Why isn’t my Facebook/Instagram content working?

It’s a frustrating scenario: your dealership has been posting on Facebook and Instagram regularly – vehicle photos, sales announcements, maybe the occasional meme – yet you’re getting little engagement and almost no tangible results. No messages, no increase in showroom traffic, nothing. “Why isn’t my Facebook/Instagram content working?” is a common cry for help among dealership marketing managers. The truth is, in 2025 social media is a crowded, fast-evolving space. If your content isn’t resonating, there are likely specific reasons and easy fixes. Let’s diagnose the common issues and outline how to turn your social media content into something that does work. By the end, you’ll also see how Motrvu can pinpoint what’s off-track and help get your strategy back in the fast lane.

Common Reasons Dealership Social Content Falls Flat

Before we fix the problem, we need to understand it. Here are some of the top reasons your Facebook/Instagram content might be underperforming:

• It’s Too Salesy or One-Note: Social media is meant to be social. If all you post are generic sales promotions (“Buy now!”, “Best prices in town!” repeatedly) or endless inventory photos with no storytelling, people will tune out. Today’s consumers scroll past obvious ads. They crave value and authenticity. A feed that looks like a classifieds listing or ad brochure won’t garner likes or trust.

• Lack of Value-Add: Are you giving users a reason to follow and engage? If your content doesn’t educate, entertain, or solve a problem for viewers, it’s likely not “working.” For example, a quick tip on car maintenance or a fun behind-the-scenes video from your showroom might perform better than a static “Car for sale” post because it provides something useful or enjoyable.

• Inconsistent Posting or Timing: Maybe you post five times one week, then go silent for a month. Or you always post at random hours. Inconsistency can kill your momentum. The Facebook and Instagram algorithms tend to reward regular, frequent posting . If you’re not consistent, your content might not even be shown to many of your followers, resulting in low engagement.

• Not Reaching the Right Audience: If your followers don’t match your target customer profile (e.g. your page has lots of out-of-area or irrelevant followers from a past boosted post), your content won’t get engagement that leads to sales. Alternatively, you might be on the wrong platform – for example, trying to reach Gen Z buyers mainly on Facebook, when many of them prefer TikTok or Instagram.

• Low Quality Visuals or Presentation: Social media is a visual medium. Dark, low-resolution photos or shaky videos reflect poorly on a dealership’s professionalism and will cause users to scroll past. Likewise, huge text blocks or poor grammar in captions can reduce credibility. Content that “works” often has eye-catching imagery or video and clear, concise captions.

Identifying which of these issues (it could be several) is plaguing your content is half the battle. Next, we tackle how to fix them.

Provide Value: Educate, Entertain, or Solve Problems

One of the quickest ways to improve your social content is to shift from a sales mindset to a service mindset. Ask yourself: What do my customers care about? What would interest or help them? Then create content around those answers.

Educational content is a proven winner for dealerships. Customers have questions – be the one to answer them. For instance, post “How-To” videos or carousel posts that address common issues: How to pair your phone with our cars’ Bluetooth, Tips for first-time car buyers, or Lease vs Buy explained. Dealerships that consistently provide how-to content and answer FAQs on social media build a reputation as trusted experts . This not only boosts engagement (people save and share use ful tips) but also keeps you top-of-mind when that follower is ready to buy. They’ll remember your helpful advice.

Entertainment and personality also have a place. Let followers see the human side of your dealership. Maybe do a quick Instagram Reel of the team unwrapping the latest model that just arrived, or a fun TikTok of your sales staff doing a trending challenge (tastefully). Light-hearted content can increase reach significantly when done right, because it encourages shares and tag-a-friend behavior. The goal is to become more than just a business page – become a page people enjoy following.

Consider adding content like automotive trivia, polls, and quizzes to mix things up. Trivia and quiz posts get shared 1.5× more than other content . For example, a Facebook post like “Trivia Tuesday: What was the first model year of the Ford Mustang? Winner gets a shout-out!” can spark comments and shares. It’s fun and indirectly keeps people thinking about your brand.

