Automotive industries and other companies should take advantage of the social media as people are using these sites to communicate, socialize and interact with others. The internet and social are important components of a comprehensive marketing program and are encouraged to become the venue for buyer prospecting.

Automotive dealers can use a segmented market niche by directing touch points to customers within the same demographics of existing markets. You can do this by boosting the overall success of your team and driving growth in the business.

Customer prospecting is one of the processes in customer acquisition and you can do this by designing communication touch points between you and the clients. This activity uses clients’ data for you to be able to select potential clients within a neighborhood, your region or even in the online community like Social Media sites.

The reasons why you need use Social Media for buyer prospecting includes the following:

1. To Generate Higher Sales. Similar to other marketing programs, taking a proactive position in customer prospecting helps solicit new leads. This effort will help you increase sales potential. By using the advantage of consumer data, you will be able to attract more clients who might be interested in your automotive dealership for services or parts purchases. So, by creating an account and by participating on discussions on social media and keeping your friends or followers updated with your latest promotional activities, you get better chances of sales.
2. Decreased Cost. Commonly, businesses carry out advertising efforts on Social Media as a means of generating new businesses, but lead generation and other marketing forms are neglected. They always forget to consider that prospecting customers online costs less compared to the traditional form of advertising and capitalizing on both produces best results. Remember that creating an account on popular social media is free and strategizing to attract your target customer only requires little technical background.
3. Customization. By using the direct mail customer prospecting approach, you can always customize your campaign without any corresponding cost increase. A background in simple graphic design and internet surfing will help you modify your campaign whenever a change is needed. This method helps you consistently update your taglines, slogans, logo, and colors. This also helps brand your business starting from the touch point to the closing of the sale.While social media buyer prospecting has positive effects in generating new clients, there are also some disadvantages noticed on this approach. The following are some things that you should be aware of in prospecting for buyers on Social Media Marketing.
   1. Commitment. If your automotive company started a blog, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed, you must also assign somebody to maintain it since this is your first touch of point with your prospective clients. Clients who first check the internet when they need a product or service will be frustrated if they are going to find outdated posts or information in your Social Media pages.
   2. No Short Term ROI. Prospecting in Social Media sites is a strategy that will cover long periods of time. Thus, you should not expect to convince a  prospective client to immediately make a decision of buying but instead, you need to sustain their interest in your automotive products and services so that when they already need it, your organization will be on top of their mind.
   3. Risk of the negative comments. Creating an account on Social media sites opens the possibility of negative comments on customer dissatisfaction or even personal grudges that may affect the market position of your product. These comments will have a negative impact on the decision-making of your prospective clients.

   Finally, if you intend to look for prospective clients online, make sure that you consider the risks mentioned above and you must have a ready solution in cases when these problems arise. Covering all bases can let you enjoy the benefits of prospecting buyers from Social Media Sites.