The company has about 150,000 people following Manheim auctions on Facebook an increase of 130 per cent from 12 months ago.
Manheim Australia spokesman Mathew McAuley told GoAutoNews Premium: “In the past four months alone we have grown our followers by 50 per cent, so we are still maintaining good growth rates with the use of engaging content such as videos and events.”
The results reflect how broad industry sectors are profiting from new concepts and how social media offers one of the fastest ways to capture a new audience.
However, he said that while it was easy to create a Facebook page, it is not easy to build and keep an engaged audience.
“You need to publish interesting and relevant content that keeps your followers engaged with your brand and motivates them to interact with you,” he said.
Manheim uses mainly digital advertising for auctions as well as SEO and SEM activities.
“Facebook is an effective way to reach a very large audience and has the ability to serve up different information to different people,” Mr McAuley said.
“It allows us to target specific audiences.”
Mr McAuley said the number of people registering online to be able to bid and buy at auction increased 55 per cent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2015.
See more – Click here to see Manheim on facebook
“While the launch of our new Simulcast online auction system – which allows people to use tablets and smartphones to bid and buy at auction – has increased our online registrations, we also know Facebook has brought in new users,” he said.
“When Facebook live was launched, we used it to show people how an auction works.
“One of the barriers to people buying at auction is the uncertainty and lack of knowledge around how it works. With Facebook live we were able to show people the live auction and give them some insight into what it is like.
“We then followed it up with another live video with a more detailed explanation of what happens here on the Wednesday auctions.”
The latest live video reached 27,185 people and had 7921 views, 19 shares, 100 “likes” and generated 16 comments.
Facebook actively promotes the use of its services to businesses with simple instructions to create a business page.
“We are always looking at ways to make sure the right people see our content, so we can boost Facebook posts to make sure they are seen by the right people and target people with certain interests,” Mr McAuley said.
“We share information that we know is of interest to our audience so they will in turn amplify our message by sharing it with their social networks.”
By Neil Dowling
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