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.

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.

Today we’re proud to announce our community has grown to more than 600 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined in just the past six months.

A lot has changed this year, but the Instagram community and the diversity of expression it provides has remained consistent. Now people and businesses have more ways to share than ever before with Instagram Stories, live video and disappearing photos and videos in Direct. Additionally, with updated safety tools that give you more control over comments and other parts of your experience, we’re working to make Instagram safer than ever for connection and self-expression.

From all of us at Instagram, thank you for being you. We can’t wait to see what your business will share next.

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

With seven million active Instagrammers, Australians are active on the platform. And those seven million people check their feeds an average of 11 times per day. Creators like crochet star @chiliphilly, Melbourne-based LEGO extraordinaire @legojacker and fiber artist @jacquifink all hail from down under. And organizations like @take3forthesea use the power of imagery to inspire action on the platform.

More than community members and organizations, Australian businesses are using Instagram to connect with people they care about. In a recent Instagram study, over one-third of Australians surveyed are thinking of starting a business. And 70% of these potential business owners mentioned that platforms like Instagram would be the top marketing choice for their businesses.* It’s no wonder why Australian businesses of all types and sizes like Buena Vista Farm (@buenavistafarm) and She Skills (@sheskillsoz) are sharing their passions on Instagram, and companies like Koala Mattress (@koalamattress) are using new Instagram business tools and advertising solutions to better understand and reach their audiences.

“We’re trying to represent what we do here. That’s the crux of our Instagram strategy,” says Fiona Walmsley, Owner of Buena Vista Farm.“Tell the story of the farm warmly enough and invitingly enough that it inspires people to come down and spend a day in the cooking school with us.”

“A big thing for us is spreading the message that women can do anything they want because the next generation of women can’t be what they can’t see,” says Meg Solly, Owner of She Skills. “We use Instagram to get people along to our workshops and to reach out to potential partners.”

“We want to connect to our customers, grow a really strong brand and be able to engage on a level mattress companies don’t generally do,” say Dany and Mitch, Owners of Koala.

Like these three companies, if you’re a small business owner in Australia, Instagram is a place where you can share your passions to connect with new and existing customers alike. If you’re already on Instagram, convert to a business profile to learn more about your followers and what posts interest them most.

*Source: YouGov survey commissioned by Instagram, August 2016

Today we’re announcing two updates: live video on Instagram Stories and disappearing photos and videos for groups and individual friends in Instagram Direct.

In August, we introduced Instagram Stories as a way to share all the business moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. We’ve seen stories open up a new side of what businesses and people share on Instagram, and now over 100 million people use it every day. With today’s announcement, you’ll soon have two more ways to share freely and in the moment.

Announcing Live Video on Instagram Stories

Live video on Instagram Stories helps your business connect with your community right now. When you’re done, your live story disappears from the app so you can feel more comfortable sharing anything, anytime.

It’s easy to go live—just swipe right from feed to open the camera, tap the ‘Start Live Video’ button and start sharing for up to an hour. Your followers may get a notification when you go live so they can tune in. While you’re live, you can pin a comment for everyone to see or turn comments off altogether.

When someone you follow starts a live story, you’ll see ‘Live’ under their profile photo in the stories bar. During the broadcast, you can comment and like as much as you want. You can also check out new live stories on Explore. Tap “Top Live” to see exciting live stories happening at that moment and swipe right and left to easily skip around.

Live video on Instagram Stories and Explore will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks.

Launching Disappearing Photos and Videos for Groups and Followers in Instagram Direct

Now you can send disappearing photos and videos directly to groups and individual friends in a spontaneous, pressure-free way.

Since launching improvements to Instagram Direct last year, the number of businesses and people using Direct each month has grown from 80 million to 300 million people around the world. In fact, many of them use group threads every day to stay in touch with their closest friends, family and followers.

Today’s update keeps regular direct messages the same and adds a more visual way to connect with your closest community members— all in one convenient place.

Swipe right into the camera to take a photo or video, then tap the arrow to send it privately. You can choose a group or create one in just a few taps—and you can also send to individual followers at the same time. Send anything you want, from product sneak-peeks to your worst selfies. Unlike other messages in Direct, these photos and videos disappear from your followers’ inboxes after they have seen them. And you’ll see if they replayed it or took a screenshot.

Whether your business account is set to public or private, you can only send disappearing photos and videos to people who follow you.

To open your inbox, tap the new paper airplane icon at the top right corner of your feed or swipe left. You’ll see disappearing photos and videos in a bar at the top. Tap the ones with blue rings to see what your friends sent you. In a group, you can see everyone’s responses—and who else has seen them—in a slideshow format. Then when you’re done, just tap their faded profile photo to send a quick response.

Disappearing photos and videos in Instagram Direct will start rolling out globally today.

You can learn more about live video on Instagram Stories and disappearing photos and videos in Instagram Direct in the Instagram Help Center.