There are currently 3.2 billion users of social media, which is approximately 42% of the world’s population. There is no denying that social media is such a prominent part of today’s digital world. Social media is important for increasing brand awareness, connecting with your customers, advertising your cars and deals, and much more. But how much time and money should you really devote to social media marketing?
How Social Media Platforms Differ From Each Other Today’s most popular social media sites are:
- YouTube
Most dealerships have a Facebook or Twitter account because they’ve around for a while and have a large user base. Facebook has over 2 billion active daily users, making it the most widely used social media platform. With that kind of traffic, you definitely will fall behind if you don’t have a Facebook account for your dealership.
LinkedIn is unique because it’s seen as a business-to-business (B2B) platform rather than a personal social network. This is not the place to post your advertisements or sales, and it’s better for posting articles, informational content, or images promoting the community. LinkedIn tends to push away marketing messages on the website
Instagram users tend to view their accounts as personal as opposed to marketing messages being pushed on them. In today’s world of ad blocking software on desktop devices, Instagram and LinkedIn are some of the best places to advertise your dealership.
Which Social Media Platforms Generate More Engagement?
The social media platforms that get the highest amount of engagements per social postings are LinkedIn, Pinterest, then followed by Instagram. Facebook and Twitter don’t get many engagements. This may be due to the fact that LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram aren’t associated with loud push marketing. They’re seen as personal social networks instead of a place for businesses to “spam” their advertisements.
Although LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram get the most engagement, Pinterest and Instagram don’t actually get a lot of additional traffic for your website. This is because, unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest and Instagram are seen almost solely as visual platforms and don’t have working website links that are easy to access. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t useful, it just means that you shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t notice a big spike in your web traffic.
Posting More Increases Number of Visitors, But Not by Much
Posting more frequently on social media does increase the number of visitors to your website, but only to a certain extent. After you hit a certain threshold, the additional posts don’t bring any extra visitors to your site.
Organic social media traffic has decreased significantly over the years, and is now very low or close to nonexistent. Paid search on social media, however, has taken off in a way that allows businesses to advertise their content in a way that seems non-intrusive by having it disguised as a regular post.
Does Social Media Affect SEO?
Google doesn’t use social media as a factor for SEO, but Bing does. More than SEO, social media is an effective tool for marketing in general. It can help you build your dealership brand name, create a community presence, and connect with your customers.
When you create your social media accounts for your dealership, you will want to make sure they look consistent across the board. This can be achieved in a variety of ways:
- Use the same profile picture, or ones that look similar that clearly identify your dealership
- Use the same colors or designs consistently
- Use a similar “voice” or personality on each account
We will continue to see a lot of changes in social media and how users interact with it these upcoming years which is why it’s so important to stay up to date with social media trends. AutoJini’s marketing experts are always up to date with current social media and digital marketing trends, which saves you time and gives you guaranteed results. To get started, call us at 515-232-2024 or click on the button below!