Digital Air Strike™ study finds that Social Media is king for consumers in the car buying process

A study of more than 2000 recent car buyers found that 91 percent used social media and review websites – more than any other resource – in their dealership selectionLAS VEGAS, NV, (October 15, 2014) — Digital Air Strike™, leading provider of automotive social media, online reputation and lead response solutions, released the results of its 2014 Automotive Social Media Trends Study at the J.D Power Marketing Roundtable in Las Vegas, Nevada yesterday afternoon. With consumers' ever-expanding dependence on social media, this study details the specific usage trends of social media and online review sites when selecting a dealership for a new car purchase. The study included an online survey of 2,000 consumers who had purchased a vehicle in the last six months.The study revealed that the vast majority (91 percent) of car buyers surveyed used social media and review sites in their dealership selection search, and 75 percent found the Internet to be the most helpful source for research – surpassing all other traditional advertising and marketing mediums including radio, print and television.Star ratings also serve an important role according to the study, with 83 percent of car buyers relying on review star ratings in search results, even if they did not read the actual reviews (up from 76 percent in 2013). This year's study also found that 45 percent of those surveyed consider review sites the most helpful medium, raking them “the most helpful or as helpful as” the dealer-owned websites, whereas only 19 percent found dealer's websites the most helpful.The overall trend toward the increased use of mobile technologies among consumers also holds true in this study, with 56 percent of car buyers using a mobile device to search and/or read reviews about a dealership.Additional findings include:

• 74 percent of car buyers surveyed would drive 20-60 miles to reach a dealership with good reviews – up from 63 percent the prior year
• Cars.com & Edmunds.com continue to lead top reviews sites. Facebook has now jumped into the top five review sites for dealership reviews as ranked by car buyers. MerchantCircle appeared for the first time on the list of top review sites and ranks in the top ten.
• After Google, Cars.com ranked as the top mobile app used by car buyers to read reviews
• 48 percent of car buyers say they would use the new “click to purchase” feature by Facebook for automotive purchases/discounts.
• 33 percent of car buyers have clicked on a Facebook Ad on a mobile device.
• 75 percent of car buyers said they are more likely to trust a review from a friend on Facebook vs. a review on another site, from an unknown consumer.

Webinar Series To learn more about the study findings and the latest social media best practices, ROI tips and dealer success stories, auto dealers are welcome to attend one of our free webinars. To sign up for a webinar visit: https://digitalairstrike.com/webinars/The post Digital Air Strike™ study finds that Social Media is king for consumers in the car buying process appeared first on Digital Air Strike™ | Automotive Social Media, Reputation Management and Internet Lead Response.