Lucy McHenry – Head of Agency Sales for Twitter gives us her top tips for how car dealers can make the most from the platform.
We were fortunate enough to hear Lucy speak at CDX16, a motor trade industry event created by Car Dealer Magazine. Below we’ve paraphrased the highlights from her appearance.
What are the biggest myths about Twitter?
There are two myths that I’d like to tackle. The first being that Twitter is just 140 characters. The platform is so much more than that. You can post all types of content such as video, images, polls and more.
Its a changing creative canvas with enormous potential to generate much deeper connections beyond. For example there is:
Periscope
This app was voted Apple’s best of 2015 and Twitter recently bought it. Periscope can be used to live broadcast content to connect with users in real time at events.
Moments
Found on the lightening bolt tab Moments helps you find high quality, curated content. This is show cased content which has been manually selected by Twitter across a variety of categories.
Niche
This is an area of Twitter that can help brands and advertisers to team up with relevant online content creators.
Emojis
Did you know that the crying with laughter emoji was the most tweeted communication in 2015. People obviously are moving more and more towards using them. Is it worth placing emojis in your tweets?
Video
In the last 12 months the amount of the number of videos posted on Twitter grew by 220 fold. These short films generate significantly higher engagement rates.
What tips do you have for Car Dealers when using Twitter?
Engage
People want questions answered. Users expect replies and want to engage in a conversation in real time.
They want car dealers to share insight, news, deals, offers etc. They’ve sort you out to follow on Twitter as they want to actively hear from you.
Generate Traffic
When advertising on Twitter cards are an easy way to generate traffic for dealers. They can use a customised card in which you place content and a call to action. Cards are much more effective at driving traffic than a standard tweet.
Generate Leads
Create a tweet with data capture fields and the twitter users stored information can be pre-populated into the corresponding fields. This makes it a quick and easy way for your target audience to submit a business enquiry. Their submission can also be integrated directly with your CRM.
What’s your key pointer on Twitter for Car Dealers?
audiences at different stages of the customer journey.
You can use the various Twitter tools to gain insight into how to send the right tweet to the right audience at the right time. For example you might want to send a tweet to an existing client and a different one to a potential client.
You should monitor mentions and other notifications to respond to your contacts promptly and appropriately.
How should car dealers judge Return on Investment on Twitter?
There is full visibility on the platform so dealers can see exactly how a campaign is performing and whether it is working to achieve your goal what ever that may be: clicks, views, enquiries etc. You can request to receive advice and guidance from an account manager.
Who is best to run a car dealers Twitter account?
Every business is different – make sure you know your goals and what message you want to communicate.
Is your biography and image aligned to your brand?
Are you generating content and tweeting as per your agreed schedule?
Then ensure that your aims are passed on to whoever manages your account.
Can Twitter help Car Dealers sell vehicles?
You need to monitor conversations and listen to discussions, messages about the vehicles and the brand you’re selling to pick up on buying signals.
Location targeting can be really useful if you know how far people are prepared to travel to buy from you?
Building your followers will help spread the message about your brand.
How can dealers build their followers?
Content is key – if your content is engaging then you can work to promote it through paid advertising.
What’s next for Twitter?
There will be more investment in video and this will be crucial. The platform will continue to innovate and to put the consumer first before monetisation.
Read more: How car dealers can make money on Facebook
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