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In recent years, we’ve seen the power of video on the internet — Facebook alone gets eight billion average daily views, and YouTube’s video platform has enabled young teens to become national superstars (Justin Bieber, anyone?). Also, a Cisco report estimates that, by 2022, watching video will account for 82% of internet traffic. 

There are various channels for marketers to consider when sharing videos, like the above-mentioned YouTube and TikTok or Snapchat. There’s also Instagram TV (IGTV) which, launched in 2018, is different from Instagram Stories.

Additionally, IGTV is primarily meant for smartphones, as the videos are vertical, and users don’t need to rotate their devices to watch. If you’re interested in testing out the app for your own business or simply want to know which brands to follow on the app, you’re in luck — here, we’ve compiled all the tips and information you need to get started with IGTV.

There is also a standalone IGTV app that you can download from the app store. To get it, simply go to the App Store or Google Play, search for IGTV, and click Get or Install. 

IGTV Video Length

Anyone with an Instagram account can upload an IGTV video. 

Unlike Instagram Stories’ 15-second video limit, IGTV videos can be up to 15 minutes long when uploaded from a mobile device and 60 minutes when uploaded from the web. 

How To Make IGTV Videos

To upload and edit your IGTV video title and description, follow these steps:

1.Open the IGTV app and click on your profile icon. Then, click Upload Video. If you haven’t yet given permission, you will be asked to allow IGTV access to your video library.

2. Select the video you want to upload.

3. Click Next in the top right-hand corner.

4. Add your preferred video title and description, and edit the cover image, which users will see before the video begins playing.

5. Click Post to publish your video. 

You can also upload a video to IGTV from the native Instagram app. Here are the steps:

1. Navigate to your profile and select the plus sign icon on the top right-hand side of the screen. 

2. When the Create menu pops up, select IGTV video. 

3. Select the video you want to upload, choose your preferred cover, and add a title and description.

4. Click Post to IGTV. 

IGTV Analytics

IGTV provides the following in-app analytic insights for your videos: views, likes, comments, average percentage watched, reach, saves, and interactions. 

To get these insights, open your IGTV app and click on one of your published videos. Then, follow these steps:

1. Open your video, and then click the “…” icon at the bottom.

2. Select View Insights.

3. The IGTV Video Insights menu should appear and contain your audience analytics info. As this video is just a test, there is no analytics data for the video.

The image below displays the IGTV channel preview from popular internet show The Daily Show. 

Watching Videos on IGTV

As soon as you open the IGTV app, a video will immediately start playing — presumably with the hope that users will become immersed in the content.

To watch a video, simply click on it. If you’re not interested in watching it anymore, you can scroll up to see other options.

There are four video categories: For You, Following, Popular, and Continue Watching. You can scroll left and right to view your options and select the one you want to watch. As mentioned above, you can also use the search bar to search for channels you’re already familiar with or to see if someone you’re interested in has a channel. 

To watch an IGTV video within the Instagram app, navigate to a user’s profile, select the IGTV icon, and pick the video you want to watch.

Best IGTV Channels and Brands to Follow

There are hundreds of brands and channels that create impressive and unique IGTV content. If your business is starting from scratch and looking for inspiration, here are a few channels and brands you’ll want to check out: 

• Netflix

• NAACP

• The Daily Show

• National Geographic

• Food Network

Top Influencers on IGTV

While IGTV doesn’t have the same audience reach as Instagram or YouTube, it is still a worthwhile platform to use to reach your audience members, especially if they don’t use other video sharing apps you’re on like TikTok, Snapchat, or YouTube. 

Below is a list of IGTV content creators using the platform to create content that appeals to their specific niche.

• LaBeautyologist

• Hannah Stocking

• AskDrJess

• Huda Kattan

• David Chang

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether IGTV offers valuable benefits for your business. It’s critical you consider your audience’s preferences when deciding — would they prefer to watch your brand on IGTV, or are they consuming content elsewhere?

If you feel your brand does well in relatively unmarked territory, perhaps you want to give IGTV a try. Get out your camera, record some unedited behind-the-scenes looks at your company, and press Post. Your audience insights will tell you soon enough whether it’s an avenue worth pursuing.

Businesses pump out content at a staggering rate these days — and as that volume increases, more inconsistencies are bound to creep in. Whether due to lack of clarity about the style in which you’d like to write or disjointed communication across the multitude of content creators in your organization, failure to decide upon and document accepted editorial guidelines is a recipe for inconsistent messaging.

That’s why at some point, most companies accept that they’ll need to develop a writing style guide.

In short: a document that indicates the basic rules of writing we’ll all agree to follow to ensure consistency across all our content — like whether I should’ve capitalized the “a” after the colon in this sentence.

Answer: If you write content for HubSpot, you should not capitalize the “a.”

But wait… if that’s the case, why would I capitalize the “If” in that last parenthetical? Because “If you write content for HubSpot, you should…” is a complete sentence, thus warranting the capital “If.”

These conventions are specified in our writing style guide.

If you found that train of thought terribly banal, you might think writing style guides are the most boring things in the world and have a burning desire to click away right about now. Au contraire, mon frère.

Why Writing Guides Are Important

The existence of a writing style guide is what saves you from finding yourself embroiled in a debate about whether there should be spaces before and after an ellipses, whether you capitalize “for” in a title, or when a number must be written out in full.

If the writing style guide bores you, just imagine how insipid that debate will be. The existence of a style guide means you can simply have the style guide handy as your little writing rulebook without having to sit through debates about blockquotes.

Writing Style Guide Example

If you want to see a writing style guide in action, check out the one created by HubSpot Partner Yokel Local. Their writing style guide (or “editorial style guide” as they call it) was made to keep both their in-house contributors and their freelancers on the same page when writing and editing marketing content for clients.

Source: Yokel Local

You’ll notice that they didn’t go too far in the weeds, either. The whole guide is 15 pages in large, attractive lettering, and anything not explicitly stated in the guide is left up to the AP Stylebook and the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The simplicity is effective, and they clearly had fun designing the document to be cohesive with their brand guidelines.

In an effort to help you get started with your own style guide, this blog post will walk you through the essential elements of a brand writing style guide so you can create one for yourself.

What to Include in Your Writing Style Guide

Style Manual

Style manuals are reference books that tell writers how to handle grammar, punctuation, and any special use cases. Most businesses adopt either the AP Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style. It’s up to you to decide which manual you’d like your company to follow.

You can purchase online subscriptions to these manuals for your employees to reference, the login for which you should also include in this section of the editorial style guide to make access simple. You might find employees are more likely to reference these tools when provided with an online subscription that contains a search function instead of a paper book through which they have to flip to find their answers.

While these style guides provide a good reference point for basic grammar rules, you’ll probably want to make some exceptions to the rules therein for the sake of branding, tone, and style. Use this section of your editorial style guide to outline those exceptions and also to highlight some of the rules that commonly arise when writing for your company that people should commit to memory — regardless of whether it is aligned with or against house style. For example:

• What do you capitalize? Do you capitalize the name of your product? Are there certain prepositions you want capitalized in your title despite your stylebook’s recommendations?
• What do you abbreviate? How do you punctuate those abbreviations? Would you type “a.k.a.” or “aka”? “Okay” or “O.K.”? Or “OK”?
• Do you use an Oxford comma?

Listing answers to common questions like these in the first part of your editorial style guide will give people an easy resource to reference that will save you time and encourage consistency. Feel free to continue adding to this list as more confusions arise and get resolved during the content creation process. You’re creating your own style guide, so feel free to borrow different rules from different style guides. The important thing is that you use the same rules consistently throughout all the content you create.

Commonly Troublesome Words

Most companies have terminology that’s specific to their industry, and not all of that terminology has a universally agreed-upon spelling. For instance, if you write a lot about digital marketing like we do here at HubSpot, you’ll find a lot of inconsistency around the spelling and capitalization of words like these:

• ebook vs. Ebook vs. e-book
• ecommerve vs. e-commerce
• internet vs. Internet
• website vs. web site
• Facebook Like vs. Facebook like
• Retweet vs. re-tweet vs. reTweet vs. ReTweet

… And on and on and on. Instead of debating how to spell, capitalize, or hyphenate these words, include a section in your style guide called “Commonly Troublesome Words” so writers can easily look up the proper spelling of these words according to your house style guide.

Advice for Global Companies

If you have global readership and create content for specific, same-language markets, you should include notes on whether you change spelling for those markets or retain your house style.

For example, if marketers from HubSpot’s Dublin office write a blog post, should American editors change their spelling of “favour” to “favor”? “Internationalise” to “Internationalize”? These questions should be answered in your style guide, and the “Commonly Troublesome Words” section is a logical location to do that.

