We have been working with more and more B2B clients lately. We’re in discussion with even more B2B’s.
Quick Primer on B2B: “Business to Business” means “a business that sells to another business.” Examples would be our clients Carney Direct or Jondo. They couldn’t/wouldn’t sell to me, personally, but they would sell to Mason Interactive. By contrast, B2C or “Business to Consumer” businesses sell to individual consumers. Our clients Nashua Nutrition, Rigby & Peller, or Dagne Dover fit that description.
Where Instagram is an obvious play for Dagne Dover or Rigby & Peller (B2C’s), lots of B2B’s ask me “why would I use social? I mean, I can see using LinkedIn, but why would I use Instagram for my business?”
My answer is always somewhere along the lines of “Well, two things. First, there are literally billions of users on Instagram. Billions. Your potential customers, among them. Second, you can’t search for something if you don’t know what it is, and Instagram is a perfect way to introduce yourself to them. Let’s try it out!”
Tonight I saw a perfect example of this. In between posts from family and about watches – two things I really personally like, and see a lot on Instagram – was this post from White Shark Media. Apparently, White Shark is an outsourcing solution for mid-sized agencies, which makes me an absolutely perfect target for their ads.
Have I heard of them before today? No.
Am I in the market to outsource my team’s efforts? Nope.
But… next time we are understaffed, will I think of them? 100% yes. I might not hire them, and I might not even demo them, but I will think of them.
So I would say that is a perfect example of using Instagram for B2B. I am one of billions of people on Instagram and A) am in business and B) might want your business’s service. Now that I know White Shark exists, I will think of them next time I’m in a staffing bind.
