Specificity of sales on Linkedin and Instagram: For which products is it more appropriate to use each of the platforms

In this article, we will break down the basic tools for attracting customers on Instagram and Linkedin social networks. Each of these platforms has its own specifics: from the audience and the possibilities of the advertising office to a customizable target and ways to get leads. What is the difference between them? Where and how best to advertise products for B2B and B2C segment?



All about this in detail below.

The specifics of Linkedin and Instagram sales

Linkedin is a business social network for businesses. Each account on the site is a user profile with professional skills, achievements and potential offers for other people. Many HR companies decide to join Linkedin in order to find highly specialized specialists for their projects who will help with solving a specific problem. Here everything is done for the sake of profit in the "win-win" format. Small and medium businesses, top managers, company executives, freelancers are the main audience of this platform. Users actively advertise their products and services, as well as get acquainted with the offers of others.

• Suitable for advertising B2B products

When launching an advertising campaign, you have every opportunity to show your offer to people interested in a complex product. Are you engaged in CRM systems integration, design, accounting? Linkedin is where you'll find warm leads from small and medium-sized business leaders looking to improve the efficiency of their departments. And for this efficiency, which will bring them profit in the future, they are ready to pay large sums.

• Easy to get feedback after the first messages

On Linkedin, the audience is actively making contact, since the main goal of the platform is to exchange experiences, promote oneself, search for "useful" acquaintances and then advertise their products. Users enter the same Instagram with an “internal” filter, which subconsciously evaluates all offers as spam. In Linkedin, the opposite is true - any offer is read from start to finish with an assessment of the possible benefits to increase your profit.



Instagram is positioning itself more as an entertainment social network with opportunities to promote a personal brand. Likes, reposts, hashtags - all conditions have been created here to attract users to specific accounts. It is important to understand that the visual component and emotional motives play a huge role in sales here.

• Suitable for B2C sales

Instagram users actively respond to advertising offers, in which the incentive to purchase is a visual assessment. It is quite easy to sell clothes, accessories, decor, jewelry or hand-made goods on the site that almost no one knows about.

• Suitable for selling services that can be assessed "through the eyes"

It is easy for companies to engage Instagram users to sell travel and beaty services, interior and landscape design, personal sports training, and more. When it comes to showing the benefits of your product with numbers, it's much more complicated. For example, advertising for accounting audit services or IT solutions requires a complex chain of touch with the user, which will show the benefits of the purchase. You can't do this right away through pictures and text.

Important: In comparison, Instagram has one significant drawback - a huge number of bots, “like collectors” and “bloggers”. To sell any products, you only need end consumers, but some of the users are on Instagram for the sole purpose of gaining a large number of subscribers and monetizing your account at their expense. This factor should always be considered.

How to work with promoting B2C / B2B products in each of the social networks?

For Instagram, they use 3 relevant methods:

• Mass following in target audience

Already obsolete, but still used. By subscribing to the accounts of "potential" customers, who can turn from a simple user into your buyer. People notice you, look at your profile, and follow it back.

• Targeted advertising

A standard tool using search strategies and attracting customers by geolocations, hashtags, keywords and even competitors (working with other people's subscribers).

• Affiliate schemes

By exchanging subscribers, mentions in "promoted" accounts with thousands of audiences, giveaway, buying advertising from opinion leaders and others.



For Linkedin, 2 proven methods are used:

• Targeted advertising

There are much fewer possibilities for setting up an advertising office here, but due to the specifics of the social network, it is quite easy to “get” into the audience with an accuracy of the position held. If you want your product to be viewed only by all interested small business leaders in a specific region - on Linkedin you have that opportunity.

• Cold correspondence

Linkedin has an effective scheme with sending invites to target audience segments and a welcome text with an offer. Due to the fact that users of the social network are actively studying the messages and profiles of others, and the base of the users themselves is better - you have every chance of getting a "lead" through direct mail. The conversion to a "lead" from such a mailing is 2-3%. An excellent indicator for selling complex B2B products with a high price tag and extra value.