Facebook or Twitter?

[Ben-CriteriaCars 3]

After the Top 100 most influential twitter car dealers was published, I asked myself what actually is more influential? Facebook or Twitter? I post videos, pictures, questions and even just comments or observations. Everything I post to Facebook gets automatically posted to Twitter. I think I have a good following on Facebook, most of my interactions are done with customers or potential customers, whereas most of my followers and interactions on Twitter are done with fellow dealers or others in the motor trade. I like both forms of social media, but for very different reasons. The things I post, definitely go further with Facebook, and I know I've sold more cars as a result of Facebook than I have via twitter. I also know that more of my customers are more active on Facebook than they are on Twitter. What does everyone else prefer Facebook or Twitter? and why? Is there a way of monitoring how influential we are on Facebook? And, is there a way of monitoring which one is most influential for car dealers? Would love to know peoples thoughts.

[Andy Entwistle 96]

I think these are 2 separate audiences, Twitter is used as a business tool far more than Facebook. People will talk business, follow companies and get news through Twitter, Facebook tends to be more social, its where people are chatting to friends and catching up.... 

 

We were just having this conversation in the office, "likes" would be the way of monitoring influence, however we hear that these can be easily manipulated 

 

I think most companies "Get" Twitter and how to use it to keep people updated, i'm not sure many have really worked out how to make Facebook work yet?

[jimreidvehicle 255]

Ben, agree with Andy on this one, two different audiences. actually the way we work our Social Media Strategy here is, I Tweet, Phil (my sales manager) posts Facebook, and yes we cross pollentae as I do believe that works if you have an open Business Page for Facebook, but not if you have a personal style FB page as, potential customers on Twitter that don't have a personal Facebook Page (like me) can't see the content of the post! Don't if you knew that or not, but a fact!

 

Also agree with Ben, we have much more industry and business type people on Twitter but FB is the place for the more direct route of sale and I do believe that if your business model is Busisness2Custommer rather than B2B then FB is exactly where you should spend your time and effort! But don't under estimate Twitter, because some people just watch and listen, they maybe don't engage, but they are watching you from afar and your business VOICE and Twitter reputation is one of the biggest influences.

[autoecosse 3]

After the Top 100 most influential twitter car dealers was published, I asked myself what actually is more influential? Facebook or Twitter? I post videos, pictures, questions and even just comments or observations. Everything I post to Facebook gets automatically posted to Twitter. I think I have a good following on Facebook, most of my interactions are done with customers or potential customers, whereas most of my followers and interactions on Twitter are done with fellow dealers or others in the motor trade. I like both forms of social media, but for very different reasons. The things I post, definitely go further with Facebook, and I know I've sold more cars as a result of Facebook than I have via twitter. I also know that more of my customers are more active on Facebook than they are on Twitter. What does everyone else prefer Facebook or Twitter? and why? Is there a way of monitoring how influential we are on Facebook? And, is there a way of monitoring which one is most influential for car dealers? Would love to know peoples thoughts.

 

 

There is a site called Klout, this measures how influential you are on the internet. I've not looked into this yet, but a friend in another industry is using it and can't speak of it enough!

[Andy Entwistle 96]

Hi Autoecosse. Yep, we used the Klout rating to help us create our top 100 most influential dealers on twitter. Its calculated using followers, tweets, retweets etc and its a good independent way to monitor this. We intend to make this a regular update and hope that dealers will start to follow this and aim to try and improve their standings in the league and subsequently improve their interaction with the industry. 

[autoecosse 3]

Hi Autoecosse. Yep, we used the Klout rating to help us create our top 100 most influential dealers on twitter. Its calculated using followers, tweets, retweets etc and its a good independent way to monitor this. We intend to make this a regular update and hope that dealers will start to follow this and aim to try and improve their standings in the league and subsequently improve their interaction with the industry. 

 

I noticed that Klout takes influence from Instagram and Google + too, do you think it is important to have a presence across all social media?

[Guest]

I really think the answer is whatever works best for you. I have to say for Car Dealer Magazine, I find Twitter is slightly easier to interact with. Any interaction I have with our readers seems more instantaneous on Twitter whereas Facebook is more of a long-haul. 

