The marketing adage “content is king” has been around for a long time. In 2013, it appears that both the search engines and social media sites are focusing on content as their driving forces, but in a different way than most understand. Things are changing in the world of internet marketing. Here’s what you need to know.

Content was never really “king”. Though it made a nice talking point and allowed marketing companies an opportunity to charge for their labors, it was always a temporary fix. In search, it started off as extremely important for a little while until marketers started learning how to manipulate it, so the search engines switched to focus on external signals such as links. Then, the links started turning into link farms and “splogs”, so content re-emerged as a focus point.

Companies were built on the premise of “more is better” and started putting out low-quality, spun, or light content in an effort to fool the search engines once again. Google made moves to shut this down in February, 2011, with the first of many Penguin algorithm updates that effectively put an end to content farming.

Social media saw a similar shift towards spam in 2011 that was quickly sorted by secretive algorithm adjustments that took into account the different layers of liking, sharing, retweeting, and other social media activities to once again force quality of content to the front ahead of bulk.

For the first time ever, content is truly emerging as the leader in internet marketing activities, but it has manifested differently than most have seen in the past. There’s no longer SEO content, social media content, and conversion content that act separately from each other. Going into 2013, these three primary types of internet marketing content are consolidating into a singular strategy. It’s not that they are becoming the same. It’s that they have to work together for maximum results.

In essence, content is not king. It’s like a president. It has power, certainly, but the majority of that power must be shared, enhanced, and complemented by other factors such as links and social signals. Here’s how the president of internet marketing will work in 2013…

The different hats of a president

Just as any good president must wear different hats depending on the circumstance, a strong content marketing strategy requires that the content falls into the different categories depending on the needs of the moment. I mentioned the three most important – SEO content, social media content, and conversion content – but there are others that often come into play.

We’re going to focus on the three important ones for now:

• The President as an Organizer – The President can’t do it all. He or she must bring the leaders of Congress and the states together to demonstrate a coherent strategy for their country. SEO content works must the same way. Creating SEO content is different from creating content that acts as SEO for a particular page. True SEO content is designed to help generate inbound links, points the search engines in the right directions once they land on a particular page, and enhances the conversion pages through context and appropriate internal links.
• The President as an Ambassador – It’s important for a President to be strong, friendly, and build relationships with others. What the President says and how he or she says it makes a difference in perceptions. Done properly, the message is shared. The same holds true for social media content. You can have interesting things to post from your website onto other sites, but if the relationships aren’t there, you won’t get very far regardless of the quality of the content.
• The President as an Administrator – Despite what anyone says, a President has to be a good salesperson. They have to take their ideas and make them work within their country which requires the ability to direct the people appropriately and get things done that work. It doesn’t matter how good a President is at being an organizer or ambassador if they can’t deliver the goods at the end of the day. This is where conversion content finds similarities. You can have people interested, but if you don’t turn them into leads, customers, or clients, your other efforts are worthless.

From a practical perspective, you content must be able to bind all of the major internet marketing efforts into a working strategy. This is where content comes in. Turn it into the centerpiece of your internet marketing for 2013. Links, social signals, traffic, conversions – all are necessary for success. The easiest way to achieve them is through the strongest content that you can muster.

* * *

“Mt Rushmore” image courtesy of Shutterstock. Story from Techi.

The marketing adage “content is king” has been around for a long time. In 2013, it appears that both the search engines and social media sites are focusing on content as their driving forces, but in a different way than most understand. Things are changing in the world of internet marketing. Here’s what you need to know.

Content was never really “king”. Though it made a nice talking point and allowed marketing companies an opportunity to charge for their labors, it was always a temporary fix. In search, it started off as extremely important for a little while until marketers started learning how to manipulate it, so the search engines switched to focus on external signals such as links. Then, the links started turning into link farms and “splogs”, so content re-emerged as a focus point.

Companies were built on the premise of “more is better” and started putting out low-quality, spun, or light content in an effort to fool the search engines once again. Google made moves to shut this down in February, 2011, with the first of many Penguin algorithm updates that effectively put an end to content farming.

Social media saw a similar shift towards spam in 2011 that was quickly sorted by secretive algorithm adjustments that took into account the different layers of liking, sharing, retweeting, and other social media activities to once again force quality of content to the front ahead of bulk.

