If you read our previous post outlining 10 reasons why car dealers need to engage car buyers online , than your next logical question would be, “Where is the best place online to engage these car buyers?”  We’ve crafted a list of where we believe are the 10 best places to engage car buyers online.  Depending on the make and model your selling, one online community may make more sense than another, but this list should at least get you started on finding where the relevant conversations are taking place.

10. Edmunds Carspace – “The Car Enthusiasts Automotive Lifestyle Social Networking Site”. Edmunds Carspace is one of the most popular forums on the web. As such, finding what you want can be a bit daunting and the conversations can be long. However, there’s a lot of great advice to be had and a wealth of information in archive. The interface is clean, but there are a lot of ads.

9. AutoMedia – “Car Advice You Can Trust”. Whereas Edmunds does forums by car, AutoMedia does it by topics. From car care to automotive performance, AutoMedia displays all sorts of information about making the car you already have, better. There’s lists on proper driving techniques, restoring tired cars, how to get better gas mileage, amateur motorsports and hundreds of other topics in addition to a simple buying guide for new cars.

8. Yahoo Answers – A specific section for questions about buying and selling vehicles. Yahoo Answers gives you the opportunity to ask questions to an entire community at once through their main page. Not only will members of their community answer your question, other members will rate the answers to give you a “best answer”. The incentive to give the best possible answer means there’s a lot less “noise” in Yahoo’s forums.

7. Ask.Cars.com – “Our Experts Answer Your Questions” Ask.Cars.com has one of the best interfaces of any forum out there. A simple “Question of the Day” takes up a majority of the homepage and subsequent answers are at the bottom of the page as “Recent Questions”. The unfortunate problem is that most questions only have a few answers. The questions jump between tax issues, new cars, problems with cars and hundreds of other things.

6. Cargurus – “Got a question about your car? Ask the CarGurus community and get a response within hours!” CarGurus is a sort of car rating site. It’s not so much a way to ask and answer questions as it is a “raves” vs. “rants” site. If you’re looking for what people who actually own cars think of them, this is a good place to go. Though, there is a very large gap in the models actually reviewed and those still awaiting reviews.

5. DealerRater – Allows dealers to promote their quality customer service. When searching for a new car, that moment comes when you finally say, “Yes. That’s the car I want.” Who are you going to buy from? DealerRater helps you decide by letting users comment on the quality of service they receive. Consumer Reports has noted that new car shoppers rate quality second only to safety as the aspect of owning a car most important to them. DealerRater helps you make sure you get quality service.

4. EasyAutoSales - The first and only social classifieds for cars! EasyAutoSales ties community to car classified listings with Facebook Connect. This allows questions and comments to be broadcast and interesting cars and topics to be shared with your network of friends on Facebook and beyond. EasyAutoSales’ free platform connects car buyers, car sellers and car experts to create one of the most exciting and fastest growing car communities.

3. MySpace – 62,192 automotive related groups. Most people know MySpace as merely a social network for communicating with friends, but MySpace also has one of the largest car communities too! With over 126 million users, MySpace can be a huge ally in discussing cars and, if utilized properly, selling cars.

2. Twitter – People talking and asking questions about cars in 140 characters or less. Twitter allows you to talk about cars in a very real-time, open forum with people who you know or associate with. As opinions on a car, where to get the best deal or what’s popular. Twitter is a great place to discuss cars as well as taking advantage of ancillary sites like TwitPic, where you can share pictures from your cell phone real-time.

1. Facebook.com – With over 500 groups related to “car buying” alone and 175 million users, Facebook is the final frontier in social networking. The combination of fan pages, applications, media sharing and a simple way to interface with all your friends and family on a daily basis, Facebook is a powerful marketing tool. Whether is be via Facebook Connect and sites like EasyAutoSales that use their technology or simply sharing a story or a picture, Facebook has the power to make your car buying or selling experience much easier and more fulfilling.

If you’ve had experience interacting with potential car buyers on any of these sites, or feel like we are missing one, please share in the comments below.  Remember, be helpful, be transparent, and be authentic.  Good luck engaging!