 

I would say that instead of using both Twitter and Facebook 'willy-nilly', it's better to properly engage with one or the other and make a success of it. 

[Ben-CriteriaCars 3]

I definitely concentrate on engaging with my customers on Facebook and Twitter has become more of a sideline for me. I am experiencing a similar response as far as audiences are concerned to Jim, albeit on a much smaller level. I think when I can afford to employ a salesperson, I would probably benefit more with Twitter and be able to let staff engage with customers via facebook. Has Car Dealer Magazine considered monitoring dealer performance on Facebook at all or can you see yourselves doing it in the near future?

[Andy Entwistle 96]

Hi Ben

 

This is something we are looking at right now. I think this would be a really interesting piece of analysis. We are currently trying to work out how best to calculate this as Facebook doesn;t have a "klout" rating. Its also alleged that "likes" can be bought, so we need to find a way to make this fair and representative.

 

What are your thoughts ?

[autoecosse 3]

Hi Ben

 

This is something we are looking at right now. I think this would be a really interesting piece of analysis. We are currently trying to work out how best to calculate this as Facebook doesn;t have a "klout" rating. Its also alleged that "likes" can be bought, so we need to find a way to make this fair and representative.

 

What are your thoughts ?

 

Bought as in bought from Facebook? I'm fairly certain I've seen people advertise on fiver.com that they can increase the activity on pages. But these are more along the lines of programs/bots. I think it's pretty fair to say that any social media can be hacked this way, unfortunately.

[Andy Entwistle 96]

Not from facebook, but we've had a number of emails offing to sell us varying amounts of likes for our page for varying amounts of cash. Of course we've never pursued this and even if they can do this, its fairly pointless as they aren;t real likes. however if it can be manipulated ( yet to be verified) then it could adversely impact the results

 

Has anyone else had this and has anyone looked into it, woudl be interested in hearing back....

[umesh 336]

Like most I use both and agree with other comments different audience , different people use them both differently. Then we have Google + and pinterest ..so difficult to try and keep up with them. I try to spend some time on the ones I think benefit most ..if you're not careful you spend all your time posting things and not actually selling cars

[autoecosse 3]

Like most I use both and agree with other comments different audience , different people use them both differently. Then we have Google + and pinterest ..so difficult to try and keep up with them. I try to spend some time on the ones I think benefit most ..if you're not careful you spend all your time posting things and not actually selling cars

 

I have considered creating a pinterest and google+ for our business, how do you feel these work? How often do you interact on these and how do you monitor response?

[James Baggott 227]

We've all recently started Google+ pages because of the importance Google places on these for SEO reasons. Personally I struggle to use it, but have been trying hard to engage there if only for the benefits it has in SEO for our site and those we work on. 

 

https://plus.google.com/113834956404528828369/posts

[GreenGiant 287]

Tell you what guys...

You can spend all your time tweeting, liking, instagramming or Klouting each other and doing whatever you do on't tinterweb.

Meanwhile, I'll spend that time talking (ie actual speech... with words and everything) to the vast majority of your customers that don't give a toss about any of it, and sell a few cars to them.

I'm sure there's room for all of us.

[Ben-CriteriaCars 3]

GreenGiant, I wish all the other Car dealers thought like you.

[GreenGiant 287]

I'm glad they don't, tbh.

More for me...

:0)

[jimreidvehicle 255]

GreenGiant believe it it not we can manage to do both! Online and face to face , sometime we amaze ourselves ! Can I ask, do you use email?

[autoecosse 3]

Tell you what guys...

You can spend all your time tweeting, liking, instagramming or Klouting each other and doing whatever you do on't tinterweb.

Meanwhile, I'll spend that time talking (ie actual speech... with words and everything) to the vast majority of your customers that don't give a toss about any of it, and sell a few cars to them.

I'm sure there's room for all of us.

 

That's a fairly negative view. Have you tried using social media as part of a marketing strategy? Social Media isn't about sales, it's about interacting with the public (and potential new customers)

[Philip Raby 7]

Ignore social media and you won't have any customers to talk to! :-)

[GreenGiant 287]

OOOH! Can of worms!

