Keep up to date with the latest announcements, updates and best practices for Instagram on the new Instagram Business blog. 

A series celebrating how businesses and brands are making the most of Instagram around the world.

Across the world, people are inspired by the creativity and innovation of businesses on Instagram. From the biggest brands inspiring and engaging global audiences to everyday people making direct connections with new customers.

To celebrate the creative diversity seen from different countries across a range of industries, we’ve set out to highlight how businesses and brands have found success on the platform. In Mexico, we spoke to national airline @aeromexico, delivery service @cornershopapp and luxury department store @palaciodehierro to find out how they inspire and connect with their customers on the platform.

“Instagram allows us to be extremely close to our customers. When they’re scrolling through beautiful pictures, getting inspired, we are right there with them.” – @aeromexico

“The main reason we invest so heavily in advertising on Instagram is because it allows us to measure what happens after the click. When someone clicks on our ad we can track what they do next and if they ended up making a purchase.” – @cornershopapp

“Advertising on Instagram connects us with customers who really want to be inspired.” – @palaciodehierro

Watch the complete Instagram Global Spotlight series here.

When it comes to dining at restaurants, the number one driver of visits is due to the simple act of craving.* More than just seeing a burger on TV, smelling the aroma of bread as you walk down the street, or watching people eat at a restaurant, once that craving hits, people turn to mobile to decide where to eat. In fact, 53% of frequent diners and 41% of occasional diners agree that their mobile phone is the first place they go to decide on a fast-food restaurant.†

Enticing Diners on Instagram

Instagram is a key driver in helping people decide where to eat. For restaurant goers on mobile, 23% take a photo purely to remember the experience, and 15% share that experience on their social channels—which goes a long way on Instagram.‡ After seeing friends’ photos and videos of fast-food restaurants on Instagram, 66% of frequent diners want to visit.†

Deconstructing the Demographic

US Instagrammers interested in restaurants are highly engaged. They’re active every day of the week with 1.4x more sessions than the average Instagrammer. They also have very large networks—with 2.6x more followers and nearly 4x more followings than the average Instagrammer.

When it comes to content, US Instagrammers interested in restaurants are actively posting and engaging with the world around them. In addition to liking 4.5x more content and posting 3x more than the average Instagrammer, they’re also 7x more likely to comment on posts.§

Inspiring Crave Appeal

With such high engagement, what brings this demographic to Instagram? Since Instagram began, there’s always been a vibrant food community that brings food to life in exciting and innovative ways. Like Toronto-based, @bashirsultani, who takes the everyday and transforms it into works of salt art.

In Seattle, @saltyseattle makes colorful pasta art using vegetables, superfoods, eggs and flour.

And self-dubbed “Cereal Killer,” @mister-krisp, takes crispy rice cereal and forms it into everyday objects.

Creating A Recipe for Success

Enticing restaurant goers on Instagram is one thing, but how do you move people into action? Restaurants have created a three-step recipe for success: Create the crave, drive the visit, and bring them back.

1. Create the crave. Through a series of five video ads, each depicting a burger inspired by five US regions, Ruby Tuesday (@rubytuesday) enticed Instagrammers to stop in for a juicy, fresh half-pound burger and endless fries for $6.99. With its campaign, the restaurant chain saw a 22-point lift in ad recall—outperforming similar campaigns by 96%. If also drove a 10-point lift in purchase intent among 45-54 year olds—which outperformed nearly 75% of similar campaigns for the same demographic.

2. Drive the visit. TGI Friday’s (@officialtgifridays) developed a two-phased campaign that used video and carousel ads, as well as local awareness ads on Facebook, to promote its ribs and encourage people to enjoy them at a physical location. The six-week company not only drove a 3-point lift in purchase intent, but more than 50,000 restaurant visits were attributed to the campaign.

3. Bring them back. Home to the world-famous Blizzard, Dairy Queen (@dairyqueen) ran a campaign to increase awareness of its “Upside Down or Free” promotion, while also increasing sales of Blizzards and create new lifelong fans of the dessert treat. With its campaign, Dairy Queen reached 20 million people while driving an 18-point lift in ad recall among 25-34 year olds. The fast food company also drove an 8-point lift in awareness of its “Upside Down or Free” promotion and a 3-point lift in purchase intent.