For the first time ever, content is truly emerging as the leader in internet marketing activities, but it has manifested differently than most have seen in the past. There’s no longer SEO content, social media content, and conversion content that act separately from each other. Going into 2013, these three primary types of internet marketing content are consolidating into a singular strategy. It’s not that they are becoming the same. It’s that they have to work together for maximum results.

In essence, content is not king. It’s like a president. It has power, certainly, but the majority of that power must be shared, enhanced, and complemented by other factors such as links and social signals. Here’s how the president of internet marketing will work in 2013…

The different hats of a president

Just as any good president must wear different hats depending on the circumstance, a strong content marketing strategy requires that the content falls into the different categories depending on the needs of the moment. I mentioned the three most important – SEO content, social media content, and conversion content – but there are others that often come into play.

We’re going to focus on the three important ones for now:

• The President as an Organizer – The President can’t do it all. He or she must bring the leaders of Congress and the states together to demonstrate a coherent strategy for their country. SEO content works must the same way. Creating SEO content is different from creating content that acts as SEO for a particular page. True SEO content is designed to help generate inbound links, points the search engines in the right directions once they land on a particular page, and enhances the conversion pages through context and appropriate internal links.
• The President as an Ambassador – It’s important for a President to be strong, friendly, and build relationships with others. What the President says and how he or she says it makes a difference in perceptions. Done properly, the message is shared. The same holds true for social media content. You can have interesting things to post from your website onto other sites, but if the relationships aren’t there, you won’t get very far regardless of the quality of the content.
• The President as an Administrator – Despite what anyone says, a President has to be a good salesperson. They have to take their ideas and make them work within their country which requires the ability to direct the people appropriately and get things done that work. It doesn’t matter how good a President is at being an organizer or ambassador if they can’t deliver the goods at the end of the day. This is where conversion content finds similarities. You can have people interested, but if you don’t turn them into leads, customers, or clients, your other efforts are worthless.

From a practical perspective, you content must be able to bind all of the major internet marketing efforts into a working strategy. This is where content comes in. Turn it into the centerpiece of your internet marketing for 2013. Links, social signals, traffic, conversions – all are necessary for success. The easiest way to achieve them is through the strongest content that you can muster.

* * *

“Mt Rushmore” image courtesy of Shutterstock. Story from Techi.

“We have a rule at our dealership – no more than 3 social media posts a day. Yes, Twitter is included.”

It’s not a secret. Those who follow me on Twitter know that I post 40-50 times a day. I’m a guy who has been sucked into social media and it works for me. It definitely wouldn’t work for a business. With that said, the infrequent way that the car dealers I monitor handle their Twitter is simply not enough. You need to Tweet more.

The notion that people will unfollow you if you post too much is still a reality… on Facebook. Twitter is different. Because of the way that the feed works in a chronological order rather than based on an algorithm the way Facebook and Google+ do it, each individual Tweet only reaches a tiny fraction of your audience at any given time.  Some say that, depending on the quality of your following, the best that you can expect is still less than 1% per Tweet. That means that if you have 1000 followers, less than 10 people actually see your Tweet.

To Tweet infrequently means that you’re not reaching the audience. To Tweet too much means risking getting unfollowed. The middle ground: a dozen. If you post around a dozen Tweets a day, you’ll find that you can be successful and garner more engagement without making people leave you in droves.

The other challenge when looking at this number is the time necessary to make it happen. A dozen sounds like a lot. Done right, it should only take about 10-20 minutes a day. Here are some tips:

• Post 3-5 links. They can be to your blog, to a video you released, to industry news, to reviews of your products – the possibilities are limitless.
• Post 1-3 proactive engagement @replies. Send a Tweet towards other local businesses, local influencers, and others in the industry.
• Post pics – no limit here. If you’re a car dealer, you have plenty of things on your lot that can be sent as pictures. The new filter tools on Twitter mobile are excellent. Take advantage of them. Post pictures of cars!
• Respond accordingly. If you’re only getting a couple of interactions and retweets a day, respond to all of them. If you start getting more interactions, respond to the “manual” ones. Anyone who talks to you directly (in other words, not a retweet) should get a reply from you.
• Use your other social networks. Some people tie Facebook directly into their Twitter feed. I’m against this for several reasons that I won’t get into now, but you should definitely tie in Pinterest, Tumblr, and other social networks.

The most important thing to remember is to space out the frequency. You’ll run more risk of people unfollowing you by posting three or more Tweets one right after another (other than responses to others) than by posting a dozen a day spread out. Use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to keep space between your posts.