Similarly, if you are creating content in different languages, style guides should be created for each different language.

Style and Tone

This section of the editorial style guide should address something less concrete than grammar rules but arguably more important: how your content should sound to the reader.

Can writers use the first person? How do you feel about the use of industry jargon? Think about the words you would use to describe your content in an ideal world. Which of these adjectives do you want your content to evoke?

• Conversational?
• Educational?
• Academic?
• Funny?
• Controversial?
• Irreverent?
• Artistic?
• Objective?
• Sophisticated?

You might think you want your content to be all of the above, but force yourself to prioritize just a few. Explain why it’s important to achieve this style and tone in your content, and provide examples of content (excerpts are fine) that are successful in doing so — particularly if those excerpts exist on your own site already. If there are stylistic characteristics your content absolutely should not have, this is the section in which to include that information, too. Again, examples of what not to do are helpful here for the sake of comparative illustration.

When deciding on style and tone, be sure to consider your target audience and buyer personas in the process. Which style and tone would resonate best with them? This brings us to our next section…

Personas

Buyer personas are inextricably tied to style and tone, so it’s important to include this section either before or after the “Style and Tone” section of your style guide. Why is it so important to include personas? Because the style and tone you adopt should be informed by your target audience, i.e. the people that will be reading all this stuff you’re writing.

That being said, the personas in your editorial style guide don’t need to go as in-depth as the personas created by your sales and marketing teams. (Those might include detailed information like objections that arise in the sales process and how to overcome them, or tips on identifying these personas “in the wild” or when you get them on the phone.)

The personas in your editorial style guide should be more brief, simply pulling out the highlights that concisely explain who your target audience is, their pain points, how they like to be communicated with, the value your company provides, and a picture to give writers a visual to keep in mind when creating content.

Including personas in your style guide really comes in handy when you’re working with freelance writers. If you’re doing a good job with freelance writer management, you’ll provide ample context to inform the content they’re writing. A persona, and how that informs tone and writing style, should always be included when kicking off a new freelance writer engagement.

Graphics and Formatting

I know, I told you earlier not to get into the nitty gritty with visual guidelines. This is still true. Your design team or agency should create a separate brand design style guide that addresses more nuanced visual… things. (Can you tell I’m not a designer?)

You should, however, add a little information to your written style guide if your writers are ever responsible for creating visual assets and/or copyediting visual assets created by designers. Here are some common questions that may come up that will impact writers or editors:

• Where can writers source images, and how do they properly attribute them?
• When should images align to the right, to the left, or in the center?
• Should text wrap around images?
• What are the RGB and hex codes for your text and headers?
• What typefaces can be used?
• Can writers use italics, bold, or underlining? If so, is usage limited to certain occasions, like bolding headers and hyperlinks?
• Which kind of bullets should be used (square, round, or other), and how should they align with the rest of the text?
• How should numbered lists appear: “1”, “1.” or “1.)”?

Many of these graphical elements can be preset in your content management system, but they can be easily overridden when writers copy and paste content from elsewhere with formatting attached — or by an overzealous writer with a flair for design. Outline these expectations in your editorial style guide, and refer those with more advanced needs to your brand style guide.

Approved and Unapproved Content

Great content often cites research and data from third party sources. Make your writer’s job easier by providing approved industry resources from which they can draw — and, even more importantly, resources from which they cannot draw. Break up this section of your editorial style guide into two sections: recommended and approved industry resources, and “do not mention” resources.

The information in the “do not mention” section should include competitors and unreliable resources, and it should also mention controversial topics and opinions that should be avoided at all costs. For example, many companies strictly prohibit any mention of politics or religion in their content, or have provisions that explain when it is acceptable to include and how to frame the discussion. Similarly, many companies work within certain legal restrictions, in which case this section of the style guide might provide instructions for receiving legal approval before publishing a piece of content.

This is the section of your editorial style guide to explain the intricacies of such controversies as they relate to your brand so you can prevent reputation management catastrophes.

Sourcing

With great research comes great responsibility… and a lot of choices, unfortunately. Clear up the confusion around how to properly cite research by deciding on one methodology and documenting it in your editorial style guide. Explain how to create footnotes, references, links to external sites, or even bibliographies if they are relevant to your company.

This section of your editorial style guide doesn’t need to be long. Just write down the rules and provide some examples of proper citations so writers can easily attribute their sources properly.

Examples to Show What’s Right and Wrong

Every section of your editorial style guide can benefit from real life examples of the concepts you’re explaining, whether you include those examples on the same page or as an appendix at the end of the guide.

For example, when talking about proper formatting, include a visual example of a well-formatted blog post with callouts that detail why the elements therein are successful. If you’re discussing grammar usage, provide an incorrect example, and then mark it up to show how a writer could fix it to align with your editorial style guide.

Bridging your requirements with proper executions from your actual website will help illustrate these concepts more clearly and cut down on follow-up questions and instances of exceptions to the rules you’ve laid out.

What Not to Include In Your Style Guide

It can be tempting to create the most comprehensive style guide of all time. But when documents get incredibly long, it can become a little hard to use on a day-to-day basis. Aim for “comprehensive, yet usable” by intentionally cutting some sections. The most common sections that people are tempted to include, but which I recommend exist in another document, are:

• Notes on content operations. Things like submitting content to your editorial team, requesting a slot on the editorial calendar, or revision cycles.
• Recommendations for creating SEO-friendly content.
• Nitty gritty rules around logo usage or other visual style guide elements. With some basic exceptions, these would be saved for a separate brand or visual style guide.

Your editorial style guide will simply guide writers by providing a set of standards to which they must adhere when creating content for your website. It eliminates confusion, guesswork, and debates over what boils down to a matter of editorial opinion among grammar and content geeks. If you’re ever unsure whether something should or should not exist in your written style guide, fall back on usage to inform your decision. If it’s too long to be usable, cut it down; if it’s too short to answer the most common questions, beef it up.

How to Get Others to Use Your Style Guide

If you put in all this work to create a comprehensive style guide, it’d be a real bummer if no one used it.

Here’s the truth: Some people just aren’t going to use it, no matter how easy you make it for them to do so. So just… accept that. But after you’re done grieving, there are a few things you can do to increase the likelihood of adoption:

1. Involve other people in its creation from the get-go.

No one wants to be the Grammar Czar. And if you do, I promise you no one you work with thinks its cute. Instead of mandating the rules your entire company must use when writing, get a few people together to help create the style guide as a group. Ideally, this little committee will span more than one department to increase the likelihood of widespread adoption.

2. Make it easy to find and use.

Our style guide is available on our internal wiki so it’s easy for people to find, bookmark, and Ctrl+F to get answers to questions quickly. Make yours similarly easy to access and use.

3. Keep updating it.

Your style guide is intended to be a living document. As new questions arise, make it easy for writers to ask questions about proper usage and get a resolution — and make sure that resolution is reflected in an updated version of the style guide.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

During my career, I have freelanced on and off. The biggest lesson I’ve learned in working with clients was the importance of setting expectations from the very beginning.

It helps both parties get on the same page and can prevent miscommunication down the line. That’s why you often have initial discovery calls, set meetings, and draft contracts.

Another way to set expectations is by creating a design brief. It’s essential in the early stages of your design project, whether you’re working with someone in-house or outsourcing it to an agency or independent contractor.

Here’s everything you need to know about what to include in a design brief and the templates that will help you create one quickly.

Think of this brief as a blueprint: It lays out all the information your designer will need to complete the project and helps align both parties on the expectations. Typically, the client (or brand) will fill out most sections in the brief once they know what they’re looking for.

The assigned designer will then complete it based on conversations with the client. It serves as a baseline from which to build the project.

So when would you use a design brief? For:

• A website (re)design
• A logo (re)design
• A (re)branding package
• Creative assets for social media or ad campaign
• Video assets

What to Include in your Design Brief Template

1. An Overview of Your Brand

The first thing you’ll want to outline in your design brief is information about your brand. This gives a big-picture understanding of your business and helps frame the rest of the brief.

Here’s what to include:

• Your industry
• Your products and/services
• Your unique selling position (USP)
• Your mission and your values
• Your competitors

In this section, you can also list your direct and indirect competitors, depending on the project.

If you already know who you will be working with on this project, list the decision-makers for the project and any key stakeholders involved. Outlining the points of contact right from the beginning will streamline the workflow and prevent communication silos.

2. Your Project Overview

As one of the most important sections in your brief, spend time figuring out what you’re looking for before writing this section.

Don’t know where to start? Answer this question: What problems are you trying to solve? This provides context for the intention behind the project and can also help the designer generate new ideas. It’s like going to the doctor. You have to say where it hurts for them before they can prescribe something for relief.

