F&I and Showroom, February 2014

February 2014 F I and Showroom 29 social media channels last year Six months ago the fi nance source partnered with SOCIALDEALER on its Connect4Content program the reputation management fi rms content syndication solution Theres really a huge social revolution going on in our business explains Andrea Riley Ally Financials chief marketing offi cer for dealer fi nancial services And what were fi nding is that a lot of dealers have set up social media sites maybe a Facebook page or a Twitter account but then they really dont have dedicated personnel in the dealership to keep the content fresh Ally made its Connect4Content program available to 500 of its Ally Champions Club dealers on Nov 27 In the fi rst month of the pilot the program reached 30000 people through dealers Facebook pages a number SOCIALDEALERs Founder and CEO Joe Castle says will just keep compounding and growing Subscribers receive two types of content from Ally through the program engagement posts and promotional posts The engagement posts Riley explains are usually articles from a third party source containing educational information that is relevant to customers Promotional posts include special manufacturer incentives that are often regional offers We have access to inside information from the OEM so it would be targeted to that specifi c geographic area Riley says Provider Network SOCIALDEALER launched its fi rst Connect4Content program a year and a half ago in partnership with Carfax There are currently more than 800 dealer subscribers to the Carfax program Castle says The companys end game is to create a network of content partners We created the Connect4Content program because dealers dont have access to consistent powerful content that they need for their social media channels Castle explains noting that dealers must subscribe to each program separately Ally is our fi rst content partner thats in the automotive fi nance space Currently dealerships that are signed up for Allys program such as Michigan based LaFontaine Automotive Groups Chevrolet store receive a weekly email from Ally They can approve the content directly from the email by clicking on a button in the body of the message An autoapprove option is also available I started out by manually approving the fi rst couple posts just so I could keep my eyeballs on what was going to be posted before it was done says LaFontaines Jason Stum But after I saw the fi rst few I was confi dent that they wouldnt post something that wasnt going to speak to our audience so I put it on autopilot The LaFontaine Automotive Group consists of 18 franchises in nine locations across Michigan Stum who previously served as a salesperson pitched the groups ecommerce director on letting him launch social media pages for the groups Nissan store back in 2010 Shortly thereafter he became the groups digital marketing manager Stum now manages a team of three that oversees the groups 48 social profi les on sites like Facebook Twitter Youtube and Google Facebook fans for the groups most popular stores number in the thousands For the Chevrolet store what we were looking for is to fi ll some gaps Stum explains We focus a lot of our social media on showing off our people and showing off what makes our dealership special but what I like about the content Allys providing is that its more of that educational content about things you should look for when shopping for a vehicle Financial Fears Ally has stayed true to its roots in terms of the content it provides through the Connect4Content pro LaFontaine Automotive Groups digital marketing team members L R Jeremy Sheldon Jason Stum and Carlito Mojica Jr manage 48 social media profi les for the group Allys Andrea Riley says the company is focusing on providing auto fi nance related content to dealers