LOS ANGELES -

Maximize Social Media rolled out a new dealership initiative on Monday that it says can provide dealers with the social-media solutions that can not only help them generate more sales leads, but also help them create opportunities in the service lane, as well.

The social-media management firm’s initiative focuses on full Facebook business page design and integration as well as Facebook pay-per-click advertising management. Additionally, the initiative aids in the management of platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Maximize chief executive officer Chris McLaughlin suggested that social media’s benefits on the service business frequently “goes unnoticed as dealerships focus on lead generation for immediate car sales."

He added: "But that doesn’t take into consideration the applications that we can run on Facebook for coupons that bring traffic for oil changes, tire rotations, or just scheduled maintenance.

“Consistent engagement over time with social media can provide an excellent return on a car dealership’s investment not only for car sales but also service,” McLaughlin noted.

Applications can include Facebook coupons that bring traffic for oil changes, tire rotations or even scheduled maintenance, he said. Maximize also recommends that dealers take a shared approach to their sales and service marketing budgets.

“We talk with many dealerships that have separate marketing budgets for sales and service. We strongly encourage them to share budgets between sales and service. After all, this approach recognizes the tremendous synergies between the two divisions,” McLaughlin said.

Dealers can also benefit from developing a well-rounded approach to search engine optimization, Maximize says.

“Social signals indicate that natural traffic is coming to a site,” McLaughlin said. “As many SEO experts know, unnatural links are under tremendous scrutiny from search engines and many car dealerships have relied upon these unnatural links to obtain higher page rankings. A strong SEO campaign along with a strong social media campaign is a recipe for success.”