you had 'em on the hook...

To me the most often overlooked aspect of Social Media is its most obvious aspect, its social! I see such a lack of real social in so many auto dealerships Social Media that it actually drove me to open my own business, but that's another post... Yes, being on Social Media for a business means you want to sell more of your product but the sales are the end goal and still need to be cultivated through a sales process. Imagine walking into the local sports bar and yelling out, "I sell cars who wants to buy one?" It would probably not work as well as you would hope but that's really happening every day on Social Media. I was looking at a dealers profile recently and saw the post below, which some may not have a problem with but I sure did! First thing I noticed was that whoever is managing the profile for the dealership took a WEEK to reply to the initial comment! Think about it, if you sent a text to a friend and they did not get back to you for a week how would you feel? Next I followed the conversation and BAM! The second contact from the dealership says, "now that I know you actually want to buy a car send me your phone number so I can call you directly and harass the heck out of you!" Ok, not in those exact words but that is what the potential customer got out of it, asking for a way to contact someone when you are already in contact is just lame. If for some reason you don't want to engage with the person publicly and show other potential customers how easy you are to work with (???) you could Direct Message them right there in the site you are using, why ask for ANOTHER way to contact them? In addition, going right for the phone number seems like walking up to someone, saying hi my name is ___ would you marry me? Perhaps some engaging questions like, what model are you considering? Have you seen them in person yet? Great timing, have you seen the new reviews that just came out? Would be a more creative way to have a conversation with the person and then lead into and invitation to the store and possible appointment! There are as many great replies as there are great salespeople out there, and that is the problem I think. This dealers profile is not being managed by a salesperson but by a marketing team that may be less concerned with the dealer selling more cars and more focused on showing the dealer how many 'engagements' they have had.... Just my thoughts ;)