Using Twitter or Facebook to sell vehicles is daunting enough. But using them to boost F&I may seem like a herculean chore. Nevertheless, some dealerships are doing just that.
The key is to post finance deals and aftermarket products right alongside vehicle photos and, most important, customer testimonials on social media sites, say dealers and social media experts.
Mike Milian says he can sell just about anything through social media, including F&I. He owns Corvette Mike New England in Plymouth, Mass. Milian says he sells 400 used sports cars, mostly Corvettes, a year.
On Nov. 29, he bought a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette convertible at auction. He immediately snapped a picture of it, then posted the photo, a description and some special finance rates for the car on his Facebook and Twitter pages.
Within 48 hours of posting the 2007 Corvette and the finance deal on Facebook, a customer called and financed it through a lender Milian found. Then, the customer bought chrome wheels and a service contract when he took delivery.
"I made money on the front end and the back end," Milian says. "The guy never would have seen that car if he wasn't Facebooking."