Social Media Strategy - a visual...

Many of us have been deeply engaged in the social media conversation as it relates to your dealership, your business, your market, and your consumer. Those of us that have studied much about social media and continue to do so have learned many truisms that can start and keep an effective social media strategy moving in the right direction. I often point out that much of what I've come across in all of my studies in books, blogs, forums, networks, and discussions point clearly to a focus on having a goal and strategy with your market/consumer first, foremost, and last in mind. There's more then ample proof that when a business attempts to leverage social media with a primary objective of driving traffic, driving business, or driving profits, they find themselves struggling to find even a modicum of return on their investment: "where's the ROI" is the clamor from management in follow-up meetings after such myopically engineered social tactics as using social media to drive traffic.

Then there are those business that recognize that their total market is what's most important. They recognize that their respective market is a conversation and it's a conversation worth listening too, participating in, and facilitating for the sake of the market and the people (consumers) in it. The bread crumbs of their success trail are so obvious; they listen to their market, they don't argue with their market, they participate transparently, they facilitate and support the conversations where they are without attempting to move them elsewhere (hoping only to move facebook users to your facebook page is an example of that). Then after much listening and honest, transparent engagement that supports their market a wonderful thing happens to their business - seemingly every social media success story that I've reviewed has the same result - their business begins to flourish! Digital word-of-mouth propels their traffic, people (customers) help other customers with questions, support, and encouragement about the brand or business. The business finds itself growing in new directions as well as old. The business sees revenues and market-share growing along with customer satisfaction and even employee satisfaction. The business becomes an integral part of the market conversation and that conversation then leverages that business. That's the magic! The next conversation in the meeting then isn't about ROI at all; it's management asking about things that the business is doing to react to the conversation, as well as things that the business could be doing to further facilitate the conversation. You see, traffic, purchases, trades, those all but tiny whispers of activity in a flourishing market.

Of course this is obvious for those of us that study social media and the success (and failures) of businesses attempting to leverage social media rather then having social media (the market conversation) leverage them. We read about it daily, we see it in our own minds. We can visualize it because we're immersed in it through a significant portion of our day (and nights) as well as our discourse. That's why I thought the attached image would be helpful to you. It's an image that I believe is fit for your office wall yes, but more importantly it's an image that could be hosted in your meeting rooms as a reminder of the direction and choices that should be made for the sake of your markets' conversation. In the end, that's what is driving your business today.

Undoubtedly, you and your dealership are doing some wonderful things in social media for your markets. You've got some great successes to share and stumbling blocks to avoid for all of us. If you have a moment, please share a few of those with us, or if your preference is to enhance or respond to this post that would be great too.

Ron