As we recently shared in this Blog, Instagram reached over a billion of users in June 2018. (source->statista.com)

In addition, is also said that almost 100 million of photos are daily shared on Instagram.

For all these and other well known reasons, marketers should have Instagram in their plans. If you are creating a startup or just creating for the first time the Instagram profile for a business, you need to have in mind at least these 5 tips:

1.Create a great, killer, awesome Instagram profile

This is even more important for small companies and Startups. Include the elements that describes better what you are offering. Think about this area as your Elevator Speech.

When posting pictures/videos, think about how they will look like on your board. Try to have as much cohesion as possible when posting.

2. Use Instagram Stories

Nowadays Facebook is highlighting that Instagram Stories is the placement where users spend more time. When thinking on Instagram Stories... think...

Facebook Marketplace is now available for Ads!

However, as all new features, this new Ad placement is being rolled out gradually and may not be available to you yet. Be patient :)

What is Facebook Marketplace?

In words of Facebook, it is a place to discover and purchase products in local communities and from businesses. So you could browse for second hand or new products.

Based on the context of product searches, previous behavior and all the power of the algorithms, Facebook Marketplace Ads are shown.

These are the 3 advantages of Adverting in Facebook Marketplace:

1. Reach your customers where they actively shop
2. Easily scale ads with automatic placements
3. Get more efficient outcomes

Would you like to know more about ads on Marketplace? Then click here.

July has just ended and hereby the Top Instagram Features of the past month.

1. IGTV Creators Handbook

You can download it here. It is a dropbox file. The guide is composed by 50 pages of best practices and useful tips on how to grow your audience on Instagram.

2. Instagram Topic Channels

Instagram says over 200 million people visit Explore every day to discover new ideas and find inspiration.

They even share a Pro tip: These Topic Channels will show you hashtags related to the channel you’re viewing. Use these hashtags to elevate your own posts and get more reach, because if they’re popular enough for Instagram to list, there’s a good chance people are using and searching for them.Those people are likely your target audience.

3. Video Chat in Direct Messaging

Let this picture explain for itself

Now, you can video chat in Instagram Direct, either with just one person or a group.

4. Music in Instagram Stories

Add a soundtrack...

Have you ever wandered which is the Best Time to post on Instagram? Well, this question has an easy answer.

There are many studies conducted for several companies saying that is better to post at lunch hours, commuting hours, at night... Better to post on Mondays rather than Fridays... However the trust is... Trust your own data.

If you access into your Instagram Stats, you will have access to a chart showing clearly when your users are connected and which are the best hours to post in order to have a better organic reach.

You can also find this information, related to ads, inside Facebook Ads Manager.

Moreover, analyze your overall business data. Access to your Google Analytics account and Analyze per hour/day which is the best time for reaching new audience or even driving more sales.

If you don't know how to create these Customized Reports, you have a simple one in the "Home tab" of Google Analytics. Will tell you which are the best hours/days of the week based on user traffic....

Is Influencer Marketing included in your Marketing Plan?

Are you thinking in hiring Instagram Influencers? Hereby 5 things you need to have in mind before paying:

1. Analyze their audience:

First of all, check their followers, analyze if are more male/female, who of them Like/Comment their posts and if their engagers match with your brand

Analyze other brands collaborating with the Instagram Influencer.

Ask them to share with you their data of average engagement, active followers... If not, don't pay them. If they don't share this information with you that's a clear red flag.

2. Offer no win no fee deals

One common practice is to create a Discount Code together with the Influencer. From each sale coming from the redeemed coupon, you will share a % of the profits with the Influencer. So if you don't win, they don't win.

3. Contest collaboration (giveaway)

One of the best practices or at least gives high engagement results is to create a Giveaway. The influencer will post a...

Might sound as an easy topic, but I have lately received many questions regarding this: What is the different between personal and business Instagram profile?

With a business account, you could include additional information on your profile such as:

• Phone Number
• Email Address
• Business physical location
• If you add 1 contact option, a contact button appears in your profile.
• + You will have access to Instagram Insights.

Note: have in mind that a Business Profile on Instagram can only be connected to a single Facebook Page.

Go to the official guide here.

Instagram Insights:

You will get lot of extra information about your followers and posts.

Here I leave you the official and complete guide about Instagram Insights.

Some time back, we wrote Five Instagram Marketing Tips for New Business. There we talked about:

1. Create a great, killer, awesome Instagram profile
2. Use Instagram Stories
3. Run Contests
4. Cobranding
5. Use of Hashtags

We are now giving 5 more tips :)

1. Play with different types of content

Content is King. Try to create stories with your organic posts. Analyze more engaging content and insist on that. For analyzing you could use own Instagram Stats or external platforms. Combine video, pictures, carousels...

2. Organic vs. Ads

It is very important to keep Ad content away form organic. Even more, if you're on a Sales campaign, post it on organic but delete it when the promotion has ended.

Keep your brand as far as possible from discounts. Discounts are for special occasions or campaigns + potential costumers in a very low stage of the funnel (retargeting campaigns). If not users will get used to buy always with discount and that could carry several problems.

3. Influencer Marketing

...

Instagram was celebrating over 1 year of life and the co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were recently honored with spots on Fortune’s 40 under 40 and Business Insider’s 25 under 25 lists, respectively.

At that time, the social network had over 12 million of active users. Nowadays, over 800 million :)

Facebook is always trying to be close to people and be an important tool in Facebook & Instagram user lives.

Over 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to a small business on Facebook. People and businesses alike have told us they want even easier ways to connect.

That's why Facebook recently highlighted where are now focusing. Hereby a summary:

1. Updating Pages
2. Making Recommendations from your community more helpful
3. Continuing to build Events
4. Expanding our jobs tool to help more people find work
5. Taking steps to make finding a local spot quicker

And here a video for a better explanation: video

Durex & Facebook? Deal? Competitors?

A recent research concluded Social Networks are affecting negatively personal relationships. Moreover, few weeks ago Facebook announced the launch of a Time-Management tool for Instagram & Facebook addicts, we talked about it in this post: https://www.adsaccelerator.com/blog/facebook-instagram-time-manager

Well... Durex also predicted that few years ago and created a campaign: Turn Off to Turn ON.

Nowadays is again word of mouth because of it's very successful prediction. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O925jNVmpOQ