You asked, we answered. In How Your Dealership Can Sell Cars on Facebook (Part 1), we started tackling a few of the different tools and features that Facebook offers that can help you sell more cars. Hopefully you have read and even started implementing some of the strategies we discussed there– and maybe are even seeing some good results!

Facebook has even more to offer dealerships, to reach the most people and ultimately sell more cars.

Facebook Live

Facebook continues to make changes to its algorithms, prioritizing posts from family and friends over a Page’s organic content. What this means is that it will be harder to reach people without spending a nice amount of money on paid advertising. That doesn’t mean you should abandon your organic content, though! Your page should look alive and inviting, while boasting a wide variety of different types of content. Dealerships should continue fill their feeds with posts that are engaging and helpful, while potentially focusing more time and energy on paid advertisements and higher quality content.

There are certain ways to work with Facebook’s new algorithm, though. Certain content types will still appear regularly on Newsfeeds because they have been identified as particularly engaging– one of those is Facebook Live videos. Facebook recognized that users enjoy live videos, and therefore decided to continue to push these videos on its users’ feeds. Facebook found that people spend 3X more time watching live broadcasts than a traditional video, after it has been broadcasted. Live videos are exciting and interesting, as people can see something unfolding in the moment.

Dealerships can utilize Facebook Live videos in lots of ways:

• Give a virtual tour. Walk around your showroom, giving people an idea of what they can expect when they come in. Introduce your staff, shoppers, and happy customers. Be sure to pan over your latest (and most popular) vehicles. These types of videos will drive more traffic to both your site as well as store.
• Announce new releases. When your dealership gets a new vehicle, showcase its launch with an in-store celebration and Facebook Live broadcast. You can also announce exciting offers or groundbreaking store records, to excite your viewers and draw them back to future videos.
• Go for a live test drive. Allow your shoppers to learn the ins and outs of your vehicles from the comfort of their own homes. Have two salespeople broadcast a test drive, showing off all of the features of the vehicle in real-time. People will appreciate seeing the internal details of each car, and will feel more comfortable coming in for a test drive of their own having “seen” it in action. Just make sure your salespeople know how all of the features work before taking it out on a live spin– a practice run never hurt anyone.
• Conduct interviews. Bring in your dealership staff and owners, special guests, and local celebrities for interviews. Viewers will be given an opportunity to get to know you and your brand, and might even ask a question in the comments. If your interviewee has a following on Facebook, be sure to also reach his or her followers and fans by tagging them in all promotions. These people could all become future customers.

Facebook Messenger

It’s a lot easier to sell a car to someone who your staff can speak to than to an anonymous Facebook user, isn’t it? That’s why your dealership provides shoppers with so many opportunities for conversion and engagement– to start the conversation.

Facebook Messenger is quickly becoming shoppers’ go-to method of communicating with brands and businesses about their products. According to Facebook, over 2 billion messages are sent between people and businesses every month. 73% of customers prefer to speak on Messenger over email or phone.

There are so many ways your dealership can utilize Facebook Messenger. Before getting into those, though, it’s important to note: don’t let customers message you on Facebook if you have no one on the other end responding to messages. Customers expect these types of chats to be answered quickly– if they have to wait too long for a response, they’ve definitely moved on to something else. Facebook also publicizes how long it generally takes a certain Page to respond to messages– customers are more likely to reach out when they see that your dealership “typically replies within minutes.”

Your dealership can help answer questions about vehicles and offers, provide store hours and updates, and book appointments and test drives on Facebook Messenger. To streamline the process, there are also Facebook chatbots that can converse with your customers and provide them with the information they need, without any investment of your staff’s time. There are currently over 100,000 Chatbot on Facebook, and the number is only growing. Chatbots can easily book appointments and provide standard responses to inquiries– your staff just needs to step in for the more complicated questions.

Facebook Live and Messenger are just two ways that your dealership can make the most of Facebook without paying for any advertisements. Your organic content is important, as your page should look alive and “human,” but paid advertising will certainly reach more shoppers and potential car buyers. With that in mind, you should identify ways to leverage your organic content, and always keep in mind the relative worth of each post. Spend your valuable time utilizing the many Facebook tools that can help you sell more cars, while keeping your organic feeds filled.

And there you have it. Four ways your dealership can get even more from Facebook, and increase your reach. Will all of these ways directly lead to the sale of a vehicle? Maybe not. But engaging the right people with the right content is definitely an important step in helping a customer down the funnel and into your store.