August, 2020 | InoSocial

How to Promote Your Business on Instagram During A Crisis?

Instagram is the most influential mobile applications used by the millennial and Gen-Z population across the world. With a count of 500 million steady users daily and 1 billion users monthly, Instagram statistics witnessed an unbelievable rise in the usage amidst the COVID-19 lockdown.

Before the lockdown, people spent about 53 minutes scrolling through Instagram on an average. But with nothing much to do at home, users are glued to their mobile screens for more than a couple of hours.

With increased screen time during the pandemic, businesses should be burning the midnight oil ‘on Instagram’ to get their business through the surging and undefined apocalypse.

How to promote your business during a crisis?

To stand out of the 25 million business accounts, it is best to promote your business wisely to grab attention from more eyeballs who are spending hours on phones and laptops than ever. However, you need to find the fine line of overselling and smart selling suiting the global circumstances.

Without wasting any more of this crucial time, let’s get rolling with how to encash your Instagram handle.

#0 Your business ideas

You can promote a business which is quite needed these days, or is of interests of users. For example, Laser engraving on metals is a field in which you can grow a lot.

“Laser etching metal is possible to do at home with relatively low-power lasers. In order to successfully etch metal with a laser, you’re going to need a machine equipped with a laser rated for at least 60 W of power. A laser with a power rating less than 60 W will, at best, leave a pale shadow of your art on the metal.”

#1 Choose your content wisely

Already planned advertising campaigns and brand promotions will have a dwindling effect amidst the pandemic situation. People are constantly envisaging and trying hard to keep their mental and emotional health stable. Amidst such grave happenings around the world, people are surely not interested in mainstream sales and advertisements.

I would recommend a peculiar revision of your scheduled posts according to the current situation worldwide. Relevant and socially aware content that connects people is the call of the hour.

#2 Acknowledge Your Customers and Staff

This is the best time to say thank you to all the people who have contributed and participated in the journey of your business. Amidst all the chaos a small gesture of acknowledgement will go a long way.

Also, make sure you thank all your staff members who are coming to the office or working from home despite all the odds. Designing a few posts that thank all the pivotal members of your organization will imbibe a sense of satisfaction for working with your company.

If you would like to learn more about the steps that businesses can take to ensure that the transition back to the workplace is a success, Zenefits made a return to work guide that is filled with helpful tips and resources.

#3 Tell Your Customers About Your Operations

If you are already operating or planning to operate your manufacturing and delivery options, make sure your customers know about all the precautionary steps being taken.

A well-captured and well-written ‘behind the scenes’ of your production line will be helpful for people to trust the safety measure of your products. Social distancing and sanitation were ignored and created a serious upsurge in the number of cases. Hence, I personally advise that you tell your customers that your business is completely cautious about employee and customer health.

#4 Contribute in The Welfare of The Society

Contributing to society is an exceptional step to promote your business. Good work will be noticed and acknowledged in the Instagram world as well. Many good deeds of businesses went viral amidst the pandemic and received great recognition. Hence, contribute to society and let people know about it with stories or posts. Also, make it a point to retweet and appreciate the good work others are doing. Support the local business owners, feed the street animals, help the poor with food, initiate campaigns with an NGO.

Let people know that you are a helpful business owner. These steps will be etched in the minds of people and a new flock of people will venture into becoming your customers in future.

#5 Communicate With Your Customers

With home quarantine and social distancing, people are missing human interaction and communication. Well, this is the best time to connect with people socially and interact with them.

I strongly suggest not oversee any direct messages that you receive in your inbox. Make sure you reply to the most of them and prepare frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) list and answer them through a post or stories so that your followers feel connected to your business and brand.

However, a live session for people to talk and communicate is highly powerful to reach out to your followers. Talking about random things in the live session while directly communicating via comments or split-screen is a recommended move during the pandemic lockdown.

#6 Free Virtual Classes regarding your business

Instagram’s live session is on the top list for businesses to reach out to more and more people. For example, if your business is a cosmetic line then you can educate people about the best skincare routines with your products. Talk about the pros of each product and how it can transform skin health completely. And there are many other ways to attract your clients too.

