With B2B marketers finding social engagement dividends on Instagram, here's a few tips to help
With a recent report in The Drum revealing that B2B brands engage most with their target audience on Instagram, increasingly B2B companies are turning to this social media channel for marketing and brand enhancement.
Some tips in this recent report suggests that Instagram should show case or show off what you do in what is referred to as geek chic. A B2B brand can post educational or instructional photos to showcase what you do best. A great filter, hashtag or caption will over maximum impact and engagement.
In fact, NASA has done some very clever things on Instagram, and with 1.3 million followers they have clearly been successful at engagement.
Being creative is a must when finding different ways to showcase your products. In other words, try to relate what you do to other events or interests people may have. Cisco is a leader in social engagement on Instagram, and uses relevant hashtags (the release of the Star Wars Movie, an important date, etc.) as a conversation starter.
Video is a key medium on Instagram and an estimated 40 per cent of the most shared Instagram videos are posted by brands. Oracle has been successful in showing some creativity on Instagram, breaking away somewhat from their static photos, bringing more personality to the brand. Snippets from your longer YouTube video can also showcase an event you may be hosting or demonstrate products and services. Because Instagram videos are only 15 seconds long, the challenge is to get the message across quickly. Intel and Oracle both achieved this in recent posts.
Another strategy for B2B on Instagram is to cover or report on employee’s activities. This is a popular way to express the company culture, which is usually centered on office life. The social media company LinkHumans, posts one Instagram shot each week using the hashtag #LifeatLinkHumans. Simple, but effective, it offers insight into office life, and is a task that is shared by everyone at the office. It is also a bit of a morale booster with a subtle competition of who can take the best photo. A company like Vanyer Media really get into the spirit of it with an employee focused, fun Instagram account.
The once ubiquitious Friday afternoon or monthly socials at work may be a thing of the past, but after office hour Instagram posts with colleagues or volunteer work with co-worker certainly preserves the idea that you can have fun after work with your co-workers. This is not only a tradition, but it makes for great branding. It is a key factor in showing the fun side of your company.