Instagram, if not now when?

Why do we give all this importance to conquering that platform? The central reason is in the numbers thatthis social represents. Instagram has a much larger number of active users than other platforms, such asTwitter. The first has 800 million users, the second stops at 500 million, confirming Instagram as a socialnetwork whose usage trend is in strong and constant growth, mainly in the younger age groups, between18 and 35 years old.

One of Instagram's strong points is the constant and intense interaction. In fact, one ofthe highest levels of interaction on the platform is represented by the reciprocal rate between users andthat between brands and users. Users who follow a brand on Instagram are around 80% while almost 60%of them are informed about the latest brand news through the platform.

From these simple and generic data you can already guess what is the great importance that is given to social networks in the context ofB2B. Investing in these platforms, both in terms of time and money, is the right way if you want to maintaina competitive advantage over the competitors. Becoming skilled communicators through a platform likeInstagram is the method to guarantee qualified leads and quality visibility.

Social media is essential to transmit Brand Identity to customers and Instagram is the platform that allows you to do it in the most complete way. This is thanks to the frequent interactions and the great variety of contents and formats that can be published. In addition, to facilitate the communication of a fundamental message for the company, such as the brand identity, the platform for sharing shots also makes it possible to lay solid foundations for the creation of a Brand Personality.

Having a solid presence on web and on social media allows to create the reputation of the company, a fundamental factor for the value of the brand itself. Carrying out a careful and planned Social Media Marketing (SMM) activity brings numerous advantages to aspects such as Brand Reputation and Brand Awareness.

At the beginning, the main purpose of an SMM strategy must be to increase the visibility of the brand within the virtual market or social media, also increasing the reputation of products and services offered, with a consequent increase in customersand earnings.

To obtain concrete results from such a strategy it is important to invest time and money in the use of social media, identifying ideal consumers and planning a strategy. Some actions that could support the activity of Instagram could be the frequent updating of the blog with diversified and quality contents useful for the customer, the sharing of pertinent information between the various platforms andstimulating interaction.

Not many take advantage of the full potential of social media marketing. The secure starting point from which we must start to expand and develop on other channels is undoubtedly Instagram!

One of the most solid reasons for trusting an investment made on this specific social platform is the possibility of receiving direct or indirect feedback by users. Having a constant return of information from the public and customers in an informal tone and by a facilitated communication, such as that which can be obtained through the Social Network in question, is one of the best methods to keep one's strategy up to date.

Using the published contents you can also take advantage of another indirect skill of Instagram: educating customers.
In fact, by exploiting useful and informative contents it is possible to attract potential leads by increasing the involvement of users and at the same time there is the probability of transforming it into a promoter of the company's services.

Using Social Media makes it easier to promote content more profiled towards a more specific target according with the company objectives.

However, the most important motivation that pushes companies to undertake Social Media Marketing strategy is the creation of contacts, both in terms of companies that are already customers and of potential qualified leads.

The most positive advantage of investing effectively in Instagram is, in fact, the creation of a network of contacts.

One of the most important challenges for B2B companies is certainly the search for leads. Finding qualified leads that pay can be one of the biggest obstacles to the growth of a company.

A common and efficient solution to the problem can be found in the internet: the networks of contacts. Finding contacts similar to your current customers definitely increases the likelihood of finding hot leads.

However, building a variedand wide-ranging network from scratch can be very expensive and time consuming.

Instead with the use of social media, creating a circle of contacts that respects your target and that are interested in your services will become a minor challenge.

Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by Instagram, it is possible to establish those basic relationships that are fundamental in B2B. Using relevant and educational contents that are shared on the platform, you can attract interested contacts and capture the attention of profiled companies.

The organic visibility generated by the interactions, the network and the information contents are not the only factors that bring advantage to the companies that decide to exploit Instagram for B2B.

Instagram Ads is a channel not yet fully used by companies that are looking for customers in other companies, so the market is not yet saturated.

A free market allows you to reach contacts at a lower cost, guaranteeing a price that cannot be reached through other advertising platforms such as Google AdWords, albeit equally effective and useful. The price of Ads on Instagram is strongly under-priced, both for what concerns posts and stories. Even more, the influencer marketing is a market that is not yet able to price its value and this condition is a real boon for companies that decide to rely on IG influencers.

Not considering the few influencers with a Hollywood cachet, most of the influencers priced their visibility in a wrong way, giving a great opportunity to companies that want to promote themselves on this platform.

This condition will not last forever. Companies that still invest little or nothing on Instagram will enter in this market, and with their advertising budgets will raise the CPC of the ads. At the same time the influencers will understand their true value and will know how to price it correctly (maybe helped by some new app??).

For these reasons one of the key points of a winning strategy in the field of Social Media Marketing on Instagram must necessarily be to invest in paid advertising on the platform.

The use of Instagram allows the achievement of many objectives:

• Create direct and more informal relationships with companies that are already customers;
• Access to insights about customers and potential leads on the Social;
• Increase the visibility of brands, services and products;
• Exploit pervasive and effective communication tools with a minimal investments;
• Reach the greatest possible number of profiled and in-target users.

Like those companies that were supposed to send more e-mails in the 90s, of which now nobody knows the name, even those who are not already investing in this platform are destined to lose ground compared to competitors.

Give time and money to a communication strategy and advertising on Instagram can represent the difference between an expanding and a declining company.

While 90% of companies use Facebook for Lead Generation and 47% of them prefer LinkedIn, Instagram is positioning itself as one of the most impressive social networks on the market for digital networks.

One billion subscribers, 500 million users active on a daily basis, an engagement 58 times greater than that of Facebook and 120 times greater compared to Twitter, all of this factors make Instagram the platform to gain a competitive advantage for the future of your company! In the future, companies will look at these years as the golden years of Instagram Advertising. Instagram, if not now when?