Twitter is a great tool that so few are really using properly. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by having a vibrant Twitter feed.

“We have a rule at our dealership – no more than 3 social media posts a day. Yes, Twitter is included.”

It’s not a secret. Those who follow me on Twitter know that I post 40-50 times a day. I’m a guy who has been sucked into social media and it works for me. It definitely wouldn’t work for a business. With that said, the infrequent way that the car dealers I monitor handle their Twitter is simply not enough. You need to Tweet more.

The notion that people will unfollow you if you post too much is still a reality… on Facebook. Twitter is different. Because of the way that the feed works in a chronological order rather than based on an algorithm the way Facebook and Google+ do it, each individual Tweet only reaches a tiny fraction of your audience at any given time.  Some say that, depending on the quality of your following, the best that you can expect is still less than 1% per Tweet. That means that if you have 1000 followers, less than 10 people actually see your Tweet.

To Tweet infrequently means that you’re not reaching the audience. To Tweet too much means risking getting unfollowed. The middle ground: a dozen. If you post around a dozen Tweets a day, you’ll find that you can be successful and garner more engagement without making people leave you in droves.

The other challenge when looking at this number is the time necessary to make it happen. A dozen sounds like a lot. Done right, it should only take about 10-20 minutes a day. Here are some tips:

• Post 3-5 links. They can be to your blog, to a video you released, to industry news, to reviews of your products – the possibilities are limitless.
• Post 1-3 proactive engagement @replies. Send a Tweet towards other local businesses, local influencers, and others in the industry.
• Post pics – no limit here. If you’re a car dealer, you have plenty of things on your lot that can be sent as pictures. The new filter tools on Twitter mobile are excellent. Take advantage of them. Post pictures of cars!
• Respond accordingly. If you’re only getting a couple of interactions and retweets a day, respond to all of them. If you start getting more interactions, respond to the “manual” ones. Anyone who talks to you directly (in other words, not a retweet) should get a reply from you.
• Use your other social networks. Some people tie Facebook directly into their Twitter feed. I’m against this for several reasons that I won’t get into now, but you should definitely tie in Pinterest, Tumblr, and other social networks.

The most important thing to remember is to space out the frequency. You’ll run more risk of people unfollowing you by posting three or more Tweets one right after another (other than responses to others) than by posting a dozen a day spread out. Use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to keep space between your posts.

Twitter is a great tool that so few are really using properly. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by having a vibrant Twitter feed.

There's a plethora of articles, tips, and techniques about automotive SEO that fill blogs, webinars, and training courses. Everyone has opinions about what works best and how to help dealers rank better in search. The biggest mistake that dealers (and their vendors) often make isn't in the SEO techniques themselves but rather in the underlying keyword principles. It doesn't matter how good the SEO techniques are; if you don't have the right keywords selected from the start and make adjustments to the targets on a regular basis, your optimization is not optimal.

Here are some quick best practices to keep your keywords from going stagnant:

• When You Hit Your Goals, Move On - This is the most common keyword mistake in the automotive industry. I see dealers and their vendors pushing hard for keywords that they're already dominating. They likely selected them from the beginning as high priority but never adjusted when they reached the top. If you're ranked #1 for a keyword, no measure of additional SEO effort will get you ranked higher. Stop. Move your efforts to other keywords. Monitor it - if you fall from the top spot, re-engage with that keyword, but otherwise point your attentions to getting more keywords.
• Remember the Variations - So, you're going after a keyword like "Shreveport Honda Dealer". That's great, but what about the others? Order of the words matter. Plural variations matter. Synonyms matter. You should be going after "Honda Dealer Shreveport", "Shreveport Honda Dealership", "Honda Dealers Shreveport LA", etc.
• Rightsize Efforts Based on Competition Levels - You don't need a rocket launcher to take down a rabbit. Likewise, a BB gun isn't going to take down an elephant. Apply the right measure of SEO pressure on your selected keywords - no more, no less. As a general rule, the more words that are in the keyword phrase, the easier it is to get. For example, "Minneapolis Toyota" takes a lot of effort while "2013 Toyota Camry Minneapolis" takes less. Also, the competition level in a given metro makes a difference. Keywords for "Los Angeles CA" are easier than keywords for "Thousand Oaks CA".
• Go for Top 5 for Some Keywords - There are certain keywords where the effort to get to #1 simply isn't worth it. This is particularly true for keywords in cities where there is already a local dealership. If you're in Palo Alto and you want to rank for keywords in San Jose, the chances of beating actual San Jose dealers is low, but getting into the top 5 is usually achievable. Set your expectations properly and focus on getting more keywords rather than moving up a little higher for competitive keywords.

