Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/459961
www.BoatingIndustry.com 30 | Boating Industry | February 2015 Social media that sells Social media strategies that bring people into your dealership and deliver great ROI BY NICHOLAS UPTON a ny smart business is looking for a good return on its investment, but in the nebulous world of social media, that's a tall order. There still isn't a great way to measure how those likes turn into leads or those shares turn into sales, but just having a brand out there is essential to sales. Ultimately, getting people in the door and on the sales fl oor is the end goal for a social media strategy. But the fi rst part of any social media strategy is being social with your potential customers. "You can't sell without engagement," said Lauren DeVlaming, social media manager at Dominion Marine Media. "Especially if you're starting from scratch building a following, laying that groundwork of engagement is really important. That's kind of one leg of the stool. Without that, you can't sell." DeVlaming said that no matter the platform, just engaging with potential cus- tomers is the foundation for selling online. "The most obvious thing is you have to start promoting yourself," said DeV- laming. "Typically we tell people you should only be selling yourself about 20 percent of the time, and the other 80 percent you should be engaging." Engaging with people on Facebook and Twitter is no secret: Keep the con- tent fl owing and give the fans something to look at or discuss. Giving potential customers that glimpse into the business is the most important part of traditional social media platforms. Marty Finklestine at Complete Marine in Pompano Beach, Fla., says its Face- book fan base of more than 54,000 people was built almost solely on good engage- ment practices in conjunction with a little advertising on Facebook. He said the