Social Media: getting big results from small budgets
For tire dealers, customer engagement is crucial. But that doesn’t mean you need to run a big business or have a big budget to make a big impression.
Did you know that 74 percent of America’s online adults use social media? And that Americans today spend more time on social media than any other online activity – including email? This explosive growth of social media and online content marketing is creating more opportunities than ever before for tire dealers to connect with their customers.
That said, the sheer breadth of social media could make online marketing a daunting task for any business. Thankfully, for every new platform there are twice as many tools to help measure, monitor and effectively manage them. And some of the really clever and innovative tools are relatively inexpensive, if not totally free. The good news is you’re able to save time and build customer relationships without committing your entire marketing budget.
Content creation and curation
Do you write your own thought-provoking material? Or are you more of a content curator? Either way, there are some very cool tools available today to help you gain greater exposure and make light work of your content creation.
Scoop.it
If you struggle to come up with original and relevant content ideas, Scoop.it is the tool for you. This content curator works by allowing you to search for content that is relevant to your business – and your customers. You can then add your own personal touch (or write your own original content around it) and quickly share it with your social networks. Featured on Forbes, Mashable and TechCrunch, Scoop.it is getting traction for all the right reasons.
Feedly
This totally free news aggregation application allows you to find, follow and share relevant content with ease. Once you set up an account you can follow the sources that matter to you, creating your own dashboard-style content hub. Widely accessible, Feedly allows you to view content on your computer, smartphone, and even on Kindle, ensuring you never miss a marketing opportunity.
Mention
Developed as an alternative to Google Alerts, Mention is a real time media-monitoring tool that allows users to track individual company and brand mentions across multiple social networks, news sites, forums, and blogs – in fact any web page. By simply entering a search term (this can be a company name, keyword or anything of interest) Mention will tell you what is being said about this term across the web. Mention offers free trials and a free basic plan.
Tagboard
Another very cool media monitoring tool, Tagboard (as the name suggests) uses hashtags to search for and collate public social media references within seconds of being posted. Tagboard provides an easy and affordable way to monitor brand impact – a particularly useful exercise in marketing multiple tire brands. Pulling content together into your own customized content hub, Tagboard also allows you to track what competitors and other industry influencers are saying on specific topics.
Time-saving social media management
Whether you’re writing engaging content or managing multiple social media platforms, building your online presence can be a time-consuming task. The good news is there are some efficient tools available to help streamline and manage your social media, leaving you with more time to do what you do best.
Buffer
Buffer can save businesses considerable time in distributing content across platforms. By allowing you to schedule when certain content goes out, you can complete blocks of writing in advance then sit back while Buffer takes care of distribution for you. Buffer offers basic free use plus professional subscriptions.
Sendible
This affordable social media management, monitoring and analytics tool allows businesses to manage social media more effectively. It helps engage customers, monitor mentions and measure impact through detailed analytics. Sendible offers a free trial and startup business plans.
Getting a good start off the grid
If time, skill, or budget has held you back from online customer engagement in the past, equipping yourself with some of these tools could make you unstoppable. To help get you started, understand what social media can – and as importantly, can’t – do for your business.
