Being a successful brand on Instagram takes a lot more than stock images, corporate captions, and a couple of hashtags. As the platform has matured, there have been a number of brands who have set the standard for how businesses should be using Instagram. With their good Instagram practices, they’ve made it big by using bespoke hashtags, superior photo editing tools, and a carefully considered bio to effectively reach an audience of over 2 billion monthly active users.
But why does this matter for the medical device industry?
Medtech businesses are uniquely positioned to establish a brand presence on Instagram. They’re addressing a multi-layered audience:
- Medical companies who will buy their solutions
- Doctors who will operate these solutions or oversee patient usage
- Patients who will ultimately benefit from these solutions
For these varied audiences, it’s important to humanise your brand and champion the individual successes that can be achieved for patients using your solution. It can provide a wealth of opportunities to build online awareness, enhance brand affinity, and improve website traffic.
Building a brand ecosystem
To elevate your medtech brand to this level, a good place to start is by following other successful accounts. This is also a good way to keep updated on the latest innovations, trending topics, and to see how other brands are interacting with their audience. This is the case for well-established brands or those in the early stages of your business formation.
Here are some great examples:
1. Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson’s medtech offering includes solutions for surgery, sports medicine, and heart monitoring. Although they’re one of the largest medtech companies globally, their Instagram of nearly 56,000 followers is down to more than this:
- Bespoke highlight covers. Although these icons keep it simple, they create a sense of unity on the account page with a consistent brand identity that directs followers to whatever they need. J&J’s videos are animated and visually match the style of their feed and their highlights graphics.
- Balanced and blended content. With the rise of Reels, a new feature offered by Instagram to rival TikTok, brands are jumping onto this bandwagon to see the results for themselves. And with 61% of business leaders saying they’re more likely to share video content, this can be a great way to get others to promote your content. Balanced with simple and visually striking images with graphics or text overlays, their feed tells a compelling overall story.
2. Phillips
Another huge medtech brand with over 166,000 followers, Phillips takes a different approach to their Instagram feed:
- Graphic magic. Like J&J, Philips recognises the need to offer a diverse range of visual content to build awareness. But their feed unifies in a literal sense, with handy infographics connecting together on the page to form a larger image. The catch? If you want this connection to remain intact, new posts need to be uploaded either very regularly or in threes.
3. Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories offers cardiovascular, diabetes, diagnostics, neuromodulation, nutrition, and medicines technology. Their personality is all about living life to the fullest, which comes across well on their Instagram page:
- Real-life people using their tech. Abbott has a down-to-earth approach to their visuals, with images of athletes, patients, and medical professionals all using their technology.
- Audience participation encouraged. With the bespoke hashtag #lifetothefullest and the appeal to audiences to tag @abbottglobal in images of them “living life fully”, Abbott delivers a strong and clear message that translates from their social media to their homepage. The bonus is that more audience interaction guarantees them more exposure.
4. GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare takes more of an industry-leader style approach, with their bio emphasising “100 years of innovation”. They also:
- Feature employee faces. Part and parcel of positioning your brand as an industry leader is raising the profile of your employees to support this. GE Healthcare’s current campaign features quotes from their employees alongside the hashtag #FacesfromtheFrontlines. Like Abbott laboratories, this makes them seem down-to-earth, candid, and on the side of the medical professionals.
5. Roche [Diagnostics]
Roche’s Instagram is an aesthetic marvel, with black and white nostalgia interrupted by artsy pops of colour. It’s worth following just to make your feed prettier. But it has a purpose:
- Celebrating history. WhileRoche’s aesthetic images keep pace with trendy Instagram ‘inspo’ photography, it’s also a way to celebrate Roche’s culture and history. They neatly insert themselves within the course of human culture – which is a good fit for a life sciences company.
- Celebrating life. Like Abbott Laboratories, Roche are all about living life, using the hashtag #celebratelife, which is also used by almost 2 and a half million posts.
6. Siemens Healthineers
Siemens Healthineers’ Instagram feed is a joy to follow. It’s not only aesthetic, but it’s also inspirational in terms of innovation. Their page maximises Instagram’s features to cram in as many opportunities to engage as possible:
- Interactive. One of the highlights includes a “History Quiz” – and another one features an atlas. It’s a great way for followers to have fun when engaging with Siemens’ content – and Siemens gets to stay relevant.
- Informative. The feed also features bitesize visual chunks of information, including the series “3 Facts about” – which highlights pioneering, trailblazing cities leading the way for the medtech industry.
If you’re ready for liftoff with your own medtech Instagram account, take a look at how these accounts have performed as inspiration.
- Maximise your bio to direct Instagram followers to your website as the only place to put a clickable link.
- In light of the fact that many users will be using Instagram on their phones, ensure your landing page is optimised for mobiles.
- Make sure you are building a content strategy that diversifies your feed.
- Post consistently to build awareness and momentum.
- Come up with bespoke and catchy hashtags to maximise for miniature marketing campaigns.
- Most importantly, track your success and respond to results.
If you would like to discuss how Isoline can help you build your brand and branch out on Instagram, get in touch at hello@isolinecomms.com.
