Organic Social Media Strategy for Car Dealerships
We often get asked, “Do you create social media posts for dealerships?” Our answer is always no.
Social media encompasses two components: organic and paid. At sMedia, we focus on paid advertising for dealerships because we believe a successful organic strategy requires an intimate understanding of your unique dealership—its people, products, processes, and customers. Organic posts need to be authentic, and being local is a crucial element for properly executing that.
In 2024, dealerships need to recognize the value of social media—it’s where your customers are spending their time! If you’re reading this, you likely understand the importance of social media and want to leverage it effectively. Here’s the key: you need both a paid and organic strategy, along with a dedicated, ongoing budget for each.
Paid Social Strategy
A paid social strategy is quick to implement and can yield traffic, visibility, and sales in a short time frame. It should include your products or services along with a branding component for maximum impact. If you’re a sMedia customer, you’re in good hands—our team handles your paid social strategy across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to create efficient and impactful ads for your dealership every day. (Pinterest is in Beta and coming soon!) If you want to dive into more information about paid strategies, be sure to check out more of our blogs!
Organic Social Strategy
On the other hand, an organic social media strategy requires knowledge of the platforms and a deep understanding of your dealership. It is an investment in your community and brand, demanding resources for content creation, analytics and evaluation, and the development of a voice that resonates with your audience. While it doesn’t necessarily require an ad budget, it does require an investment in people and content production.
You might think, “I can give anyone access to my Facebook page to make posts on my behalf,” but posts are just a small part of a comprehensive strategy. Here are the basics every dealership should include in their social media plan:
- Content Creation Plan & Schedule
- Post Plan & Schedule
- Ongoing Comment Moderation & Engagement
- Ongoing Review & Rating Responses
- Ongoing Inbox/DM Monitoring and Responses
- Regular Analytics Review & Reporting
If you’re considering hiring a third party or agency to handle your organic strategy, remember that your content needs to be specific to your dealership, team, community, and audience.
Plus whoever is managing your organic social needs a direct line to your team so they can answer questions or respond to reviews with accurate information. We cannot stress this enough.
And if you’re tempted to simply share OEM videos or leave it up to a third party and call it a day, you should reconsider. An organic social strategy is your opportunity to showcase what makes your dealership unique and to truly engage with your community.
Get Started Today
Develop a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy: Start by crafting a detailed plan that incorporates both paid and organic components. Invest time in understanding your audience and community. Dedicate resources to content creation that authentically represents your dealership, and set aside a budget for ongoing management and advertising.
By focusing on both aspects of social media, you can enhance your visibility, foster community engagement, and ultimately drive sales. As always, if you have any questions around a paid social media strategy, the sMedia team would be happy to help! Drop us a line at: sales@smedia.io