These are just a handful of best practices, but the underlying lesson is clear. Watch your keywords. Adjust them. You or your vendor should be adjusting your SEO monthly based upon where you rank for your keywords. If you let your keywords go stagnant, you're just spinning your wheels.

There's a plethora of articles, tips, and techniques about automotive SEO that fill blogs, webinars, and training courses. Everyone has opinions about what works best and how to help dealers rank better in search. The biggest mistake that dealers (and their vendors) often make isn't in the SEO techniques themselves but rather in the underlying keyword principles. It doesn't matter how good the SEO techniques are; if you don't have the right keywords selected from the start and make adjustments to the targets on a regular basis, your optimization is not optimal.

Here are some quick best practices to keep your keywords from going stagnant:

• When You Hit Your Goals, Move On - This is the most common keyword mistake in the automotive industry. I see dealers and their vendors pushing hard for keywords that they're already dominating. They likely selected them from the beginning as high priority but never adjusted when they reached the top. If you're ranked #1 for a keyword, no measure of additional SEO effort will get you ranked higher. Stop. Move your efforts to other keywords. Monitor it - if you fall from the top spot, re-engage with that keyword, but otherwise point your attentions to getting more keywords.
• Remember the Variations - So, you're going after a keyword like "Shreveport Honda Dealer". That's great, but what about the others? Order of the words matter. Plural variations matter. Synonyms matter. You should be going after "Honda Dealer Shreveport", "Shreveport Honda Dealership", "Honda Dealers Shreveport LA", etc.
• Rightsize Efforts Based on Competition Levels - You don't need a rocket launcher to take down a rabbit. Likewise, a BB gun isn't going to take down an elephant. Apply the right measure of SEO pressure on your selected keywords - no more, no less. As a general rule, the more words that are in the keyword phrase, the easier it is to get. For example, "Minneapolis Toyota" takes a lot of effort while "2013 Toyota Camry Minneapolis" takes less. Also, the competition level in a given metro makes a difference. Keywords for "Los Angeles CA" are easier than keywords for "Thousand Oaks CA".
• Go for Top 5 for Some Keywords - There are certain keywords where the effort to get to #1 simply isn't worth it. This is particularly true for keywords in cities where there is already a local dealership. If you're in Palo Alto and you want to rank for keywords in San Jose, the chances of beating actual San Jose dealers is low, but getting into the top 5 is usually achievable. Set your expectations properly and focus on getting more keywords rather than moving up a little higher for competitive keywords.

These are just a handful of best practices, but the underlying lesson is clear. Watch your keywords. Adjust them. You or your vendor should be adjusting your SEO monthly based upon where you rank for your keywords. If you let your keywords go stagnant, you're just spinning your wheels.

More businesses are taking advantage of the inexpensive advertising options that Facebook has available. They are far from perfect but they have value simply because they get the brand out there without a lot of cost. The affects on reach are so dramatic and the dollars spent are so miniscule that many are promoting on a daily basis as Facebook wants it to be. It takes seconds to get a story rolling on Promoted Stories. There are, however, things to watch.

Unlike Google or other forms of advertising, Promoted Posts still follow the same rules and best practices associated with normal posts. In other words, spam won't fly. In fact, it can do more damage to your Facebook page when promoted than when it's simply posted.

Facebook takes into account many factors when deciding when your posts appear in news feeds and which users will see them. When you promote a post, it appears higher in the news feed for your fans and possibly in the feeds of friends of your fans, depending on which options you select. This is a good thing but it can have a negative effect if you aren't posting quality content. If it's of low value, people who are not used to seeing you in their feed may unlike your page, remove your from their feed, or report the content as spam (even if it isn't spam). These actions have negative effects on both your promoted posts and your standard posts. In other words, by exposing content that people generally won't like, you do more damage than good.

This is a common issue for businesses. They see the benefits once they start using Sponsored Posts, but after a little while the same money isn't going as far as it used to. The costs of advertising go up while the potential reach goes down. They also start to notice that their unsponsored posts get fewer views because of the spam reports, unlikes, and removals from the news feeds.