 

or is that #canofworms?

 

 

To answer: I communicate mostly by email; its a wonderful thing.

I have used social media for marketing purposes and got lots of very nice people 'liking' us. Didn't sell any more cars than by actually talking to them though.

I have helped design and develop Motor Trade websites and fully understand how instantaneous information and response is now a necessity.

And, do you know what? If I choose to ignore social media in its current form, I will still have customers to talk to because, as I said, the vast majority of people are not obsessed with it. Yet.

Maybe I'm a bit old school and cynical.

However, it disturbs me that there is slowly developing a partially-illiterate sub-class of (mainly, but not exclusively) youngsters who cannot look you in the eye (too busy checking status updates), cannot have a spoken conversation without using the word 'like' twice in every sentence, cannot spell anything with more than three letters properly (and don't know the difference between there, their and they're). They have some massively misguided belief that the whole world gives a damn what they think and believe they're only one lucky break away from tv fame and fortune. They don't know anything of any importantance, don't go anywhere interesting with the intention of learning something and have little or no chance of achieving much at all, really.

Makes you wonder where the next generation of business leaders is going to come from.

But I guess that view is, like, soooo, like, last senchurry....

 

The world of 'social media' is in grave danger of becoming the snake that eats itself, whereby everyone within its clutches becomes so dependent (addicted perhaps?) to the constant need to be updated and updating, that they lose touch with reality and only have time for maintaining the obsession to the detriment of all else. The constant, mind-numbing stream of new platforms, apps, programmes etc will eventually become so overwhelming that no-one will know what works or doesn't. But we all know who the real winners are though, don't we? (Clue: have a look at Google's share price)

One day, one day, hopefully, we'll all wake up and realise that face-to-face communication will ALWAYS be preferable to anonymous online postings....

 

...says the anonymous online poster...

 

A last question:

How many of you sales managers have used the phrase:

"Put your bloody phone away and go and talk to those people on the forecourt!"?

 

If it's one of you, it's one too many.

[jimreidvehicle 255]

GreenGiant or is it #JOLLYGreenGiant ? Just joking!

 

The fact that good old fashined face-to-face communication is the BEST form of communication was never in doubt, however to blame Social Media on the poor education system that faces our country is "like, soooo, like, last senchurry...."

 

Like the telephone, the fax, the computer, the world wide web and e-mail, Social Media is here to stay, like or loathe it, ignore it at your peril!

 

The benefits of using Social Media correctly far outweighs the negatives and let me tell you about these "youngsters who cannot look you in the eye (too busy checking status updates), cannot have a spoken conversation without using the word 'like' twice in every sentence, cannot spell anything with more than three letters properly (and don't know the difference between there, their and they're)" they are car buyers of the future!

 

Also is it just me but is there a touch of irony in the fact that you are posting your view on an online forum that roots from Twitter, amazing!

 

Were you one of the original doubters of the internet?

 

BTW I have checked all my spelling and grammar before posting , just in case

[GreenGiant 287]

Internet doubter? Quite the opposite; more of an early-adopter I'd say. On board since the mid-nineties.

 

I know it's here to stay (for now), and that isn't what I see the problem as.

It's the complete paradigm shift towards total reliance upon it that worries me.

Like all technologies, it's here today, gone tomorrow. How will the facespace junkies get their fix then?

 

We do agree about some things though: the yoof of today are absolutely tomorrow's customers. Not sure where their income is going to be generated to enable them to buy cars off you, but I digress. Nevertheless, that alone is not a sufficiently strong argument to prove how positive social media is. (and any day now, I'll stick my fax machine in the same pile as the VHS recorder, floppy disks and Ronco Buttoneer!)

I'm happy dealing with today's customers. Today. And they couldn't care less what I had for breakfast or if my cat looks like Winston Churchill. And I have no inclination to tell them. Even in 140 characters or less.

[jimreidvehicle 255]

Excellent reply GreenGiant Have a great weekend

[Ben-CriteriaCars 3]

Does your cat look like Winston Churchill??? :-)