GOSO

By: Korenne Richardson As GOSO's Social Media Liaison, Korenne specializes in social media innovations and popular culture. After she graduated from Wellesley College, she worked in media marketing for the US Census Bureau.

Your mother always told you not be a follower, right? Well, when we’re talking about Twitter, dealerships should forget mother’s words of wisdom. Unless you are Oprah Winfrey or some other outrageous celebrity, you must follow other twitterers to attract followers. You follow me?

The development of a Twitter following is based upon creative content. Three core principles will attract others to your dealership’s brand identity on Twitter:

• interesting and recent tweet activity,

• brand personality, and

• consumer engagement.

So, who should you follow? By following your target demographic and automotive industry insiders, your dealership demonstrates your interest in what is current and what consumers want. Be in the know and see what Ford is tweeting every morning. Notice that Suzy Sunshine loves her new car from Blankety Blank Automotive Group and reply to her post.

As tweets from these twitterers introduce you to hot topics and comment on your customer service, your dealership has the opportunity to promote its identity and culture through your every retweet and @reply. The return on investment from these interactions can be seen realtime. Other twitterers will take notice and follow you, broadening the reach of your dealership’s brand. So, start following. Search.twitter.com/advanced is the perfect research tool to find followers in your target demographic.

Remember this: Everyone wants to feel special. In order to maintain your following:

• Consumers will follow you for hot deals and promotions. 44% of people that follow a brand on Twitter cited exclusive offers as the main reason.

• An occasional @reply or direct message to a consumer makes your dealership socially accessible. A dealership that caters to a consumer’s needs will be first in that customer’s mind when a purchase must be made.

• Your tweets should be informative and unique enough to encourage other twitterers to retweet or share them. Pack those 140 characters with enticing language and link bait that will prompt sharing. When another twitterer retweets what you have said, you feel special. When yet another twitterer retweets what they retweeted from you, they feel special. Everybody wins as each retweet compounds the value of your original post.

Patience is essential in the development of your Twitter following. Although you will not be a Twitter celebrity overnight, keep posting regular and interesting content.