According to their research, HubSpot determined that the average number of fans across all Facebook pages and types was 624. They used this number as the marker for most liked versus least liked. Page types with more than 624 were classified as most liked and pages with fewer than 624 were classified as least liked.

Movies, TV Shows, and books were by and far the most liked types of pages. The other types of most liked, which came nowhere near as liked as these 3 were celebrities, stars, personalities, and public figures, large public venues such as museums and airports, government stuff, and surprisingly local businesses.

In the least liked category were things such as websites, retailers, boring local businesses such as banks and libraries, etc. Also in the least likes category were local automotive dealerships and vehicle services which you can see in the embedded image of this post. In fact, dealership Facebook pages average about 150 fans. Considering that the average dealership has upwards to 20k or 30k customers in the DMS, this number seems too low.

What does this tell us? Does this suggest that Facebook is not a viable place for car dealers to be investing? I am sure that the dealers with hundreds (and in some instances thousands) of fans will argue differently. Maybe this tells us that the approach dealers are taking with Facebook isn’t cutting it. Or maybe that’s just the way that it is.

In my experience using Facebook for car dealers I have found that it is a stretch for an outside party, alas a vendor, to make Facebook an impacting leg for dealers when no one at the dealer level is involved. Between the nature of the car business and the nature of social media, it is a tough mesh.

But when someone at the dealership gets behind the idea and drives it home, utilizing the content marketing services of an outside firm, the results are much different. These dealers are able to concentrate on the conversation, engaging with individuals or groups of individuals in regards to not only their automotive needs and interests but other personal interests too. After all, people buy cars from people, not companies.

To make Facebook a success, I argue that you must find a unique and distinctive role for it. Using Facebook to create a replica of your website does not eliminate the cull de sac syndrome that car dealer websites are subject to where the visitor experience is limited to give me all your contact info and I’ll give you moor product info or let’s get married on our first date together. Essentially you must find a way to use Facebook to add value to customers in ways the website can not accomplish.

For instance, your website is effective at generating leads of in-market buyers. That said, leveraging Facebook to cultivate prospects farther out in the buying funnel could be an ideal approach, thus plastering your Facebook page with OEM specials probably won’t do the trick because it’s not unique content. The OEM sites have that information and so do the dealer sites. The edge in social media is unique and compelling content.

Research like this need not be a deterrent for dealers to get off of Facebook. Quite the contrary. The challenge remains for dealers and automotive vendors to seek viable strategies. Success must be defined which may require performing an analysis of how much a website visitor referred from your Facebook page is with, then putting together a plan to achieve that which meets the targeted budget to satisfy the ROI. Some known ways to accomplish this include giveaways, contests, and polls.

This ‘how to’ series teaches you about the ACVideo Service, powered by Vidego, and how we integrate it with WordPress. ACVideo explores the issue of streaming video, and the ease in which you can add it to your website or blog.

In last month’s webinar, we talked about how to set up multi players. But even if you missed last month’s webinar, it’s not too late to take advantage of this series! We still have two more dates booked! Click here to register!

Each webinar in this series focuses on how to use specific features
of the system.

Part two, on May 27, is about Branding Your Player in Vidego.

Here are a few of the topics this webinar will cover:

• changing colors and images
• adding banners
• linking to web pages
• customizing play buttons
• sharing your videos
• and other marketing tips …

Save your seat!

Click here to register!

If you have already registered for this series, you will get a reminder notice in your email. If you have not yet registered, you can still take part in the next two webinars by registering today.

We hope to see you there!

Please direct questions to Tracey D’Aviero. Thank you.

David Kain is president of KainAutomotive.com, and he provides internet sales and business development solutions to dealers in the automotive industry. He has put together this intensive Internet marketing course along with Jennifer Suzuki.

The conference takes place over three days, from May 19-21, 2009 in Seattle, WA.

Highlights of the bootcamp include:

• marketing your brand online
• maximizing your online presence
• generating high quality leads
• converting leads into showroom appointments
• building a more profitable business model
• maximizing your internet presence
• and much more..

For more information, and to register, visit:
“Generation Internet” Marketing, Management and Sales Bootcamp

Reach out to potential customers over the Internet. Learn marketing tools and techniques that will help you turn your leads into sales.

From time to time we will be posting links to events like this one that we think might be of interest to our community at BlogPro Automotive. If you know of an event that might benefit our subscribers, please let us know.

If you’re already using video, or thinking about how video can help you with your dealership’s online marketing initiatives, join AutoConversion for a free live Webinar series that will introduce you to our AC Video service, which explores the issue of streaming video, and the ease in which you can add it to your website or blog.

AC Video, in partnership with Vidego, makes it easy for anyone to upload, manage, and distribute their streaming content online.

There are three webinars in the series, and we will be hosting one each month for April, May and June.

Each webinar in the series will concentrate on a specific how-to element of the Vidego system and WordPress.

The webinars will be held on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM EDT

The dates are as follows:

• Wednesday, April 22, 2009
• Wednesday, May 27, 2009 and
• Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Register Now at: AC Video Webinar Series Registration

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the information you need to join the webinars.

You only have to register once to take advantage of the whole series. We will remind you of upcoming dates so that you don’t miss a minute of this valuable presentation!