The only way to avoid this is to make sure that the content that gets sponsored is of the same or higher value to people as your normal posts. This doesn't mean that you should use Facebook advertising dollars on frivolous posts but it does mean that you must be mindful of the value you're bringing to the audience. It's a bigger stage when the posts are sponsored so be sure to put your best foot forward.

More businesses are taking advantage of the inexpensive advertising options that Facebook has available. They are far from perfect but they have value simply because they get the brand out there without a lot of cost. The affects on reach are so dramatic and the dollars spent are so miniscule that many are promoting on a daily basis as Facebook wants it to be. It takes seconds to get a story rolling on Promoted Stories. There are, however, things to watch.

Unlike Google or other forms of advertising, Promoted Posts still follow the same rules and best practices associated with normal posts. In other words, spam won't fly. In fact, it can do more damage to your Facebook page when promoted than when it's simply posted.

Facebook takes into account many factors when deciding when your posts appear in news feeds and which users will see them. When you promote a post, it appears higher in the news feed for your fans and possibly in the feeds of friends of your fans, depending on which options you select. This is a good thing but it can have a negative effect if you aren't posting quality content. If it's of low value, people who are not used to seeing you in their feed may unlike your page, remove your from their feed, or report the content as spam (even if it isn't spam). These actions have negative effects on both your promoted posts and your standard posts. In other words, by exposing content that people generally won't like, you do more damage than good.

This is a common issue for businesses. They see the benefits once they start using Sponsored Posts, but after a little while the same money isn't going as far as it used to. The costs of advertising go up while the potential reach goes down. They also start to notice that their unsponsored posts get fewer views because of the spam reports, unlikes, and removals from the news feeds.

The only way to avoid this is to make sure that the content that gets sponsored is of the same or higher value to people as your normal posts. This doesn't mean that you should use Facebook advertising dollars on frivolous posts but it does mean that you must be mindful of the value you're bringing to the audience. It's a bigger stage when the posts are sponsored so be sure to put your best foot forward.

When Instagram decided to block Twitter from being able to post the images directly onto the platform, we all knew it was a matter of time that Twitter would have its own variation. We didn't realize that it would only take a few days. We also didn't expect it to be such a useful portion of the app.

As it turned out, the app is very strong, possibly even better than Instagram in UI. Granted, it's not a true replacement for Instagram, but with a little manual effort it can actually be used to generate interesting content directly from the lot onto all of your social media pages and profiles.

Here's how:

Understanding the Twitter Photo Filtering Tool

If I have one complaint about what Twitter has done with their photo filtering tool, it's that it's only available through their mobile apps. It would have been nice and a great differentiator between the app and Instagram, but it will suffice.

When you take a picture of something at the dealership with your smartphone, you can then bring it into Twitter. There is a cropping tool, an auto-fix button, and the filters that many are familiar with if they've used Instagram. Adjust the image appropriately and it's ready to post.

Now, just come up with a clever Tweet to go with it and you're ready to go. If you're using a picture that you've already taken with your smartphone, no problem. Twitter allows you to either take an image at that point or insert an image already in a gallery on your phone.

Depending on your smartphone, you may face challenges if you're trying to import an image from your computer. You can always use syncing software, connect your phone directly to your computer, or just upload the picture to an image sharing site like Imgur and then download it to your phone.

Get it Posted to Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and (yes) Instagram

Now that you have it on Twitter, it's time to upload the image to Facebook, Google+, and anywhere else you might have a strong social account such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and even Instagram itself.

When posting to Facebook and Google+, you'll want to add the image, THEN add the link to the Tweet itself. When you add an image, it prevents the link from expanding. This is important because links do not do as well on Facebook or Google+ as images. Still, you want the link to the original Twitter post for a couple of reasons, most importantly to get some exposure to your Twitter account for some cross-channel promotions.

Why Go Through the Trouble?

There are easier ways to post to the various social media sites. This is a very manual effort and may discourage dealers from doing it like this. Everything listed above is done so for a reason.

Twitter is one of the most under-utilized tools for dealers. Utilizing the filters and linking to the Tweets from your other social networks allows you to highlight your Twitter account and draw in other followers. Used right, Twitter can be a tremendous marketing and communication tool, but that's for another blog post.

