Choosing the right social networks for F&I content
June 6, 2018
Social media is a great arena for auto dealers to interact with customers and prospects about F&I products. But what networks will best serve your business?
Social media is a natural fit for auto dealers looking to interact with customers and prospects about F&I products. But which social networks should you choose? Start by considering where your dealership already has a presence and how you could incorporate F&I content. From there, let your content strategy drive the decision of whether you want to expand into new networks for F&I.
Since F&I content doesn’t quite have the “wow” factor of car photos to attract attention, use compelling educational information about your F&I products as the foundation of your content. From there you can find creative ways to build around it so that it doesn’t feel like marketing. People will turn you off if they sense you’re going for the hard sell. On the other hand, a good product story – particularly when told from the point of view of a satisfied customer – makes for excellent social media content, as long as it’s brief and to the point.
Below are some points to consider when deciding where to put your F&I content. These four social platforms—Facebook , Twitter , YouTube and Instagram are good places to start because of the number of users with broad demographics.
Social Network
Pros
Cons
- Largest social network on the web with over two billion active users; good for building loyalty with existing customer base
- Can be more low-maintenance than other sites in terms of adding new content
- Videos often play with no sound and Facebook users usually only watch for a few seconds
- Limited reach when it comes to acquiring new followers
- Easy to interact with other users by mentioning their usernames in your post and to enter into existing conversations by using hashtags if done authentically
- Can be a good alternative to email for handling customer service issues if you set up a Twitter handle specifically for it (and monitor it carefully)
- Stricter character limitations make it more difficult to put out much information than on a more text-friendly platform such as Facebook
- Tweets quickly fall off the follower’s newsfeed if you don’t tweet often, but too often may feel like spam
YouTube
- The second largest search engine worldwide
- Great platform for “how to” videos
- Allows you to post longer videos and include a call to action since users are seeking them out via search
- Relies on users finding you by search, unless you push them to it through other communications
- A higher production video is usually expected for branded videos, so quick, self-made videos are better suited for Instagram
- User base is growing quickly; younger users are more active here than Facebook (it’s also owned by Facebook)
- Good for fun, short video clips or photos which you can optimize with captions and hashtags
- Only provides one clickable link in the space for your bio, so if you put a link in your caption or comment it won’t be clickable
- While switching to a Business Profile opens up more ways for customers to contact you, it can hinder the informal nature of Instagram that helps build followers