“We wanted to build up our presence on Instagram and occupy the currently sparse dessert space. We’ve done just that with this campaign, which further proved that Instagram is not only great for organic posts but can really drive results.” —Jenell Lammers, Digital Marketing Manager, Dairy Queen

As you can see, when it comes to cravings on mobile, Instagram is a place for visual inspiration. But more than just inspiration, Instagrammers interested in restaurants make decisions on where to eat based on what they see on the platform. So whether you’re a chain or a single restaurant, Instagram is a place to create the crave with new and existing customers alike.

Sources: *The NPD Group/Proprietary Custom Study, March 2015; †Facebook IQ Source: “The Mobile Diner: The Role of Tech in Dining Out” by Facebook IQ (Qualtrics-fielded survey of 1,701 people ages 18–51 in the US), Oct 2016.; Frequent: Go to fast food restaurants at least 2x a week and have been in a fast food restaurant in the last 7 days.; Occasional: Go to fast food restaurants at least 1x a month, but no more than 1x a week and have been in a fast food restaurant in the last 30 days.; ‡OpenTable, “Technology and Dining Out 2015”; §Instagram data based on audiences eligible to see ads on Instagram based on a variety of factors. Data based on users that are ages 18-65+, US, who follow Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC & Dominos.

A series celebrating how businesses and brands are making the most of Instagram around the world.

Across the world, people are inspired by the creativity and innovation of businesses on Instagram. From the biggest brands inspiring and engaging global audiences, to everyday people making direct connections with new customers.

To celebrate the creative diversity seen from different countries across a range of industries, we’ve set out to highlight how businesses and brands have found success on the platform. In Brazil we spoke to beer maker @skol, game designers @praiabingo and consumer-to-consumer sales app @skina to find out how they inspire and connect with their customers on the platform.

“Instagram is the perfect place to showcase the brand’s essence, it’s DNA—the exact feeling and value Skol brings to peoples lives.” —@skol

“We already had an account on Instagram so we decided to try it out as a marketing tool. The results were excellent compared to our benchmark.” —@praiabingo

“What I love about Instagram is being able to talk to the right audience at the right moment using the best creative for that person. A photo. A video. A carousel. Today Instagram creates more conversations than other platforms.” —@skina

Watch more videos from the UK, Germany, France, UAE and Spain here.

A series celebrating how businesses and brands are making the most of Instagram around the world.

Across the world, people are inspired by the creativity and innovation of businesses on Instagram. From the biggest brands inspiring and engaging global audiences, to everyday people making direct connections with new customers.

To celebrate the creative diversity seen from different countries across a range of industries, we’ve set out to highlight how businesses and brands have found success on the platform. In Italy we spoke to eyewear brand @carrera and eco-friendly printing company @tonki_design to find out how they inspire and connect with their customers on the platform.

“I think today it is absolutely necessary to use Instagram as an advertising platform to showcase your product to a growing audience who is obsessed with the visual and always searching for inspiration.” Ruggero Frigoli, Founder, Tonki

“Advertising on Instagram is very important for our brand. It allows us to communicate our collection in all of its depth.” Massimo Pozzetti, Global General Manager and Head of Digital, Ecommerce and Media, Carrera

Over the coming weeks watch out for more from the Instagram Global Spotlight series featuring stories from Brazil and Mexico and watch previous videos from the UK, Germany, France, UAE and Spain here.

Instagram is a place where people and businesses share their everyday and epic moments. And with the launch of Instagram Stories last August, businesses are bringing their stories to life in another, more ephemeral way.

150 Million Instagrammers Love Stories

In the five months since it launched, stories has grown considerably. Now, more than 150 million Instagrammers use it daily. And stories is contributing to more content and engagement. In fact, one in five stories on Instagram gets a direct message from its viewers. And when it comes to stories from businesses, people are highly engaged. People and businesses have been discovering each other since the beginning—with 70% of Instagrammers following a business—so it’s no surprise that one-third of the most viewed stories are from businesses.*

The momentum for stories from businesses is clear, so today we’re unveiling tools that inform ephemeral interaction between people and businesses—stories insights in Business Tools, and full screen ads in stories.

Stories Insights

In the coming weeks, Instagram Business Tools will now include insights on stories. For businesses converted to a business profile, you’ll be able to see the reach, impressions, replies and exits for each individual story within Business Tools. By viewing these insights, you can learn how to create more relevant content that resonates with your audience.

Ads in Stories

In addition to viewing insights, you’ll soon be able to run immersive, full screen ads in stories. Ads in stories will let you use targeting, reach and measurement capabilities that make your ads personally relevant to the people you want to reach—which is unmatched in a stories experience today.

