Description: With the Internet, and especially with social media, we changed our shopping habits a lot. The car industry also became accustomed to these habits and started providing more content for social media.
Times have changed, but human behavior is still the same — we want advice from others and appreciate their personal experiences. Now with social media, we have faster access to a large number of people and can find acquaintances whose opinion we can rely on. We can even ask for advice on Facebook groups, created for car fans and those who are interested in buying a car, and in a few minutes collect dozens of personal experiences.
If you’re born in the ’70s, you probably remember going to the car market and talking for hours with car dealers what is the best option for a new vehicle. Nowadays, these scenes are only memories from the past. Social media became inseparable from our daily routine, so most decisions about buying any product and especially a new car are making online.
Social media became the best place for recommendations, suggestions, and sharing. We don’t just search for a piece of advice on social media; we also purchase a car online. It’s faster, time-saving, and even if you aren’t satisfied, it is easy to return the vehicle and get your money back.
Different Types of Social Media and Their Aspects
Every social media has its own specifications, and consequently, the possibilities and effects are different. If you know the advantages of different types of social media, then it’s easy to use them properly for advertising. Most of the car companies spread social media business here in every kind of social networking. We will give you some social media facts so you can have a clear idea about what type of market we are talking about. There are more than 2 billion active users on social media worldwide, so it’s a vast place that deserves a lot of investment. To cover all this social networking, every car company has a particular social media manager who knows how to use the most from different networks.
For example, buying online became popular first on Facebook, and different car companies started with public and sponsored ads. Paid or sponsored commercials in the car industry are rare, but still, you can notice that all relevant car manufacturers have a Facebook page with necessary information. What we like about Facebook groups is that you can instantly find those who had previous experience with your favorite car.
What once was a big boom on Facebook now is moved to Instagram. We are talking about mostly picture sharing social media. Showing off in front of a new car is still a popular thing as it was decades ago with hard copy photos. Now, this habit moves to Instagram. Do you know that there is also online competition on how expensive your car is? We indeed perceive cars as a status symbol, and with social media, it just became more obvious.
Since social media is using video as an adequate tool for advertising due to high-resolution, YouTube is becoming increasingly popular for the car industry. Influencers or YouTubers can also tell you a lot about new car models. So vlogging about the experience of driving new car models is also widely represented on social media. There is something special when you can watch the excitement that a vehicle causes in others. And it can also be a useful thing because you can learn a lot from others’ experiences.
New Strategies in the Car Industry
The automobile industry is using social media to promote its products for a long time. But as technology is developing, the car industry starts to use the best of it. We will try to present what social media trends are and what new social media tools are available.
But before we start, we have to mention both the advantages and disadvantages of social media shortly to get a realistic point of view. The social media business has one obstacle, and that is the issue of safety while buying online. If you want to know how to stay safe on social media, you will still have to search for the best antivirus programs. Web developers are continuously working on this topic and bringing security measures to the highest level. For sure, the future of social media will depend on more advanced security for personal data and login options.
But let’s return to the main topic. You probably noticed that videos are now much more present on social media than ever before. The video commercials have a perfect touch of special effects so you can see all the performances but with beautiful shades and from different perspectives. The most talented web designers become involved in the car industry, using all their knowledge to show the performance of cars. Check out, for example, an official video of new Porsche Taycan and you will notice the difference of video with special effects.
Different car companies are also creating their own apps. Toyota Friends is one of them, and you can use it to connect with other owners of Toyota. Different apps as FordPass can also offer some rewards or a special promotion for buying a new car.
Some of the new tactics consist of exclusive social media marketing. Cross-promoting is a strategy that gives a lot of success. Basically, it means that you offer to a customer different social media channels that they can follow. It has much better results than cross-posting, where you see the same content on various media.
Giveaways in social media are usually held as a contest or quiz. It is a good strategy that can involve a lot of people. But be aware that there are also scam giveaways that can damage the reliability of the company as it happened with the Toyota 4Runner model. We recommend using an official channel or page to check if the special offer is a scam or not. Downloading the app is also one secure way to be a part of a car company contest. We gave just a glimpse of viral trends, but keep in mind that you always have to check for updates as trends fast become outdated.
Conclusion: We all are so dependent on social media that it became impossible to function in this modern world unless you don’t have at least one account. The car industry discovered all the advantages of social media, and it seems that in the future, this cooperation will continue and become stronger. This huge market place opens doors for dozens of new possibilities, and we have to be smart enough to use them properly. We would like to remind you that there are plenty of interesting texts that you can read on our page. We appreciate your life experience more than anything, and if you want to share it with us, please feel free to do it.
