Aseem Badshah
Pinterest allows users to help mark interests and organize them as images on boards. Group boards also are available so that you can pin with users interested in similar content. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media networks but women make up almost 70% of the 70 million users.
Because of the focus on visuals and primarily female user base, Pinterest has proven that it is a great platform for lifestyle brands like cooking, fashion and wedding plans.
What it offers B2B Brands:
- Posting data charts, eBook covers, infographics
- Linking Landing Pages in pin descriptions
- Two types of followers
- Overall followers
- Specific board followers
Here are some examples of companies using Pinterest successfully on a B2B scale
By providing strong visual assets you have the potential for lead generation as Pinterest has a higher click-through rate than any other social network. However, your success on Pinterest is tied directly to understanding who your target customer is.
If you have the ability to post relevant eBook covers, infographics, events, community projects, and data charts often enough to keep your following interested then Pinterest could be a great addition to your B2B marketing strategy.
Vine
Vine is a video-sharing app acquired by Twitter, which allows its users to create a (very) short film of six seconds or less. A Vine video plays on a continuous loop, which makes it distinctive from the other platforms mentioned.
While Vine has the smallest user base (40 million), according to Heather Taylor, a vice-president at Ogilvy “Brand Vines are shared 4x more than other online videos, and 5 Vines are shared every second on Twitter.”
What it offers B2B Brands:
- Showing happy customers using your product
- Presenting your product as a working model
- Giving a tour of your workspace
Something to consider: team up with famous Vine users to showcase your brand
Here are some examples of successful Vines done by some well-known B2B brands
Vine is about making short creative videos, which are usually entertaining and well made. However, this can be difficult to translate into a successful B2B strategy. Video can be resource intensive to create and there’s no guarantee of getting ROI back, especially with only 40 million users at this point.
Tumblr
 and a dynamic social network (like Facebook).</p>
<p><strong>What it offers B2B Brands:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Short-term content in order to increase engagement</li>
<li>Striking visuals that you can share to help build your brand’s identity</li>
</ul>
<p>You can check out General Electric’s Tumblr page to get a feel about how you could approach this platform on a B2B basis.</p>
<p>While some claim that Tumblr provides a type of visual storytelling has been missing. The intense focus on providing stunning images that “capture brief, emotional moments” may not be something you, as a B2B business, can maintain.</p>
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Instagram
. Instagram is also different because of ‘sister’ apps. These help you promote your event on Instagram. Two popular applications are Instamessage and Instafollow.</p>
<p><strong>What it offers B2B Brands:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Show the culture and community of your office</li>
<li>Event promotion</li>
</ul>
<p>The Social Factor posted three B2B companies that use Instagram successfully. They are NASA, GE, and Adobe.<em> </em></p>
<p>You can use Instagram to create a more appealing brand and use it showcase your office environment like LinkedIn does. The unique filtering option allows you to become your own brand identity that is easily identifiable to your followers.</p>
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Conclusion
Because these platforms are based around media and visuals, they are only a viable fit if your target audience is using these networks. Think of the primary benefit as branding/general exposure along with showing your company culture.
This means it’ll be more difficult to focus on lead generation while costing you significant resources (time and money) because you have to create rich and entertaining media.
You may have also noticed that the successful brands on these platforms are already established businesses, with resources to spare in order to create great visually stimulating content.
