Developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger who

• • Developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who made it available starting in October 2010 • • • 2010 - only for devices with an i. OS operating system 2011 - An update (version 2. 0) was released that added new filters and allowed you to upload high-resolution photos, put frames and rotate photos with a single click. Hashtags have also been added. 2012 - was bought by Facebook Inc. for almost a billion dollars and its features have been progressively modified to make the application better able to integrate and interconnect with Facebook. 2013 - allows you to upload videos of a variable duration between 3 and 15 seconds (the maximum length was later increased to 60 seconds): a feature that will later be extended, also with the introduction of Instagram TV (IGTV) for sharing very long videos. 2015 - the user interface was changed to make it clearer and more essential, as well as to expand the screen space for photographs. 2016 - has been launched for tablets equipped with Microsoft Windows 10 and, in addition to a personal profile, it has become possible to open a company profile. Also interesting is the introduction of the “Stories” function. 2019/2010 - began testing a new video function, which is called “Reels” and allows users to record short videos with the audio clip of other posts as a sound base. Finally, in March 2020 a new “Co. Watching” feature was introduced to share posts via video call.

Among the main functions currently available on the platform: 1. Loading high definition photos with the use of various filters to edit and enhance them 2. The possibility of geolocalizing the photos, indicating the place where they were taken 3. Up to 60 seconds video upload (and up to one hour using IGTV). 4. Effects such as the “Boomerang”, which repeatedly shows a moving image with a GIF 5. Direct Messaging (DM, acronym for Direct Messaging), which allows you to privately send texts, photos and videos to another user 6. Use of “Stories” (Instagram Stories), contents that remain visible to others for only 24 hours, unless they are included among the “Featured Stories” 7. Creation of “live streaming”, consisting in the transmission of streaming videos, interacting with users who decide to follow and comment on the live. 8. Possibility to choose whether to make your profile visible to everyone, or only to those who explicitly request it 9. Possibility for companies and individuals to advertise, publishing sponsored content for a fee aimed at a targeted audience.

Another important feature of Instagram is the extensive use of hashtags Users therefore create “trends” to follow by using hashtags as keywords to guide the search for content Within Instagram there is also the “explore” function, which automatically shows “popular” photos (with many “likes” and comments, or sponsored), and also shows, if geolocation is active, photographs of nearby places where the user who is using “explore” is located.

Filters on Instagram When you decide to upload a new photo on Instagram, you first make a choice on where to publish it: Ø in the main “Feed” Ø in the “Stories” Ø as a private message directed to another user if you choose the main feed you will be directed to a first screen that allows you to change the size of the image. Once you have chosen the size - square or rectangular - you can move on to applying filters to modify and improve the image.

1. Normal: leaves the photo as it is 2. Clarendon: makes shadows more intense and brightens highlights. 3. Gingham: gives a yellow tone, a slightly antiqued look. 4. Moon: black and white, with marked shadows. 5. Lark: suitable for landscapes, it accentuates the tones of some colours. 6. Reyes: adds a dusty, vintage tone to the photo. 7. Juno: suitable for blurred photos, makes whites shine and warm tones stand out. 8. Slumber: adds a fog effect. 9. Cream: as the name suggests, adds a cream shade. 10. Ludwig: enhance the lights. 11. Aden: accentuates blue and green tones. 12. Perpetual: suitable for portraits, adds a pastel effect. “Lux” can be used with any of the other filters and provides an addition of contrast and saturation. 13. Bitter: accentuates pale tones. 14. Mayfair: Adds a rosy tone. 15. Rise: Designed by photographer Cole Rise, adds a warmer light. 16. Hudson: Gives a bluish tint. 17. Valencia: accentuates contrasts and dark tones. 18. X-Pro II: gives a saturation effect, with yellow hue. 19. Sierra: adds warm tones. 20. Willow: another kind of black and white. 21. Low-Fi: a little fuzzy, with yellow-green tones. 22. Inkwell: high contrast black and white. 23. Hefe: antiqued colour with golden yellow tones. 24. Nashville: Gives a bluish tone and adds a frame around the image.

Once you have decided the filter to be applied, you can click on the “edit” option and choose: 1. Adjust: rotates the image appropriately. 2. Brightness: increases or decreases the brightness. 3. Contrast: adjust the contrasts. 4. Structure: makes the image more distinct. 5. Warmth: accentuates or attenuates warm tones. 6. Saturation: adjusts the strength of the colours. 7. Colour: applies a colour filter to the photo. 8. Hue: accentuates or softens shades. 9. High lights: intervenes on the strongest lights. 10. Shadows: highlights or hides the shadows. 11. Vignetting: makes edges less bright, creating a frame effect. 12. Tilt-Shift Effect: only focuses on a selected part of the image. 13. Sharpness: increases or decreases the sharpness.