Such real-time conversations or classes will harvest an immense impact on your audience. Come up with unique and different ideas for your live sessions and throw some challenges with winning prizes and vouchers.

#7 Use the IGTV option

IGTV’s feature was a welcome for all the users and business owners amongst the other marketing tools. Businesses can talk and feature information for more than a minute and with increased screen time, it is the best time to make use of the feature.

Put up interesting information and how one can use it effectively in their lives. For example, if you own a gym you can put up fitness videos for all body types on your IGTV and stay well connected to all the layers of audience.

#8 Do Not Hoard Your Customers with News

People across the globe are already reading quite a lot of news, you need not add to it. The pandemic has ignited anxiety and depression levels amongst human beings. This is an extremely cautious step to keep out of the news and keep people entangled in activities that will help them divert their minds and keep calm.

#9 Talk About Trends

The pandemic has seen innumerable trends throughout the lockdown. You also need to be an active part of the trends. Using hashtags and viral tags will help you reach out to a larger chunk of people.

Nonetheless, you cannot turn a blind eye to all the social issues that ignited worldwide fire amidst the pandemic. George Floyd killing was a global protest and if your Instagram handle fails to recognize the issue, can be a serious problem. However, put out well-informed and honest opinions about incidents. Half-baked information can pose threats to your reputation.

#10 Get Feedback

It is the best time to gain positive and negative feedback for your products. Arranging a question and answer session with your loyal customers and knowing things they do not like about the product will help know what the customers want.

This is an important step to make your audience feel welcomed with their thoughts and opinions in your business. Feedbacks can also be gained with Instagram reviews and feedback.

#11 Flexible and Revised Plans

During uncertain and fluid situations, your promotions plans must be flexible enough to make an impact during the pandemic. A revised plan and well-structured strategies will help you promote your business in the right direction.

#12 Build an Emotional Relationship

An emotional relationship with the customers will be helpful for your business. Honest testimonials, replying to messages, helping people, polls, reaching out to people with positive thoughts and connecting to other brands to help people will help build an emotional relationship with your target audience. A strong emotional bond will establish brand relationships for a longer run than ever.

Conclusion

Instagram is one of the best tools to invest during a pandemic and global crisis. Make the best out of the time and impact an exceptional number of people through your Instagram handle. Be creative, connect to the customers and concentrate on your business promotion.

Facebook Announces Plans to Expand Facebook News into Multiple Countries

The very fresh Facebook news tab, which was rolled out in the US just a few weeks ago, has seen lots of good feedback, and users seem to like the feature. That’s what has made Facebook want to take the feature to more countries.

Facebook has today announced plans to expand the News tab to ‘multiple countries within the next six months to a year’.

Which countries are going to get the Facebook news tab feature?

As Facebook has announced on its official blog post, Based on this progress, Facebook is accelerating its plans to expand internationally. It aims to launch Facebook News in multiple countries within the next six months to a year and is considering the UK, Germany, France, India, and Brazil. In each country, Facebook will pay news publishers to ensure their content is available in the new product.

As you have surely noticed, Australia is missing from the list of the countries which are going to get the feature soon, and The Verge has clarified the reason.

Notably absent from the list of possible countries that would receive the News tab next is Australia, which recently unveiled plans to compel tech platforms to help pay for the free content they disseminate. France, which is on Facebook’s list of possible future News targets, ordered Google to pay for content from French publishers in April.

In Tuesday’s announcement, company vice president of global news partnerships Campbell Brown says the News content may vary by country to keep pace with consumer habits. “We’ll work closely with news partners in each country to tailor the experience and test ways to deliver a valuable experience for people while also honoring publishers’ business models,” Brown wrote.

