The Garage Socials Scorecard
Ten yes-or-no questions that show whether your Instagram and Facebook are helping you sell cars or just sitting there.
How to use it
Open your garage's Instagram or Facebook page next to this one. Go through the ten questions and tap each one you can honestly answer yes to. Your score adds up as you go. It takes about five minutes.
Your website already does a good job: photos, spec, price, finance. Keep it that way. This scorecard is about the other place buyers look before they ring you.
Turn up every week
Why it matters: people take their time over a car. CarGurus found the buying journey starts about five weeks before purchase, and 71% of buyers use social media somewhere along the way.1 If your page went quiet in August, that's what a buyer sees in October. A car that never appears on your page doesn't exist for anyone who found you there. 1 CarGurus research, reported by AM Online, October 2022: Social media influences seven in 10 car buyers.
Pick the three cars you most want gone. Post one on Monday, one on Wednesday and one on Friday.
Make the cars move
Why it matters: a still photo with "FOR SALE, call for details" looks like every other sale post in the feed, and people scroll straight past it. A short walkaround shows the car from all sides, close up and wide, the way a buyer would look at it on your forecourt. With the details on screen, someone watching with the sound off still knows the price and mileage before they ring.
Got ten minutes? Film one car on your phone: walk round it slowly, then get close on the wheels, the interior and the dash. No time? Just tell us where your listing photos are and we'll do the rest.
Look local and look trusted
Why it matters: buying a used car feels like a risk, and most buyers want to know who they're dealing with before they drive over. A handover photo or a five-star review shows them other people bought from you and were happy. A familiar face and your local streets tell them you're a real business down the road.
Ask your next happy buyer if you can take a photo of them with the keys. Post it with their first name and the car.
Be easy to buy from
Why it matters: a buyer who comments "Still available?" is ready to talk. If nobody answers until next week, they've already booked a test drive somewhere else. Your bio link is the handover from social to your website, so make it land on the cars rather than your home page.
Change your bio link to your stock page, and turn on notifications for comments and DMs on your phone.
Where your page stands
Your page is costing you.
A buyer who checks you out on social sees a quiet page and moves on. Start with Move 1. Getting your stock posted three times a week matters more than anything else on this list.
You're showing up, but the posts aren't doing the selling.
You've got the habit. Your cars probably appear as still photos that look like everyone else's. Move 2 is your biggest win: swap one sale photo a week for a reel.
You're ahead of most garages.
Keep it going. The hard part now is the time it takes every week. If that's slipping, read the next bit.
Where we come in
You already have the photos and spec on your website. We help you do your cars justice on social too.
Hands Free Socials makes the reels and posts for your stock and puts them out on your Instagram and Facebook every week, so you can get on with selling cars. Every reel follows the checks above: steady, sharp footage, the key details on screen, and wide shots mixed with close-ups. You don't need to send anything to start. We work from your website, and if you've got photos of the cars or the team, we'll use them.
You deal with one person, Nic, from start to finish. Nothing goes out on your page until you've seen it.
- Core: 12 posts a month including 4 reels, free for your first 3 months, then £495 a month
- Pro: 24 posts a month including 16 reels and walkarounds of your stock, £595 a month for 3 months, then £1,195
- Rolling monthly, no lock-in