Instagram is constantly changing and some of those changes can be both for the good and the bad. As 2017 comes to a close, Instagram rolled out a number of changes to the platform that seem to be great news for brands! Check out what new changes were made and my take on what they can mean for your business.
With this new addition to the platform you will be able to save your favorite stories to your page and they will show up in their own separate space below your bio. You can also label the stories as you see fit. The highlights remain even after your story disappears. Check out the example below:
Instagram stories have exploded this past year and more and more brands are consistently posting in their IG stories. With this new feature you will be able to showcase your best stories and show visitors who land on your page specific stories you think they should check out. Use this feature to spotlight a product demonstration, sale, or an introduction to your brand.
Stop Motion camera feature: Take a series of pics then put them together to form a stop motion video. Seems cool, but unfortunately you can't edit the video.
Yep you can now follow your favorite hashtags. The top posts under that tag will then show up in your feed mixed in with regular pages you follow. This is awesome if you have a branded hashtag associated with your business, it also should create more reach and discovery (fingers crossed!).
If you have a business page then you may have noticed the make over that the information received under "View Insights" (this link is located beneath your post). This update has added more useful insights that you can use to better understand and help you with your content engagement.
Impressions: The number of times your post has been seen. Then beneath that, Impressions are broken down even further and while IG doesn't offer an explanation for what the other impressions mean I'll give you my best assessment.
From Other: number of times your post was seen from other places where your post may be accessible (ie: your website).
A new comment box appears if you linger on a post in your feed. This encourages commenting and makes a great update since comments help boost your post when it comes to the algorithm.
Conclusion: It will be interesting to see how these new changes play out and if they will help with more organic reach on the Instagram platform. I'm going to start experimenting and implementing these features into my own content. Try them out! See what works for your business.
1962. Pen and ink, and gouache. Initialled and dated by Eugene Berman. 'Otello' and 'Act IV' written in the lower left and right corners. Drawing is 308 x 253 mm, pasted to black card measuring 319 x 263 mm. 263 x 319mm (10¼ x 12½"). 0.5kg. . Near fine; image and paper remains crisp and bright; residue of mounting glue to verso of black card.
An original stage design by Eugene Berman for the new production of Otello first performed at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1963. The design is for Act IV, played out in Desdemona's bedchamber. The bed, on a plinth, sits centre stage. Looking down upon it is a statue of the Madonna. In front is a chair and Desdemona's prie-dieu. The structure of the room is made up of a gothic-inspired, open-work frame, hung with blue and yellow starry drapes. The whole has an ecclesiastical air, rich in Renaissance and Venetian detail. The large scale of the drawing and the quality of the detail and finish suggest that this was a final design.
Following the huge success of his designs for Don GiovanniBerman had chosen to return to Rome to concentrate on his painting. He was eventually lured back to theatre design by the invitation of Bing to design the sets and costumes for Verdi's Otello. As with Don Giovanni, he worked with Bing and the director Herbert Graf, sending designs back and forth until the final details were agreed upon. Berman's designs for Otello are drenched in Venetian colours and Renaissance detail and the sets have a melancholic drama that reflected both his style and the play's subject matter. The opera premiered on 3 March 1963 but only ran for four seasons before it was replaced by a Franco Zeffirelli production in 1972.
A fashion lover from Sydney, Australia, constantly learning about new trends and styles! Would love to one day open my own beauty store - who knows, maybe this will happen!
Setting up your own small beauty business can be a lot of fun, but of course your aim will be to make money too. You can easily sell beauty products through eBay. If you want to make a profit, be sure to follow these tips to set your products up for the best possible chance of selling well.
Before you do anything else, you need to make sure that you research the current market. When you have ideas in mind of which products you might sell, take a look at whether they are already on eBay. Are there a large bulk of these products already on sale? Are sellers currently listing them for a price below what you would be able to buy them wholesale for? Does it seem like lots of these products are going unsold? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then you should rethink your idea. Find products while give you a no to all of these and you will have found great items to sell.
The most important thing while setting up your account is choosing your name. You want to have a name that tells buyers what to expect from you so that they might decide to check up on your auctions later on. If you become known as a great beauty seller, you might have buyers that come back to you time and again. It is hard to get started when you have no positive ratings, so expect sales to pick up after you start to get a few.
