Benefit from the Growth of Online Social Networking
By: David Hein
(Reprinted from the February 2008 issue of Digital Dealer magazine)
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Recently the Microsoft Corporation invested $240 million for less than a 2 percent stake in Facebook.com. This small, privately owned company after this investment has a value of $15 billion dollars.
Facebook is a company that allows users to build a profile about their life and interests and then helps them connect with people from their past and with like interests. It's pretty simple overall, it is just a place where people connect with one another and build peer groups based on their hobbies and people they know in common.
As those communities grow, they start to share their experiences and recommendations on everything from the latest music and television programs, to current events to businesses they have done business with. The consumers share the good and the bad about the products they buy and their experience in the purchase transaction. It's a real "word of mouth" networking process amplified by the World Wide Web.
So what does this mean to you?
First of all, you have to understand that your customers are sharing their thoughts about every interaction they have in your dealership. The perceived quality of customer service you deliver in the showroom, as well as on your service drive! They talk about prices they pay, the amount of time they spend and often talk about your staff individually.
They are taking the comments they used to put in your surveys and delivering them in person to your future customers by telling them their true thoughts and feelings about your company. Some customers are even creating short videos about their experience and posting them for all to view on the Internet.
This rapid adoption to user-generated content (UGC) by consumers around the world is an indication that consumers are quickly changing their values and where they get their news and information. No longer are we living in a world where we look to "experts" to analyze a situation, product, service or event and give us a final determination of their expertise. Today we tend to look to our peers, to people that have similar interests, jobs, families and lifestyles and ask what has been their experience with a product or company. After reviewing many people's comments, it is time to make a determination of our own and act.
Because of this, many businesses, manufacturers and dealerships included have begun to create their own profile on sites like Facebook and Myspace to get involved with these online communities to build referrals and measure the level of acceptance of their brand among those consumers. I recently spoke with one large domestic vehicle manufacturer that reported it has hired a team of 26 full-time employees to monitor the content of these UGC enabled sites and to interject "professional" guidance when it will serve that specific community in a positive way. This is a true acknowledgement about the power of social networks on the buying habits of the public.
The typical dealership, even the larger dealership groups do not have the staff, the expertise or the need to go to the extremes that some automakers have done. You can handle the online communities and the UGC in a much more traditional method. Here are a few simple things to keep in mind about user generated content and online social networks:
1. They exist today and are growing in popularity every day. Linkedin.com, a professional community focused on recruiting, reports that it adds 26 new members on its site every 60 seconds or one new member on its site every 2.4 seconds!
2. The members of the online communities place a lot of value on the advice and support from their communities.
3. They are talking about the value your dealership offers.
4. They are talking about how your staff treats their customers. Many times sharing which staff to ask for and which ones to avoid.
5. They are extremely offended by companies "posing" as real people trying to manipulate the opinions of the community; however they are not opposed to companies taking a supportive role in the community, just not a controlling role.
a. The social order within any community is established and does not like to be disrupted.
b. Some automotive dealerships have learned this the hard way when its pages were shut down on myspace.com as being too commercial.
The nature of the content that is generated by your customers is based on real-life experiences of your customers. Sometimes these statements are a bit stretched and embellished, however as a rule, the community filters the people that tend to be less factual in their comments and ignore those comments as they are posted. Since the information tends to be factual, you are in control of everything that is said about your dealership in these social networks!
"You" meaning every dealership employee that comes into contact with a customer. I believe that is typically or potentially every employee in the dealership. If every member of your team understands that the majority of the customers that they come in contact with (a Polk study from this year states that 71 percent are likely to participate in this arena) are going to post comments about the interaction online, then they will be more focused on making sure they are delivering an experience that will make them (and the dealership) look great to the social network. So, you and every member of your team control the content that is posted on every social network about your dealership. What type of training are you doing this month with your employees to help them understand how to use this to their advantage?
Recently CF Media Group, a private company, announced it was in the process of testing technology to have one place where consumers can go online to rate the experience they have with dealerships and individual employees of those stores. Their site www.CarFolks.com enables dealerships and their front line staff (salespeople and service advisors) to directly connect with customers through the network (as the professionals) to engage in ongoing one-to-one and group conversations with customers they have built a relationship with. Your team members interacting with this type of company are likely to continue to strengthen the relationships they have with their own customers and create the opportunity to receive direct referrals based on their involvement with the online marketplace.
Social media, the networks and the user-generated content they create are here to stay and are going to continue to grow in importance. Make sure that your staff is trained and motivated to drive positive feedback through the interactions they have with customers in the dealership and online. A couple of the most influential consultants and trainers for retailers have developed some great techniques and training materials to help your staff develop the skills and focus they need to turn social networks into your strongest (free) advertising source.
Dave Hein is a leading innovator in the retail automotive marketplace with a career of developing interactive and resourceful tools for communicating with customers and building rapport. Hein has founded and managed some of the leading Internet and service companies including Salesplugin.com. and BDC Management Group and provides sales training to dealership groups in North America and Europe.
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