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How 25 Brands Are Using Instagram Stories

Instagram Marketing
January 5, 2022/by
How 25 Brands Are Using Instagram Stories There are over 200 Million businesses on Instagram. And, according to the platform, 90% of people on Instagram follow a business.  Why could this be? As people are increasingly using social media to research prospective purchases, Instagram serves as an outlet for brands to creatively show their products, services, or happy customers in action. One of the ways that brands on the app share content with audiences is through branded Instagram Stories. These Stories enable audiences to learn more about your brand and what you offer — generating interest with prospective buyers and creating trust.  In this post, discover high-quality Instagram Story tips and tricks from businesses that effectively use the feature on the platform. If you've been on Instagram for a while now, you're probably more than familiar with its Stories feature. But if you're new to the platform, here's a quick explanation of Stories: While an individual might use a Story to show photos or videos from a vacation, work, or other aspects of their daily life, brands often use this feature to highlight photo or video content about their product, brand, or a topic related to their industry. By doing this, the brand might entertain and gain awareness from Instagrammers who enjoy tapping through random Stories. To make your content even more interesting, you can also add GIF stickers, text overlays, filters, and interactive features — like polls and quizzes -- to Stories after you upload or shoot...
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Developing Leadership Skills: How to Become an Effective Leader [+ Expert Tips]

developing leadership skills
January 4, 2022/by
Developing Leadership Skills: How to Become an Effective Leader It's very easy to spot good leadership when it happens. Take, for instance, how an old manager of mine used to ask my advice on business strategy in our weekly 1:1s — and then provide constructive feedback on it. While I might not have recognized it at the time, I now see he was teaching me to think about how my role fit into the company's bigger mission. Or, consider how my current manager seeks out learning and development opportunities for each of her direct reports. Whenever she finds a workshop or online class that could help me grow, she passes along the information. All of which is to say: Good leadership doesn't look, sound, or act just one way. There are a myriad of ways for a good leader to educate and inspire others. Which means leadership is a harder skill to master than others. It isn't like mastering Excel, which requires knowledge of specific, fixed formulas. Instead, good leadership is more ambiguous, and mastering it is less of a linear path. There will be setbacks, and moments where you feel you didn't act as a good leader should. But there will also be incremental moments of true growth. Whether you're an individual contributor or already a team lead, there's always room for improvement. Here, we'll cover leadership development on various levels — from individual contributor to senior management and above. Plus, hear leadership tips from Google, LinkedIn, Monday.com,...
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How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Excel
January 1, 2022/by
How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial The pivot table is one of Microsoft Excel's most powerful — and intimidating — functions. Powerful because it can help you summarize and make sense of large data sets. Intimidating because you're not exactly an Excel expert, and pivot tables have always had a reputation for being complicated. The good news: Learning how to create a pivot table in Excel is much easier than you might've been led to believe. But before we walk you through the process of creating one, let's take a step back and make sure you understand exactly what a pivot table is, and why you might need to use one. In other words, pivot tables extract meaning from that seemingly endless jumble of numbers on your screen. And more specifically, it lets you group your data in different ways so you can draw helpful conclusions more easily. The "pivot" part of a pivot table stems from the fact that you can rotate (or pivot) the data in the table to view it from a different perspective. To be clear, you're not adding to, subtracting from, or otherwise changing your data when you make a pivot. Instead, you're simply reorganizing the data so you can reveal useful information from it. What are pivot tables used for? If you're still feeling a bit confused about what pivot tables actually do, don't worry. This is one of those technologies that are much easier...
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Fixed Cost: What It Is & How to Calculate It

Ecommerce
January 1, 2022/by
Fixed Cost: What It Is & How to Calculate It "Business is personal — it's the most personal thing in the world." These are famous words by Michael Scott from the TV show, The Office. And although this quote conflicts with the universal belief that business isn't personal, Michael's point of view is perfect when learning about a business's fixed costs — or those costs that don't change as a company grows or shrinks. To identify and calculate your business's fixed costs, let's start by looking at the ones you're already paying in your personal life. Then, we'll explain how a business manages its own fixed costs and review some common fixed cost examples. Fixed costs are distinguished from variable costs, which do change as the company sells more or less of its product. To better understand how fixed and variable costs differ, let's use personal finances as an example. As a single adult, your expenses would normally include a monthly rent or mortgage, utility bill, car payment, healthcare, commuting costs, and groceries. If you have children, this can increase variable costs like groceries, gas expenses, and healthcare. While your variable costs increase after starting a family, your mortgage payment, utility bill, commuting costs, and car payment don't change for as long as you're in the same home and car. These expenses are your fixed costs because you pay the same amount no matter what changes you make to your personal routine. In keeping with this concept, let's...
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5 Tips to Create a Linktree for Instagram in No Time

Instagram Marketing
December 30, 2021/by
5 Tips to Create a Linktree for Instagram in No Time If you use Instagram, you might have seen the phrase “link in bio” before. This means that someone is directing people to go to their Instagram profile page and click the URL that’s in their bio. Driving people to these links often helps Instagram users generate traffic on different websites, like a YouTube channel or website landing page. But the native linking option only allows businesses and creators to share one link in an Instagram bio, which can prove challenging if you want to share multiple links with your audience. In this post, learn how Linktree is a solution to help you share multiple high-quality links with your followers and discover high-quality examples from brands already using the tool.   What is Linktree on Instagram? On Instagram, a Linktree is a simple link in your bio that leads to a landing page containing multiple links to content relevant to your business, like your website, a video, or even an affiliate discount link. You may be wondering why using this tool can make a difference on Instagram, and we’ll discuss this below. Should you use Linktree for marketing on Instagram? Linktree is helpful for marketing on Instagram because it helps you direct users to multiple different content offerings. So instead of only sharing, say, a link to your website, you can also link to your various social channels, your newest YouTube video, or a recent partnership you launched. Another...
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What Are Brand Identity Elements?

