Car Rental Marketing: Which Outlet and Why?
With so many options when it comes to car rental marketing, knowing which one to use and why is vital. Our Social Media Coordinator, Stefan Jagot, teamed up with Auto Rental News to create a list of social media outlets and and why they’e important.
Twitter:
What is it? Twitter is an online social networking service where users can send short 140-character messages called tweets. Hashtags allow users to search for tweets that have a common topic.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: Twitter provides operators the opportunity to respond to customers and complaints in real time. It’s also effective in sharing relevant content from across the Web. Twitter can also be used sparingly to promote company rates.
Facebook:
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What is it? Facebook is an online social networking service that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and send messages. Additionally, users can build common interest groups, publicize an event and create a public page around a specific topic.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: Facebook can be used for many things. However, as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has explicitly stated, Facebook should not be used for blatant promotion — unless it’s a paid advertisement. Facebook has gone as far as to penalize business pages that blatantly promote.
Use Facebook as an “engagement tool.” That means posting videos, articles and photos that your target consumers may find interesting. Also, Facebook has a review system, which can be used for improving customer service
Google+:
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What is it? Owned and operated by Google Inc., Google+ is a social network where users can post status updates to the stream, group different types of relationships into circles and upload photos to private cloud-based albums.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: Similar to YouTube, any content created for Google+ will help a company’s Google search rankings — as long as the company’s website is synced to its Google+ page. Likewise, if a company’s Google+ page is synced to its blog, that will also improve the company’s search results in Google.
Additionally, Google+ has a review system for users, which can be used for reputation management and customer service.
Yelp:
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What is it? Yelp publishes crowd-sourced reviews about local businesses. Originally founded to help people find local businesses, business owners can set up free accounts to interact with their customers.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: This service should be used by all operators, as it will allow you to gauge how the community views your business. From there, companies can respond (in a polite manner) to criticisms or respond to praises.
If your company is not on Yelp, you are doing a huge disservice to your business. Reputation management is important for any industry, especially for car rental. People will rent from trusted companies, and Yelp is the best way to build trust on the Internet.
LinkedIn:
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What is it? LinkedIn is a business-focused social networking service, which is mainly used for professional networking. Users can create a profile that lists job experience and skills.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: LinkedIn should not be used for business-to-customer interaction, since it acts as a business-to-business platform. However, operators can connect with one another and use LinkedIn as a tool to create business connections and discuss the industry. Essentially, LinkedIn is a pure business networking social media outlet.
YouTube:
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What is it? YouTube is a video-sharing website where people can watch and share originally-created videos.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: Because YouTube is owned by Google, anytime you create content for YouTube, it will help a business in its Google search rankings. YouTube videos should be short, interesting and direct. Unless your company possesses video production skills, content for a YouTube channel should be outsourced.
Instagram:
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What is it? Instagram is an online social networking service where users can take pictures and videos and share them on other social networking platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: Instagram is purely visual and mobile-based. It is best utilized by operators located in resort towns and/or operators with premium fleets. With no ability to post links on an Instagram profile, it’s best used to keep your business top-of-mind — not to convert to sales.
Tumblr:
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What is it? Tumblr is a social networking website that allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: My advice is similar to that for Instagram, but Tumblr is not mobile-based and does allow link posting. Still, most Tumblr users aren’t likely to respond to marketing attempts. You’re best off utilizing your resources in other social media platforms.
Pinterest:
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What is it? Pinterest is a photo-sharing website where users can upload, save and manage images —known as pins — along with other media content like videos. These pins can be organized into collections known as pinboards.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: If your operation is based in a resort town, Pinterest could be used for the same purposes as Instagram. Stick to visual-based content, and your business should see some results.
Foursquare:
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What is it? Foursquare is a local search mobile app where users can “check-in” at their current location and share with other Foursquare users.
How it’s helpful to car rental operators:
Jagot: While Foursquare isn’t the most popular social media app, there are enough users to warrant taking some time with it. Upon claiming your company’s location on Foursquare, you can use the service to promote specials exclusive to Foursquare users. This could build brand loyalty and keep customers coming back.
Which outlet(s) is your operation on? Let us know below!