For instance, let’s say you want to redesign your website. The reason could be your users aren’t converting, or because the company has recently shifted and needs a website to reflect this change. Knowing the reason behind the project is equally as important as the project itself.

Next, state your goals and objectives. What do you want to accomplish through this project? Is this a part of something larger? Are there any roadblocks that could hinder your project?

The more detailed you can get, the better. Your goals could include improving website conversions, reducing bounce rates, and/or increasing traffic. It all depends on the project.

Answering these questions will be instrumental in aligning your vision with the designer and creating the space to address any potential issues.

Finally, this section should list your deliverables, such as:

• Required assets (illustrations, photos, videos, mockups, wireframes)
• File formats
• Dimensions

3. Your Branding Guidelines

Unless your design project is for branding, list your branding guidelines in your design brief. This breaks down the rules your designer will need to follow and keep in mind for your project. Rules relating to your:

• Color palette
• Brand voice and tone
• Typography
• Logo

For any design project, you want to make sure your designer creates something that aligns with your brand identity. If you’re in the process of developing your brand identity, you can also provide mood boards to help the designer understand your vision and the direction you’re heading in.

4. Your Target Market

Every design project is developed with the end-user in mind. In this section, dive into who that user is.

Describe your user persona and how you imagine them interacting with this project once it is completed. If you have already done some market research, you should list your target audience’s demographics, behavioral habits, values, interests, and online behavior.

For instance, let’s say you’re an affordable shaving cream brand for men and your current branding and messaging aren’t resonating with consumers. After running a few experiments, you’ve realized that your target market doesn’t see your brand as approachable, inviting, or relatable.

For your design project, you’ll want to revamp your branding package to reflect your consumers. By knowing more about your target market, your designer can use their knowledge of design principles and studies to create a product suited to your audience’s needs.

5. Your Budget and Timeline

These are the nitty-gritty details that are necessary to determine the right partner for your project. You may find a designer who’s great but cannot meet your expectations in terms of timeline.

Similarly, you may find out during a discovery call with a design agency that they cannot work within your budget.

Outlining your budget and timeline will help to weed out people who aren’t the best fit for your project. While timelines can be flexible, it’s important to set an ideal timeframe from the beginning and adjust later, if needed.

Once you select a designer or agency, together you’ll decide on milestones or deadlines during the length of the project.

A Design Brief Example

Your design brief should be detailed, providing as much context as possible to facilitate your designer’s understanding.

This video creative brief template presents the key questions you’ll need to answer to write an effective brief. 

Having templates for each type of design project saves time and can ensure that everyone on your team follows the same process.

Design Brief Generators

1. HubSpot’s Creative Brief Template

If you’re looking for a set of design brief templates to use for future projects, HubSpot’s got you covered.

The document includes three creative brief templates designed with different goals in mind:

• A campaign template for when you’re launching an ad campaign and need to outsource the creative assets.
• A video template for a video project that involves ideation, production, and distribution.
• A client template for both designs and marketing managers who are working on a design project.

Each template includes detailed sections to help you flesh out the key elements of your project and build an effective design brief for every situation.

The best part? It’s free.

2. CreateBrief

Createbrief is a great place to start if you’ve never created a design brief before.

The tool is designed like a survey, asking you key questions about your brand to understand what you’re looking for and your requirements.

Once you answer all of the questions, you get a design brief that you can share with others through a custom URL. While it isn’t very in-depth, it can be useful during the initial process of building your brief.

There’s no sign-up required and you can use the tool as soon as you land on the webpage.

3. Bonsai’s Design Brief Generator

Bonsai is a freelance management app that helps freelancers manage their clients. If you’re a small business looking to outsource your design work, you can build a design brief template right on the platform.

Once you create it, you can also send it via email for approval and get read notifications.

What’s great about Bonsai is that its templates are typically reviewed by experts, ensuring that it will have everything you need for your project.

To use the template, you must enter your email and sign up for the software.

4. TemplateLab

The TemplateLab offers hundreds of free customizable templates you can sift through and download.

The site currently has 50 design brief templates, ranging from website briefs to interior design briefs. A standout feature on the website is the ability to see exactly what’s included in the template before you download it.

Once you download it to Microsoft Word, you can customize it to meet your needs.

While you could start your design project without a brief, fleshing out the details ahead of time ensures everyone is on the same page. It’s a short, but important step that will save you time (and money) down the line.

After months of testing, Instagram announced a big change to its user interface (UI) in late 2020: replacing the user “Activity” tab with the “Shop” tab, the social platform’s latest move to be more business-friendly.

It’s a big evolution from where the feature was just a few years ago. Today, it’s infinitely easier for users to shop products from brands without ever leaving the app.

So, how exactly does the tool work and how can you leverage it to generate revenue? Find out everything you need to know in the sections below.

Why Your Business Should Sell on Instagram

Thanks to the Instagram shoppable posts feature and other supportive tools (like the product wishlist, product launch reminder, and shopping stickers on Instagram Stories), users can go through the entire buyer’s journey, from discovery to checkout.

Social media platforms are typically seen as great brand awareness tools. However, Instagram’s new integrations have made it a big revenue driver.

A 2019 Facebook study revealed that 54% of respondents purchased items in the moment or some time after seeing a product or service on Instagram.

And it’s not only direct-to-consumer brands that can benefit from using Instagram’s shopping features. A Q4 2020 report by HootSuite revealed that 36.2% of B2B decision-makers use the app to source new products and/or services.

Shoppable posts are marked with a clickable shopping bag icon that displays the product information and the “View Products” call-to-action to visit the brand’s Shop page.

This creates a seamless experience for the user and allows you to advertise your products without being too promotional.

1. Meet the eligibility criteria.

There are a few eligibility requirements you must check off before you start selling on Instagram. You must:

• Be located in one of these markets.
• Have an Instagram business or creator account.
• Sell physical goods that comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies.
• Connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Business Page.

Once you meet the above requirements, follow the steps below.

2. Upload your product catalog.

Your catalog is a file that contains the products you want to sell along with their information, such as pricing and description. There are two ways to upload your product catalog:

• Take the do-it-yourself route through the Facebook Business Manager by manually adding the items.
• Connect to an ecommerce platform partner, such as Shopify or BigCommerce. Find a full list of compatible partners here.

How to Upload Your Products Manually

To create a catalog through Facebook, you must first have a Facebook Business Manager account, which is different from a Business page. From there, head to the Commerce Manager and set up your catalog.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

It’s very important to keep your product catalog synced with your Instagram Page, and that your product descriptions and prices are accurate. If you’re running a sale or promotion, be sure to update your product catalog to reflect it.

How to Upload Your Products through an Ecommerce Platform

A second way to connect your Instagram Business Profile to a Facebook catalog is to do it through an ecommerce platform. Here are the steps using two popular platforms.

Shopify

Before you get started, you need to have the Facebook sales channel (included in all paid Shopify plans) installed on your Shopify store, which creates a Shop tab on your Facebook page.

For specific details on how to connect your Facebook page to your Shopify account, you can view the Shopify guide here.

Once you’ve done the above, you can easily add the Instagram Sales Channel to your Shopify store, which connects the products from your Shopify page to your Instagram business profile.

To do this, head to your Shopify admin and click on the “+” button located beside the “Sales Channels” heading.

Next, on the “Add sales channel” dialogue, click “Instagram” and then “Add channel.”

You’ll need to log into your Facebook account page to authenticate your Instagram account in the sales channel.

Once the Instagram Sales Channel is installed, you can enable the feature in your settings on Instagram.

BigCommerce

Start by opening Channel Manager on your BigCommerce account and click “Get Started” next to Facebook.

On the next screen, confirm that you’re using a compatible currency, sign up for a Facebook account (if you don’t have one), review the product requirements, then click “Get Started.”

Next, fill out your details on the Configuration page, including your business’ contact email, phone number, and the Facebook Page you’d like your shop to appear on.

Here’s the complete BigCommerce guide on how to do it.

Once Facebook approves your catalog, head back to Channel Manager, click “Get Started” next to Instagram, and confirm that your store meets the requirements.

3. Submit your account for review.

Once you’ve connected your product catalog to your Instagram account, you can submit your account for approval.

1. Go to your professional dashboard. Once there, click on “Set Up Instagram Shopping.”

2. On the setup page, click on “Get Started.”3. Select your catalog.

4. Review the details and click “Submit for Review.”

The approval process can take a few days. You may also need to provide additional information, such as domain verification.

How to Tag Products with Instagram Shoppable Posts

Once you get access to shoppable posts on Instagram and you’ve completed all the steps listed above, adding tags to your posts is quick and easy.

