Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/394657
MTD October 2014 By Justin Whaley S ocial media has become a powerful promotional tool. Information about your business can be shared with thousands, even millions of potential customers almost instantaneously thanks to the popularity of mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Having an active business presence on social media sites such as YouTube, Twiter and Facebook is something that may become a necessity for commercial dealers — if it hasn't already. Promotional tweets, advertisements on YouTube and, for the commercial dealers who also ofer retail services, scrolling advertisements for local stores on Facebook are part of a new age of reaching and developing a customer base. According to a report this year by Business Insider, 93% of marketing strategists throughout various industries use social media to spread the word about their business practices. Tey are well aware that scrolling through news feeds and checking status updates have become second- nature to the younger gen erat i o n an d t h e tech-savvy. Media Bistro says close to 83% of con- sumers across industries use their social media encounters to decide whether or not to visit a store when they need products or services. "Most of the remarks we were geting at tire conferences were that social media is not a fad — it's here to stay," says John Taylor, president of the tire marketing agency JTMarcom. "Social media gives businesses a way to communicate and engage customers directly. It's got direct value for small businesses." On a local level, tools such as Facebook, Twiter and Google Plus help level the playing feld for smaller stores against their bigger, more corporate competitors, says Taylor. "Tey are local businesses and they're involved in their local communities. It helps them build not only their brands, but also awareness of their businesses. It's tremendous for customer service. It's great for consumer research, both for consumer and commercial tire dealers. It gives you that opportunity to engage with your customers and potential customers." Te Facebook tool Graph Search allows Facebook users to search for stores and companies and see what their friends — and their friends' friends — know about specifc stores. Tink of Graph Search as a Google search but specifc to content that's solely on Facebook. Tis is a huge benefactor that allows tire retailers to come alive online not only through what they publish to their profles, but also to share what others are saying about their experiences and join in the community conversation. "Before, we knew it was a good thing to gain a lot of quality fans," Taylor says. " With Graph Search, the more fans you have, the more opportunities you'll have for word-of-mouth." Tat is true of commercial tire dealers and retreaders as well. In analyzing "Modern Tire Dealer's Top 100 Retreaders in the U.S." report, the top fve retreaders and eight out of the top 10 are spreading the word about their commercial businesses via YouTube, and their retail businesses through Facebook and Twiter. Take McCarthy Tire Service Co., for example. Ranked No. 6 on MTD's Top 25 U.S. commercial tire dealers list and No. 8 on MTD's Top 100 Retreaders list, the Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based dealership has 29 commercial outlets, 13 combination commercial/retail outlets and seven retread shops. It has a strong social media presence for its retail business, but also features its commercial services where warranted. Web boost: 4 guidelines "Dealers need to be following strains of information: what's happening in their communities w ith their customers, with their competitors," Taylor says. "You can create that strain in Twiter to follow keywords. Local tire dealers need to be seeing who says, 'I just got a fat; I need some tires!'" In addition to keeping up with local and community con- versations, Taylor suggests retailers increase their application and monitoring of Facebook advertising — who clicks on sidebar advertisements, where they fnd the ads and when the most high-trafc times occur. Hone in on your audience and do Facebook ads to them. At a cost of between $10 and $40 per day, Taylor recommends retailers pay atention to who's viewing the advertisements and whether those advertisements are making a bigger-picture diference in sales and promoting the company's name. Taylor says this can even be done for a few days to a few weeks as a test trial. Although starting an online persona might not be the same experience for everybody, these four guidelines point out main concepts to consider when giving your business a boost on the Web. Social media Log on and promote How to use social media as a voice for your dealership "Social media is great for consumer research, both for consumer and commercial tire dealers." John Taylor, president, JTMarcom 42 42