To unveil this first-ever, full screen ad to Instagram Stories, and create the most impact for businesses and Instagrammers alike, we’ll test with 30+ clients around the world, including: Capital One, Buick, Maybelline New York, Nike, Yoox, Netflix, and Qantas. With roughly 70% of watched stories being sound-on, this immersive, full screen nature creates an intimacy with people like never before.

Global leader in accommodations, Airbnb, is using Instagram Stories to help build awareness and buzz around its largest product launch to date—Trips on Airbnb. Through a series of 15-second videos, Airbnb highlights the ability to access unique experiences by connecting travelers with local experts who share the same interests, from art collectors to avid hikers. Using broad (25-44) targeting of men and women in the US, Airbnb is gaining awareness of its new product by using Instagram’s new immersive, sound-on storytelling format. Airbnb is excited to tap into interest targeting for future campaigns to drive their message home among their most relevant users.

“Immersive storytelling through Instagram Stories engages and invites our community to be part of an adventure. Instagram provides us the perfect tools to build awareness around our recently launched product Airbnb Experiences, handcrafted trips designed and led by our hosts,” says Eric Toda, Global Head of Social Marketing and Content, Airbnb. “By creating and publishing experience-driven stories, we can truly captivate and reach travelers wishing to book aspirational trips on Airbnb.”

“We’ve seen a great deal of success over the past year with landing our brand messaging through video content formats, which are naturally engaging and emotive ways to speak to our audience, and have been impressed with the early signs of success we’ve seen with Instagram Stories. We’re eager to be able to showcase how Instagram Stories will help drive brand awareness and engagement amongst new audiences and continued international growth in 2017.” — Leila Thabet, Content and Engagement Director, ASOS

This is Just the Beginning

Instagram Stories will roll out globally on the reach objective and to all interfaces in the coming weeks. From there, we’ll help you meet even more of your business objectives with direct response options available in the coming months.

Already, brands like Mulberry UK are seeing people swipe up within its story to learn more to take action. “We’ve been early adopters of Instagram Stories and were impressed by the reach and engagement. Our recent campaigns which included a stories link, received 5X more clicks to site and engagement when compared to the average seen across our other social channels.” — Felipa Monteiro, Head of Digital Marketing, Mulberry UK

The launch of this ad format, with its sophisticated back-end to target, measure and report performance, is unmatched in a stories experience today. While we’re just getting started with ads in stories, we’re excited to launch even more ways to help you achieve your business needs in the future.

*Source: Instagram Internal Data, Dec 2016

Every January, brands from around the world gather in Las Vegas for CES—a consumer electronics and technology tradeshow. In honor of this event, we set out to better understand how Instagrammers discover, learn about and buy tech. Here’s what we found.

When it comes to shopping, Instagrammers are highly mobile. In fact, 66% of people we surveyed who use Instagram said they’re interested in shopping on their smartphones—1.7x more than the general US population. So it’s no surprise that for electronics shoppers on Instagram, mobile shopping is on the rise. Among these shoppers, 69% said they use their smartphones to buy products more than they used to. And for their latest electronics purchase, nearly half of the electronics shoppers who also use Instagram purchased their electronics online. Of those, more than a quarter did so on their smartphones.*

Tech Shoppers on Instagram

Electronic shoppers on Instagram make more purchases on mobile than the average shopper, but what do these shoppers look like?

According to internal data, Instagrammers who follow tech-related accounts skew more male than female—with 56% being men and 44% being women. They also skew a bit older than the average Instagrammer, with 25–34 being the largest age group.**

We also know that tech-hungry Instagrammers are highly active on the platform. In fact, they’re active all seven days a week and every day of the month—that’s five more days than the average global Instagrammer. They’re also active earlier in the day, with peak times between 8:00am–10:00am Pacific Time.**

Tech-savvy Instagrammers share their experiences on the platform and have 2x more followers than the average global Instagrammer. And more than sharing experiences, they also connect with more accounts they care about—following 2.6x more accounts than the average Instagrammer. And that includes accounts from businesses.**

Advertising to Tech  Shoppers

Now that you know a little bit more about tech shoppers on Instagram, what does that mean for your business?

Knowing that tech shoppers on Instagram enjoy sharing experiences and connecting with accounts they care about, brands are tapping into this engaged group. To promote its LG G5, LG Mobile (@lgmobileglobal) used Instagram video ads showing off the capabilities of the device.