1. Upload your image and once you’re done editing, hit “Next.”

2. Click on “Tag Products.”

3. Tap on the item in your image you want to tag.

4. Search for the product and select it.

5. Click on “Done” and share the image.

Have an older post that still gets good traction, but doesn’t have a shoppable tag? You can tag products in both new and existing posts from your Instagram Business Profile, up to five products per single image post or 20 products per multi-photo (or carousel) post.

How to Optimize Your Posts for Shoppable Purchases

1. Create posts that feel natural to the Instagram feed.

While selling on Instagram is easier than ever, remember that your audience shouldn’t feel like they are being sold to. You should maintain their current content strategy, incorporating shoppable tags on photos that are a natural fit for your profile.

2. Leverage influencer content.

A great way to organically add shopping tags to your post is by leveraging posts from consumers. Studies show consumers trust influencers much more than brands and these posts serve as social proof, i.e., credibility and validation for the brand.

For example, Fe Noel recently reposted this post from a fashion influencer and added the product tag.

You can also optimize your Instagram sales strategy by using influencer posts. Influencer collaborations and sponsorships have nearly replaced traditional ads and are a huge part of social media strategies today.

55% of fashion shoppers have purchased a fashion item after seeing it promoted on the platform, according to a 2020 post from Instagram’s creator account.

Below, popular fashion model Michelle Dee is shown sporting a Herschel Supply suitcase on the brand’s profile:

An Instagram influencer’s stamp of approval goes a long way and is a great strategy to drive sales from your Instagram shoppable posts.

3. Optimize your post with multiple tags.

Lastly, including multiple shopping tags in your photos will help your audience explore and browse through your products quickly. You can also try adding shopping tags to carousel posts to test their performance against single-photo posts.

4. Activate the Shop page on your Instagram profile.

Create at least nine shoppable posts to activate the “Shop” tab on your Instagram profile. This will group all your shoppable posts under one tab for easy shopping and product discovery.

Measuring the Results of Your Shoppable Posts

Instagram business accounts have access to analytics for their shoppable posts, including data on how many people viewed product information and clicked through to the product page. This information helps determine what type of products resonate with your Instagram followers and identify gaps in the buyer’s journey.

As with all of your social media marketing efforts, you should measure performance data to see what drives the best results (and why) and use that to inform future posts.

Once your business begins selling on Instagram, keep experimenting with images, copy, shopping tags, and other factors that may contribute to your sales.

No matter what type of products you sell, delving into your analytics allows you to understand your audience’s wants, improves your content, and ultimately helps you drive more traffic and sales.

Selling on Instagram is a unique opportunity to reach users in all stages of the buyer journey through a seamless experience.

In early 2020, the world as we knew it was flipped upside down. Businesses were forced to pivot in the face of the pandemic, and as a result many companies adopted a remote work culture.

Remote work changed the way organizations and teams worked — and even how companies communicated to prospective customers and acquired new business. Employees leaned into virtual designs, presentations, and events to communicate both internally and externally.

The graphic design landscape, as a result, has changed dramatically over the past year.

Now, presentations need to work harder than ever to connect, engage, and inspire audiences into action. In fact, over 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given each day to over 500 million audiences — but 79% of those audiences believe most presentations they see are boring.

To help you crush your next presentation deck, we’ve rounded up the top presentation design trends of 2021, as predicted by creative industry experts and presentation power-users.

Here, learn from three creative experts from leading companies in the tech space on the four biggest presentation design trends that will emerge in 2021.

1. There will be increased empathy found in design.

Marissa Latshaw, Founder of Latshaw Marketing, says: “Impactful, inspiring design starts with empathy.

Empathy is one of the most powerful tools in the creative toolbox. The good news is that empathy — the ability to feel, understand, and respond to the feelings of others — is innate in us all. Our job as creators is to harness this empathy for better design, marketing, and storytelling.

Empathy boosts creativity. The empathy/creativity connection is strong — as shown in many studies over the past decade. One study asked participants to create and name a potato chip product for pregnant women. Before beginning the task, half of the participants were told to envision how the consumer would feel while eating the snack. The other half were asked to imagine what the consumer would think. An independent jury found the product concepts of the first, feelings-focused, empathy-activated group to be more original than the control group.

Empathy is also vital for inclusivity. More than ever, we want to communicate with others in a way that is genuinely inclusive. An empathetic approach ensures we understand the goals, needs, fears, and values of all the people we wish to engage (beyond just the way they relate to our brand or product). This is a call for us all to become proactive about inclusivity, and it starts with empathy.

Empathy creates connection. From in-home fitness giant Peloton to the new voice-based, social network Clubhouse, we are constantly finding new and innovative ways to connect with one another.

Both brands demonstrate empathy as they address the palpable and growing need for connection. They re-imagined how we work out and share conversations in a more socially-connected way.

Designing anything — from a presentation to an ad campaign — is no different. Each is an opportunity to reimagine and innovate how we engage and connect with the world.

Empathy helps us to stand out by standing in another’s shoes. Creating one-of-a-kind, empathy-driven experiences ultimately brings us closer together and inspires action.”

2. Designers will lean into radical simplicity.

Eliot Garcia Weisberg, Creative Director at Airbnb, talks to us about all things radical simplicity.

He says, “Despite its incredible power to connect us, teleconferencing stunts audience energy and empathy. Attention — already a fleeting resource — is further divided between the screens, speakers, slides, and sounds of the virtual landscape.

The feedback loop from audience to presenter is nearly dead. The impact of environmental design is lost. In our new world, the value of a single pixel on the cluttered screens of remote audiences is immense. And the screens themselves— their quality and colors— vary wildly from member to member.

The key to designing for the ‘new normal’ is embracing radical simplicity. A designer must reduce a slide to its core idea, then push to simplify even further. They musk ask themselves — ‘Do I really need to show this?’ Then challenge themselves every time the answer is ‘Yes.’

Slide counts will be drastically reduced. Superfluous icons will fade away. Bullets will become a distant memory. Subtle textures will be replaced by solid colors. We’ll see a shift away from image masks and bold text over photos. Instead, we’ll see full-screen photographs or simple statements that make their point obvious and drive core concepts home.

We’ll spend more time on the speaker— full screen— than ever before. Their delivery, from tone to inflection, will become a design element. Rehearsals will replace design reviews. 

The end result will feel much more human. And, if successful, radically simple.”

3. Great design will hold the viewers’ attention.

“For decades, the job of creative designers, writers, and videographers was to get attention. Cut through the noise. Deliver ads that stand out. Use creativity as a hook,” Adam Morgan, Adobe’s Executive Creative Director, says about holding an audience’s attention.

He adds, “But in today’s ultra-connected digital world, that hammer and nail approach isn’t always the answer. People choose what they want. The trend I’m seeing today is to hold attention. Less push and more pull. We have to create experiences that provide real value to an individual — not just catch their attention with shock value or clickbait.

 “We have to create communities where people want to consume our brand experiences. We have to know those individuals and groups, what they care about, and provide new information wrapped in an emotional blanket. We have to stand for things they value.”

Rather than a hard sell, we have to share a story that they believe in and be open and transparent with why it matters to them.

What this means for creative teams is that you can’t just make it pretty or funny. You have to think deeply about what your brand means to customers and then create immersive experiences that connect. It’s no longer just about the creative craft of colors and fonts and icons. It’s about stories and meaning and authenticity and purpose. Don’t just get attention with your work. Hold attention. So that you can build brands that grow and last.”

4. Designers should use clean, minimalistic fonts and calming colors.

Lastly, we tapped into Beautiful.ai’s Creative Director Anuja Kanani’s expertise to unravel one more presentation design trend for 2021.

Kanani says, “Choosing the best colors for a presentation, and good presentation fonts, are two of the most important elements of deck design. Each design decision— shapes, words, and images— affect the way your audience feels about the presentation, but colors hold the most influence.

Taking the place of bold, bright primary colors, 2021 has warranted more relaxed, muted colors following the chaos of 2020. Not only are low-saturated and pastel colors more calming, they’re more organic and natural, perhaps making audiences feel more at ease and confident in the presentation in front of them.

Using a consistent, complimentary color theme strategically can help position your brand in the mind of your customers,” adds Kanani. She recommends limiting your presentation to 3-4 colors in your palette, with one accent color to highlight key points and bring balance and harmony to your presentation.

The trend of minimalism extends to good presentation fonts, too. Seasoned presenters are opting for clean minimal fonts, such as Open Sans or Jost, and rejecting traditional fonts like Arial or Times New Roman in 2021.

Kanani adds, “Custom typography improves your brand recognition, while selecting different weights or styles can help control the narrative on each slide.”

Presentation Graphics

You’ve probably caught onto the fact that over-complicated slides are a thing of the past. Studies show that 35% of millennials say they will only engage with content they feel has a great story or theme, so to avoid boring them into a snooze, use visuals to control your narrative.

