Building A Purpose-Driven Community Building an online community around the dealerships brand will often lead to failure, as participation is mainly driven by advertising dollars and costly promotions. I’m not taking anything away from this type of “community marketing” because it’s often the best way to get things moving along in the right direction, but what happens if you stop doing promotions ? That’s right, participation stops as well.
By anchoring your social initiatives in something larger than your brand, a higher calling, you drive community participation through passion. By building a purpose-driven community you create a common bonding point between the dealership and it’s community, this is the surest way for community growth, participation, and an increase in ROI (return on influence).
The appeal to a higher calling builds organic growth that unites employees and communities behind a common cause that’s larger than both the dealership and its community members. The higher calling can be a shared passion, a way of life or a cause, as long as it’s something that people can rally behind and feel like their part of.
The Union County School Pride Project Example
Recently we put on a contest at Metro Honda of Union County, using the 4X4 Method of Social Contests Creation, connected with a cause and saw these results:
- 6,182 likes were added by the end of the contest.
- Facebook Insights (75 Days)
a. 2, 765,886 Post Views
b. 44,178 Post Feedback
- Collected over 18,000 canned goods for area food banks.
- 487 Images Were Created
- 138 Blog Posts Were Created
- 91 Videos Were Created
- Traffic to the blog averaged almost 4,000 per month during the contest.
- 513 People showed up in person for the “Settle It On The Courts Challenge.”
- 239 People showed up at the dealership for a Facebook Fan Appreciation Event
- 18 Computers were donated by other businesses as well as lunch catered for the winning school (for the staff).
All of that, for just $5,000!
Finding Your Purpose It’s important when finding a purpose that it’s aligned with who or what the dealership is. It’s important that the cause be the focus and that community members don’t start to think that the only reason you are pushing that specific cause, way or life or passion is because you are trying to earn more business. While that is most certainly the case, don’t approach it with that thought in mind. Instead just give, promote and grow the higher calling. I know that sounds counterintuitive, especially since marketing is all about pushing the dealerships agenda but if you spend your resources pushing fighting hunger, as an example, then you create a bonding point between the dealership and the community. It’s that bonding point that will spur organic growth and create good will.
Going forward, 2011 will see the rise of the human business and dealerships will be wise to approach social media this way or they run the risk of going by the way of the dinosaur. We are in the midst of a relationship economy and more and more people are putting emphasis on what others are saying, what others are thinking and what businesses are part of. Keep in mind that there is more to a dealership than the brick and mortar building, the lot, and the inventory, there are also people, people that make up the business and its the connection between those people and the community that will drive the dealership to new heights in the new year.
Starting today it’s time to redeveloped the core message of your dealership. Make it something community oriented, something that people can rally behind and become part of, something bigger and more grand than all of those involved, an ideal that goes beyond selling cars, beyond selling service and F&I products and becomes part of what people are passionate about.
ACTION STEP: I’ve asked this a few times now because it’s very important, what makes your community tick? What social objects is your community centered around? I really want you to dig deep and find out what social causes, locally, your dealership can rally around.
