GOSO

By: Chris Garrett Co-Author of Best Seller of ProBlogger, our celebrity blogger, Chris has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips make the most of the web.

I am in the fortunate position that I can do my work from pretty much anywhere with a cell signal and enough battery power. Yes, I have some lovely face to face clients, and I have been known to go out of my way to find reasons for human contact on occassion, heh. Most of the time though my work is bits and bytes floating over the interwebs. My office is more often a Starbucks (or a Tim Hortons where available).

When you live and work like me Social Media is a no-brainer. I engage and good stuff happens.

Unfortunately nobody has worked out how to send a car down a DSL line. While you can do a good amount with online tools and ecommerce, when selling automobiles there is a lot to be said for the new car smell and an experienced sales person.

How can you have all the good stuff that social media provides, but get those folks into your dealership?

Good news, there is an answer!

First … Talk to the right people

A word of warning. There is no use trying this if you are talking to the wrong people or doing the follower boosting tricks like following random people in the hope they will follow you right back. Get out there in social media talking to people who match your target market, match your geography. Use Search.Twitter.com to find people in your catchment area who are talking about your brand or keywords like “looking for a new car”! Use well targeted Facebook advertising to attract your most wanted fans and friends.

Give them a reason!

Once you have attracted the right people to listen to you, all you have to do is give them a reason.

• Test drive something cool – Rather than getting people in to take out something standard, get in something exciting that everyone would dream about, and talk about! A monster truck, a movie prop, NASCAR, a tank …
• Special deals – Bribe them!
• Come see … – Get a celebrity, hold a networking event or workshop, movie screening …
• Do X, get Y – Every test drive gets a cool gift, donation to charity, massage …
• Have fun – Bouncy castle? Laser tag? What would be so awesome people would talk about it for a year?

Then tweet it, create Facebook events, blog posts, promo videos for YouTube, retweet and promote the heck out of it.

The key is to get people talking, then get people into your dealership and in the proximity of all your lovely inventory … I am sure you know what to do once they are there!