By focusing on content that either helps or delights your audience, you’ll likely see your engagement start to climb. A user who never engages with “ad” posts might like or comment on a useful tip or a funny service department blooper reel – and that interaction means the next post of yours is more likely to appear in their feed, according to platform algorithms.

Diversify Your Content Mix

If one type of post isn’t working, try something new! Many dealerships fall into a rut of posting the same content repeatedly (e.g., only vehicle photos with price captions). But your followers have diverse interests, and social algorithms favor variety. Here are some content types to add into your rotation:

• Showcase Your Full Inventory: Are you only posting your newest or most expensive cars? You might be ignoring a huge segment of potential customers. People search for specific models, years, and price points. To cast a wider net, occasionally highlight budget-friendly options, older model years, or certified pre-owned deals. Dealerships should consider posting their entire inventory over time – not just the spotlight vehicles – to broaden reach to buyers seeking exactly those units . Include multiple photos or a video walkaround for maximum appeal .

• User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage customers to share their experience and then repost it. When a customer tags you in a photo with their new car or writes a glowing comment, that’s content gold. Sharing UGC not only gives you fresh content without effort, it also builds trust – seeing real customers’ stories provides authentic social proof . For example, create a monthly “Happy Drivers” album or Instagram Story highlight featuring photos of real buyers with their vehicles (with permission). Prospects see those and think, “Okay, people like me buy from them and had a good time.”

• Behind-the-Scenes and Team Spotlights: Content working poorly might indicate a lack of human connection. Fix that by introducing your staff and giving a peek behind the showroom curtain. A short video tour of your service center with your lead tech explaining how they prep cars, or a “Meet Our Sales Team: 5 Fun Facts about [Employee Name]” post can make your dealership more relatable. When followers feel like they “know” your team, they’re more inclined to engage and eventually do business.

• Local Community Content: Highlight local events, charities, or partnerships your dealership is involved in. If you sponsor the local little league, post some photos from the games. If there’s a big community event (parade, fair), create content around it. This not only boosts engagement (because local people love seeing their community highlighted) but also differentiates you from other dealerships by showing you care about more than just selling cars.

• Explain Industry Jargon: Car buying and servicing is full of confusing terms for the average consumer. Create a series of simple explainer posts decoding terms like “APR”, “horsepower vs torque”, or “certified pre-owned”. This positions you as a helpful authority. Plus, such posts can improve your content’s discoverability – educational content tends to perform well in search and shares. According to experts, publishing definitions of common auto terms boosts your SEO and educates buyers , which in turn draws more eyeballs to your social pages.

By diversifying your content, you’ll learn what resonates. Perhaps your audience goes crazy for behind-the-scenes clips but ignores corporate sales graphics – that’s insight to lean into the former. A varied content mix ensures you appeal to different segments of your followers and keeps your feed interesting. It also signals to the algorithms that you’re not a one-note account, which can improve your overall reach.

Be Consistent and Strategic with Posting

If your content quality is solid but it’s still not gaining traction, consistency (or lack thereof) could be the culprit. Social media rewards frequency and recency. The more consistently you post, the more your content will appear in feeds . Conversely, long gaps or random sporadic posting will hurt your visibility.

Create a content calendar or schedule for your dealership’s social media. For instance, plan for 3 posts a week on Facebook and 5 on Instagram (including Stories) to start. You might designate themes: Monday = maintenance tip, Wednesday = new inventory spotlight, Friday = customer feature or fun post. This not only keeps you organized, it sets an expectation with your audience that you’re active and worth following. As Sendible’s social media experts put it, followers will “come to expect and anticipate the content you’re posting” when you maintain a steady schedule .

Also, pay attention to when you post. Look at your page insights to find when your followers are online. Often, early evening or lunchtime posts catch people when they’re free to browse. If you consistently post at optimal times, you increase the likelihood of engagement (and thus the algorithm shows your posts to more people). On the flip side, if you dump content at 2 AM or irregular hours, it may get buried by morning.

If managing a steady posting schedule sounds daunting, remember you can use scheduling tools (or built-in Facebook Creator Studio features) to prepare posts in batches. A social media management tool or platform like Motrvu can help you schedule content days or weeks in advance, so you never miss your cadence. Consistency doesn’t have to mean constantly being on your phone posting – you can plan ahead.

