how can Instagram help B2B businesses

How Can Instagram Help B2B Businesses?

Introduction: how can Instagram help B2B businesses?

It’s no secret that social media is a vital marketing tool for businesses. Although Instagram has been on the market since 2011, organizations are only recently starting to understand the role it plays to increasing brand awareness. But how can B2B businesses leverage Instagram to reach their target audience and drive traffic to their pages?

Instagram: the millennial brand game-changer

While LinkedIn might be a strong player in B2B social media marketing, Instagram reigns supreme when it comes to audience reach. In early 2019, Instagram reported their monthly active user account to be over 1 billion. That’s one-sixth of the planet’s population! With such a globalized user base, a single Instagram post can make a stronger impact than LinkedIn, whose user count was only a little over 250 million in 2019. What’s more, the overwhelming percentage of Instagram users were millennials, the generation most likely to engage in employee advocacy and boost their company’s brand – for free.

What are B2B brands using Instagram for?

There are several ways a B2B brand can leverage Instagram to reach their target audience – just ask Cisco. With a following of over 293,000, the brand is able to show off new products, demonstrate security features, and give tips on Cloud use to their audience. In a similar category, commerce marketing cloud Yotpo is able to share customer success stories and share updates from niche events in real time. By using photos of customers, products, and events, brands like Yotpo are able to take a more humanized approach to their relationship with new and returning readers. Because of this creative approach, brands like Yotpo are able to have a much more successful engagement rate with their audience members than if they simply relied on text and long articles on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Leveraging Instagram for your B2B organization:

So what can you do to ensure your company’s success on Instagram and drive up engagement rates? Get creative with your content.

  1.  Try creating a highlight reel of your products, reviews, and case studies at the top of your Instagram page – a selection of videos and updates that viewers can access the moment they land on your company’s profile. The more your audience is able to learn about your brand, the better.
  2.  Be creative with your photos. Include high-quality photos of events, happy customers, and your organization’s team. The most successful Instagram posts include people in their photos. So if you’d like to create a post dedicated to your product, why not feature a happy customer using it?
  3.  Don’t shy away from video content. Demo videos of your product, snippets of speaking events, or a friendly interview with one of your customers can give your audience a refreshing understanding of what your brand is about – and how they can benefit from it.
  4.  Create product hashtags. Perhaps you’d like to create a set of hashtags featuring your company’s newest product release. By doing so, you will be able to demonstrate to your audience your new product name, how it helps, and when it will be released. Your hashtags do not to be long, but they should in some way include your brand and the title of your new product. When you do this prior to an exciting product release, your audience will be engaged and following updates accordingly. They will also be able to engage with your brand by using your unique hashtag in posts, stories, and comments – that’s free marketing for you!
  5.  Niche down with your industry’s hashtags. Although #software might be a popular hashtag, it is easy to get buried in the thousands of other posts dedicated to the same industry. Instead, research industry hashtags that have a few hundred posts instead of a few thousands. When you post frequently with these hashtags, you’ll be able to gain an organic following of dedicated audience members.
  6.  Show off your brand colors! Instagram found that the most successful accounts use color-coordinated grids. This is the perfect time to help your audience get to know your brand and its logo. Is your brand blue and white? Get your design team to create a beautiful blue background for posts focusing on texts, quotes, and reviews. Is your brand known for its bright and loud tones? Add that color scheme to your highlight reel at the top of your page. Not only will your page have a fun (but polished) look, but your audience will begin to associate these colors with your brand!
  7.  Post consistently. Perhaps your target audience lives on the other side of the world – that’s okay! Set up your Instagram account with a social media scheduling tool to post new content during your target audience’s top viewing time. If your target audience knows that you’ll be adding new content every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., then they’ll have something to look forward to – and something they can be excited to engage with.

Instagram has limitless capabilities for your B2B brand

Creating a company Instagram doesn’t have to be a challenge! As long as your company has something to offer, there are endless ways to produce and repurpose content to reach your target audience. Don’t be afraid to play around with different styles – and throw away the strategies that are not on-brand. The more you create, the better of an understanding you’ll have of what your audience likes and will engage with.