Presentation graphics, or rich visuals, can help you paint a picture in bite-sized chunks so that your audience can digest the information you’re presenting to them.

Kanani says, “Engaging, inspiring visuals in presentations make your content compelling, eye-catching, and helps convey your story beautifully.”

Choosing rich icons, diagrams or infographics, and quality photos are powerful tools to help make your presentation more memorable and impactful.

Ultimately, design is an art, not a science. However, ideally you can use these trends as inspiration for your own branded designs in 2021 and beyond. 

As a job seeker, you can often expect to speak with an HR professional before moving onto interviews with employees within the department for which you’re applying.

It’s critical you prepare well for your HR interview. Oftentimes, a company uses their HR department to screen candidates and decide which candidates are most qualified to move forward in the interview process.

But an HR professional has different goals when interviewing than your direct hiring manager does. While your hiring manager will ask questions specific to the role (for example, in a marketing interview), the HR professional is interested in gaining broader insights regarding culture fit and whether you demonstrate the company’s values.

With that in mind, let’s go over the definition for this interview and what you can expect.

It’s easy to underemphasize HR interviews in comparison to interviews with, say, your potential manager. There’s even a misconception that the HR round is only a formality. But the truth is that this interview is critical to the hiring process.

It allows you to establish a positive first impression. Your HR contact decides whether you get to move forward, so you’ll want to make sure you exhibit your competencies and establish rapport.

I spoke with Alexa Matthews, a senior recruiter here at HubSpot, who pointed out some additional benefits to the screening process — “It’s an opportunity for a great first impression. In the first call, a candidate can often convey things that are not written on their resume. We take that information so that we can be their advocate and make recommendations to hiring managers throughout the process.”

Additionally, Alexa mentioned initial interview screens help candidates learn more about the role and evaluate their interest in the company. At the same time, these initial interviews help HR professionals set a candidate up for success by learning what is required of the role and providing the candidate with feedback throughout all stages of the interview process.

Let’s go over a few of the questions you might have about the HR interview.

What can I expect from an HR interview?

During an HR round, you can expect high-level, general questions about you, your past work experience, and your motive for looking for a new position. Expect to receive questions that allude to your aptitudes and competencies, but that don’t go too in depth about role-specific responsibilities.

You can expect to be asked about:

• What you expect for your salary
• Why you’re looking for a new role
• Why you’re leaving your current company
• What you’re looking for in a new opportunity
• How you could function in a new environment
• How you’ve functioned in your former environment
• How you’ve handled conflict with coworkers
• How you’ve handled high-pressure situations

The HR interview can also cover the company’s benefits, work hours, and organizational structure.

Is HR round just a formality?

No. HR round isn’t a formality. It’s a highly important step in the hiring process and often the piece that determines whether you get to move forward in the recruitment process.

This is especially true for big firms, where your HR representative becomes an ally during the hiring process. They’re your point of contact for every question and concern you might have as you move from round to round. At HubSpot, recruiters give you feedback to help you successfully move forward.

To help you prepare for any questions you might receive from an HR professional, I’ve curated a list of top questions, along with the best sample answers.

1. Tell me about yourself.

One of the more traditional questions in this list, “Tell me about yourself” is nonetheless a helpful question for HR professionals to get a sense for how this conversation will go, and in which direction they should steer future questions.

Ultimately, you’ll want to be prepared to describe past roles, how those roles demonstrate your strengths, and what you want in a company and role moving forward. Additionally, make sure to include why you believe this role is a good match for your talents.

Sample Answer

“I graduated from ABC University in 20XX. Since then, I’ve worked my way up at Company X, from an intern blogging on the content team to an Associate SEO Strategist. Along the way, I’ve learned I work best in collaboration with a team, as opposed to more solitary roles. As an SEO strategist, I’ve discovered I enjoy the analytical side of marketing, and possess strengths that allow me to excel in those types of roles — in fact, as a result of my SEO efforts, traffic to our site has increased 13% over the past two years. I’m now looking for new challenges and believe your company, and this role, is a fantastic next step.”

Tips

• Focus on your prior accomplishments.
• Provide an overarching overview of your career up until this point without being long-winded.
• Try to use words from the job posting in your answer.
• End with the type of role or challenge that you’re looking for and why this company is a great fit.
• If you’re switching careers, provide a brief reason why.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t summarize your resume.
• Don’t start with where you were born or where you’ve lived (unless it’s related to the role. Say, you lived in Japan for a few years, and the role requires Japanese fluency).
• Leave out personal information.

2. Why are you interested in this position?

This question is a critical indicator as to whether you’re interested in this company and role in particular, or whether you’re simply applying to any role in the field. For instance, it’s not a good sign if you say, “Well, I’m interested in social media, so this role seemed like a good fit.” Instead, you want to mention specific qualifications of the role itself, and demonstrate how those qualifications align with your personal strengths. Additionally, it’s important you mention how you can help drive results for the team.

Sample Answer

“Through my last role, I’ve learned I’m passionate about creating content for social media. I’ve managed to grow our Instagram audience by 7%, and with my team I created a successful Facebook campaign that cultivated an increase in sales by 12%. I’ve followed your business on Instagram and Facebook for a few years and appreciate your brand — more importantly, I see this role as one in which I’d truly be challenged and able to use my strengths. In particular, I believe I’d excel in the client-facing aspect of the role. Meeting with clients to collaborate on social media marketing objectives and goals is something I find exciting and purposeful.”

Tips

• Be as specific as possible — mention how your interest in the industry, your prior experience, or your love for this company make you want to assume the role.
• Bring in information about the company’s culture into your answer.
• Express enthusiasm for the company and its offerings, especially if you’ve used its products before.
• Remember, use words from the job posting to emphasize your interest.
• If you’re switching careers, use this question to go more in depth into your motive for switching.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t mention money or benefits in your answer.
• Don’t be blase (“Oh, I’m just looking for a new role in this field”).

3. Why are you leaving your current job?

This is an opportunity to outline positive benefits you hope to gain by transitioning into a new role. However, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when answering this question is focusing on negative aspects of your current employer, rather than discussing positive aspects of the new company.

An HR professional will mark it as a red flag if you talk poorly about your current employer or company. It illustrates someone who isn’t very professional, has a negative attitude, and could bring toxic energy into their new work environment.

Sample Answer

“I appreciate everything my current employer has done to help me grow, and I believe working for a small startup over the past year has helped me develop leadership skills earlier than I could’ve at a larger corporation. However, I am now interested in transferring the skills I’ve acquired here to a larger organization, where I believe I’ll find more growth opportunities in the future.”

Tips

• Focus on career growth and skill development as a reason for looking for a new role.
• Express appreciation for your current employer without being overly positive (then they’ll wonder why you’re actually leaving).

Things to Avoid

• Whatever you do, don’t complain about your current employer, your boss, or your work environment.

4. Can you describe a work or school instance in which you messed up?

This is an intentionally tricky question. It’s meant to glean insight into whether you can learn from past mistakes. If you can’t think of any past errors, it could be an indicator you aren’t capable of accepting responsibility for your own mistakes. However, creating a long list of past mishaps could make you look unqualified for the role.

You’ll want to answer this question succinctly, and point out an error that doesn’t represent a lack of character. Consider one, well-intentioned error you’ve had in the past, mention it, and then talk about how you grew from that experience.

Sample Answer

“In my prior role when I first became manager, I took on too many tasks myself and quickly became both overwhelmed, and less efficient in my role. Additionally, my team members were frustrated because they felt there was a lack of collaboration on our team. I quickly recognized I needed to learn to delegate tasks and collaborate on projects with teammates, and became a more successful manager as a result.”

Tips

• Only focus on one incident.
• Close your answer with how you’ve improved or grown as a result of the incident, or what you’re currently doing to improve.
• Own the mistake you made without over-criticizing yourself.
• Be brief but earnest.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t shift the blame to a coworker or to the company.

5. Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict with a co-worker and how you dealt with it.

The HR professional isn’t interested in hearing about that time your co-worker said something snide about you in the kitchen, or when your manager overheard you gossiping about a client to a friend.

Instead, this question is asked to gain insight into how you handle professional conflict. At the office, conflict is bound to arise, particularly when you’re working closely with many different people. It’s critical you know how to handle conflict without pointing fingers. Your answer should primarily focus on the solution, and should show a level of empathy towards your colleagues, rather than focusing on the problem.

Sample Answer

“I had a deadline I needed to meet, and I was working with a designer who promised me her designs in time. When the deadline approached, my designer wasn’t ready. It made us both look poorly in front of our clients. To resolve the issue, I discussed the problem privately with my designer. She told me she was stressed out and overwhelmed, and simply needed another week on the project. I told her that was fine with me, but in the future, we needed to be transparent and honest with each other. Moving forward, we established guidelines and became more efficient teammates.”

