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Five Reasons to Consider Instagram for B2B Marketing

The “big three” of B2B social media marketing—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—are well established and the ways they can boost your marketing are well documented. Almost every B2B marketer understands why it’s important to maintain a presence and have a strategy for those sites. But many B2B marketers shy away from another of the most popular forms of social media: Instagram. Whether they perceive it as a site for teens only, believe their company would have nothing to share, or worry that its popularity is a fad, “Instagram for B2B” is often ignored as a possible strategy.

While Instagram isn’t for every company, there are plenty of reasons to make it part of a robust B2B social media marketing strategy. Here are five of them:

  • It’s where people are. Instagram has over 300 million active users each month. So yes, its users are teens and young people, but they also likely include your customers, your prospects, and your future employees. If you want to meet your audience where they’re at, you need to look at Instagram. And Instagram isn’t a new-network-of-the-month fad—it’s been around since 2010 and is still going strong. If the big numbers are instagram_for_b2banything to go on, Instagram will be around for a while.
  • It can enliven your brand image. B2B brands are often seen as boring and conventional. Instagram is a personality-driven platform—people post images that showcase their interests and real lives—so posting on Instagram can help counteract this perception. Your customers will see a different side of your company, one that doesn’t come across in a blog post or banner ad. Of course, if you only post pictures of your ads or quotes about how great your products are, your brand’s Instagram will be boring. But if you take some time to think about what aspects of your company would make for compelling visuals, you’ll likely come up with something lively and personable. (This article might inspire you with some post ideas.) If you’ve been looking for a way to give your brand image a refresh, Instagram for B2B might be the solution.
  • People are drawn to visual storytelling. This is why content marketers include images with every blog post—the human eye naturally gravitates to strong, compelling visuals. Telling a story with an image is even more impactful. You could spend hundreds of words describing a service you provide, or you could take a picture that represents that service. The latter will probably stick with your audience for longer. Also, Instagram’s built-in filters make it easy to make your images look good, even if you don’t know the first thing about photography or design. A powerful, beautiful image is truly worth a thousand words.
  • It builds connections by emphasizing the human element of your brand. Instagram isn’t the place to drive lots of traffic to your site. The captions don’t allow for clickable URLs, so if you post a link, the viewer has to copy and paste it into a browser (or type it in manually). But Instagram can still generate and nurture leads. It’s a great place for building and maintaining connections to individuals, whether they’re current customers, potential customers, or industry influencers. The personality-driven nature of the network helps you understand your audience better, so you can target them more effectively and speak to where they’re at. Instagram is also a place to keep your brand top-of-mind for your audience and grab their attention in a unique way. People usually check Instagram when off-duty, so maintaining a creative, engaging presence on their feeds reminds them of what your brand can do even when they’re not working.
  • It’s a creative way to demonstrate your skills. The old writers’ adage, “show, don’t tell,” applies here. A picture that shows your team or products in action will demonstrate to your audience that you can really deliver on what you promise. Instagram supports videos (up to 15 seconds) as well as images, so there’s also an opportunity to make a very brief demo reel or answer a common question. Your Instagram posts should be focused on building and strengthening your brand image, and showing how your work gets done is an important part of that.

Instagram for B2B doesn’t have to be a pipe dream. With a well-thought-out strategy and a good understanding of what makes your brand unique, you can use Instagram to stand out from the crowd and build strong connections with customers.

Image credit: Jose Moutinho (Creative Commons)