Is a picture worth a thousand (marketing) words? Most of the time, when we think about social media for business, we tend to think of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are a couple of other platforms that can be employed for business (if you take the time to learn how they work) and can be used to enhance your business image.
Instagram and Pinterest are very visual social media platforms, and if you are a service-based business, you may feel that there is nothing to be gained by taking your business to either platform; however, there are plenty of ways that you can leverage either Instagram or Pinterest for just about any business.
Use your pictures to tell your brand story. Share some behind-the-scenes insight into what it is that you do day-to-day, and how this is positively impacting the people you work with. If you aren’t selling a product (because you’re a service-oriented business), use Pinterest and Instagram to help show the heart of your business. What are your business values and how does what you do reflect those values?
Make Social Media for Business Work with these Visual Post Ideas
- Did you have a brainstorming session where a whiteboard was used? Take a picture (take care to remove anything proprietary) and post it.
- Do you collaborate with others? Share what they’re doing and how you’re collaborating.
- Share photos of your workspace – let people see where the magic happens.
- If you have staff or contractors, do a highlight feature.
- Show how what you do solves problems that your clients/potential clients have.
- Do you give back to the community in some way? Take some pictures to post and write a concise description of why giving back is important to you and your business.
When you’re starting to use Pinterest for Business, you might consider keeping your boards private until you’ve built up a good base of pins, and then you can make them public.
Both Pinterest and Instagram can also be useful to help you find people you might collaborate with. They’re also a great way to see what other people in your market space are doing. It never hurts to know what similar businesses are doing!
Another benefit of using Instagram and Pinterest is that it will really help you focus on what keywords are effective for you. Just remember – hashtags are great on Instagram but they seem like spam on Pinterest. Do a little research to make sure that you understand each platform.
A Visual Approach to Social Media for Business Helps in Many Ways
While I don’t advocate trying to be on every social media platform (because you’ll get nothing else done), if you find that you are just not getting the ROI you want on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I do think that both Instagram and Pinterest can be very good platforms. If nothing else, thinking about what you would post about your business on Pinterest and Instagram may help you focus on how to best utilize visual content and really hone your keyword game.
Do you use Instagram and/or Pinterest for business? I’d be interested to hear how it works for you.
