Let’s face it, brainstorming post ideas for your social media channels regularly is a challenge.
As a car dealership, your content needs to do more than generate a “like” or two. Your social posts need to convince customers to come in for a test drive. That’s not an easy feat.
Turn your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media profiles into lead generating machines with these engaging post ideas.
1. Share Your Blog Posts
If your dealership is actively using content marketing to generate leads into your sales pipeline, you’ll have a plethora of blog posts at your disposal.
Share these informative and entertaining articles on your social media channels regularly. On top of being an effective content distribution tool, your channels will also serve as a place for customers to find helpful articles about all things cars.
Work hand-in-hand with your content marketing team to develop solid blog post ideas that will resonate with your customers for the best results.
2. Introduce Your Employees
Buying a car is an intimidating process for many customers. Before they even think about making a showroom visit, they want to know who they’re dealing with. With this in mind, use your social media platforms to introduce your employees to potential customers.
Take a high-quality picture of your employees with written details that explain their role at the dealership in a fun and welcoming way. Or, you can take it a step further and produce a video, allowing the employee to personally introduce themselves to future customers.
It’s important for these posts to feel warm and approachable, rather than stale and hastily put together. Remember, the goal is to get customers familiar with your team.
3. Inventory Posts
Naturally, you’ll post your inventory to your social media channels. But don’t limit yourself to the newest and best cars only. You never know who might be searching for a specific make/model/year.
When posting your cars to social media, don’t just publish a picture with a quick caption. Make sure your post includes content such as:
- High-quality photos of the vehicle.
- A walk-through video including the vehicle interior and exterior.
- A link to the car’s listing page on your website.
- Pertinent vehicle details including mileage, year, upgrades, etc.
Presenting all of this information upfront will prove to potential customers that your dealership cares about their purchase.
Combine your inventory posts with VIN Specific Advertising for the best results.
4. Automotive Terminology
Need a little filler content between bigger posts? Publish the definitions for commonly used automotive vocabulary.
Some customers feel intimidated by car dealership industry jargon. From car parts to purchase terms, put together posts explaining these phrases. Be sure to include a picture of the part, item, or process being defined to help users fully understand the meaning.
5. Deals and Promotions
Have a deal on oil changes coming up? What about that brand new promotion for all used vehicles? Make sure you post about it on social media. Sharing upcoming deals will improve the overall results of the campaign.
Remember to use the same promotion copy and media used in your other promotional efforts to keep brand and campaign consistency. If you have the budget for it, consider putting a few advertising dollars behind your post to reach other social media users, too.
6. Event Posts
Are you hosting an event like a car show or a fundraiser? Post about it on social media. Make a Facebook event and share the post a few times leading up to the event.
Social media is an outstanding way to increase brand awareness on your milestone sale events such as your Anniversary, Model Clearance, Year -End Clearance, Model Introduction, Black Friday, Presidents’ Day and more. Use social media as an easier way to respond and get leads for these events.
7. Celebrate Customers
Without loyal customers, your dealership wouldn’t exist. Chances are, your sales team has developed lifelong customer relationships with your clients. Celebrate these customers through your dealership’s social media posts.
Whether you choose to post a picture every time someone buys a new car or to highlight long-term customers, you’ll build a community of engaged fans through these posts.
Be sure to obtain customers’ permission to post their images or video before publishing.
8. Customer Testimonials
We all know the power of customer reviews. But did you know nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase? Use this eye-opening statistic to your advantage and create customer testimonial posts for your social media channels.
You’re likely already collecting feedback and reviews in a post-purchase email or survey. Filter through this content and find glowing testimonials to post. Consider designing an appealing template and using this for every testimonial post for uniformity. Again, get customers’ permission before using their review or name in a social media post.
9. Car Trivia
If you’re looking to drive up your social media fan engagement, craft car trivia posts. You can post questions about old classic cars, popular car manufacturers, car parts, and so much more.
An example trivia question format could be:
What year did Ford introduce the Thunderbird?
- 1960
- 1955
- 1954
- 1962
Let fans guess in the comments section and, after about 24-48 hours, reveal the answer.
Fans will love testing their knowledge and you’ll love the engagement you receive as a result.
10. Facility Tours
Going to buy a car or get one repaired is a nerve-wracking experience for some. You never want potential clients to feel overwhelmed or confused when they enter your showroom or service center. To help ease customers’ worries, consider filming a tour of your facility and posting it on social media.
