As far as I know we are the only major leasing company in the UK with a Twitter account. The account is used to post breaking automotive news, changes in legislation, driving tips, company news (occasionally), respond to customer queries and monitor any content posted about the company.

We have managed to build up a following of 359 people in 7 months which shows some indication that the content is relevant and interesting. With the growing use of smart phones and information on-the-go, apps like Twitter will become more popular with end users wanting an alternative and more convenient method of interacting with companies.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by DMEautomotive: Found this article particularly interesting…the use of social media by auto industry: http://bit.ly/ZJprF...

One of the best customer engagement strategies that utilize social media assets and networks, and which I have been privileged to work on incorporates a “Dealership Community” site concept. My team at ADP Dealer Services has developed a managed services bundle that assists dealers in deploying this strategy and maintaining it as an ongoing program. We are referring to this solution as “Social Marketing and Reputation Management”.

Examples of a key component to this concept can be seen and visited at the following dealership sponsored community sites which seek participation from employees, automotive consumers, suppliers and customers who have purchased vehicles and/or had their vehicles serviced at the dealership. These online dealership communities serve as the central content distribution point within each dealer’s social media marketing and reputation management implementation. Here are the examples:

1. http://www.FordCommunity.com (Rich Ford in NM)
2. http://www.MyJeepCommunity.com (Westbury Jeep in NY)
3. http://www.SandersonCommunity.com (Sanderson FLM in AZ)
4. http://www.KennyRossCommunity.com (Pittsburgh dealer group)
5. http://www.Ford-Community.com (Ford of Kirkland, WA)

The social media marketing programs at each of these dealerships take a strategic approach by using a hub and spoke implementation focused on value-added content driving consumer participation. The community sites serve as the focal points in this distributed content strategy incorporating Facebook business profiles, Twitter accounts, YouTube Channels, MySpace profiles, Yahoo! Groups and many more components. The overall objective is to provide a centralized hub for dealership employee online social networking activities and provide these employees with the tools and capabilities to “do it right” while engaging other (non competing) dealerships, customers, enthusiasts, OEM resources and suppliers within an online environment that extends the dealer’s brand and top of mind awareness objectives using the User Generated Content (UGC) tools that so many automotive consumers are spending multiple hours of each day with.

What many dealers like about this approach is that it allows the addition of whatever social networks or media that become popular with their customers in the future by simply incorporating emerging sites, Twitter for example, into the content syndication system powered by the dealer’s community site. This approach also offers dealers the benefit of focusing on one place to load content and assets such as videos, photos, articles, reviews, OEM supplied assets, and then allow the built in syndication tools to push these assets across multiple social media channels.

Each dealer’s customer base is invited to join and participate in these communities using data extracted from the DMS, and any of the multiple lead management and CRM systems that might be in place. Providing these customers with a venue to rate and review their experiences with the dealership helps bring customer generated reports within the scope of view, while also providing a means for the dealer’s managers to engage and resolve issues in a public forum that spotlights the dealer’s commitment to customer satisfaction and engagement.

So far, the results have been highly encouraging and the dealer satisfaction with our approach has exceeded just about any other digital marketing managed service we have ever launched at ADP Digital marketing. I would be happy to share additional information upon request at my email listed with this post or you can call me on my cell at 505-301-6369.

Ralph Paglia
Director – Digital Marketing
ADP Dealer Services