Establishing loyalty through Social Media

Social media is a highly effective way of maintaining a relationship with our customers. Retaining clients in what is a long sales cycle is one of the challenges we face in the automotive industry. By keeping in regular contact during what are traditionally dormant periods through social media we can improve loyalty and generate repeat sales and referrals.

The Nielsen New Zealand Social Media Report Wave 2: 2010 described Social Media as where consumers have the power to review, compare, rate, and recommend ideas, products, brands, and anything they connect with. During the last year 73% of Kiwis using the internet turned to other consumers’ opinions found in blogs, message boards, comments on social networking sites (such as Twitter or Facebook) and other ‘social’ websites. The credibility of social media networking was expressed by those surveyed saying that friends and family referrals were “Trusted, impartial, reliable, experienced, knowledgeable - knowledge from a person with a genuine wish for me to get the best deal.” We have talked about the power of Twitter and Facebook in previous articles, but as an industry we are increasingly adopting other forms of rich media (ie. interactive multimedia) to spread our message like videos and blogs.

Video

Fronting a video can add value to our business by creating a personality and brand that people can identify with, and relate to - look at The Mad Butcher! And people are looking - the Nielsen Online Social Media Report 2010 showed that New Zealanders are increasingly turning to rich media to support their decision making. In 2010, a massive 1.6 million Kiwis* watched an online video about products or services they were thinking of buying. Online videos were mostly accessed straight from a company website when viewers were researching products they were considering buying – this was followed by YouTube (You can also embed YouTube videos into your own company website). YouTube has a male skew (62%) and has a large proportion under 40*, targeting our videos to our audience will help us get the best results.

Blogs

A blog is like a message board and can be part of a website or stand alone. The blogger writes regular entries listed by date, often with pictures, video and room for visitors to leave comments. Several Kiwi automotive identities regularly write blogs within the industry. A good writer will gather a following, and is great advertising for their dealership. You can talk not only about your business and products, but review vehicles, or discuss industry news, events and views. This is yet another way to stay connected with your customers and continue to put a face, personality and credibility behind your business and brand. In the last 12 months more than 1.4 million Kiwis* read online blogs.

Sharing

Another reason that social media works so well to retain clients and generate referrals is that it is just so easy to share information and products online. At the click of a button you can email dozens of friends a classified listing, video, website or blog to check out, or post a listing or link on your Facebook or Twitter for all to see. For example Trade Me Motors and AutoBase now have buttons on every listing allowing viewers to share that listing by posting it on their Twitter or Facebook site. In the past year 62% of Online New Zealanders over 18 watched online video involving a product or service and 44% sent or shared that video clip with a friend!

Connect, Contribute and Converse

Social media provides us with an array of simple tools we can utilize to continue to Connect, Contribute and Converse with existing customers and prospective buyers. The great thing about social media is that it’s FREE - all it takes is time. It is sometimes hard to know where to start and what to use that’s why it is important that you have a solid digital strategy and establish the medium that best suits you and your business. Some people love making videos of their vehicles and have the charisma to be in front of a camera. Others enjoy writing so may start a blog to post articles about their dealership and products, or review vehicles.

Step into the ring, get amongst it

Updates to your website, YouTube channel or Blog give you the opportunity to enter the social media marketing ring with some clout; the delivery once again is your choice eg. you can use a link on Twitter with its short sharp jabs (140 character tweets) which are persistent, quick and timely or Facebook’s right hook delivering an in depth well connected shot . Whatever you do don’t sit on your hands, Social Media is an opportunity!

*Source: Nielsen Online Social Media Report 2010, surveying the New Zealand online population aged 18+ of 2,628,000 ?