Zak Stambor says, “Instagram Business Tools let retailers choose how they want their customers to contact them, as well as analyze who their followers are and which posts resonate with them. Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram today launched Instagram Business Tools, which give retailers and other business more ways to interact with and understand their customers on the social network. Not surprisingly, there’s also a tool that makes it easier for a merchant to pay to turn one of its posts into an ad. “With so many companies using Instagram, and many people from our community interacting with... [...]

IM NewsWatch has arranged for our readers to attend the upcoming Instagram Success Summit at no cost. This is a 4-day conference being held online June 7-10. During the conference, you will be instructed by a roster of Instagram experts, including experienced entrepreneurs, small business owners and consultants. Check out the lineup and get your free access pass to the Instagram Success Summit. The agenda is impressive. In this conference you will discover fresh ideas and marketing strategies ready to put into practice. Here are the kind of tips you will discover: • How to convert followers... [...]

Business.com team says, “An independent record store we like to patronize recently announced on Facebook it was no longer updating its page due to a lack of traffic. Instead, announcements about new stock and store information were moving over to Instagram. Which is interesting, in part because, as Kurt Wagner notes in Recode, Instagram is making it more appealing to advertise on its photo-sharing (with an increasing percentage of video content) platform by “executing a familiar strategy. Facebook’s advertising strategy.” Given that Instagram is owned by Facebook, that’s not particularly... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “No one really knows how many people actually had a chance to see one of their Instagram posts. They know the potential audience based on how many people follow their Instagram account, but they have no idea how many people are checking their feeds soon after that photo or video is posted or how many other people might come across it when checking a profile page or the Explore tab. That’s starting to change, at least for brands. Instagram is finally opening up about new tools it’s adding for businesses, which include business-specific profiles and a way for brands using... [...]

Ash Read says, “Instagram has now released one of its most requested features. The ever-popular photo sharing app announced that following the release of version 7.15 for iOS and Android users will have the ability to switch between multiple accounts. This news is sure to make power users and social media managers jump with joy as managing multiple accounts for brands (or your pets) has been a time-consuming task up until now. Here’s a super-quick guide on how to add and manage multiple accounts on Instagram. Adding and switching between multiple accounts Once the feature is live (it’s... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Looks like a missing piece of the Instagram pie is finally coming to the platform. Instagram is testing detailed analytics, according to Later (formerly Latergramme). The analytics, otherwise named Insights (similar to Facebook’s own analytics), are going to provide some pretty detailed information, really arming marketers and other data junkies with information about their followers and posts. Follower data will include age distribution, geographic distribution, gender distribution and follower activity by hour, among other data. Top posts will display all images... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “Last week, we spotted an early test of Instagram’s new profiles for business users. Now, it looks like Instagram is also starting to test analytics features for businesses. New screenshots show the photo sharing app is working on a set of fairly advanced analytics features that allow users to learn more about who is engaging with their posts. The screenshots, once again posted by Later.com, show detailed analytics similar to what Page managers might find on Facebook. Unlike the current app, which tells you nothing about your followers other than their user names,... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Facebook owns Instagram. In case you forgot that, Instagram is becoming increasingly more like Facebook. It’s started selling ads the same way as Facebook does. It’s going to start testing an algorithmic feed just like Facebook’s. And now it’s started testing business profiles that are similar to Facebook’s Pages. A couple months after Instagram said it was building profile pages specifically designed for businesses, content marketing firm Later has posted screenshots of them to its blog. An Instagram spokesperson declined to comment on the screenshots specifically... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Instagram is testing video ads in a carousel format and has a few major brands already lined up to give the product a try. According to a company release, Taco Bell, Airbnb, Macy’s and ASOS have begun testing video ads in the carousel. The carousel ad format itself isn’t new; Instagram launched it more than a year ago, but only with still images. The company says carousel ads can now be a combination of pictures and/or video and must include three to five content pieces. The maximum length for videos in this format is 60 seconds, which is standard for all Instagram users. Instagram... [...]

Jami Oetting says, “While Instagram engagement rates fell in 2015, the site remains the queen (or king) of social media engagement. The platform boasts a per-follower engagement rate of 2.3%, while Facebook reaches 0.2% and Twitter comes in at 0.03%. And it remains one of the most interesting and untested social networks for brands. Instagram only opened its advertising options to all marketers in October 2015. And since then, 200,000 advertisers have run promotions. It’s an important place to be for brands — even B2B companies like HubSpot. If you are still just figuring out... [...]