It’s becoming more apparent to marketers that when used effectively, Instagram can be a strong digital marketing tool. It’s not a marketing tool in the traditional sense – It has unique audiences and expectations. And when brands do not take those into consideration, they don’t tend to fair well.
Creating a visual brand
Business to Consumer (B2C) brands have a much easier time creating visual brands for their products over Business to Business (B2B) brands. Eye-catching packaging, compelling storytelling and fun animations are all easily incorporated into a marketing campaign for everyday products.
Now, with B2B, that’s a different story entirely. Selling IT services or manufacturing plastic parts for automobiles aren’t considered “fun” and promoting those goods and services in the same way Proctor & Gamble sells cleaning products is a good way to set yourself up for failure – especially on a platform like Instagram.
Instagram is a photo sharing network, plain and simple. So, brands who want to tap into the 400 million monthly users and remain competitive in the social media space, must produce compelling visual content.
To do that, it’s important to think about creating a captivating visual brand and to “look at your business as a group of unique people, with individual stories, and your brand as a message rather than a product.” (Source: Social Media Today).
Brand promotion without brand promotion
When promoting goods or services on Instagram, it’s important to remember your audience. Instagram was created for sharing thoughtful photos, not for shameless advertising. Try to post images that give your brand a personal touch and don’t make the user feel like they’re being subject to an ad.
Think about your employees and how their stories can help position your brand. Your Instagram posts should be less about your products and more about incorporating them into the overall story of your company. For IT services, how do your people execute those services for customers? How do those services help your customers? For plastic automobile components, how do those parts fit into the whole car and what are you employees doing to help their customers?
It’s important to keep all of these things in mind if you plan to support and Instagram account for your B2B company. If you need some inspiration, check out this article from Social Media Today.
