In 2024, regardless of what industry you’re in, if you’re not using social media to spread awareness and increase engagement around your business, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity. It wasn’t more than 15 years ago that if you wanted to learn about a business it would mean looking through the yellow pages or newspaper. Today, you can get a pretty clear picture of any business from their social media presence alone. In the automotive industry specifically, 15 years ago most advertising was done through TV, radio and newspaper ads. With these marketing efforts came word of mouth around town about whether your dealership was good or not.  

Today, the same principles apply, except now we have the internet to use as well. You still need to think about the most efficient ways to advertise your dealership whether it be by a radio commercial or Facebook ad and you still need to sell cars. But on top of paid advertising, you need to think about how you’re going to operate on the big four social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok and Twitter. If you don’t currently have an account on all four of these platforms, you should make one immediately. Even if you’re not tech-savvy and don’t understand how they all work now, take some time to learn them. A great way to do this is by seeing how other businesses in and out of the automotive industry are leveraging social media to garner awareness, engagement and sales. In this article, we’re going to talk about 6 social media tips you need to do in order to grow your dealership. 

1. Figure Out Your Goals

The first thing you need to do when trying to grow your social media game is to decide on your goals. Are you a new dealership in your city that needs to spread awareness so people know you exist? If so, you’re going to want to make a lot of generic content that appeals to a wide demographic. If you’re a well-known and established dealership in your city, perhaps you need to focus on engaging your customers more or focusing on a specific demographic through specific content. 

2. Come Up With a Social Media Plan

Once you’ve decided on what your social media goals are, you need to figure out a strategy for how to achieve those goals. If you’re super old school and feel overwhelmed with four social media platforms, choose to focus on two platforms that you feel are most appropriate. Once you’ve decided on which platforms to focus on, you should sit down with your team and discuss the type of content you want to post. It’s important that you don’t overload your social media with promotional content and instead try and post content that provides real value for your customers. This could mean tutorials, car comparisons or car facts. Whatever it is, keep it exciting and valuable to your followers!

3. Put Yourself in The Customers Shoes

This is one tip that some businesses fail to think about. You need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and really consider if the content your posting would interest them. Maybe your audience is primarily young people, in which case, making posts about sporty vehicles with new technology would probably do well. Regardless of who your demographic is, you need to put careful thought into what will interest them. 

4. Make Posting Easier With Automated Posting Tools 

If you want to make social media posts regularly, your best bet is to pay for an automation tool. This way, you can create a bunch of posts, schedule them into the automation tool and know that you’re covered for the given period of time. Websites like Hootsuite and Zoho Social both offer automated social posting. ‍

5. Use Social Media Paid Ads 

Today, every social media platform has the option to pay for advertising and if you do it right, you can reap the benefits. Facebook ads have been increasingly popular for car dealerships in North America due to the fact that it’s easy to target people by location. This way you can ensure that if you’re a dealership in Toronto that you’re not paying for people in Vancouver to see your ads. ‍

6. Engage With Your Customers, Reply to Comments and Messages!

One of the best features of social media is that it allows you to instantly and directly connect with your customers. You will likely get comments on your posts and private messages, making communication easy! Stand out from the crowd and be sure to engage with your customer’s comments and messages right away. Open conversations on social media show the public that you’re engaged and care about your customers.