This inside look at your inventory, service center, waiting room, and other areas of the facility will help future customers become comfortable with your dealership before they even step foot in the door.
To fill out your social calendar with quality posts, break up your facility tour into digestible videos highlighting one part of your facility at a time. For instance, on Monday, post the video introducing your service center. Then, a few days or a week later, publish the video showcasing your inventory.
11. DIY Tutorials
There are certain vehicle repairs and fixes customers can do from home. While your service center would be happy to help customers with any of their automotive problems, creating small social media tutorials will help customers accomplish this on their own.
Common DIY tutorials can include:
- How to check your oil
- How to replace your windshield wipers
- Replacing headlights or taillights
- How to use a car code reader
- Cleaning up cloudy headlights
- Fixing a flat tire
Take time to talk with your repair and service team to see what topics they think would best assist customers in need of quick solutions. When doing so, consider the customer questions and tasks that take up time in the service center that really don’t require professional assistance.
Also, think about how you plan to deliver these tutorials. Is a step-by-step blog post the best medium or is an instructional video a better explanation of the topic?
12. Holiday Posts
When you’re struggling to come up with car-related social post ideas, take a break and focus on creating holiday posts instead. These easy posts can be designed and scheduled in advance, leaving you with more brainpower to focus on other post ideas in the future.
While you don’t need to post for every holiday, think about which holidays resonate most in your local community. You can post a picture of a car with a Christmas bow on top under a tree or an Easter egg hidden behind the wheel.
13. Community Cross-Posting
As a small business, you rely on others in the community to help spread the word about your company. Extend a helping hand to other local businesses by cross-posting and sharing their content.
For instance, let’s say your business regularly donates time, resources, and funds to the local animal shelter. Schedule posts about their adoptable animals, upcoming events, and fundraising efforts to your page. And, anytime you see a post on their page that may need a boost, share it.
This practice not only creates valuable business relationships but also shows your audience you care about the local community, too.
14. Vehicle Tutorials
From new media and audio features to back-up camera technology, cars have everything these days. But, not all of these additions are intuitive to new users.
Create blog content or videos that instruct new car owners on how to operate specific features of their new vehicle such as connecting a Bluetooth device or toggling through dashboard display screens.
15. Car Buying Tips
The car buying process may be second-nature to you after years in the automotive industry, but to young adults buying their first car or those just moving into the community, it’s a stressful situation.
To help answer questions and simplify the car buying process, post tips and tricks customers can use to buy the right car at the price that makes sense to them. Doing so will help position your dealership as one who truly cares about their customers and isn’t out there to scam them.
Unfortunately, car dealers and salespeople get a bad reputation for trying to ramp up the cost of a car. As you share your tips for an easy car buying process, customers will appreciate your willingness to help.
16. New Car Announcements
Did you just get word of a new car model? Announce it on your social media profiles along with any respective videos or photos showcasing the new vehicle. And, if you know when these vehicles will be available for customers, include those details, too.
17. Polls
Want to do a little audience research and drive social media interactions at the same time? Use Facebook’s poll feature.
Ask your audience to vote on a specific car-related question and watch the results roll in. At the same time, you’ll gain insight into your audience’s vehicle preferences.
Poll questions can range from audience opinions on specific car models, colors, features, and more.
18. Automotive Industry News
The automotive industry is always announcing new features, technology, discoveries, and advancements. Share these news articles with your social media fans to keep them informed of any updates. Craft the post copy to entice fans to comment and share their thoughts on the article’s topic.
19. Go Live
Live video is the new social media frontier and isn’t going away anytime soon. This means your car dealership needs to take advantage of it.
The next time you host an event, make a sale, or have an announcement to make, consider using live social media video to spread the word. Of course, if you’re highlighting customers in the video, make sure you have their permission before going live.
20. Share Related Content
Not all of your social media content needs to be focused on your inventory, facility, and sales team. Find other related content online and share that with your audience.
For instance, did you come across an article about the best road trip routes in America? That’s related to cars—go ahead and share it.
Need More Social Media Post Ideas?
If your dealership is struggling to come up with social media post ideas, get connected with the J&L Marketing team today! We’ll help you formulate a social media strategy that drives results.
