Page 34 - GIADA july2020

They Called it Facebook for a Reason

By Terry Lancaster | Terry Lancaster is a social sales trainer and coach, TedX Speaker, and #1 best selling author.
A phone rings in the middle of the night, They certainly didn’t grind to a halt because So let’s do this, for the next seven days,
startling a grumpy middle-aged college some enterprising young students had a instead of trying to get as many cars as we
dean back into consciousness. The brand spanking new 2020 Nissan Rogues, can on Facebook, let’s try to get as many
computer servers at Harvard are crashing. for the incredibly low price of $349 a month faces as we can on Facebook. That’s why
with easy down payments and financing for they called it Facebook after all. Get your
A sophomore student named Mark everyone regardless of their credit history. smiling face on there. Get your family
Zuckerberg has hacked together a The servers crashed because the students and friends on Facebook. Get your happy
little program called Facemash that were sharing and interacting with pictures. customers on Facebook.
allows students campus-wide to vote
on which undergraduate’s pictures are Facebook became a cultural The old rule of thumb is every time you
hotter. Harvard’s limited computing phenomenon because people introduce a customer to another human
infrastructure can’t handle the load. That’s being in the service department, you
how the scene goes in the movie, and engaged with each other double the odds of that customer turning
it’s not too far removed from the truth. through pictures. into a repeat customer.
Facemash got shut down in a matter of
days, but Zuckerberg went on to create I now spend most of my waking hours Guess what. You can introduce people to
TheFacebook, which soon became just helping salespeople sell more cars and your service department (and the parts
Facebook; and the rest is history. make more money using social selling tools department, and the title office) to your
like Facebook, and the hardest part of that customers on Facebook every day. Find
Facebook wasn’t the first social job is convincing them that they don’t have a local business person or community
network, but it soon became the to try so hard. volunteer that’s doing something interesting
in the community and put their face on
ultimate social network. Mike Correra from DealerBuilt is an your Facebook profile. Help support the
automotive social media pioneer. He was people who support you.
At the most basic level, Zuckerberg simply selling cars on LinkedIn and Facebook
took the actual Face Books from Harvard when most salespeople were still scoffing at Dave Clayton at Tidelands Ford on Pawleys
and translated them from paper and ink the idea. Mike says the true key to success Island, SC sells 40 to 50 cars a month by
to pixels. Harvard printed directories of for salespeople on social media is to simply making friends for life with customers
students, including pictures and bios, so be more sociable. and engaging with everyone on a personal
students from far-flung locations and level… online and in real life. He routinely
backgrounds could identify each other If you’re using social media finds people and events worth celebrating
and, more importantly, identify with each in his local community and uses his social
other. primarily to sell to strangers, you media presence to lift them up and honor
need to grab a dictionary and them; from the local ice cream shop to
They printed the books to help lonely, look up the word social. local artisans. His Facebook wall is a steady
socially awkward students make friends stream of happy faces.
faster. Facebook began as a program to Facebook, and the entire concept of social
share pictures and help people make media is about making friends, and engaging See how many faces you can post on
friends. Once interactivity got added to with friends. In short, it’s about being Facebook this week. Make sure you tag
the mix, the world was never the same. You friendly. Treating your friends’ timelines like them so their friends can see the great
will notice, however, that the computers billboard space for cars you’re trying to sell things going on in their lives. And make
at Harvard didn’t come crashing down isn’t friendly. Of course, you have to try to sure that every human being you know,
because people were arguing over political sell cars; no one’s saying you shouldn’t, but on Facebook and in real life, knows what
conspiracies to help/hurt the president by if that’s the only thing you’re doing on social you do for a living so that when they
exaggerating/downplaying the effect of a media, you’re doing it wrong. Your friends are in the market for a new or used car,
worldwide pandemic/nasty little flu bug. will unfriend you, they’ll ignore what you they know they’ve got a friend in the car
The servers didn’t fail because students post, and eventually, Facebook’s algorithms business.
were sharing memes or pictures of what will get the hint and stop showing your
they had for dinner. cheesy ads to your friends altogether. Everyone’s a buyer. Everyone. n

32 | GIADA Independent Auto Dealer JUL/AUG 2020