There are plenty of reasons for news publishers in the US and elsewhere to be wary of Facebook’s news efforts. Its News Feed algorithm and ad business have proven devastating for the industry, particularly for local news publishers. And its track record on the news is littered with failures, including the infamous “pivot to video” movement of the early and mid-2010s, with publishers pouring resources into video production seeking to benefit from Facebook’s video platform. “Pivot to video,” however, has become a catchphrase meaning “short-sighted failure,” because it turned out Facebook had juiced the metrics. And of course, there’s the debacle of the 2016 election cycle, which resulted in Facebook removing its Trending Topics section amid accusations it was biased against conservative media.

What the regulatory environment will look like for Facebook and other social media platforms six months to a year from now is anyone’s guess, and it may depend, at least in the US, on the outcome of the November presidential election. Until then, it appears Facebook is holding its cards close to the chest.

You can now create Instagram Ads without a Facebook Ad Account Connection

After a long time since it was first announced that Facebook is planning to let Instagram users advertise easier for their businesses, Instagram will now let businesses run ads on Instagram without connecting to a Facebook ad account.

Starting today, you will no longer have to go through the hard ad time-consuming process of connecting your Instagram to Facebook to be able to create Instagram ads. That is a huge change which makes thing much easier for business owners and marketers.

As officially announced by Facebook today on their latest help center blog post, You can now create Instagram ads without having a presence on Facebook. If you are promoting a post from your Instagram business account for the first time, you won’t have to connect to a Facebook ad account or Facebook Page.

At this time, you can’t connect your Instagram account to a Facebook ad account. You’ll be able to manage your ad campaign and track ad performance on Instagram. You won’t need to manage your Instagram ads on Facebook Ads Manager.

Note: Even If you don’t connect your Facebook ad account to your Instagram account, you can still create and use a Facebook ad account. Your Facebook ad account will remain separate from your Instagram account. You’ll be able to view and manage all Facebook ad campaigns on your Facebook ad account. Meanwhile, you can view and manage all your Instagram campaigns on your Instagram account.

Who can exactly create Instagram ads without connecting to Facebook?

The ability to create Instagram ads without a Facebook ad account connection is limited to businesses that are promoting their Instagram posts for the first time. If you’ve already promoted posts on Instagram, you’ve likely already linked your Instagram and Facebook accounts. You won’t experience any changes when promoting your Instagram posts or stories.

How to promote an Instagram post without a Facebook ad account connection?

From now on, easily create ads on Instagram and promote posts without a Facebook connection. To manage the promotions and view analytics and check insights, all you have to do is to head to the Instagram app and, from there, easily keep track of your promotions.

Follow the steps below to promote an Instagram post without a Facebook ad account:

Go to your profile.
Tap the post you’d like to promote.
Below the post’s image, tap Promote.
Fill in the details of your promotion by setting things like Destination (where to send people), Audience (who you want to reach), Budget (how much you want to spend daily), and Duration (how long you want your promotion to run). Tap Next once you’ve completed these details.
To complete your promotion, tap Create Promotion under Review.
Once you’ve tapped Create Promotion, your promotion will be reviewed to ensure it meets ad policies. Promotions are generally reviewed in 60 minutes, but in some instances, the review process may take longer. Your promotion will begin running after it’s been reviewed and approved.

TikTok has ‘multiple paths’ to stay alive in the US

As President Trump has ordered, TikTok has to shut down the app after 90 days from the order, which was Aug. 14th, and by that time, TikTok must be bought by one of the companies such as Microsoft which showed interest in buying TikTok.

Trump said TikTok would have to “close down” in the US. Yet, the general manager of TikTok’s business in the US Vanessa Pappas has told Bloomberg that the app will continue to operate in the country regardless of the potential ban.

“We believe we have multiple paths forward to ensure that we continue to provide this amazing app experience to the millions of Americans who come to rely on it every day,” Pappas told Bloomberg. Pappas also oversees TikTok’s business in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

As Engadget has reported, TikTok has fought against claims that it could be forced to hand over data to the Chinese government, saying it has an American CEO and that it doesn’t take orders from China. Meanwhile, Microsoft confirmed that it had begun discussions with TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to acquire the US operations, and Oracle is reportedly in similar talks as well. After all these controversies and issues, it does not seem like TikTok is going to go anywhere, whether it’s through an acquisition by a major American company or dogged persistence on the part of TikTok’s US employees, it appears the app won’t be leaving the country anytime soon. We shall wait and watch to see what would be the future of this popular app and which company is going to win its acquisition.

