Social media has become one of the most powerful marketing tools for small businesses. Each day, billions of people log onto Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms––sometimes for hours––making these platforms an ideal space to connect with customers, both new and old.
As well as boosting posts or publishing updates about your shop, you can leverage your social profiles to respond to former customers and answer questions.
With that said, standing out from the competition can be difficult. Here are 4 ways to break through the noise.
1. DM Every Customer Who Comments
For most people, social media offers a way to communicate with friends and family, allowing them to share posts and comment on them. When people engage with your auto shop’s posts in this way, you should always respond––both in the comments and with a direct message.
If a person is interacting with your page, then there’s a high likelihood that they will (or already do) seek services from your business. Because of this, even if they comment on your posts with something generic like “cool” or “nice,” you’ll want to keep the conversation going with a private chat.
Consider asking them about their vehicle and if they’ve kept up the necessary services to keep it running. Alternatively, you could even offer them a discount. These actions help to build rapport with your clients and/or entice them to choose your shop the next time they need service.
2. Be Personable
Whether you’re posting videos, photos, or simply writing a brief post, you always want to sound as personable and relatable as possible. Particularly when your auto shop is competing against a larger corporation, emphasizing the people and personality of your business can go a long way toward building trust.
Whenever possible, it’s great to post photos of your team members and owners. When people can put a face to a brand––particularly a local one––they’ll be more likely to trust it. Consider posting images of your team at work, and you might even have them speak in front of the camera about their expertise.
Additionally, while you’ll want to mitigate spelling errors and avoid profanity, it’s okay to be informal with your social posts. Rather than using the PR-vetted messaging of large shops, you can establish a voice that’s unique to your auto shop and reflects your values.
Consider highlighting satisfied customers. Post their picture along with a quote from them about how they feel about your business. 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations, so use them.
3. Highlight What Makes You Different
In the same way that people use social media to construct a unique online persona, so should your auto shop. Everything you post should help to demonstrate what sets your business apart from the competition. This can be accomplished through your language, the types of content you post, and how you interact with users on the page.
For example, if you offer one of the most affordable synthetic oil changes in town, you should mention this often. Eventually, this offering will become synonymous with your business. Similarly, if any team members possess unique mechanic expertise, post about it.
4. Be Consistent
With social media, it’s important to incorporate posting as part of your regular routine. Posting too little will lead to lower engagement, and posting too much can also cause algorithms to demote your content from peoples’ feeds.
Most experts recommend posting once or twice per day, and while this might seem like not much work, you’ll want to make sure you’re consistent in these efforts. One of the most effective ways to remain consistent is to create a calendar of content each month. This way, you’ll have everything mapped out. You may even consider using tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts ahead of time.
Automate Where You Can
Consistency, authenticity, and personality will help drive engagement with your auto shop’s social media accounts; however, this does not mean that you have to manually post everything yourself. Many aspects of social media management can be automated through software.
BayIQ is a software suite designed specifically for auto shops that can automatically solicit reviews from customers and push them to Facebook and Google. Rather than manually contacting each client to post about their experience with your shop, BayIQ can do this automatically.
BayIQ can also send out automated reminders through email and text to let people know about scheduled appointments and other promotions.
In order for independent auto shops to compete with national chains, they need to focus on the ways in which they brand themselves. This can be time-consuming and often fall to the bottom of the priority list… until now. Let BayIQ do the heavy lifting for you.
Schedule a demo today to learn more!