10:04 am, December 3, 2024
A good social media strategy can help transform a used car business and put dealers in front of a huge customer base.
That is the verdict of James McConville, who says that his outfit – Solo Car Sales – has seen a huge upsurge in popularity as a result of harnessing the power of social media.
The company regularly posts videos on Instagram and TikTok and has developed a cult following in its native Liverpool over recent years.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, McConville said that some of the business’s posts are now topping a million views online.
He has even become something of a minor celebrity on Merseyside, with members of the public regularly approaching him to speak about his videos.
Speaking how the firm’s strategy has developed in recent times, McConville told hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay: ‘Getting over the fear of putting myself on camera was one thing. And now, just by making videos, not necessarily all about cars, because no one wants to be spammed just with car stuff.
‘I’ll just film my opinion on something and put it out on our Instagram or our TikTok or whatever else. I’ll sponsor it but everyone’s got their own version of a clever algorithm and clever target audience.
‘Mine seems to work and it’s not unusual now for me to go out in Liverpool and someone says, “You’re that guy that does the videos for Solo Cars”. That’s quite common in Liverpool.
‘I’m just happy to keep doing more of that because I’ve got nothing to hide. I like to think I’m a really good integral person. So I’ll keep putting myself out there and keep doing it.
‘If I put a post Instagram organically, if it’s a good one, it might get 10,000 views but if I sponsored it some of them have had over a million views.’
McConville says that the strategy has replaced traditional methods of reaching customers, as it keeps Solo Cars in the minds of its customers for longer.
However, he says it is important to keep posts varied and not bombard people with too much information at one time.
He added: ‘If you deliver a flyer to someone like you used to years ago, they get hit with that information once, and then it probably goes out their head.
‘They might remember it, they might not, but if omeone follows you on Instagram, you hit them with every single story you upload and you’re constantly at the forefront of their mind.
“We try and always lead with some sort of clever engagement tactic.
‘A few months ago I asked about a Mercedes GLA in particular. I asked the public to guess how many we’d sold, and everyone just started commenting.
‘I was like, “This is crazy. Everyone actually wants to comment”. I can’t remember how many views that video got, but it got something like 300 comments on it.
‘That really drives the engagement and people want to know.’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
A full list of the stories discussed on this week’s episode can be found here.
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