How to make a poll on Facebook?

You cannot send a Poll on Facebook news feed or timeline anymore. Instead, you should create a Poll on Facebook groups or stories. People or your audience can vote or answer to your questions on the Poll you create.

How do I create a poll in a group?

If you have a question, you can ask in the group by creating a poll. To create a survey, you should first find the group you are going to share the Poll, then the same as creating a post, select the Poll among the posting options.

To create a poll in a group on mobile:

Open the Facebook app on your phone
Login to your account
the Tap three-line icon in the top right of the Facebook app.
Then find the Groups, tap it, and select a group you are going to share on it.
Tap Write something…. in the group you have selected.
Scroll down to find Poll, tap it, then type in the question.
Tap Add Option, then you can enter options for members of the group to select.
Tap POST.

Done!

Please note that only the members of the group can vote for the Poll you have created.

To create a poll in a group on the desktop:

The process is the same. You should only find the group from the Facebook home of your account, then follow the instruction above.

Go to Facebook website
Login to your account
Click the triangular icon in the top right of the Facebook home.
Then find the Groups, click on it, and select a group you are going to share on it.
Click Write something…. in the group you have selected.
Scroll down to find Poll, click on it, then type in the question.
Click on Add Option… then you can enter options for members of the group to select.
Click POST.

Done!

How to make a poll on facebook story?

You should use a Facebook app to share a poll on your story. This option is not available on the Facebook messenger story sharing part.

Tap a three-line icon in the top right of Facebook, then tap your name.
Tap + Add to Story.
Add your photo or video using available options there.
Tap sticker icon in the top right, then tap POLL.
Type in the question, then tap Yes or No for answers
Tap Done in the top right.
If you are going to change the audience for your story, you can tap gear icon Privacy in the bottom left.
Tap Share to Story.

One of your audience answer to the Poll, they can see the results. They can answer once only. If you swipe up the story, you can see the analytics and number of voters. Also, you can see the voters with their answers.

How do I create a poll on Facebook Page?

If you are admin or editor, you can create a poll on a Facebook page.

To add a poll on a Facebook Page:

Tap the three-line icon in the top right of Facebook.
Tap Pages, then select the Page you want
tap Create Post icon (a rectangular icon with a pen), At the bottom of your Page,
Scroll down to see Poll. Tap it
Type the question you want to ask from your audiences
Write the options in the boxes for your Poll. for each option, you can type up to 25 characters
Tap picture (gallery icon) to add a photo or GIF to your options.
Next to Poll Ends, tap the small triangular icon 1 WEEK to choose when you want your Poll to end.
Tap NEXT, and then PUBLISH.

Please note that Polls on Facebook can’t be boosted.

Facebook is making it easier for users to find Black-owned businesses nearby

Facebook has added another useful feature to show support for black communities on the platform. Facebook is making it easier for users to find Black-owned businesses on its platform. The new feature is part of the company’s ongoing initiative, announced in June that aims to aid Black communities.

Facebook has clarified about the update on an official blog as below:

“Black-owned businesses have faced systemic barriers for generations – and the huge amount of interest we received from these businesses has confirmed just how enormous the challenges they continue to face really are. That is why we doubled down on investing in and building tools to help this community.”

How does the “Black-owned business” feature work?

This feature would be available to the admins of Black-owned businesses, and they can now self-identify, and these businesses would be shown in a subsection among the Facebook businesses nearby.

There is no badge or label that will be displayed to represent these types of businesses on Facebook. Instead, this will allow a business to appear in the “Black-owned Businesses” subsection located in the “Business Nearby” tab. The tech giant is also allowing minority-owned businesses to identify their listings, too.

Putting this feature aside, Facebook has thought of a new thing for the black communities again. Facebook also announced that it is allocating $40 million to grants provided to small Black businesses.