Tips

• Like in the previous question, only focus on one incident, especifically one that has a positive outcome.
• Always close your answer with the steps you’ve taken to improve or how this incident resulted in positive change.
• Be balanced in your answer — don’t make it seem as if the conflict was entirely your coworker’s fault.
• Show empathy.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t blame-shift.
• Don’t focus on what you did right and what your co-worker did wrong (it’ll make you sound entitled).

6. What do you know about our company?

This is a fantastic opportunity to impress the interviewer. Ultimately, this question aims to gauge your level of interest in the company. The more you’ve researched prior accomplishments, company values, and basic information regarding the product or service, the more you can demonstrate a genuine desire to work there.

Sample Answer

“I know your company is ranked the number one web design firm in Massachusetts. Your mission statement in particular appeals to me. I also know your company emphasizes continual learning and growth, two aspects I find incredibly exciting. I’ve spoken to Jen and Mark, two marketers at your company, and they’ve described the work environment as one full of passion and innovation — which is something I hope to find in my next role.”

Tips

• Mention the company’s culture and your prior experience with its product.
• Be positive in your answer.
• Connect your answer with your desire to work for the firm and assume the role.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t unearth potentially controversial information, such as a company scandal.

7. How would you improve our current product or service?

An HR professional wants to know whether you’re innovative, whether you’re a quick-thinker, and whether you’ll bring new ideas to the role. There isn’t necessarily a wrong answer, here — you just need to show some creativity, and planning in advance will help. Consider potential problems they might be experiencing with their product or service, and how your unique skillset can fill that void.

Sample Answer

“I’ve noticed your product is in English, without current translation options. I believe your product could benefit from multilingual translations, which would help you appeal to a wider demographic. This could help you become more of a global leader. As someone who is fluent in French and Spanish, I’d like to potentially help spearhead a project that moves the product in that direction.”

Tips

• Be honest but brief about the product’s limitations.
• Focus on how you can help the company make the improvement.
• Mention how this change can help the company grow.
• Prepare for this question by using the product or service before the interview.
• Tastefully mention competitors and their products — it will show that you’re informed about the industry.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t “hate” on the product. (“Ugh, I used it once, and the UX was really buggy. I couldn’t get to X page…” )
• Don’t sing too many praises for the competitor’s product.

8. How would your current manager describe you?

It can be awkward to brag about yourself, so while this question may seem weird, it’s really the HR professional’s tactic for hearing how your current boss views you in a work environment. To feel less uncomfortable answering this question, thoughtfully consider your last performance review, and use direct quotes from your boss in your answer.

Sample Answer

“During my last performance review, my current manager told me she appreciates how quickly I take constructive feedback and use it to improve in my role. She’s grateful that she never needs to repeat areas of improvement to me — once she gives me feedback, I take it seriously and make sure she never needs to bring it up again. She has also described me as diligent and trustworthy, two aspects I believe are critical for excelling in any role.”

Tips

• Quote your manager directly.
• Be clear about your strengths — this is really your moment to shine.
• Focus on a single characteristic you’d like to highlight.
• Try to connect the strength to the role you’re applying for.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t focus on a specific accomplishment, but rather on a soft skill that can lead to sustainable growth in the role.
• Don’t start with “Well, I’m really good at…”

9. Where do you see yourself in five years?

This question allows the HR professional to understand your career aspirations — and gauge whether this company is the right place for you to grow. In many ways, this question works as a temperature check to ensure that this is a field you’d like to stay in for the foreseeable future.

Sample Answer

“In five years, I see myself driving organic growth at a medium or large company, overseeing the SEO strategy and potentially managing a team in a leadership role. In the past, I’ve focused on the execution side of SEO, but as I get further along in my career, I’ve wanted to get more into strategy, which helps drive sustainable growth. After working for a few years in X role, I want to lead a company’s SEO strategy to meet acquisition targets and exceed revenue goals.”

Tips

• Connect your answer to the role and how you feel you can grow in the company.
• Be realistic and specific.
• Mention words from the job description.
• Hint at how you can help the company grow later down the line.

Things to Avoid

• Don’t be blase or noncommittal.
• Don’t indicate that you’re hoping to leave the company for a better one, or that this role is just a stepping stone.

10. What questions do you have for me?

When an HR professional asks you this question, you might be eager to end the call and say, “Nope, no questions.” This would be a mistake. Having thoughtful, smart, strategic questions demonstrates your interest in the role, as well as your potential value as a future employee. They want to hire candidates who will ask questions and move the company forward, and this can’t happen if you accept everything as-is.

At this stage, you should consider what your genuine concerns are regarding the role. You might ask the interviewer, “What are the company’s values? What characteristics do you look for in candidates in order to represent those values?” Or, perhaps you’ll say, “What do you enjoy most about working at Company A?”

Ultimately, an interview isn’t just about allowing an HR professional to form an opinion of you — it’s also a chance for you to get a strong sense for whether you even want to work for the company. So use this last question to your advantage.

How do I prepare for HR round?

The HR interview is your only chance to make a lasting first impression. Because it determines whether you get to move forward, it’s important to prepare for the interview as if the HR professional gets to make the final decision. (They likely won’t, but they do determine whether you get to move forward.)

Luckily, it’s easy to prepare. Aside from knowing the questions you might be asked, you’ll want to research the company, reread the job description multiple times, practice your answers beforehand, and compile a list of questions to ask the HR rep.

Let’s go over these one-by-one.

1. Research the company.

Researching the company is a no-brainer, yet many of us walk into an interview with only a surface-level understanding of the company and its product offerings. In your research, seek to not only understand what the company sells but who it sells it to. Use the product beforehand if you can. Take a look at the firm’s competitors. Last, try to get a thorough understanding of the company’s culture.

2. Reread the job description multiple times.

I know that it’s difficult to keep track of job postings, especially if you’ve applied to tens upon tens of jobs. Try to find the original posting (or a copy of it on a job search site) and reread the description. If possible, print it out and highlight sections that you feel most match with your qualifications. Underline key terms, then bring those terms into your answers.

3. Practice your answers.

Practice, practice, practice. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of your camera, and in your room. But don’t memorize your answers — simply go over them a few times so that they’re eloquent, enthusiastic, and brief without feeling wooden or scripted. Use the STAR method to structure your answers. Don’t forget to focus on positive results.

4. Compile a list of questions.

These questions should be general enough that an HR professional can answer them (you wouldn’t want to ask something too team- or role-specific), but targeted enough that they feel tailored to the company.

You might ask general questions regarding the role, like “Are there opportunities for professional development within the role and department as a whole?” If they can’t answer these sorts of questions because they’re not acquainted with the team, you can ask about their experience and what it’s like to work at the company.

Prepare for Your HR Interview to Ensure Success

While the HR interview gets a bad reputation for being a formality, it’s arguably the most important step in the hiring process. Prepare beforehand, practice your answers, and research the company and its culture. The HR professional is your ally during the process. You want them to know that you’re the perfect fit for the role, which will get you closer to a job offer.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

At the beginning of 2021, I was tasked with an assignment: Create a pie chart showcasing which types of content performed best on the Marketing Blog in 2020.

The question was an undeniably important one, as it would influence what types of content we wrote in 2021, along with identifying new opportunities for growth.

But once I’d compiled all relevant data, I was stuck — How could I easily create a pie chart to showcase my results?

Fortunately, I’ve since figured it out. Here, let’s dive into how you can create your own excel pie chart for impressive marketing reports and presentations. Plus, how to rotate a pie chart in excel, explode a pie chart, and even how to create a 3-dimensional version.

Let’s dive in.

How to Make a Pie Chart in Excel

1. Create your columns and/or rows of data. Feel free to label each column of data — excel will use those labels as titles for your pie chart. Then, highlight the data you want to display in pie chart form.

2. Now, click “Insert” and then click on the “Pie” logo at the top of excel.

3. You’ll see a few pie options here, including 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional. For our purposes, let’s click on the first image of a 2-dimensional pie chart.

4. And there you have it! A pie chart will appear with the data and labels you’ve highlighted.

If you’re not happy with the pie chart colors or design, however, you also have plenty of editing options.

Let’s dive into those, next.

How to Edit a Pie Chart in Excel

Background Color

1. You can change the background color by clicking on the paint bucket icon under the “Format Chart Area” sidebar.

Then, choose the fill type (whether you want a solid color as your pie chart background, or whether you want the fill to be gradient or patterned), and the background color.

Pie Chart Text

2. Next, click on the text within the pie chart itself if you want to rewrite anything, expand the text, or move the text to a new area of your pie chart.

