So, you  have a Facebook Fan Page.

How do I "showcase" my cars to my customers without spamming their news feed?

Why not add your inventory to your fan page in a tab? (BTW, the methods I'm about to teach can be used to add ANY web page right within Facebook so, add your inventory.. add your credit application, etc)

The following instructions assume you already have a Facebook page. If you don't, you can find directions here.

Step 1: In the search box, search for an application called "Static FBML"

Step 2: Go to their page. In the top left corner (under the logo), click on "Add to my Page". A pop up box will ask you which page you want to add it to. Select that page.

Step 3: Go back to your news feed. Within the left menu will be an application called "Ads and Pages". If not, click on "Applications" and search for it.

Step 4: That will take you to a page titled "Pages You Admin". Find the page you added Static FBML to and click on "edit page"

Step 5: Scroll down the page until you see the Static FBML app under Applications. Click on "Edit"

Step 6: A pop up box will open. In the "Box Title" field, enter the text that you want the tab on your Facebook page's wall to read.

Step 7: Cut and paste the below code into the lower box eliminating the BEGIN CODE and END CODE parts. Now edit it accordingly (Ive added an image illustrating the parts you need to edit)

BEGIN CODE
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
function disp1(var1) {
if (var1=='link_1')
outside_location.setInnerFBML(link_1);
else if (var1=='link_2')
outside_location.setInnerFBML(link_2);
}
</script>
<form>
<select id="gowhere" onchange="disp1(document.getElementById('gowhere').getValue())">
<option>-Select below-
<option value="link_1">View Our Inventory
<option value="link_2">Visit Our Website
</select>
</form>
<div id="outside_location"></div>
<fb:js-string var="link_1"><fb:iframe width="760" height="1280" frameborder='0' src='http://backwebs.homenetinc.com/SalesDemo-ATijerina/browse/view_detailed/type_both/' /></fb:js-string>
<fb:js-string var="link_2"><fb:iframe width="760" height="1280" frameborder='0' src='http://www.homenetsalesdemo5.com/site/' /></fb:js-string>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
var outside_location = document.getElementById('outside_location');
</script>
END CODE

Note: The highlighted areas are the areas you will need to edit. Don't edit anything else.

Step 8: In the first area (starting with <option value="link_1">) The text should be what you want the FIRST choice in your drop down box to say. Change that to describe where they would be going. In this example, the text reads - View Our Inventory

Step 9: Repeat Step 8 for the second link.

Step 10: The third highlighted area above is the URL you want to take them to. Notice each line of code corresponds with the number of the link you established in Steps 8 and 9. So, in this example, the first URL corresponds to the first link you created in Step 8.

Step 11: The fourth highlighted area is the second URL.

Step 12: Click "Save Changes"

Step 13: Back to the "Edit Page" page you were on in Step 4. Scroll down again and find the Static FBML application. Click on "Application Settings". Make sure it reads "Box: Available" and "Tab: Added" under the little "profile" tab in the little pop up box.

Now you're finished!

[Note: The Page Administrator cannot see the results after selecting from the drop-down (for some odd reason) but if you log-out, you can see it. Everyone but the Page Administrator(s) can see it, however.)

You can do this to infinity and beyond, by following the instructions in the addendum below (although I wouldn't put a link to every page in your website).

This code creates a tab. Within that tab is a drop down box. Within that drop down box are your link titles. When someone selects a link, the page opens up WITHIN Facebook, right on that page.

Here's an example of what the finished product looks like. LINK (Click on the "My Inventory" tab)

Of course, there are alternative ways to get your inventory onto your Facebook page. Gumiyo has a new application titled "MyShowroom". If you do a search in Facebook, you can find it within the applications search results.

(You can see it on my example page linked above by clicking on the "MyShowroom" tab)

To use Gumiyo's "MyShowroom" app, you need a way to feed your inventory to Gumiyo either through the company that handles your inventory feeds (I know a great company if you're in need!), or directly with Gumiyo through a product that you have.

This is for the budget-minded and costs absolutely nothing! (assuming you have web pages to link to but chances are, if you're a car dealership (or any other business), you at least have that.)

Now what?

You don't want to get too intrusive with your Facebook Fan Page. Remember, the whole point of Social Media Marketing is to engage your customers, not irritate them.  If you irritate them, they will either "un-fan" you or "hide" you in their news feed. Either one of these actions will make you invisible to your fans. This, of course, is contradictory to what you're trying to accomplish.

The second thing you have to keep in mind is that the number of fans you have is absolutely irrelevant. You'd rather have 100 fans that are actually your customers (or potential customers) then have 1000 fans who will never buy anything from you. Personally, I'd start by recruiting the people who already do business with your dealership, your service customers. Create a half-page flyer and stick it in every service customer's vehicle prior to giving them their car back asking them to "fan" you on Facebook.

(Caveat: To get a customized URL for your Facebook Fan Page, you will need 25 fans. Get your employees to fan your page so you can get an easy URL for your customers.)

Keep your page interactive and throw a bone to your fans every once in awhile (ie. service coupon, etc.). Announce your sales. Keep relevant news about your dealership posted. If your dealership is participating in the community (ie sponsoring a little league baseball team, organizing a recycling campaign, etc.) Post information about your vehicles or new models. You have a never-ending supply of free content to add by just utilizing content from your OEM site. Take pictures of your sold customers with their new cars and post them within your photo album. Take photos of your staff. Be creative.

You want to humanize your dealership, NOT make a sales pitch.

Be helpful. Answer any questions you get. Respond to any complaints. Be pro-active. Do these things and, I promise, sales will come. This will only take you about 15-20 minutes a day (if that). Seeing as Facebook pages are now indexed by Google, this has some SEO value as well.

This is a cheap and easy way to interact with the people that truly matter..... your customers.

Hope this helped!

Addendum:

You can add more links to more pages simply by adding lines of code. To add a third line, you would copy and paste this line:

<option value="link_2">Visit Our Website

and change it to this:

<option value="link_3">The name of your new link

Make sure to paste it right after the first line you copied. In other words, keep them in order.

Then copy this line:

<fb:js-string var="link_1"><fb:iframe width="760" height="1280" frameborder='0' src='http://backwebs.homenetinc.com/SalesDemo-ATijerina/browse/view_detailed/type_both/' /></fb:js-string>

and 1) change the "link_1" part to the new number (ie. "link_3), then 2) change the URL to the new web page corresponding with the title you gave link 3. IMPORTANT: make sure you keep the URL surrounded by the single parenthesis.. 'desiredurl.com'

Keep repeating this process until you have all the links you want. They will all open within Facebook. (although only one at a time can be viewed.)