17 February 2019

Next Tuesday Auto Retail holds another of its live Profit Briefings, looking at how to harness the mighty power of Facebook and Instagram to drive more sales.

No one needs telling just how important these platforms are for advertising, you wouldn’t be in business if you did, but I do think a lot of people need telling how to properly use them.

In December Facebook did a study into the UK car market and its findings were largely predictable; getting on for two-thirds of buyers find new vehicles online, smartphones and tablets are of growing importance and good social media content is vital with 82% finding it useful when deciding on a purchase and there is much more in similar vein.

No real surprises then but there are questions a natural cynic like me wants answering, the biggest being trust and how retailers should pitch their social media to build it.

I would never buy a product based on some third-party review or recommendation unless it was presented in a way I found credible. Just because Dave from Doncaster posts on Facebook that he had a fantastic experience buying a Fiesta from a dealer does not mean I will or would even tempt me to go there.

Not long ago I was on a dealer’s website and read a review purporting to be from a buyer who said they’d had `a god experience’ which would have impressed me no end had the spelling mistake not been repeated in two other supposedly independent customer reviews. As I said, credibility is the starting point to selling!

It is the message which matters, not the medium, and how dealers pitch theirs is something I imagine our speakers will cover.

This and other topics will be addressed by our Live Briefing so register here and tune in at 2pm on Tuesday 26th. Afterwards you can post your comments on social media…

John Swift

Editor

Auto Retail Network

Tags: facebook, Instagram