Pie Chart Border

3. Within the Format Chart Area, you can edit the border of your pie chart as well — including the border transparency, width, and color.

Pie Chart Shadows

4. To change the pie chart box itself (including the box’s shadow, edges, and glow), click on the pentagon shape in the Format Chart Area sidebar.

Then, toggle the bar across “Transparency”, “Size”, “Blur”, and “Angle” until you’re happy with the shadow of your pie chart box.

Pie Chart Colors

5. Click the color paint palette, at the top left of excel, to change the colors of your pie chart.

Excel offers a range of complementary colors — including a few presets under “Colorful”, and a few presets under “Monochromatic”. You can click between the options until you find a color palette you’re happy with.

(Alternatively, if you want to change the colors of your pie chart pieces individually, simply double click on the pie chart piece, toggle onto the paint section of the Format Chart Area, and choose a new color.)

Chart Title

6. Change the chart title by clicking on the three bars graph icon in the top left of excel, and then toggling to “Chart Title > None”, “Chart Title > Above Chart”, or “Chart Title > Centered Overlay”.

Change Location of Data Labels

7. On the same three bar graph icon, click “Data Labels” to modify where your labels appear on the pie chart. (For instance, do you want the pie chart pieces labelled in the middle of each pie chart portion, or on the outside?)

Switch Row/Column

8. If you’d prefer to switch which data appears in the pie chart, click “Switch Row/Column” to see alternate information aligned from your original data set.

How to Explode a Pie Chart in Excel

1. To explode a piece of your pie chart (which can help you emphasize or draw attention to a specific section of your pie chart), simply double-click on the piece you want to pull away.

Then, drag your cursor until it’s the distance you want it, and you’re all set!

How to Create a 3D Pie Chart in Excel

1. To create a 3-dimensional pie chart in excel, simply highlight your data and then click the “Pie” logo.

2. Then, choose the “3-D Pie” option.

3. Finally, choose the design option you like at the top of your screen.

How to Rotate a Pie Chart in Excel

Finally, to rotate your pie chart, double-click on the chart and then click on the three-bar icon under “Format Data Point”.

Then, toggle the “Angle of first slice” until you’ve rotated the pie chart to the degree you want.

And there you have it! You’re well on your way to creating clean, impressive pie charts for your marketing materials to highlight important data and move stakeholders to take action.

Ultimately, you’ll want to experiment with all of excel’s unique formatting features until you figure out the pie chart that works best for your needs. Good luck!

When you come across a beautiful sight — be it a beach, a mountain, or your pet’s face — sometimes, it inspires you to think bigger about what certain sights and experiences mean.

For those moments, you might consider posting a photo on Instagram with an equally inspiring quote as the caption. But you could take it even further — and save characters — by posting the photo with the quote.

You’ve likely seen quotes on Instagram posts before, but you may never have created one for your brand’s account. Here’s a recent Instagram quote we shared here at HubSpot:

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by HubSpot (@hubspot)

Posting quote images on Instagram can diversify your content on the platform and humanize your brand a little, too. Everyone could use a motivational quote during a busy Monday morning or a slow Tuesday afternoon, so try out an Instagram quote for your next post with the help of these free apps.

Instagram Text Apps to Make Inspiring Quotes

Featured Resource: 9 Instagram Quote Templates

HubSpot created a collection of 9 Instagram quote templates for posts and stories – in addition to 13 more free Instagram posts for business. Download the collection of templates today to make Instagram quotes right in Google Slides for free.

1. Canva

iOS, Android, Mac, or Web App

Canva’s many features extend beyond text-based pictures and, for that matter, social media. But the mobile app and its gorgeous pre-made templates make it perfect for Instagram quotes.

Using the Canva’s social media post setting, you can draft banners, flyers, cards, and posts of all shapes and sizes using one of millions of pro-level photos for your quote background. Of course, feel free to snap a photo on the go, as well. One you select your image, you can choose from more than 100 fonts, adjust the size and color, and publish.

2. Pablo by Buffer

Web App or Chrome Extension

Pablo is a simple app that allows you to make quotes for Instagram (as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest). You have the option of choosing among 600,000 images or uploading one of your own; adding header, body, and caption text; uploading logos or graphics; and customizing with a filter.
The options are limited, but the interface is extremely streamlined, making it a great choice for beginners. In addition, you can share directly to the social platform of your choosing or use Buffer to schedule the post for a later date.

3. Stencil

Web App, Chrome Extension, Firefox Add-On, Safari Extension, or WordPress

Depending on the plan you choose, Stencil allows you to create quote images with their 140+ common presets, more than 5 million high-resolution photos (all royalty-free), and more than 1275 templates. Even better, Stencil has partnered with Google Fonts and some of the top icon providers to customize your designs even further.

It also helps you determine if you’re within Facebook’s recommended text limits and whether any of your content might be cut off by common social media platforms.

To make sharing easy, you can send your images straight to Instagram, using their in-app social sharing options, or through their native Buffer integration.

4. VanillaPen

Android or iOS

Image Source

VanillaPen brands itself as a “powerful tool that will transform your regular posts into creative posters within seconds.” It includes more than 200 templates (with presets to make the design process easier), 86 fonts, and 360 decorative elements. You’ll also have the ability to perform basic design functions such as resizing, rotating, and more. From there, you can export and share to the social media platform of your choice.

5. Fotor

Web App, Mac, Windows, Android, or iOS

Fotor is an excellent tool that offers a wide range of templates, fonts, photos, and stickers to rival any of the apps on this list. However, what makes it stand out is its photo editing and retouching capabilities, making its feature set similar to that of Adobe Photoshop’s but simpler. From background removers to blur effects, Fotor can help you create stunning graphics for Instagram.

6. Snappa

Web App

Image Source

With Snappa, you’ll have access to more than 6000 templates and 5 million photos and graphics to use for your designs. It also has basic photo editing capabilities such as background removal, brightness/lightness adjustment, and blurring functionality. You can also repurpose your designs into the ideal image dimensions for multiple social platforms without manually resizing and redesigning for each one. The only downside is that you only get 3 downloads per month on Snappa’s free plan, but there are premium plans available.

7. QuotesCover

Web App

What’s interesting about QuotesCover is that it integrates with a large database of quotes so that you don’t have to supply the text for the image you create. Simply search the database, find a quote, and load it into the QuotesCover editor. From there, it will generate an automatic design, which you can edit with their background options, text formatting tool, stickers, and other design assets. In theory, you can go from zero ideas to full-fledged professional design in just a couple clicks.

8. PicMonkey

Web App, iPhone, Android

Image Source

PicMonkey is another one of those tools that can do it all: photo editing (including background removals), graphics, and templates created with the best practices for each social platform in mind. You’ll be able to draw from their library of millions of stock photos, videos, and animations. The big downside to this tool is that you’ll need a subscription to download or share the images you create. However, the plus is that the subscription comes with 1GB of cloud storage (or unlimited storage if you choose one of the premium plans). This allows you to edit on the go, save to the cloud, and access designs on other devices.

9. Word Swag

iOS

Image Source

Word Swag helps you create text images that are as edgy as the app’s name sounds. The app uses a special typing engine to create fresh quote designs based on the background picture you’re working with.

Just select (or shoot) your picture, type your quote into the app’s plain text editor, select one of +80 styles, and shuffle through the diverse choices that appear. Word Swag has literally thousands of quote and image options to choose from through a handy integration from Pixabay, a free image gallery.

Keep in mind that the free version places a watermark on the image.

10. Quotes Creator

iOS or Android

Image Source

Quotes Creator has a neat feature that suggests quotes to use — including their attributions — to take the work out of creating an inspirational post for you. We also like how subtly transparent the watermark is to make it as distraction-free as possible. This is another easy-to-use app that creates quotes for Instagram in just a few simple steps — with an easy tap to upload to the platform.

Quotes Creator’s stock background options are a little cheesy, so we recommend finding your own and uploading them or using their library of photos.

11. Quote Maker

iOS

Image Source

Quote Maker is another free app that requires a Pro version to unlock more background and style options, but you can always upload your own background if you feel too limited. You can add neat decals to your brand’s name or a stamp-like effect to a company motto or mission statement.

We recommend exploring the app, but another warning — it can be glitchy if your design and editing actions get more complex. It’s best for simple images, like the one above.

Using an Instagram Post Template for Quotes

The apps above help make quotes for Instagram quickly using templates instead of starting from scratch. When you’re creating content at scale, this can help you reduce the amount of time spent on design and more time focusing on the tasks that matter to you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you’re a B2B marketer who isn’t investing in content creation, you’re in the minority — 79% of B2B marketers surveyed by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs said their organization used content marketing to further their goals in 2020.

Developing a sound content marketing strategy is worth it: We found that blogs are among the primary three forms of media used in content strategies today.

