Experts, across the board, will agree that developing a solid strategy for your brands social media efforts is the most important driver of success.  Your strategy should be built around your long-term goals, your capabilities and resources, and your audience/customers.  While the framework for your social media strategy can be developed at the corporate level, it’s easy to overlook how you’ll integrate your dealer network.

For OEM’s a holistic social media strategy is one that functions at both the corporate and retail levels.  When developing your strategy, don’t forget that every department, every employee, and every one of your dealers represents your brand – and every one of them has access to social media.  How your dealers utilize social media will directly affect your brand.

Planning your strategy with your dealers in mind will help you avoid disjointed messages and misused branding while at the same time helping your dealers to promote themselves.

Easy ways to involved your dealers:

Educate your dealers
Explain to dealers why the brand is involved with social media, the brand’s social media goals, and the different online mediums the brand will use.  Help them understand why social media is important to the brand, and how it can be useful for their own business.

Be social with your dealers
Encourage dealers to “follow” and communicate with you on all social platforms.  Follow your dealers and encourage their efforts.  This will this expose their audience to your corporate profile and work to develop community.

Keep dealers informed on corporate social media activity
Posting a video, podcast, blog post, or photo stream?  Email your dealers a link at the onset and get them excited about what you’re doing.  Jumping into a new platform?  Let you dealers know first, and encourage them to friend or follow you.  Starting a discussion online?  Communicate the goals of the discussion to your dealers and ask them to participate.

Provide dealers with tools that aid their social media efforts
Help dealers learn how to get the most out of social media.  Teach them how to pinpoint local prospects with online profiles, how to monitor their dealership online, how to setup profiles and best use them, and how to link to corporate profiles.  Be a resource for your dealers.

By including your dealers in the strategy and tactics you develop for social media, you’ll expand the reach of your efforts.  Make sure that when developing your social plan you don’t forget that every dealer can become involved with social media and have a positive influence on your brand.

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