The other reason to do it like rather than posting directly to Facebook from Instagram is because of exposure. As cool as Instagram can be, it presents challenges in your Facebook timeline. If you're posting more than one image in a 24-hour period, Instagram photos get "batched" into an album. Neither this album nor the individual images can be liked, commented on, or shared directly from your news feed. People will have to click through to the image to be able to interact with it, and most won't. They'll just pass it right by.

Also, Instagram doesn't post directly to Google+ or Pinterest anyway, so you'll be adding them manually either way.

Posting it like I detailed above to all of your social profiles takes about 2 minutes and expands the potential reach greatly.

Lastly, people recognize the filters from Instagram. It makes images look more real. It makes them look authentic. These are your images and people appreciate images that you took more than images you found on the internet. While the Twitter filters aren't exactly like the Instagram filters, they're still pretty darn cool.

* * *

Social media is about authenticity. If you're making the effort to take images at your dealership, you should be taking the time to separate yourself from the competition by positioning the photos in the best possible light. This process, long (2 minutes) as it is, will give you an edge over your competitors and will let your customers know that there are real people behind the profiles.

When Instagram decided to block Twitter from being able to post the images directly onto the platform, we all knew it was a matter of time that Twitter would have its own variation. We didn't realize that it would only take a few days. We also didn't expect it to be such a useful portion of the app.

As it turned out, the app is very strong, possibly even better than Instagram in UI. Granted, it's not a true replacement for Instagram, but with a little manual effort it can actually be used to generate interesting content directly from the lot onto all of your social media pages and profiles.

Here's how:

Understanding the Twitter Photo Filtering Tool

If I have one complaint about what Twitter has done with their photo filtering tool, it's that it's only available through their mobile apps. It would have been nice and a great differentiator between the app and Instagram, but it will suffice.

When you take a picture of something at the dealership with your smartphone, you can then bring it into Twitter. There is a cropping tool, an auto-fix button, and the filters that many are familiar with if they've used Instagram. Adjust the image appropriately and it's ready to post.

Now, just come up with a clever Tweet to go with it and you're ready to go. If you're using a picture that you've already taken with your smartphone, no problem. Twitter allows you to either take an image at that point or insert an image already in a gallery on your phone.

Depending on your smartphone, you may face challenges if you're trying to import an image from your computer. You can always use syncing software, connect your phone directly to your computer, or just upload the picture to an image sharing site like Imgur and then download it to your phone.

Get it Posted to Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and (yes) Instagram

Now that you have it on Twitter, it's time to upload the image to Facebook, Google+, and anywhere else you might have a strong social account such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and even Instagram itself.

When posting to Facebook and Google+, you'll want to add the image, THEN add the link to the Tweet itself. When you add an image, it prevents the link from expanding. This is important because links do not do as well on Facebook or Google+ as images. Still, you want the link to the original Twitter post for a couple of reasons, most importantly to get some exposure to your Twitter account for some cross-channel promotions.

Why Go Through the Trouble?

There are easier ways to post to the various social media sites. This is a very manual effort and may discourage dealers from doing it like this. Everything listed above is done so for a reason.

Twitter is one of the most under-utilized tools for dealers. Utilizing the filters and linking to the Tweets from your other social networks allows you to highlight your Twitter account and draw in other followers. Used right, Twitter can be a tremendous marketing and communication tool, but that's for another blog post.

The other reason to do it like rather than posting directly to Facebook from Instagram is because of exposure. As cool as Instagram can be, it presents challenges in your Facebook timeline. If you're posting more than one image in a 24-hour period, Instagram photos get "batched" into an album. Neither this album nor the individual images can be liked, commented on, or shared directly from your news feed. People will have to click through to the image to be able to interact with it, and most won't. They'll just pass it right by.

Also, Instagram doesn't post directly to Google+ or Pinterest anyway, so you'll be adding them manually either way.

Posting it like I detailed above to all of your social profiles takes about 2 minutes and expands the potential reach greatly.

Lastly, people recognize the filters from Instagram. It makes images look more real. It makes them look authentic. These are your images and people appreciate images that you took more than images you found on the internet. While the Twitter filters aren't exactly like the Instagram filters, they're still pretty darn cool.

* * *

Social media is about authenticity. If you're making the effort to take images at your dealership, you should be taking the time to separate yourself from the competition by positioning the photos in the best possible light. This process, long (2 minutes) as it is, will give you an edge over your competitors and will let your customers know that there are real people behind the profiles.