So, how should you use social media for your German auto shop? Here are some top tips to elevate your digital strategy and promote customer success.
Know Your Customer
The first thing that you should always remember as a small business marketer is to create social media posts that cater to what your customer wants. In your case, your customer wants or owns a German vehicle, whether it is a car or SUV. Beyond that, knowing that your customers particularly love a well-photographed beauty shot as inspiration can be even more of a guiding principle for crafting social media posts.
For example, eConsultancy showed different examples of automotive social media strategy. While the corporate platforms that posted high-quality photos of cars, one account attempted to go in a different direction – and it didn’t go over so well. This is because the strategist likely missed the mark on what their followers wanted from the page and, instead of pivoting and tying it back to customer desires, they continued to receive negative feedback on the lack of cars on their social media feed.
Knowing your customer can also mean considering what your customer might be typing into Google to get to content like yours. Yes, that means that social media and SEO keywords go hand-in-hand. Start crafting posts, your social media profile bios and more with SEO keywords and search intent in mind.
Crowdsource Content
Once you’ve built even a small following, it’s important to encourage engagement among your wide audience and followers. While comments and shares are part of this, a really fun way to become more than just a German auto shop and, rather, a go-to brand for all things German automotive, you can begin to get your customers involved by crowdsourcing content.
A great example of this are posts that encourage your audience to share photos because all of us car fanatics love sharing anyways! Here are some prompts to get you started:
- Comment below with the last photo of a car on your camera roll
- What’s the favourite part of your car? Show us with a picture below
- What’s one aspect of your car that you are excited to improve? Share with us below
Provide Value To Your Audience
Yes, you can attract customers and provide free value.
Create social media posts that answer your frequently asked questions. Not only does this mean that you don’t have to brainstorm and create new content (simply because you might already have these questions and answers written down) but it also means that you will reach more customers on more platforms and show your expertise and high value for customer success.
Promote Engagement
As mentioned previously, aiming for high engagement with your social media posts (which means a high proportion of comments and shares) should be one of your top social media objectives, no matter whether it is for Facebook or Instagram.
According to Sprout Social, social media algorithms (both Facebook and Instagram) reward engagement (primarily comments and shares, secondarily post likes) with even more post reach and engagement. This means that if you can get even your small audience to begin to engage more with your content, social media platforms will see that you are providing a platform for meaningful conversation online and show your post to even more users on the platform. More engagement = more exposure.
Show Them Your ‘Behind-The-Scenes’ Moments
Facebook and Instagram can be fun! When thinking about your digital strategy, don’t be afraid to include parts of what makes your small 
business unique: you and your team! Take your audience behind the scenes at your German auto shop with team photos, staff highlights, fun facts and anything else that has the potential to develop a deeper connection with your customers.
Find Social Media Success for Small Business
Create a community and establish a connection with your customers through social media! If you’re curious where your social media and digital marketing strategy could be improved, give us a call or email us today for a detailed report on where your company stands. Just click here!
