Automotive Social Media Can Save the Surviving Car Dealers

1900 down. More expected to fall. For many, it isn’t the best time to be a car dealer.

The silver lining, of course, is that those who have survived cuts by GM and Chrysler are in better position to succeed thanks to less competition.  Still, the outlook is well below the glorious prospects around 2004 when dealers truly started embracing Internet marketing as a way to not only increase business, but cut costs and improve ROI of marketing dollars spent.

Websites have improved dramatically. Search engine optimization has become a point of interest over the last year. Secondary web properties are starting to pop up and generate leads for dealers.  All of these have been aspects of other verticals for a while. As with most things online, car dealers have finally caught on.

Now automotive social media is starting to become a buzzword and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Between the economic woes causing credit issues across the board and the general attitude of doom and gloom in the industry, dealers who properly embrace social media now will be in position to take advantage of the coming advances in Web 2.0 and the future of Web 3.0.

The important word in that paragraph was “properly’. (more…)