When asked why they used several
marketing tactics, U.S. SMBs were most likely to say they chose social
media marketing for its cost-effectiveness (54%) and ease of use
(53%).
Jennifer didn't know much about social marketing; she didn't really spend a lot of time on Facebook herself. But, as Marketing Coordinator for Tom Kadlec Honda, she set out to take their outreach to a new level. Other than posting pics of her kids, Jennifer didn't use social media for personal use. She started with some simple steps, she scoped out her competition (other car dealership's sites) and then simply googled "social media".
"Once I found Social Media Examiner I was able to get answers to anything social media related. I receive daily blog feeds from SME to all their latest articles, tips and tricks to what is going on in the social media world." Jennifer explains she found the social media platform, Roost from SME as well. "I read their articles pretty much daily. I watch 1-2 webinars weekly either from HubSpot or Roost."
Jennifer reveals how quickly the right idea can deliver results. "Our first taste of success was when we did a free gas card giveaway. We went from 38 Facebook likes to 243. We were surprised at how well this went over. We posted a slideshow image on the home page of our website with the giveaway information as well as sent an email blast to our customer database of current customers. The response was more than we had expected. We received several positive comments?" she says. Testing and trying unique giveaways, fun photo contests, and funny polls are a great way to find out what jives with your audience. Social media is free and if something isn't a hit, within minutes, it can be old news. Make goals for yourself, pick a number of likes you'd like to receive, what percent feedback you'd like from your Facebook Insights, or what your score is on Roost's Scorecard. Jennifer notes, "We are still making goals for our self. We are looking at creating another giveaway to see how many more likes we can push from our current customers." [photo top left: Jennifer with gas card giveaway winner]
When discussing challenges, Jennifer warns that Facebook rules can be tricky. "A huge obstacle is definitely Facebook rules, making sure we are within their guidelines, especially when it comes to contests." Be sure you know the official rules and also the unspoken rules around Facebook and Twitter etiquette. For example, posting on other business's pages? be strategic about what you post, you don't want it to look like an obvious attempt to get likes by spamming someone else's page. Time can also be a challenge for many business owners; learning efficiency tools can be the answer. Jennifer notes, "Time is not much of an issue anymore as Roost makes things so much easier to get content scheduled ahead of time."
Aside from a boost of Likes, Jennifer has dialed in on some engaging content. You may have a Hair Salon, Bar & Grill, or local Bookstore? content around these can be fun and interesting? but what about a car dealership?
The first Accord pumped out 68 hp. Today's Accord gives you just a bit more: up to 271 hp with the available V-6. Isn't progress cool?If you could bring any model vehicle back from retirement, what would it be?
"Like" this post if you just took a 3-day vacation in your Honda.
These are some creative posts Jennifer uses to build a community around an unlikely topic? a Honda! Although she doesn't claim it to be easy, "Content is always an ongoing battle of trying to find engaging content to keep customers interests. Roost's Sources are nice and being able to add our own blog makes it easier to keep things in one spot when trying to post." Use tools like Sources from Roost that give you the ability to scroll through headlines of customized blogs and websites for your outreach. Remember that if you get engagement from 30% of your posts, you're doing pretty well. Don't overthink your posts, this is a running thread, so consistency and frequency is really the key.
