B2B Marketing on Social Media: Don’t Forget About Instagram
B2B marketing is often done on LinkedIn, and for good reason: businesses can connect directly to the right influencers. But, LinkedIn should not be your only social platform of choice. You can’t discount Instagram.
Instagram is great for storytelling, and having a visual presence leads to higher engagement.
When you’re bombarded by text, images and video can help your posts stand out from the crowd. Yes, Facebook and Twitter both allow visuals, but Instagram is growing at a faster rate than Facebook. Businesses and consumers know that if they want a visual experience, they should be going to Pinterest or Instagram – the latter is often better.
But how do you begin to market on Instagram?
1. Tell the Story of Your Employees and Culture
Marketing is becoming personal, and this holds true with B2B marketing especially. Businesses want to connect and work with other businesses that have a culture that matches their own culture. And happy employees that are dedicated to their job are an added bonus.
You’ll find a lot of companies using these platforms to recruit employees or find suppliers.
A picture that was posted on Hootsuite’s Instagram demonstrated how to do this perfectly. The picture included a bunch of employees, all eating ice cream and having fun outside. Eye-catching and fun, the picture’s caption also included: “PS: We’re hiring.”
When telling a story and using images, it’s often a great idea to play off of emotions.
Happy employees attract other happy employees.
2. Tell the Story of Other Customers
Maybe your small development company was able to fill the gap Microsoft needed to push one of their latest projects. This is a big achievement, and this is the type of achievement that other businesses want to know about.
Let’s say, as an example, that the development company was able to push the product a month earlier than expected.
This would be great progress.
So, a picture inside of the office of Microsoft showing the company’s group of coders working together to finish the project is a great visual. You’ll also be able to caption this photo with the story behind it: “we were able to push out Microsoft’s XYZ project, working with a team of brilliant engineers, one month ahead of schedule.”
Of course, if you’re selling a product, you can take pictures of other businesses using your product to find a solution to their problem.
Tell the story of your customers, and you’ll find success.
3. Leverage Hashtags to Get the Attention of Other Businesses
Hashtags can also be used to get the attention of other businesses. When you use hashtags, you’ll be able to connect with businesses on a new, personal level. You’ll also want to “@” people in your post.
Using the Microsoft example above, you may use the hashtags “#microsoft #meeting #b2b.”
And this is just the start. You may also “@” the person you had a meeting with. When doing this, you’ll be able to get the attention of the right audience. It’s also a great way to stay in the mind of the person that you met with and connect on a more personal level.