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social media marketing

Automotive social media influencers: good for a quick boost, but not always helpful long-term.

26 November 2020 By Matt Leave a Comment

Thinking of working with automotive social media influencers? Sounds great, doesn’t it? Lots of followers, views, and puts your name out there right? Yes, but it’s important to stop and consider all angles.

Influencers are not always worth the cost.

Big automotive social media influencers sometimes want expensive parts for free or huge sums of money to represent your company. It’s important to look at the cost compared to what you’re receiving. Your contract should be very clear about how often your company is mentioned, the quality and type of mentions, whether re-shares count, whether they can rep a competitor in the future, and so much more.

Look at the stats.

Someone can have a huge following, but if they only post once a month, they’re not going to have great engagement, and they’re not going to be effective for you. Are their followers mirrors for your ideal customer? Are their followers after products or services like yours, or are they following for other reasons?

For instance, there are a lot of female car enthusiasts on Instagram. The most popular tend to have certain physical attributes, which begs the questions: who is here for her technical insight and racing, and how many are following just for eye candy? Look at their content. Where are your eyes drawn to? If it’s her and not the car or products being promoted, that’s probably also true for at least some of her audience.

There are also popular influencers that seem tempting, but who are hard to work with. More than once, we’ve seen an influencer who doesn’t get their way throw an online fit. Negative attention with an influencer is difficult to manage. They tend to have fans who love to get involved, which often means a deluge of social media comments, messages, reviews and emails that can overwhelm your staff and drown out your message.

Because race car!

Putting your name on a race car feels good. One of our clients is a race car driver and our logo is on their car. How much business we have gotten from it? Zero.

This might be an unfair comparison since we’re a marketing firm and not a parts company, but most people don’t associate race cars with their own car. It used to be that a famous driver could spur motivation to buy, but the increased content available online has caused a disconnect in this area. There are more choices than there have ever been. Very few companies are the only one in their market and big sponsorships require big money. It may be worth it in your particular situation, but it may not. (Good news: we’re experts in helping companies decide this!)

Get the right help.

Be smart with your marketing budget. Don’t throw money at problems and hope for the best. Instead, work with the best. Our team at McWilliams Ink can help guide you through social media marketing, ads, SEO and all your digital marketing needs. We can also protect you from the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to automotive social media influencers.

For more information, questions, comments, and concerns please reach out to use via our contact form https://mcwilliamsink.com/contact-us/

Have a fantastic day!

Is social media right for your automotive business? A few things to consider.

24 November 2020 By Matt Leave a Comment

In the automotive industry, especially, car enthusiasts and race fans are some of the most active social media users. They look through their accounts more often and as much as 90% of their feeds are car-related.

Facebook

  • Facebook is the most popular social media website worldwide.
  • 74% of high income earners are also Facebook users.
  • Facebook users average an hour a day on the platform and are typically 31 to 55 years old.
  • More than half of automotive enthusiasts say they learn about which companies to buy from and which to avoid through Facebook groups. (Hint: this has the potential to be a HUGE leverage point for your business).

Instagram

  • Instagram, owned by Facebook, is the second most popular platform, but features a higher user base in the 18-34 age range.
  • The average Instagram user in the United States spends 53 minutes a day scrolling their feed and watching stories.
  • 200 million users visit at least one automotive related Instagram business profile every day.
  • 500 million accounts use Stories on a daily basis, and one-third of stories viewed on Instagram are from businesses.

More to think about:

  • YouTube is the second most visited website in the world and more than 70% of U.S. adults use YouTube regularly.
  • Automotive trends tend to spread the fastest via SnapChat and Instagram.
  • Companies and leaders who are active on LinkedIn find it easier to recruit and retain new hires.

Are you taking your social media marketing seriously? Looking for a serious and effective automotive social media marketing company to help you build and reach your audience? Look no further. We are one of the best aftermarket automotive social media marketing companies around!

We won’t waste your time or money, and our strategies are for car lovers by people who actually love cars. Visit our contact form to schedule a no-pressure chat about what is right for your company.

Hope to talk with you soon.

Sources

  1. Alexa
  2. Broadband Search
  3. Instagram
  4. Pew Research
  5. Statistica

Automotive Social Media Content: Four Things You May Be Getting Wrong

16 October 2020 By Matt 2 Comments

When it comes to automotive social media content, there is a lot you can do to spotlight your company and products. However, there is also a lot that can impact your business negatively.

Borrowing from Popular Culture the Wrong Way

A popular trend right now are Mandalorian memes. Some companies are even photoshopping images of their products into the hands of trademark-protected characters. This morning, I saw a photoshopped image of Baby Yoda holding a clutch from a major brand! The Mandalorian character is protected by LucasFilm, which is now a subsidiary of Disney. Disney is known for aggressively defending their trademarks. Their actions often result in lawsuits and settlements that cost upwards of 50% of a company’s total annual revenue (not profits, but all revenue). To be blunt: if you don’t have permission to use another company’s licensed content, including movie stills, you are gambling with your business. (If your company has done this, go delete that post right now and fire your social media person).

Share, Share, Share!

Frequently, social media managers rely on being able to share posts where the brand they’re working for is tagged. This works well for a limited number of companies who have extremely popular products, but it happens most often among consultants of the multi-level marketing variety. Sharing is a great way to amplify certain voices or products, or even to say thank you, but it is not an effective content strategy.

Think about it this way: when you share a post shouting out your company, what does your audience learn about the product or person you’re sharing? Is the share relevant AND valuable? Is your product right for them because it’s being used by some guy they don’t know whose car happens to run 8s in the quarter-mile? What does that tell someone looking for upgrades to a daily driver? They might keep following you, but they will likely start to believe that your product isn’t for them.

When it comes to social media, you have one chance to make a first impression. Your behavior after that tells your audience whether you’re an authority figure in your field. If you are not consistently putting out high-quality social media content, you’re not going to be seen as an expert, no matter how many times you share shout-outs.

I’m sure you’re wondering: if this is true, why are so many people using this method? The simple answer is that not all marketing is created equal. There are a million “social media managers” who have no marketing background, no automotive background, and no drive to do anything other than generate likes. Likes and sales are not the same thing. Don’t waste your advertising dollars on a social media manager that doesn’t understand your industry or who puts out low quality work that doesn’t generate sales.

Not Understanding Hashtags

First of all: you do not need to tag yourself on every post, especially if your hashtag is the same as your business name. Doing this is like meandering through a crowded wearing a giant name tag and then pointing it out and saying it again every time you meet someone, even if they know you. Your hashtags should be relevant to the image and keyword you’re using for that post. Using a variety of tags increases your reach and the likelihood that people who haven’t heard of you will find you. Avoid popular but non-descript and irrelevant hashtags like #yolo, #weekend, #hardwork, #welding, or #cnc.

Overhyping What Isn’t Relevant to Your Audience

I am always excited to go to industry events like SEMA and PRI. I am sure you are, too. But 90% of your audience (or more) has no idea what those events are, let alone has a reason to attend. While it’s nice to show people a peek inside of the inner workings of your company or events, these should be rare. If you’re not sure what that means, our rule of thumb is once per quarter or less.

Once upon a time, we had a potential client who regularly posted photos of their dog and private travel to their business page. At one point, the first nine images on their Instagram feed were photos of their dog in various exotic locations. They came to us not understanding why their business was suffering, but were unwilling to stop posting the dog and travel photos because they were generating likes. Because of this, an angry customer left comments all over their posts about how it must be nice to jet-set with an expensive dog while customers had long wait periods for production and delivery. The company couldn’t recover and is now out of business.


If you have questions, we’d love to help. Contact us for a free consult.

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