Social media is an extension of your auto repair shop’s online personality. Internet users now have a higher chance of landing on your social media page as their first encounter with your shop. But how much does social media really drive traffic to your website? Thanks to Shareaholic, a digital engagement platform, we now have numbers to prove just how much of an impact social media makes when it comes to driving traffic to your shop’s website.

Shareaholic conducted a study over from 2011 – 2014 to understand the effect that social media had in driving traffic to a website. In the study, 8 social media platforms were tested: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Here are the noteworthy results that auto shop owners can learn from:

Image: Shareaholic

• Traffic sources have shifted from search to social. In December 2014, the top 8 social media networks drove 31.24% of overall traffic to sites. This number is a huge bump up from the previous year, where social media was only driving 22.71% of traffic to sites. These stats show us that consumers are changing the way they find websites from traditional search methods to mobile apps and social media.

• Facebook drives a fourth of all traffic to your site. This is huge!! The next biggest player that drove traffic to sites was Pinterest, driving about 5% of traffic to general sites (this probably wouldn’t apply to auto repair websites). Facebook is the clear winner as the way to get social media users onto your shop’s website.

• The other 6 social media platforms made up less than 2% of total web traffic. While twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and other may not convert into more website visits, it’s still important to keep these accounts updated. People are still going to visit them to better understand the personality of your auto repair shop. And the more of a following you have on social media, the higher Google ranks your SEO. So it’s important not to completely push the rest of the social media outlets aside.

The important thing for shop owners to take away from this is that Facebook plays a huge role in driving people to your site. More visitors on your site will get you more new customers through your door. So make sure you stay active on social media where your shop can be easily found.

If you feel you don’t have the time or experience to run your own social media accounts, consider using CarCareCONNECT to run your online marketing campaign. Reach out to us today at www.carcareconnect.com or call 1.800.591.8675