Have you seen the commercials? Domino’s pizza is running a social media campaign saying they realize they’ve made a few mistakes in the past but are willing to listen to the public and take their constructive criticism. Then, they talk about how they made changes and then deliver the reinvented pizzas to the people who critiqued them. These people then give testimonials on how much better the pizzas are. Genius!

Social media is all about being visible in your market and no one expects a business to get it right one hundred percent of the time but your public wants to be heard. Allow them to voice their opinions and you reap the benefits!

How did the competition combat Domino’s efforts? Pizza Hut and Papa John’s are offering $10 pizzas. In other words, they are saying we realize our pizza still sucks but we want to buy your business. They don’t get social media. Domino’s hasn’t changed their prices, as a result they are holding gross.

So, what does this mean to car dealers? Dealer one that is active and visible in his market, and understands social media will be able to manage his reputation and attract sales and service customers. He will have people in his community recommending him as a place to do business and will be able to keep his prices right where they are.

Dealer two across the street, who doesn’t think social media will affect his business, will lose more and more of his customers to the dealership that the people in the community are recommending. His only selling point will be to offer huge discounts, cutting drastically into his profit margin.

Social media is more than having a FaceBook page and Twitter account. Social media is all about engaging your market. Social media is networking on steroids.

Social media isn’t about having a Facebook page or a Twitter account, it’s about building a community around your brand, and it’s about getting your market to engage. Social Media is networking on Steroids.

Any good social marketing strategy must be designed to earn the trust of your community before earning the right to pitching your product. Imagine this, you are at a party with a group of your friends and a salesman, who you have never met before, walks over and starts trying to sell you a car. How would you feel?

Twitter is great for finding people in your local market. You can do a search within 50 miles of your dealership for key phrases such as “car shopping” and even set those searches up on RSS feeds so you can get them in real time. Amazing! Now, you have a big group of people in your neighborhood wanting to buy a car, but how do you engage them without turning them off?

David Johnson developed the 20-20-60 rule of engagement. It’s a guide for engaging your community. This is the point where social media becomes an effective marketing medium.  It’s a combination of providing information that is important to the community and information about you.

A great example would be a Toyota dealer doing a video of a tech fixing the recall on the gas pedal of a Camry. Letting people know that you have plenty of parts in stock and they have top priority in your service department. Plus, your shuttle will take them to work and pick them up if need be. I know one dealer that did something similar and they are providing lunch each day for their service customers to say sorry for the inconvenience, probably Domino’s Pizza.

Social media is going to continue to grow in importance. You can either embrace it or give up your gross, it’s your decision.