DEARBORN, Mich. -

FordDirect — a joint venture between Ford and its franchised dealers — just launched a new Web 2.0 platform, which is designed to make it even easier for consumers to search through Ford and Lincoln dealers’ inventories.

Tapping into the prevalence of social media usage, the new DealerConnection Vehicle Showroom  — based on SiSTeR’s Technologies’ VSHOC and Publisher platform  — integrates with a dealer’s digital marketing or social media platform including blogs, Facebook and their YouTube pages. 

According to the company, the benefit to this is "that consumers can search the most current new and used vehicle inventory without clicking out of their original destination."

And with social media becoming more a part of consumers’ daily life, being connected to potential customers through these outlets can result in turning shoppers into buyers.

To prove this point, Ford cited a recent study from Autoguide.com, which states that 2.4 million in-market shoppers used Facebook in some way to make a vehicle purchase decision.

The study also showed 58 percent of consumers are likely to mention their new-car and/or buying experience via social media, and 82 percent of mentions about car purchases on social media are positive.

"We are finding that consumers are turning to social media and other digital platforms to initiate their research for a vehicle purchase, so it’s important for dealers to capture their attention with the most current information in an interactive way," said Valerie Fuller, chief operating officer of FordDirect.

"DealerConnection Vehicle Showroom provides consumers with an enhanced online experience so that they can find the vehicle that they are looking for and be able to connect with a dealer without the hassle of having to visit numerous websites,” she continued.

Executives from SiSTeR Technologies — provider of automated video production, distribution and vSEO for auto retailers, manufacturers, and industry partners — also commented on the new offering.

"Over the last eight months we have worked on perfecting the details of our video product for FordDirect, ensuring it meets the needs of both dealer and consumer," said Israel Alpert, chief executive officer of SiSTeR Technologies. "Today, we are proud to be taking a huge step forward — publishing the inventory beyond the dealer’s website and making shopping even easier for potential car buyers."

Going into the new offering in greater detail, the program’s interactive filtering and keyword search functions provide users with their desired selection in real time, the company explained.

They also mentioned one particular feature that makes the offering stand out.

“Unlike other video inventory tools, VSR (Dealer Connection Vehicle Showroom) switches automatically to an HTML 5.0 version for users who access it via a smart phone or tablet to maximize the users’ experience and the dealer’s ROI,” officials stressed.

And besides offering consumers the ability to not only search for a new vehicle by make, model and price, they can also submit an inquiry directly to the dealer or refer a vehicle to others without ever leaving the digital or social platform.  

Moreover, it also automatically displays the desired vehicle on the dealer’s website for visitors who come from YouTube and, if such a vehicle is sold, lists of similar vehicles are displayed, potentially saving users time.

The service will be available to all 3,500 Ford and Lincoln Dealers that have DealerConnection websites, the company noted.

Furthermore, it will be available at no additional charge to dealers that currently have both DealerConnection Elite and DealerConnection Premier Advanced Inventory Service Web services.

As a whole, DealerConnection websites average more than 2.5 million monthly unique visitors and drive more than 55,000 monthly leads for Ford and Lincoln dealers, the company noted.