dear-
you have to respect the news feed. You don't
want to be intrusive. Some dealers will be pretty
aggressive with content. You don't want to be
constantly peppering people with your inventory
or coupons. Sometimes it's better if you don't talk
about cars at all-just be conversational."

ADVICE FROM: Beena Kalaiya, VP/director
of social media, Mediavest | Spark Performics
Practices Team
"Many dealerships don't think about doing
lead-generation ads or geo-targeted ads, and
measuring the eﬀectiveness. You shouldn't be
satisﬁed with an engagement rate. You should be
asking your partners and agencies or whomever
is running social media, 'OK, I spent $5,000 on
social media ads, how many people did that bring
into the dealership? How many cars did it sell?'
Social media can do that."

ADVICE FROM: Trace Przybylowicz,
autos lead, Facebook
"Leverage a third party's expertise. It's
become too big a job to imagine that
you can take care of it on your own. But
the common pushback I hear from dealers,
internet managers or media managers is, 'Hey,
if we hire someone it will put me out of a
job.' But if you hire a third party to do all the
heavy lifting, then in turn it's your team's job to
manage the vendors and agencies. The juice is
worth the squeeze; the third party can provide
tools, optimization, teams, measurement, the
ability to test ads in a 24-hour environment.
They can help you understand a platform that's
incredibly powerful."
Did You Know: Ally oﬀers a complimentary
social media assessment for your dealership.
Contact your local account executive to
learn more.

ADVICE FROM: Elizabeth Primm,
director of automotive, Twitter
"Auto shoppers tell us they want more
video content about the features of a
car. Dealers should be thinking about making
their messaging more visual and speciﬁcally
video-centric. They should think about all the
visual assets they have. That might be walk
around videos, interior tours or assets coming
from their OEM's content delivery system.
There also are always a slew of photo assets
of inventory. Dealers should think about how
they can bring those visuals to complement
their messaging."

FOR MORE ON DOING IT RIGHT, VISIT

AutoNews.com/allydoitright

- Ally Since 2012
Tina

http://www.AutoNews.com/allydoitright

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - June 19, 2017 - v2