When you want to list your products, be sure to take high quality photographs of them. You need the images to be clear with focus on the products themselves, and you should cover plenty of angles. For a lipstick, for example, you should show at minimum the outer packaging, the sticker or imprint which details the colour code, and the lipstick itself with the lid removed. You can even show a swatch or usage on lips to display the colour as it looks when used. Make sure that when you edit the photographs, the colour looks as close to the real thing as possible.
When listing your products, you need to set a price. This can either be a buy it now price, or a minimum price for the auction to sell. In that case, you also need a starting price. You should look at a number of factors, including what you paid and how much profit you want to make, what similar products are already selling for, and how much they are sold for in other shops or auction sites. You also have to calculate price, which you can do via PACK & SEND’s tools for the easiest and most reliable delivery.
Your listing must be attractive to buyers, and should also contain all of the information that they need to know about the product. Don’t overdo it with things like coloured text and capital letters. Make the listing look classy and professional. Answer any question that you think your buyers could come up with, and if you get messages with more questions, be sure to add these in to future listings. Let them know how new it is, whether it has been used in any way, what company made it, and you can even list the ingredients to help out buyers with allergies.
This should help you to get those first sales going. Once you have good ratings, you are on your way to big sales!
Bare with me here… I realise I’ve done a huge jump from blogging about ice lollies to present toppers but I’m going to completely justify this on the fact that I am a crazy Christmas lady. I RELISH in wrapping presents, hanging mistletoe and baking all the mince pies during the festive period but I know for most Christmas doesn’t properly arrive until December 1st (although the shops are already adorned with baubles and greetings cards!) BUT these cute little tags can be used all year round! They’d look adorable on a wedding gift, birthday pressie or strung on to some twine to make some cuteeee bunting… am I right?
When I was a lot younger, I used to love making salt dough ornaments for the Christmas tree, painting them in unsightly poster paints that probably merged in to a colour not dissimilar to manure. In retrospect, as much as my more loved them and praised us for such making such a ‘beautiful’ creation, she probably begrudged hanging them on her carefully colour-coordinated tree – sorry Mum!
BUT! This is the good bit, this recipe makes perfectly white clay, which stays that colour even when baked! Salt dough often tends to have quite a yellow-y hint to it but there will be no yellow-ness here! It’s a (Christmas) miracle!
Cutters of your choice (I picked out a star and a moon and a round cookie cutter although only ended up using the star)
Measure out your ingredients and pour in to your saucepan, combine them with a wooden spoon – the baking soda and corn starch will dissolve quickly and you will be left with a milky coloured liquid.
On a medium heat, stir the mixture constantly with your wooden spoon whilst it combines. The mixture should start to bubble and fizz, this is normal and quickly after this, the liquid will turn in to a dough.
When the mixture starts to come away from the sides of the pan and form a ball (like in the picture above) take the pan off the heat and leave to one side to cool down. It’s important to take your pan off the hob fairly quickly or else you’ll lose to much water and your dough will be too dry and crumbly to roll out.
Once the dough is cool enough to touch, take it out of the sauce pan and roll in to a ball. Cover the ball in cling film and leave to cool completely.
This is the fun bit! You can start cutting out your shapes. As you do so, place them on a lined baking tray and remember to pierce holes in your ornaments if you’re planning on hanging them on a tree, using them as bunting or making gift tags.
Once your tray is full, pop it in a low oven set to a low temperature. Remember, you aren’t baking the dough, simply ‘setting’ it. Keep an eye on the oven and flip the shapes if needs be until they are solid. Alternatively, you can leave the shapes to air dry although this would take A LOT longer (around 3 days!)
I love how organic and handmade these little tags look. Although they don’t act as a traditional tag which would usually have a name written on it, I think it makes for a very cute and minimalist looking gift which I personally LOVE. Stuck down with a bit of white tape on a brown paper package and some silver ribbon, anyone would be happy to receive this on Christmas morning! And there is 100 more possibilities for what you could do with these little guys!
Do you have any tricks you like to use whilst wrapping gifts? I’d love to hear about them or if you’re going to try out this DIY. Expect a lot more christmas wrapping DIYs in the coming months too – I’ve unleashed my inner crazy with this post haha!