Having a strong social media presence is essential for car dealerships looking to connect with potential buyers, retain loyal customers, and grow their brand.
However, consistently coming up with fresh and engaging content ideas can be challenging. Whether you’re looking to attract more foot traffic to your brick and mortar space, want to promote new inventory, or simply keep your followers informed about news and updates, your social media strategy plays a crucial role. Luckily, we are here to help you find a clear way forward with your social media content. In this blog, we’ll explore creative and actionable social media content ideas tailored specifically for car dealers, helping you to build a following and attract more leads.
Which platform should I post on?
As we know, social media is used to expand brand awareness, generate leads, and improve your traffic, but with multiple platforms to choose from, which one provides the best purpose for the content you’re sharing?
Facebook – With 44 million users in the UK, Facebook is the most used social media platform. Post regular updates, “like” other pages, and answer comments or messages. Having a Facebook Business profile allows other Facebook users to leave you reviews and find you easily.
X (formerly Twitter) – Used to post updates, tag, retweet and respond to questions by either tweeting or through direct messages. Similarly to Facebook, you can also post photo and video content which shows on a newsfeed for your followers to see.
LinkedIn – Offering more of a professional service, LinkedIn is mainly used for B2B (Business to Business), though is another great way to grow your following. You can also use LinkedIn to like, comment and share posts you feel are relevant to your business and share your own content too!
Instagram – Instagram offers a visual feed with posts showing photos and short videos (reels) followed by a caption. Users can also post live video or create Instagram Stories that last only 24 hours. Like the previous platforms, users can engage with others through tags, likes, comments, or direct messages.
TikTok – TikTok is the most downloaded photo and video app in the Apple store ever. Used to stay on top of trends, engage with audiences, advertise products/services and grow brand awareness. The small bites of content delivered (usually 1-minute maximum) increases engagement and leave users curious for more.
We recommend using a mixture of social platforms, that way you’re covering multiple bases and attracting more potential customers. Typically, most people use more than one social media platform and are likely to check each on a daily basis. If you have a video to share then Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are ideal. If you have a question or poll, X (Twitter) and Instagram stories are great.
What should I post?
You can create engaging social media posts that showcase your inventory, highlight special promotions, and build a connection with potential buyers. Posts could include high-quality photos and videos of new and used vehicles, behind-the-scenes looks at your dealership, and customer testimonials that help to build trust. If you already enjoy using social media, you could also keep up-to-date with relevant trending content types, templates and audio, giving you scope to create anything you like that could help promote your business in a positive way. Essentially, the world is your oyster!
If you are struggling for ideas, however, here are a few to get you started:
Posts that build trust:
Customer testimonials
Showcase your positive reviews by sharing them on your social media. Whether they come through Google, Facebook, Auto Trader or another third party review system, even a simple screenshot of a positive review with a comment from you will show anyone looking at your socials that you are a trustworthy brand.
Awards
Talking about and promoting any awards you’ve received, or been nominated for is a perfect way to demonstrate your successes, and show your audience that you are recognised within the industry as a trustworthy authority on what you sell.
Local community engagement
If you engage with your local community, include this on your social media. Anything from your team entering into a local pub quiz, to supporting local causes, even sponsoring your local football team. Getting involved in your community builds trust locally, and sharing it only builds it across your entire audience.
Get to know the team
Why not introduce your team, even an office dog? A ‘get to know us’ post highlights who you are, and what each member of the team does, plus, it puts a name to a face.
Posts to bring in leads:
Competitions and special offers
The chance of winning and/or receiving a discount is hugely popular when it comes to social media. Why not ask followers to like and share to enter, it’s free advertising!
New inventory arrivals
Talking about your new inventory is a great way to generate consistent fresh content for social media, as well as showcasing what great turnover of vehicles you have at your business.
If you have some new arrivals to your dealership, share them on social media quickly and easily using Autopromotor Social, and with our new branded social posts, you can share professional, branded social posts with all the key vehicle info integrated into the image. Find out more about Autopromotor Social and branded social posts here.
Industry related posts:
Polls
Instant engagement and feedback from the click of a button. From the responses, you can conduct market research by getting followers to vote on new product or service ideas, or tell you what features are important to them. For example ‘which car would you like to take on this road’? Or a vote for ‘which car you’d like to test drive?’
News and blogs
Sharing industry-related news, from changes to the law, to petrol prices, to reviews of new makes and models similar to those you sell, tells customers that you know your stuff, and they can trust you to know what they need. Keeping a blog on your website with all of this on is a great way to direct customers from social media to your site, and it helps with SEO as well. To find out more about this, read our blog about it here.
What is the best time to post?
According to Hootsuite, the best time to post on social media overall is 10:00 AM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
- Facebook is 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Tuesday and Thursday.
- Instagram is 11:00 AM on Wednesday.
- X (Twitter) is 8:00 AM on Monday and Thursday.
- LinkedIn is 9:00 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday.
- TikTok is 7:00 PM on Thursday.
It is worth noting that this is an approximation, and if you have something engaging that can’t wait, then go ahead and post it.
How often shall I post?
The answer is it’s entirely up to you! You want to refrain from overwhelming your followers with too many posts, but also want to stay relevant and avoid missed opportunities. We recommend to post at least twice a week, depending on the platform your followers are more likely to use e.g. post 3-4 times a week on Facebook and Instagram and post 1-2 times on LinkedIn and Tiktok. Remember, social media is free to advertise organically, so make the most of these platforms.