“Instagram enabled us to communicate our ‘Life is Good when you Play More’ message to a very responsive, visually engaged audience. By balancing well-targeted content and ad execution, we’ve been able to enhance the LG G5 campaign’s overall reach—achieving positive reactions from customers across the globe.” - SungYoung Park, Senior Manager LG Mobile.

Whether you run ads targeting this engaged audience or share organic tech-related content, Instagram is the place to reach tech shoppers on mobile.

Sources: *“Path to Purchase 2016” by Kantar (Facebook-commissioned survey of 5,523 people ages 18+ in the US who recently made a purchase in one of the following categories: automobiles, auto insurance, auto parts, beauty, electronics, fashion or packaged foods, including 1,556 who stated they use Instagram at least once a month), Aug 2016. “Recently” is defined as three months for CPG and Retail and one year for auto-related purchases.; **Instagram data, US (compared to global audience), ages 18-65+, females & males. Based on data from 28 days prior to Dec 1, 2016 that followed tech/telco related accounts and hashtags.

Today, we’re introducing a set of tools to help you add context and creativity to your story: stickers, holiday fun and more. Since last month’s update, we’ve loved seeing how your businesses used Boomerang and mentions to make your stories even more fun. Now you have new ways to turn any business moment into something you want to share with your followers.

Stickers

No matter where your business is or what you’re up to, you can add context to your story with stickers. After you’ve taken a photo or video, you’ll see a new stickers button next to the text and drawing tools. Tap the smiley face to find customizable stickers for weather, the current time and even your location. Adding a location sticker works the same as adding location to the posts you share to feed—simply choose or search for your location. People watching your story will be able to tap the sticker to learn more about the location, but your story won’t show up on the location page itself.

It’s easy to make stickers your own: move them around, make them bigger or smaller and choose from different styles to match your mood. Subtle stickers let your photo or video shine, whereas vibrant stickers bring an extra pop of color to your story. And you can add as many stickers as you want to any part of your story.

Holiday Fun

You’ll see a set of 12 holiday stickers available for the next few weeks. A special candy cane brush brings a sweet addition to your drawing tools, and keep an eye out for another set of stickers to ring in the new year.

And More

A new ‘Hands-Free’ option in the format picker lets you start recording a video with just one tap. Whether you’re frosting a cake, or showing off a new product in action, there’s no need to press and hold.

You can add as much text to your photo or video as you’d like—simply keep tapping the text button to add more. Choose between left, center and right justified text, and a new slider lets you adjust size easily with automatic text wrap.

Finally, on iOS, you can now save your entire business story from the past 24 hours to your camera roll as a single video.

To learn more about today’s updates, check out the Instagram Help Center.

These updates for Instagram Stories are available as part of Instagram version 10.3 available for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android in Google Play.

Starting today, you’ll see a new look on the header of Instagram posts. In the new design, all content will move to the left-hand side of the header to streamline the design and make it more noticeable.

For ads, the Sponsored label will now appear under the profile name. There will also be a new menu icon on the right side of the header, that when clicked, will activate hide or learn options for ads and a menu of sharing options for organic posts.

With relevant information now appearing in the same place, more people will know what to expect in this area. For more information, visit the Help Center.

“After we started using Instagram, investing in videos, and bringing this content to the platform, we managed to double the revenue from 2015 to 2016,” says Raphael Mendes, founder of Brownie do Rapha (@browniedorapha).

Started in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Brownie do Rapha was born in the most unlikely of circumstances. While Raphael was finishing his physical education major, he got injured. Not being able to finish his major with the injury, Raphael watched the cooking channel while he recovered. One day while watching, Raphael saw a brownie recipe and decided to try it out. After the 10th try, Raphael says the brownies came out perfectly. And shortly after, people were paying him to bake them.

Fast-forward to 2016, and Raphael now has a physical store with over 20 employees as well as an online store that ships throughout Brazil. More than the basic brownie recipe he started with, Brownie do Rapha is known for it’s overly decadent desserts of brownies topped with candy bars, icing and, in some cases, even ice cream popsicles. With such over-the-top and visually stunning treats, customers began sharing photos of them on Instagram.

But more than creating a product that’s often shared by customers on Instagram, Raphael credits the platform for helping the continued growth of his tasty company. “It helps the company by bringing it closer to our customers, to transmit the essence of our company in a much more personal way,” he says. And more specifically, Raphael credits the help of video ads on Instagram in doubling the store’s revenue in a single year.