Last week I accidentally stumbled upon Coordinated Business Systems’ Facebook page. I was writing a column about the value or not of social media to the dealer community and just when I thought I could completely dismiss social media, here’s Coordinated Business Systems with 4,144 “Likes” and counting on its Facebook page.
How’d they do that, especially when other dealers seem to be floundering on Facebook and with other forms of social media?
To get a better idea of how, I spoke with Kristie Kripotos, who is responsible for marketing at the Burnsville, Minnesota-based dealership founded by her father, Jim Oricchio. She’s also responsible for the dealership’s successful foray into social media.
What Coordinated did was partner with Hubbard Broadcasting, the company that handles Coordinated’s radio advertising, to run a radio promotion from May to October of last year. Listeners who visited and “liked” Coordinated’s Facebook page were then entered to win either a Sharp Aquos Board, a trip for two to Pebble Peach, or a two-year lease on a Jeep Wrangler. “It was one of the largest B2B promotions we’ve ever done and we got a lot of attention,” recalls Kripotos. “Partnering with Hubbard Broadcasting has been awesome and has helped brand us even more.”
Thanks to that promotion, Coordinated’s “likes” on Facebook, which were a healthy 1,765 before the promotion, more than doubled. Meanwhile, the dealership continues to run promotions periodically. Last month they offered a free one month payment on a lease with any new purchase and this month it’s four tickets for a train getaway.
In order to win these contests, one has to “like” Coordinated to win. Worth noting is that one doesn’t have to be a customer to win. “It’s illegal to do that,” says Kripotos, who is now more knowledgeable about what’s allowed and not allowed when running these types of promotions.
“That’s the risk you take,” she says about the possibility of a non-customer winning. “We did the contest to get the Coordinated name out there and this is just another way to be more personal with our customers and prospects. It brings things down to a less threatening level and makes us seem more human.”
Besides Facebook, Coordinated is active on Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and Google+, which Kripotos maintains is awesome for SEO for the Website. “That’s another reason we’re doing social media, to help increase our SEO,” she adds.
Asked if one form of social media is more effective than any other, she feels that it’s all effective. “It’s all about the engagement,” states Kripotos. “You can see who’s clicking into it and how many people go to our Website from Facebook. We’ve been very happy with our numbers.”
As anyone who has created a Facebook page or signed up for a Twitter account to promote their business, the challenge is finding the time to get social on social media, especially when there’s so many other things to do. That hasn’t stopped Kripotos who spends about five hours a week on Coordinated’s social media efforts.
Coordinated’s social media presence continues to evolve and Kripotos is looking at other initiatives to engage customers, including blogging and posting more YouTube videos targeting customers with helpful hints such as basic copier maintenance.
If it weren’t for Kripotos, Coordinated might still be relying on traditional marketing efforts. She concedes her father was a tough sell although he now sees that this is a good thing and the direction where marketing is going. Like many industry veterans he’s old school and social media is not an easy concept to grasp. “Everyone wants to know the return on investment,” says Kripotos. “You’re not necessarily using this as a lead generation tool, but you have to have a presence. People almost expect you to be on social media. And we’re a technology company so we need to use technology.”
Social media is also helpful for reaching younger decision makers, whether they’re Gen X, Gen Y, or whatever. “Gen Y is immune to most traditional marketing and this is what they’re used to,” explains Kripotos. “Those are your IT people, and IT people are a big part of copier decisions now and you have to be able to reach that group.”
As one might expect, Coordinated is still standing pretty much alone in its market when it comes to leveraging social media. “Our competition isn’t necessarily doing it, but we need to be a leader in it,” emphasizes Kripotos.
In addition, Coordinated has been using social media as a recruiting tool.
Does she have any recommendations for other dealers looking to better utilize social media?
“You need to do it and you need to be consistent with it,” she says. “You have to post at least every other day otherwise you become a social media graveyard. And you have to do it all because they run together—Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Google+.”
