When one thinks of Instagram one imagines celeb pictures, Lifestyle, memes and similar posts. But can Instagram be useful for companies?
Many would instantly reject the idea and say no way! However, consider this fact: as of September 2017, Instagram had 800 million active users. That is a lot of members for B2B companies to ignore, indeed in 2018.
It‘s not easy for a company to market on Instagram as there are thousands of brands and organizations which have jumped on the Instagram bandwagon to exploit its potential. Also, it’s a visual platform, and it mostly depends on public engagement.
How Can B2B Benefit From Instagram?
B2B users need to embrace the fact that Instagram is not about showing off your products or services. But it’s about genuinely connecting with your audience including Industry leaders, prospective employees, etc. Here brand awareness comes before lead generation.
So let’s have a look at how B2B companies can connect on Instagram:
1. Behave Like a Human
People don’t like interacting with a company they want to see the people behind or in the company. So don’t try to post perfect content. Be human! Post pics of birthday celebrations, ‘beer-o-clock’ pics. Don’t worry if the post seems unprofessional. Just try to be relatable.
People enjoy interacting with relatable content. You are there for brand awareness so let people be comfortable with your brand name. Boast about your company culture, include your employees as well and focus on getting involved with the community.
2. Understand Your Audience
You implemented the first step, and now you don’t behave like a machine and also created beautiful content but what good you can do if it doesn’t appeal to your target audience? So before bombarding your followers Instagram feed analyze your audience, and Instagram Insights can help you with that. It can provide you with valuable feedback about your followers and about people who interact with your posts.
Following are the things it helps you look into:
- Impressions: How many times people have viewed your content
- Reach: Total number of unique visitors that were attracted by your post
- Website clicks: How many clicks you received on the link in your business profile
- Follower activity: How many times your followers use Instagram daily
- Video views: Views received on your video content
- Saves: Number of people that have saved your posts
You can also get to know the demographics of your audience. There age and gender as well. If you want to attract new followers, you can use tools such as monitor Instagram, Social listening which will let you have a look on the keywords or hashtags being used or the conversations happening on the platform.
3. Interact With the Community
Posting content which attracts user engagement is great but what can be better than that is when a brand engages with user’s content. Users feel valued and respected when brands interact with their content. Show appreciation to your followers by reposting their content, commenting on their post or even mentioning them in a post.
User-generated content is a powerful endorsement for potential customers. It is also a free medium. It’s important to note that ‘users’ can also include employees of the company. This strategy is called ‘employee advocacy.’
Whatever you call it just remember that employee also has valuable content to share and help highlight company culture in the process. Engage your audience even more by bringing up contests or challenges. People love to respond when they are given a chance. Make sure to create specific hashtags for such events. Which will make it easier to track and interact with the audience. Also, do share top responses with your followers. This will help with there bonding with the brand.
4. Be a Storyteller
Interesting stories will attract a large audience which will generate massive engagement. Make consistent, interesting visuals that distinguish itself from the crowd. Instagram is all about being visual. Don’t just focus on making interesting photos and videos, make a story out of that content.
Following are the type of content brands can share on Instagram stories:
- Give a glimpse of the company: Brands can share exclusive behind the scenes content of special events and other interesting events which will help the audience to better connect with the brand.
- Showing Company culture: Utilize stories to showcase what it’s like to be part of the company. Share Company events, team outings. Be creative. Use filters and customize by using hashtags, locations, polls to enhance your story.
- Collaborations: Collaborating with influencers in the industry along with user-generated can help generate tremendous engagement.
- Helping the users: Brands can also help users by posting QnA’s, DIY’s, quick tips. This will help build more rapport with the brand.
- Contests: Stories are great for driving users to call-to-action. Brands can provide site links, special offers, contests for users to interact with. It creates a sense of urgency by using stories as they vanish in 24 hours.
5. Don’t Get Influenced by Vanity Metrics
While metrics are important, they don’t tell the whole story. Increase in clicks and likes are good, but it doesn’t show you if you are reaching your target audience or not. Rather than clicks and likes focus real engagement, i.e., on comments people make on your posts and new followers of your niche. These two metrics are much more reliable than others in ascertaining if you are moving in the right direction with your social media marketing.
Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. Monitor your posts to determine which one is getting the most attention and what will be the right time to post.
Use The Power Of Instagram For B2B Marketing!
All you need to keep in mind that Instagram is about being casual and having fun. It requires a bit different strategy than other mediums. Though it’s majorly used by B2C companies, it holds great potential for B2B companies as well. Make great engaging visual content after analyzing your audience and be consistent about it.
Remember to follow the above points, and you will surely succeed in marketing on Instagram.
[Main image: Sam Edwards, iStockPhoto; other images from their respective websites and/or social platforms]
Anthony Bergs is a project manager at Writers Per Hour. He always keeps an eye on the marketing sector to implement the best innovations into the strategies that he builds. He’s always open for new connections and partnerships.
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