Well?… What are you waiting for?  Your Facebook social graph is pulsing with potential buyers, and friends of potential buyers as we speak.  We only just launched our Facebook Connect Integration and already there are 67 regulars syncing up their EasyAutoSales Account with Facebook.  Check out our user stats below:

Facebook represents an untapped pool of car buyers. Social communities do NOT respond to spam, but the occasional “car for sale” popping up in your news feed just may hook you a few leads. Here’s where you can login with your Facebook account. Good luck!

Word of mouth  is the holy grail of reaching potential customers – car buyers are no different.  Someone who just bought a car at your dealership recommends to a friend buying a car what a great experience they had at your dealership, and BAM!, they’re walking through your doors instead of the dealership down the street.

Until fairly recently, harnessing the power of word of mouth advertising has been virtually impossible.  Now, thanks to social media, the possibilities are becoming a bit more tangible.  If your dealership is not already engaging potential customers through social media online, these 10 data points will certainly set you straight.

10. 93% of consumers do research online before buying a car.

Whether your dealership and inventory is online or not, almost 100% of your potential customers are on the web searching for information, reviews and recommendations!

9. 67% of consumers say that recommendations and information from people online influences their purchasing decisions.

More than 2/3’s of consumers make their purchasing decision based on peer reviews and recommendations!  As long as you are transparent about your affiliations and are tactful with your approach, your recommendations could be just as influential as the next guy, maybe even more based on your unique expertise.

8. 56% of consumers feel a stronger connection with a brand if they are able to interact with the company through social media.

The days of large, faceless corporations are long gone! Individuals want to be heard and they want to connect on a one-on-one basis. Instead of blasting your advertising message through an air horn, cater your dealership’s voice by listening to your customers’ needs and use social media to allow for two-way communication.

7. 57% of consumers feel better served by a company when they can interact with them through social media.

When a consumer feels better served, that’s when they recommend you to their friends at the next cocktail party, write rave reviews on their blogs and recommend you online.  We are in the Recommendation Age.  Interact = Get recommended.

6. 33% of consumers visit blogs, communities or social networks to research products before buying.

Conversational media plays a significant role in car buying process and before the consumer even knows what car they want to buy, they are out there reading reviews, comparing specs and test-driving cars.  Shouldn’t you use your unique position to help them with basic questions and build a relationship? It’s time to engage!

5. Nearly 13% of new vehicle buyers commented on someone’s blog or forum (J.D. Power & Associates)

Not only are consumers searching for information, they are engaging and providing their own views of the presented information. By interacting with your customers and offering free help, you will build awareness for your brand online as they do their research.

4. 57% of consumers say they would likely take action based on information they received from an online brand representative.

You and your dealership are a brand. If you don’t represent yourself someone else will.  People are Googling you and your dealership, and your reputation is being built on those results.  Put your online reputation in your hands by joining the conversation.

3. 67% of consumers say they are likely to pass the information they received from an online brand representative along to others.

If you are willing to help out your potential customers, they will help you out.  It’s word of mouth hard at work for you

2. 45% of consumers say they pass along information they find on social media websites, compared to only 36% who pass information they received from company or news sites.

Why rely on customers coming to you?  People hang out on social media sites and word of mouth happens more often as a result of information found on social media sites.  Find, listen and engage.

1. According to eMarketer’s recent report, by 2013 an estimated 52% of all Internet users will be regular social network visitors. (Up from 41% in 2007)

Social media is not a fad and as technology improves, the number of people that will connect on a one-on-one basis will only continue to grow. Make your presence known in the conversation today and let the ripple effect help you grow through personal connections.

Most of the data above was provided by: http://www.sherpastore.com/socialmediabmg09.html – the above information doesn’t even scratch the surface of the invaluable information contained in this report – which I highly recommend!

