Chevy Facebook campaign

An automotive company that participated in our recent webinar asked this question:

“What social platforms are popular with the auto and truck industry?”

Facebook and YouTube have the biggest automotive social success stories, but lucky for you, you have a large demographic — from teenagers to retirees, and both males and females — which means a variety of social platforms could work for you. Here’s some food for thought.

  • Customers have strong feelings about their favorite cars, and the auto industry is tapping into that on Facebook. Chevrolet Camaro has a wildly successful “old school/new school” campaign, pictured here, asking followers if they prefer the vintage or modern Chevy Camaro. At the time of writing this, this post had garnered 5,054 likes and 792 shares.
  • YouTube is a great spot for doing mini how-to videos on all things automotive. Small business Victory Auto Service & Glass found new (and primarily female) followers by making how-to videos on super-simple car maintenance tasks that any car-owner could do themselves. Victory’s YouTube videos has received 3,100 views.
  • While Facebook and YouTube may be excellent places to start, consider Twitter as well. It’s the easiest medium to connect with other small businesses, so if you’re friendly with local businesses who are on Twitter, you can lift each other up by interacting and sharing each others’ content. @RealScottOldham, who’s the editor-in-chief at car website Edmunds.com, does a good job of tweeting interesting and relevant automotive information but remaining personable. He has 1,200+ followers, and @Edmunds has 61,000+.
  • If you deal with photos or come across interesting ones frequently, Pinterest could be a good bet as well. Car Pictures has 6,500+ followers on Pinterest with its variety of car photos — from new to old to odd.  Keep in mind that Pinterest is primarily female, so you may want to cater to that audience here.

Don’t feel you have to pursue all the social outlets mentioned here. Start with one or two that resonate with you most. You can always add more later.

And as a bonus, here’s an infographic on top car brands on social media!

Successful auto social campaigns