Black-owned businesses with up to 50 employees can apply for this grant money, and the company will select 10,000 Black-owned businesses to award the funds. In June, Facebook pledged to invest $200 million to support Black-owned businesses and organizations — half of that fund was invested in small Black-owned businesses, creators, and nonprofits working with Black communities, and the remaining half was for suppliers.

Instagram Rolls Out Suggested Posts at the End of Your Following Feed

From now on, your main Instagram feeds would have a new option, “Suggested Posts”. Instagram has now officially added a new listing of suggested posts at the end of your main feed, for whenever you scroll through all of the latest updates from the people and profiles that you’re following.

“Suggested Posts” are from the accounts that you do not follow, and the option would appear at the end of your main feed after you’ve finished all of the new posts from the accounts you have followed and have literally reached the “You are all caught up” notice. Up until now, the feed has been entirely determined by users’ preferences and the people they follow.

As explained in more details by Instagram:

“Our goal is to make it clear when you’re all caught up so you can decide how you want to best use your time. We see people continuing to seek out more posts they’re interested in after catching up with their feeds, so we wanted to learn from that and make it easier to go a little deeper for those who choose to do so.”

According to The Verge, the suggested posts won’t be the same ones that show up in Explore. They’ll be related to the content that people already follow, whereas Explore aims to point people toward adjacent content, says Julian Gutman, head of product at Instagram Home. He used space content, which he follows and engages with on his feed regularly, as an example. A suggested post might be a new space photo from someone he doesn’t follow, whereas his Explore page might contain posts related to physics more broadly.

I personally think this is a very great option for the people who do not have lots of followings, and their new posts on the feed would soon come to an end. After the rollout of this feature, they’ll get to see so many other new and relevant posts and keep enjoying their Instagram.

Google Chrome will warn you when you are about to type into risky text boxes

Google is planning to do something about secure-looking HTTPS websites which can house insecure HTTP forms for you to fill in your passwords and other personal data.

Coming this October, Chrome 86 will protect against HTTP forms on HTTPS sites. As announced on an official Chrome blog post, beginning in M86, Chrome will warn users when they try to complete forms on secure (HTTPS) pages that are submitted insecurely. These “mixed forms” (forms on HTTPS sites that do not submit on HTTPS) are a risk to users’ security and privacy. Information submitted on these forms can be visible to eavesdroppers, allowing malicious parties to read or change sensitive form data.

How will this feature work and stops you from typing into risky text boxes?

Specifically, Chrome will be making the following changes to communicate the risks associated with mixed form submission:

Autofill will be disabled in mixed forms.

Note: On mixed forms with login and password prompts, Chrome’s password manager will continue to work. Chrome’s password manager helps users input unique passwords, and it is safer to use unique passwords, even on forms that are submitted insecurely than to reuse passwords.

When a user begins filling out a mixed form, they will see warning text alerting them that the form is not secure.

If a user tries to submit a mixed form, they will see a full-page warning alerting them of the potential risk and confirming if they’d like to submit anyway.

Google has also previously tried to alert users to this issue by removing the lock icon when it detected an HTTP form, but the company says, “Users found this experience unclear, and it did not effectively communicate the risks associated with submitting data in insecure forms.”

Are there any ways to see deleted Instagram photos?

Instagram is now an inevitable part of everyone living in this modern world. Instagram files and documents are essential and sometimes becomes a matter of life for people. Deleting Instagram accounts, or photos, and videos can be done accidentally, and the owner may look for a way to recover the deleted ones.

How to see deleted Instagram photos?

If you are the one using Instagram in your everyday life, and you have deleted a photo accidentally, here is the way you may find the one.

The only ways to find the deleted Instagram photos are through saved pictures on the mobile gallery (if you turn the option on already), Instagram data download, and searching the web.