In fact, 24% of marketers increased their investment in content marketing last year.

As 2021 is in full swing, we wanted to talk with more B2B content marketers to see what trends they’re looking out for in H2.

1. Content-supported ABM.

According to Brooklin Nash, the head of content at Sales Hacker, “B2B brands are getting better about connecting their ABM plays to content that’s hyper-relevant to the target account.”

For example, Nash says Intricately serves up industry reports with mentions of key accounts.

“ABM ads are starting to point more to content and less to landing pages,” Nash adds.

2. More comprehensive content to support multiple channels.

Nash also reports that he’s seeing companies focus on providing more comprehensive content that supports multiple channels.

“Repurposing content isn’t new, but it definitely seems like there’s been an increase (to the benefit of everyone),” he says. “Instead of a blog post on ABM, you can run a survey and turn it into a downloadable asset, social media images, an article, podcast mentions, and a recap webinar.”

3. Increased reliance on contractors.

Due to the uncertainty of last year, 29% of content marketers had to decrease their budgets.

Additionally, 49% said their organization outsources at least one content marketing activity, with large companies being the most likely to outsource.

Nash noticed the same thing. He says, “I haven’t seen the employment data, but I do know quite a few tech companies that laid off (large) parts of their (large) content teams in the midst of the pandemic.”

That means that bringing those full time functions back will probably take time.

“It’s going to take more time than content demands will allow for, so freelancers need to be ready,” Nash adds.

4. Focusing on original content rather than keywords.

Kelly O’Hara, the founder of Copy Goals, and B2B content marketing specialist, says, “I’ve seen successful bloggers talk about how they don’t optimize some of their content for SEO at all. *Gasp* I know.”

This idea might not be as outrageous as you think on first glance.

O’Hara says this might become the norm in the near future.

“We know that readers are demanding greater authenticity from content,” O’Hara adds. “It’s difficult to be authentic and optimize the heck out of your content at the same time. Plus, I imagine that Google will continue to find ways to give credit to sources that are legit, show their expertise, and genuinely help their readers.”

All that to say, don’t be surprised if content marketers start to focus more on originality rather than keywords, semantically-linked words, getting H2s in the right place, etc.

5. Emphasizing digital marketing.

This might not sound new since the digital revolution has been happening for the last couple of decades, but content marketing itself is just now starting to boom.

This year, there was an increase in those whose organizations used content creation/collaboration/workflow technologies. This isn’t surprising considering the work-from-home world we now live in.

While the type of content (blogs) remained the same, 67% of companies are now focusing on using virtual events, webinars, online courses, and building an online community.

Additionally, the use of livestreaming increased to 29% from 10%.

One of the survey respondents says, “We’ve had to expand out network via digital marketing strategies such as webinars and podcasts, as we relied mostly on in-person events and conferences for brand awareness and networking.”

6. Expanding budgets and expertise.

While there was a decrease in some content marketers budgets in 2020, this year, companies are focusing on increasing expertise with content creation and website enhancements.

Additionally, companies will need to increase their staff to keep up with the demands of the content marketing world.

A survey respondent says, “We’ll be looking to increase staff and ramp up our inbound strategy through content marketing.”

With expanding budgets and growing content marketing teams, companies are becoming more media fluent and are focused on creating a media brand, on top of their company brand.

Content marketing is in the middle of a huge evolution. From focusing on SEO and blogging to becoming a full-scale media company, brands are seeing huge differences when they scale their content marketing efforts.

Instagram is an undeniably powerful tool for businesses.

In fact, 83% of people say they’ve discovered new products or services on Instagram, and roughly 80% say Instagram helps them conduct research on a product and ultimately decide whether or not to make a purchase. 

All of which is to say: If you’re not using Instagram to reach new audiences, increase brand awareness, and ultimately grow sales, then you could be missing out. 

In this post, we’ll review how to make an Instagram business account, and the benefits of having one. Plus, how to switch back-and-forth between a business and personal account.

1. Download the Instagram app.

To get started, you’ll need to download the Instagram app on your phone or go to the Instagram site.

If you don’t already have an Instagram account, you can either download the app and click “Create New Account”, or open the desktop version (www.Instagram.com) and follow the same steps:

2. Sign up.

Next, you’ll fill out the form with your email address (make sure you choose a business email address), company name, username, and password.

You can also sign up with Facebook. If you already have a business Facebook account, this could be a good option.

It’s important to note that your username should most likely be your company name, and your password should follow all recommended guidelines (include a number, special characters, etc.). 

3. Switch to a business account.

Now that you’re set up with a profile, it’s time to switch it to a business account.

To do so, go to your profile and click the three lines in the top right corner:

Then, click “Settings” in the navigation menu that appears: 

Now, click “Account” from the Settings page: 

Finally, click “Switch to Professional Account”: 

When you get to this point, you’ll see another option to switch to a “Creator” account. Creator accounts are meant to be used by influencers, public figures, or content creators.

If you’re a business that sells a product or service, then a business account is the right option.

4. Complete your profile.

At this point, you’re all set up with a business account, but you’re not done yet.

Before you can start promoting your social media, you’ll need to complete your profile:

To do this, choose a profile photo. Your profile image will typically be some variation of your logo so your audience can easily recognize it.

Next, you’ll need to write your bio and fill out your company info. This will include your website, store hours, and contact information.

5. Post some content.

Before you can promote your account, it’s important to post a few images first. Perhaps you can write an introduction or hello post.

When you start interacting with people and following people, they’ll likely visit your account. You want there to be something to see that explains who you are as a company.

6. Link your business Facebook page.

If you didn’t choose to sign up with your business Facebook account, then it’s time to link your account here.

This is an important step because you need to have a Facebook business page to use some of Instagram’s business tools.

To link your account, click the three lines in the top right corner (like you did for step one). Then, click “Settings” and “Business.”

Now, you can click “Connect a Facebook Page”:

It’s important to note — You’ll need to be logged in to Facebook to do this.

7. Start following people.

Your profile is essentially ready to go. To get started on Instagram, invite your Facebook followers to follow you on Instagram.

You should also start following people to get the ball rolling. However, make sure that you’re strategic. The people you follow should make sense for your brand.

8. Develop a strategy.

Starting your Instagram business account is just the beginning. Once you’re all set with your page, it’s time to learn how to use Instagram for marketing.

You’ll want to think about the hashtags you’ll use, the accounts you’ll target, and who you’ll engage with.

To get started, you can learn how to use Instagram for marketing with HubSpot Academy’s Instagram Marketing Course.

Now, what if you have a creator account and you want to switch to a business account? Or what if you have a business account that you want to switch to personal? Or perhaps you have a personal account you want to switch to business?

To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Go to your profile.

The first step to switch your account is to go to your profile.

2. Tap the Settings cog.

Next, click the three lines in the top right corner … 

… Then, click “Settings”:

3. Click Account & Switch to Business Profile.

Now, click “Account” and then “Switch to business profile.” If you’re a business page and want to switch to a personal account, this button will become “Switch to personal account.”

No matter what account you have or what you want to switch it to, this is the process to go through.

Interestingly, you can also do this by just clicking on your profile, and clicking “Edit Profile.”

At this point, you might be wondering, “Why do I need a business account?” Below, let’s review some of the top benefits of having a business account on Instagram.

1. Action buttons.

With an Instagram business account you can add action buttons to your profile, such as “Book an Appointment,” “Make a Reservation,” or “Get Tickets” depending on your needs.

In fact, plenty of scheduling software integrates with Instagram, so you can attach your Instagram business account to your scheduling software.

Additionally, you can add CTAs on your profile, including “Call” or “Email” so it’s easier for your audience to get in touch with you.

2. Auto-scheduling posts.

A major perk of having a business account is the ability to schedule posts in advance. This is helpful because you can implement and execute your strategy without needing to spend every day on the app.

3. Access to analytics.

With a business profile, you’ll gain access to insights about your followers. You can see a demographic breakdown and how your audience interacts with your posts.

4. Ability to manage ads.

This is one of the best features of Instagram business accounts.

You’ll be able to promote posts and can easily select your audience, set a budget, and get rolling with advertising.

You can even work with influencers by directly promoting their branded content (if you’re tagged as a business partner).

To get more in depth, your Facebook account will need to be linked so you can use the Facebook ad’s manager.

5. Swipe up feature.

Another great feature of a business account is the ability to include swipe up links if you have more than 10,000 followers.

Since Instagram is one of the only platforms where you can’t include any clickable links in your posts, this is an excellent way to get your content out there.

Getting started with Instagram marketing can be hugely beneficial for your company. And it’s even an easy process. If you aren’t sure where to get started, we suggest taking free courses on Instagram Marketing (like HubSpot’s).