Facebook has eclipsed its first decade in business and Twitter has joined it in the upper echelons of hot, publicly traded companies, marketers in the automotive industry are continually pondering if social media really helps them sell more cars. It depends on whom you ask, but the jury still seems to be out on the effectiveness of social media in the car business. I have to be quite honest, as I too was a skeptic when I started working for a social media marketing company that services the automotive industry. After diving head-first into this conundrum for two years, I have seen several ways that social media can, in fact, help a dealership to sell more cars.

1.    Twitter Advanced Search:

Twitter Advanced Search is a great, free tool at anyone’s disposal. Any marketer or business who has a Twitter account can use the search bar to find people in their community who are actively car shopping, looking for an oil change, etc. It’s as simple as typing any keyword or phrase into the search bar and setting your geographic location. If any user in your target area has tweeted using your searched keyword or phrase, Twitter will show those results in chronological order. Marketers can then engage in real-time conversations with these hand-raisers to see if they’re genuinely interested in purchasing a car.

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