You should remember some points before looking for delete photos:

If you are looking for someone else deleted photos, I would say that you cannot access, unless you have their Instagram login info (or access to the app), and email address.
The above is valid for the archived post by others
If you were looking for your own deleted photos, there is no guarantee that you can find them

Method #1: Check the gallery of your phone

There is an option on Instagram to save photos and videos in your mobile gallery. So, a folder would separately be created on your phone named Instagram to archive your photos.

Method #2: Check Facebook

If you connected the Instagram to your Facebook account, or you already created the Instagram by Facebook, there should be a folder named Instagram on your Facebook gallery.

If you open your Facebook account, in the photos section, you should see the Instagram folder.

Method #3: Check the Instagram data

The other way is to download your Instagram and check if you can find them there.

To download your Instagram data:

Open the Instagram app
Login to your account by entering the username and password
Go to your profile by tapping the profile picture on the right bottom of the Home
Find the three-line icon on the top right of the screen
Go to Security
Find Download data
Enter the email address (you have access to it)
Wait for couple e of minutes
Once the download link is ready, Instagram will notify you
Follow the link and download the data on your computer or mobile phone
Extract the file
Find the photos folder
Check if your deleted photos are there

Method #4: Search the web

You can search your Instagram username, and go through the Google image search. All the images related to your username would appear there. If your account was public, some of the websites might archive your photos. You can find them there.

How to hide Instagram photos without deleting them?

It is better to hide and archive the photos from the Instagram profile instead of deleting them. If you hide a picture, no one can see it on your profile, and it goes to the archived posts on Instagram. You only can see the archived posts on Instagram through your Instagram app.

To hide a photo from a profile without deleting it:

Open the Instagram app and log in to your account
The tap profile picture on the right bottom
Find any photos from your feed
Tap three-dot icon on top right
Select Archive
Now, the photo would disappear from your Instagram feed

To show the archived photos on Instagram profile:

Open the Instagram app and log in to your account
The tap profile picture on the right bottom
Tap three-line icon on the top right of the Instagram profile
Go to Archive
Select posts or stories
Find the archived posts
Tap three-dot icon on the top right of the post
Select show on profile
Now you can see the post on your Instagram feed

How to see deleted Instagram posts of others

There is no way to see deleted Instagram posts of others once they are deleted by the original poster. This is not only about Instagram, and most of the social media platforms do not allow any one to see deleted posts anymore.

There is only a chance that someone might have taken a screenshot of it (or you work at Facebook or Instagram); otherwise, you can’t, and if you try and use the post URL (if you even had it to begin with), you’ll get a notification: “Sorry, this page isn’t available.” So as disappointing it might be to you, there is no way to see deleted Instagram posts of others when the poster decided to remove them.

Conclusion

Knowing some tips on Instagram would help you to perform better. It is good to archive the posts instead of deleting them. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Telegram launches one-on-one video calls on iOS and Android

Telegram has announced that its video calling feature is now available for both ios and Android on its 7th anniversary. The latest alpha version enables all users to access the video calling feature. The one-on-one video calling feature can be accessed by all users through PlayStore or App Store. If it is not immediately available, users should update the app to see the feature.

How to video call on Telegram?

As Telegram has described in their latest blog post, there are a few easy steps to take in order to start video calling on the platform.

Tap the profile page of the person you want to connect with. Users are able to switch video on or off at any time during a call, and the video calls support picture-in-picture mode, so users can continue scrolling through the app if that call gets boring. Video calls will have end-to-end-encryption, Telegram’s blog posts states, one of the app’s defining features for its audio calls and texting.

Users have to follow these steps to make a call on Telegram:

Open the Telegram app.
Go to the profile page or click on the three lines on the left-hand side.
Click on the Calls option from a left-hand side window.
Choose the contact with which call has to be made.
Once the call is active, users can switch to the video mode.

“Our apps for Android and iOS have reproducible builds, so anyone can verify encryption and confirm that their app uses the exact same open-source code that we publish with each update,” according to the post.

Video calls will receive more features and improvements in future versions, as Telegram works toward launching group video calls in the coming months. But for this midyear milestone, you can now enjoy a little one-on-one time with those closest to you, whether they’re in the other room or on another continent.