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Dealers - Reaching Out with Instagram

@dealerrefresh  @Aaron Jeff-- Thanks again! I'm super excited to be here. As for what to take photos of, a good one for us has been the various college team paraphernalia as it appears around the dealership. Wichita does not have any professional sports teams, so people show a lot of pride in either Wichita State, Kansas State, or Kansas University. Snapping pictures of someone in school colors or who brings in a vehicle with a team's front license plate is a good opportunity to engage with other fans of those particular teams, and perhaps with the social media departments of the teams themselves. In a market like Wichita, (pop. 385,000) large organizations still only have one person running the social media in many cases, so the opportunities to form alliances with that one person (and the brands they represent) are enormous. 
 
Other than that, I've Instagrammed the burrito dealer who visits us after every morning meeting, taken screenshots of video projects I'm working on in Final Cut Pro, ANY time one of our employees brings in a new baby, pets people have brought into the showroom, pics from the recording studio session where we tracked out some new radio jingles, awards for top producer and 20-Car Club inductees, updates from our owner's ministry efforts, and on and on. 
 
What has really worked for us? Right now, we're having an accessory sale to clear out our Suzuki accessory inventory, so I put an appropriately-hashtagged graphic on Instagram to raise awareness about it. It resulted in several out of state sales (we're always happy to ship), which was a big eye-opener for me.
 
@Quinton Gentry Thanks, Quinton. I like what you said about having nothing but positive experiences with it, as it seems to be an almost (emphasis on the almost) drama-free platform. Pictures have always been a universal form of communication, but I believe that the use of pictures is quickly developing into a language of its own (take the meteoric rise of Pinterest, for example). The more effectively we can communicate our personality, depth, and humanity in this new language, the more prosperous our businesses will likely be.
 
I love this post Aaron - excellent!  I am the last person in New York City to not have Instagram. I took an instant disliking to it when every hipster in this town flocked to Instagram because it was "different" and "cool."  Which then of course made it the same for everyone and was no longer different and cool.  I am now however coming around - especially when I read posts like yours and see the comments from the other guys having a lot of success.    One site I have always thought to be cool is Pintacular.co (used to be Pinstagram, but the name was a little too close for comfort for the boys over at FB)- it's Pinterest-style layout for your Instagram so people can view your photos in a better layout on their iPad, computer.    I know there are a few similar - anyone using anything like that to showcase all your photos?
 
@EricaSietsma Thanks, Erica! Eric Miltsch turned me on to Padgram, which looks great on iPad, but I like the regular ol' Instagram feed, too. :) I just taught our sales team how to use Instagram, so hopefully we can get a lot more content generated from many different angles!