CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. -

Perhaps not surprising, Auto/Mate Dealership Systems’ recent study found that social media and mobile apps are gaining popularity among dealers at a significant rate, as well as becoming an integral part of the consumer/dealer relationship.

President and chief executive officer of Auto/Mate Mike Esposito offered his opinion, noting, “We are getting more requests from our dealer clients for technology solutions to be integrated into their dealership management systems. 

“The overall trend seems to be that dealers are eliminating unnecessary third-party vendors if they can accomplish the same functions within their dealer management systems, as it’s more cost effective,” he added.

Moving on to highlight the results in more detail, of the 159 survey respondents (55 percent owners and general managers, and 45 percent a mix of management positions, including controllers and CIOs, dealer principals, service and parts managers and sales managers), 81 percent said they maintain a personal profile on Facebook.

Lagging significantly behind was LinkedIn, which notched 44 percent and Twitter, with 17 percent. 

That said, it seems some dealers are apparently using social media for personal usage, not melding the sites into their business plan. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they did not use social media to interact with their dealership vendors.

However,  the trend might be on the rise. In fact, 29 percent of the respondents who use Facebook say they use the site to interact with their dealership vendors, 10 percent of LinkedIn users and 9 percent of Twitter users agreed.

Though using social media as a way to market businesses is a growing movement, a somewhat surprising number of respondents said they still don’t have social media programs in their stores. Twenty-one percent of dealers who responded said they still haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon.

But of the dealers that do use social media sites, it looks like most are maintaining the profiles in-house.

A significant 70 percent maintain their social media and reputation management programs in-house, while 9 percent  outsource to a vendor. 

Though social media is certainly being used as a reputation management tool, some dealers apparently see another technology on the rise — mobile apps — as a way to sell more units.

Based on survey results, 46 percent of respondents said they are currently using mobile apps in the sales department, with another 35 percent saying they plan to implement mobile apps within the next year.

Mobile apps for the customer relationship management department are the second most popular choice; with 31 percent saying they are currently using mobile apps with their CRM and another 17 percent saying they plan to implement a CRM mobile app in the next year.

Mobile apps are also starting to be used in the service department. Twenty-three percent of dealers currently use them in the service department and another 32 percent indicate they will implement service related mobile apps in the next year.

Parts departments are at the bottom of the list, with just 14 percent of respondents using mobile apps and another 13 percent saying they plan to implement them within the next year.

Summarizing the results, the survey shows that many dealers may be planning to use social media as a way to connect with vendors in the near future. And for mobile apps, the majority of respondents already use or are planning to implement them within their dealerships in the coming year.