Finally, choose the right platforms for your resources. You don’t have to be everywhere; you just have to do a great job where you are. If you find you can consistently manage Facebook and Instagram but not also Twitter or TikTok, it’s better to focus on excelling on two platforms than to do four platforms poorly. As one guide notes, spreading yourself too thin across every network can dilute your efforts – it’s often wiser to veto the channels you can’t keep up with in favor of the ones you can . For most dealerships, Facebook and Instagram are “good bets” because they’re visual and local-friendly . Make those strong before you expand to others.

Measure, Tweak, and Improve

Social media performance issues aren’t fixed overnight. It’s an iterative process: try new things, see how they perform, and refine your approach. This is where data is your friend. Dive into your Facebook Insights and Instagram analytics regularly. Identify patterns: maybe your video posts have 3x the reach of image posts – so do more video. Or you notice your audience engages more with service-related content than sales content, indicating an interest area to cater to.

Pay attention not just to vanity metrics like likes, but actionable metrics. Are people clicking the link to your website when you post? Are you receiving more direct messages as you change your content strategy? For example, after adding a weekly Q&A “Ask a Tech” story series, did you start seeing more service appointment requests? Track these outcomes.

If you have access to more advanced tools, use them. Motrvu can greatly simplify this measurement process by aggregating all your engagement data and tying it to outcomes. Instead of manually guessing why content isn’t working, Motrvu shows you concrete insights – perhaps revealing that “walkaround videos get 5X more impressions and 2X more leads than static photos” for your pages, or that customer testimonial posts in the evening yield a spike in website clicks. These kinds of insights let you tweak your strategy intelligently.

Experimentation is key. Treat each month as a chance to improve. Maybe in Month 1 you focus on upping post frequency and see moderate improvement. In Month 2, you layer on two educational posts per week – and notice engagement rises 50%. By Month 3, you add a video element and see another jump. Continuous improvement will get your content “working” better and better.

Importantly, don’t be afraid to let go of tactics that clearly aren’t working. If you poured effort into polished Monday morning sales posts and they consistently flop, replace them with something else (maybe a casual Monday morning “weekend recap” video from your GM). The data will tell you what’s worth continuing.

How Motrvu Pinpoints What Works (and What Doesn’t)

Posting on Facebook and Instagram can feel like a guessing game. What gets reach? What gets buried? That’s where Motrvu comes in—your behind-the-scenes amplifier for content that deserves to be seen.

With Motrvu, you don’t need to reinvent your content strategy. You simply upload your existing posts—inventory shots, service offers, videos, or reels—set a reach target, and let Motrvu take it from there.

Motrvu plugs directly into your channels and uses intelligent automation to push your best content further. Posts that would normally fizzle out now reach 5–10x more people—without you boosting manually or spending hours fine-tuning audiences.

It’s not about trial and error anymore. Motrvu learns what works and quietly optimizes in the background—adjusting timing, format, and spend to match your audience’s behavior. No extra hires. No wasted spend. Just consistent, measurable reach that grows your visibility.

Even better, Motrvu helps you stop wasting effort on posts that don’t perform. It quietly phases out underperformers and doubles down on content that connects.

Think of Motrvu as a reach engine running quietly under the hood—taking your existing content and giving it the audience it deserves.

Turning “Not Working” into “Winning” Content

In summary, if your social media content isn’t working, don’t despair – diagnose and adjust. Start by ensuring you’re providing real value and not just shouting sales messages. Diversify your content types to find what clicks with your audience. Post consistently and at strategic times, on the platforms that matter most. And above all, let data guide you: measure everything, learn from it, and refine your approach continuously.

Social media success for dealerships comes from being helpful, human, and responsive. When you strike that balance, you’ll find your audience grows and engages, and those likes and comments will start translating into leads and showroom visits.

With the right tweaks and the insights from a tool like Motrvu – which will keep you on track by illuminating what your customers respond to – you can transform your Facebook and Instagram presence from a dead zone into a thriving community of fans and potential buyers. Soon, you won’t be asking why your content isn’t working… you’ll be celebrating what is working and reaping the rewards in increased traffic and sales.