Branding
December 29, 2021/by
What Are Brand Identity Elements? Branding is tough. It requires you to truly understand the message you want your business to convey to the world, and to understand your customers and what you want them to take away from your business. One of the key parts of branding is establishing brand elements, and, in this post, we’ll discuss what they are, and give examples that you can use for inspiration. Brand elements are essential because they help you develop a brand identity. Your brand identity dictates your business’ cohesive look, from how you communicate with customers, to editing style for your social media posts, the font you use in your YouTube video end screens — really everything. As they’re critical to business success, it’s essential to have brand elements for your business, and we’ll discuss each type below. Types of Brand Identity Elements 1. Brand Name A brand name is the words you use to identify your company and what you offer to the public, distinguishing you from your competitors. Coming up with a brand name may seem easy, but it can have huge connotations. For example, if you need to cover a scrape on your arm, you may say, “I need a Band-Aid.” The word Band-Aid is actually the name of a brand, while the actual product is an adhesive bandage. Yet, the general public usually says Band-Aid, using the name as a proper noun. Image Source 2. Logo Your business’ logo is vital to your branding as it...
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15 Marketing Job Titles + The Roles That Leaders Plan To Invest In Next Year

Marketing Strategy
December 28, 2021/by
15 Marketing Job Titles + The Roles That Leaders Plan To Invest In Next Year According to a 2021 HubSpot Blog Research survey, 19% of marketers believe finding the right candidate for a role will be more difficult in 2022. For nearly half of marketers surveyed, finding candidates with the right skill set is the biggest challenge. 2021 LinkedIn research shows that the top three in-demand marketing roles are digital marketing specialists, digital account executives, and social media managers. But some businesses struggle with knowing which roles to hire for and when it’s the right time to add to the team. To help with this, we’ve compiled a list of the top marketing roles brands are investing in today. Challenges Marketers are Facing According to 2021 HubSpot Blog Research, the biggest challenge marketers face is training their team. Large organizations often have the infrastructure set in place to ensure both managers and new employees have a smooth onboarding and training process which can last a few weeks to several months. Newer, smaller businesses can struggle in this aspect. Training doesn’t only happen when an employee starts the job. In an ideal world, training happens at a regular interval based on business and/or team needs. However, that’s not always the case. A recent study showed that 11% of UK workers say they’ve never received formal workplace training while 30% say they haven’t done it in the last five years. This can lead to larger issues relating to performance, career...
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The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags for 2022

Instagram Followers
December 28, 2021/by
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags for 2022 Instagram hashtags are powerful.  They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image. Here's the thing, though: with great power comes great responsibility (#spiderman). Hashtags can skyrocket your business to new heights, but if used too frequently or without a clear strategy in mind, they become pointless and inefficient. While it can be hard to choose the right hashtags on Instagram, you don’t have to guess. Aside from this article, we’ve put together an ultimate course on using Instagram for marketing. In this course, we’ll teach you to not just attract followers, but to attract the right followers. First, let’s go over Instagram hashtags specifically — and why they’re so important for your Instagram marketing strategy. We’ll cover the following topics:  What is an Instagram hashtag?  Why are hashtags important? Types of Instagram hashtags  Best Instagram Hashtags Best practices for using hashtags on Instagram   Top Instagram hashtags for 2021 Trending Instagram hashtags How to use hashtags on Instagram for business How to search hashtags on Instagram Why are hashtags important? Hashtags are essentially Instagram's sorting process. With around 95 million photos posted on Instagram every day, it's difficult for Instagram to efficiently deliver the right content to the right people. Hashtags help your post get discovered by viewers most interested in seeing...
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Hourly vs. Salary Employees: What’s Better for Your Business?

Human Resources
December 25, 2021/by
Hourly vs. Salary Employees: What's Better for Your Business? Before hiring the right person for the job, you need to decide how you'll pay them. Two of the most common ways to pay employees is with a salary or an hourly wage. You're probably wondering which option is better: the flexibility of an hourly employee or the stability of a salaried one. Of course, the answer is never as straightforward as we'd like. Let's compare the pros and cons of hourly vs. salary workers, the different laws for each, and what to look for when determining the right fit for your business. What is a salaried employee? A salaried employee earns an annual wage regardless of when they clock in and out. In other words, whether you work 20 hours or 60 hours per week, the number on your paycheck stays the same. To state the obvious, an employee isn't paid their entire salary on the first day. Instead, it's divided by the number of pay periods, often on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. For example, an employee with a salary of $60,000 a year, paid twice a month, would receive $2,500 per paycheck. Pros of Salaried Employees Even if an employee clocks additional hours during the week, they receive the same rate per paycheck. Meaning, you don't need to compensate employees who go beyond the standard 40-hour workweek. Another advantage of salaried employees is the predictability of payroll. Every salaried employee signs an employment contract outlining...
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