With over 500 million users, there’s no question that Instagram is a powerful marketing platform. But the majority of accounts with the most followers are centered around fashion, celebrities or other inherently “visual” things.

This may be discouraging to more stereotypically “boring” companies, who may feel that Instagram is not the platform for them.

However, even the most “boring” B2B company can take advantage of Instagram’s marketing power.

Brands can make an impression on viewers by showcasing company culture, outside activities, team personality and much more. Instagram’s top accounts may be mostly fashion or celebrity-focused, but they all use these five classic techniques to promote their brand and connect with their users.

We’ll show you how the top accounts use them to market their brand and how with a little creativity; you can use them for your company too.

#1 – Spotlight Your Users

Spotlighting your users is about showing real people how other real people use the product. By showing them examples, it makes viewers imagine themselves using it and makes those you’ve highlighted feel appreciated.

How Top Brands Do It

Featuring pictures from followers is a great way to connect with viewers. H&M posts pictures of their followers wearing H&M gear to both promote their brand and show appreciation to their fans.

How You Can Use It

The majority of Evernote‘s Instagram posts are reposts from members of the Evernote Community. Though their product is a cloud-based organization app, they focus on featuring users on their page to connect directly to their followers.

#2 – Behind-The-Scenes Look

Nicely framed and well-lit photos are eye-catching and sophisticated, but sometimes viewers want to see some that don’t seem posed. By giving people a peek into the behind-the-scenes workings of your company, viewers feel like they’re getting a glimpse of the real people behind your product.

How Top Brands Do It

Rather than always posting edited or perfectly posed photos, FC Barcelona takes viewers behind the scenes showing a player interacting with a fan. This makes the brand seem more relatable and human to their followers.

How You Can Use It

Ad retargeting platform AdRoll shows their personality and appeals to followers by posting photos of their employees having fun at work. By showing their team having fun, it also makes the product seem fun to viewers.

#3 – Use Hashtags To Promote Events

Hashtags are a great way to gain exposure as people search specific hashtags for topics they’re interested in. By generating a unique hashtag for your event, you can track what people are saying about it. Or, if you’re supporting a cause, using the hashtag associated with the initiative can gain you exposure with others supporting the cause.

How Top Brands Do It

First Lady Michelle Obama uses the hashtag #LetGirlsLearn to promote her education initiative on Instagram. By pairing it with pictures from her tour around the world to spread words about the cause, she shows how dedicated she is and inspires fans to also do something for the initiative.

How You Can Use It

Though they’re primarily an app and data delivery company, Citrix hosts an annual conference called Citrix Synergy. To promote this exciting week-long conference, they used the hashtag #citrixsynergy to get news about their event trending.

#4 – Have A Consistent Message

People follow certain Instagram pages because they provide them with inspiration and motivation to strive for certain goals. By presenting testimonials or motivational quotes that send a consistent message, people will come back to your page again and again to gain more inspiration, and will associate those feelings with your product.

How Top Brands Do It

Nike is a symbol of athleticism, perseverance and pushing your limits. They appeal to their followers by providing inspiring stories and showing that anyone can be a champion if you #justdoit.

How You Can Use It

Constant Contact, a business marketing software, uses Instagram to share inspiring quotes. By providing a message of dedication and positivity to their viewers, they inspire them to have the same mentality.

# 5 – Be Relatable

People tend to like things they can relate to. By showing a more “real” side of your business and presenting relatable situations, you can breathe life into your product and bring in more followers.

How Top Brands Do It

Not only is this picture adorable, but it’s probably a relatable scene to many parents. By posting a relatable photo, Ellen appeals to her fans and seems more human.

How You Can Use It

Full-service creative digital consultancy Deloitte Digital highlights team outings and extra-curricular activities in their Instagram posts. Making their company seem more human, gives life to their product too.

You can use these examples to create a framework to harness these techniques and make your “boring” business interesting on Instagram.

Turn Viewers Into Customers

Posting quality content isn’t enough to succeed on Instagram. Likes and comments are great, but you need to make sure your Instagram page makes it easy for your fans to go to your actual site. You need to make sure you have:

• A recognizable profile picture. Your logo or company mascot is probably a good option.
• A meaningful username. Especially for people new to your page, you want them to be able to recognize your company name.
• Bio with a link to your site. The only downside to Instagram advertising is that you can’t post links to your product in the picture captions themselves. Your bio is the one place where you can put a link—to your homepage, a special landing page, wherever—so imagine you’re in jail, and this is your one telephone call. Use it wisely.
• Calls-to-action. It’s easy to look at a brand’s page, click like on a few pictures and leave never to come back again. You need to break up that kind of automatic behavior by giving your fans something concrete that they can do, like visit your website or sign up for an email list.

With a complete profile, a quality link to your site, and a clear call-to-action, you will ensure that your newfound Instagram fame doesn’t just stay on Instagram. For more tips on how to create the perfect Instagram profile for your business, read here.

Boring Business To Interesting Instagram

You don’t need an “interesting” product to have an Instagram that people would want to follow. With a little creativity, Instagram can be a great way to gain exposure for your company and bring in new customers.

Taking a note from some of the top brands, you can use these techniques to bring people to your Instagram and ultimately, your website and product. Showing viewers the more human side of your product and interacting with people is guaranteed to gain interest in your page. You shouldn’t be afraid to try it out.