Our automotive community, while in its early stages, is one great place to engage potential car buyers.  Sometimes establishing yourself as an authority voice while a community is still in its infancy can be a great benefit to your style of communicating.  Successful communities are shaped around their ambassadors, and ours will be no different.

Stay tuned for our list of the best places to engage with consumers online today….

Are the above stats enough to make you engage today?  What are your hesitations? What has been your experience communicating with car buyers if you are already engaged?

Food for thought:

Video games have become as culturally pervasive as movies. In 2007, video games generated US$9.5-billion in revenues, while movies took in US$9.6-billion at the box office. Today, players come from both genders, and all age groups and, with the introduction of Nintendo’s Wii, can involve the whole family.

But you’re asking, how is this going to sell me cars? Simply put, driving a car in virtual reality increased how much someone liked that brand of cars. Clearly test drives will excited individuals. However, you can exactly go 120MPH down the back strait of Road Atlanta in an M3 on a regular old test drive. Additionally, it’s hard to borrow a Subaru Impreza WRC to excite someone, especially when they just came to test drive a Outback or a Tribecca. This sort of brand building can only be done through simulators. However, that is apparently enough to get at least 50% of audiences (according to the study) more excited and in turn more likely to buy a car. Additionally, you’re building a relationship with someone that may be more likely to buy again down the road (perhaps even upgrading as their work positions get more important).

Beyond the lab, we see similar promotions from the likes of BMW with the release of their new M3. They had a video game specifically for driving the M3 to get you excited about the brand. Even I have been subjected to this via the Ford F-150 “Raptor” simulator at this years. NADA. I was already a huge fan of the truck, but getting behind the (virtual) wheel of a “Raptor” and running it across a desert in Baja conditions was just the icing on the “I’m Sold” cake.

Source: Financal Post

vs.

Lock up your GMs! Seem as if criminals have it out for you this year. Between Cadillacs and Hummers, GM hold 4 of the top 8 spots on this list. In fact, if you have any large American car, you might want to think about building a small shed to house it.

Car: Claims Per 1,000/Average Loss Payment Per Claim

10. Honda S2000 Convertible: 8.1/$13,624
9. 2005-2007 Dodge Durango: 8.1/$9,682
8. 2005-2007 Hummer H2: 8.7/$18,791
7. 2005-2007 Dodge Magnum: 9.9/$8,926
6. 2005-2007 Hummer H2 SUT: 10.0/$23,771
5. 2005-2007 Ford F-350 SuperCrew: 10.7/$20,138
4. 2006-2007 Dodge Charger: 11/$7,047
3. 2007 Cadillac Escalade: 11.3/$14,657
2. 2005-2007 Ford F-250 SuperCrew: 13.1/$19,250
1. 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV: 15.0/$13,060

For the same reason American car makers love to sell large SUVs and truck, thieves are seeking these behemoths out. They are large, cheap ways to get a nice car that will allow you to put expensive stereos, large rims and other accessories on that are easy to steal and resell without too much worry. Dropping 24s on your Hummer may say, “You’re ballin’” to your friends, but it says, “Come steal me” to every car criminal out there.

On the other hand, should be you be looking for the most inconspicuous (boring) cars on the road to protect your insurance premiums and pimped car stereos, you might want to check out the list below. To be honest, not all of them are boring or lame. Some of them just have excellent security systems and car-jackers know that it’s not worth the time to steal the car or there will be no way to re-sell the expensive parts off the car. As you can see, most of the cars are people carriers though with a preponderance of SUVs. The interesting thing is that whereas some of the cars are rather popular (Ford Focus, VW Beetle, Toyota Prius) some of the cars are the most obscure models available (Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay).

10. 2005-2007 Ford Freestyle
9. 2005-2007 Saturn Relay
8. 2005-2007 Toyota Prius
7. 2005-2007 Volvo V70
6. 2005-2007 Ford Focus
5. 2005-2007 Volkswagen (New) Beetle
4. 2005-2007 Buick Terraza
3. 2005-2007 Subaru Forrester
2. 2005-2007 Buick Rainier
1. 2005-2007 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Source: Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute