B2B Brands: What You’re Missing By Not Being on Instagram

by MGB2B

 

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, B2B brands are very likely to distribute content on social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter (and with good reason – the audiences are usually there, ready to devour). Instagram, on the other hand, is only used by 29% of B2B Marketers, a distant 7th place in terms of B2B social media usage.

What you and other B2B brands may not realize, is that your target audiences are just as hungry for visual content as they are for words, particularly if you’re offering up some great Aerospace or Engineering fodder.

In fact, ClickZ estimates that there’s much more engagement on Instagram in the B2B sector than you may have imagined. It’s a little hard to read without blowing it up, but take a look a this infographic showing engagement ratios by industry on different social media sites. You’ll notice that engagement on Instagram is particularly high for marketers in the Engineering, Aerospace & Defense, and Chemical sectors, and not far behind for other industries.

So what can your brand post on Instagram? That all depends on what your company does. But try to think bigger than just your products. Here are three examples of  how you can engage your followers on Instagram:

1. Post a Photo of Something Mind-Blowing. Not the component that you made to go in the engine that goes in the rocket. Post the rocket. Your brand is a part of it and (if it’s legal for you do so), you should share that with both your fans and your prospects. If you still want to include posts of your component, find ways to make it equally eye-catching with interesting angles or unusual lighting.
2. Get Educational. Not all photos or videos posted on Instagram need to be beauty shots. Try a product demo action shot with an employee or a clip from a larger how-to video. Paired with a message driving followers to a link to the full video on your profile page, these efforts can not only increase engagement on Instagram, but drive people to your website, where  you can engage them in other ways.
3. Be an Active Trade Show Participant. If you’re at a trade show where many of your prospects may roam, post up your best pics from the event, and use the event hashtag to make sure you get seen by the people you’re trying to engage with.

These are just a few tips to get started. Instagram presents many opportunities for B2B brands. To overlook them as so many are shifting to this highly visual medium could be a huge mistake. And while some users may be up in arms about the recent news of algorithmic feeds coming to Instagram, being one of the few B2B brands on the channel could help you stand out even more. Do it right, and you never know what kind of new prospects you might attract that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Tags: aerospace industry, B2B social media, engineering, Facebook vs Instagram, Instagram and B2B brands, social media engagement

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