Once all the filters have been applied and the settings have been chosen, you can proceed to a final selection window, which allows you to: o “tag” the people in the image o indicate the place (using geolocation) o decide whether to simultaneously publish the post on another connected social network o add a text or “caption” to accompany the image o share the photograph • As for videos, the upload procedure is quite similar to that of photographs, although there are fewer options for editing • As for direct messaging, you can use emoticons, or put “like”, while in video calls you can also use special effects, or change the face of the speaker • The special effects are also available for the “Stories” (visible for 24 hours)

Advertising campaigns on Instagram Starting from 2013, the first paid advertisements began to appear on the feeds of US users. About a year later, in addition to advertisements with photographs, advertising videos were also introduced. However…. Like Facebook, Instagram has also faced various problems over the years relating to user privacy and the type of content that was shared on the platform. In particular, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Instagram introduced in 2018 a number of restrictions in its Application Programming Interface (API).

in March 2020, coinciding with the spread of the pandemic linked to Covid-19, Instagram introduced important changes to the moderation of posts and comments: § It constantly monitors the possible presence, in the feed and in the Stories, of contents that are reported as false § It was introduced the possibility of making one’s profile visible only to other specifically authorized users and the option to prevent comments in certain posts § included in the platform a machine learning algorithm (Deep. Text), which uses artificial intelligence tools to identify and inhibit offensive and vulgar words in the text of posts and comments Instagram also does not allow - on the basis of the conditions accepted by users when opening the profile - that pornographic or sexually explicit photos are published, even if the eligibility criteria have remained rather flexible. Searches based on some hashtags, such as “sex”, are also prohibited. The research on the effects on the health of those who connect daily for a long time to Instagram have yielded contradictory results (Royal Society for Public Health in 2017). On the one hand, some data seem to indicate that Instagram has even worse effects than other social networks in relation to aspects such as anxiety, loneliness, depression and bullying; on the other hand, according to some researchers, the use of this social network favours creativity, self-expression and sociability. Anyway, in some countries Instagram has been banned or blocked during some periods, mainly for political reasons.

Some data… v Half of users use the i. OS/Apple system, while the other half uses a device with an Android operating system v Among the users registered on Instagram, about 68% are women and only 32% are men v For the most part, subscribers live in urban areas and belong to the youngest segment of the population (in the US 90% of Instagram users are under the age of 35) v Particularly active are those with a high level of education (degree or diploma) and with a medium-high income v About a quarter of users connect to Instagram more than once a day v Photographs depicting people’s faces tend to receive the greatest number of “likes” and comments; images with more filters tend to receive more attention; photos depicting one or a few people tend to be more “liked” and commented on, if compared to those that include large groups On Instagram, as on Facebook, there is the possibility of requesting and obtaining a verified account, marked with a “blue tick”: however, it is necessary to be a person of public interest and show precise documentation in this regard

The most followed profiles in the world 10. Neymar (neymarjr, 141 million followers): footballer of the Brazilian national team, he is also known for having participated in various projects in the music field. 9. Beyoncé (beyonce, 154 million): among the greatest singers in the world, she has won 24 Grammy Awards. According to the American magazine Forbes, she is among the richest people in the world. 8. Lionel Messi (leomessi, 167 million): Argentine footballer, who won the Golden Ball as the best footballer in the world in 2009 and 2019. 7. Kim Kardashian (kimkardashian, 188 million): a television personality, very well known especially in the United States. 6. Selena Gomez (selenagomez, 192 million): American singer and actress, who has acted since childhood and participated in various television series produced by Disney. 5. Kylie Jenner (kyliejenner, 194 million): American entrepreneur and TV personality, director of beauty products company Kylie Cosmetics. 4. Dwayne Johnson, known as “The Rock” (therock, 197 million): he became famous initially as a wrestling champion and later turned to film production and starred in leading roles in several films. 3. Ariana Grande (arianagrande, 201 million): American singer, also known for having participated in the television sitcom for children Victorious. 2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Christian, 237 million): considered by many to be the best football player in the world 1. Instagram (instagram 363 million), the Instagram business account.

The most followed profiles in Italy 10. Mariano Di Vaio (marianodivaio, 6. 1 million followers ): he is a model, also testimonial for Dolce & Gabbana. 9. Francesco Nappo (francesconappoph, 6. 3 million): he is a photographer from the Campania region, active mainly in Rome, where he has become one of the major portrait photographers of famous people. 8. Andrea Pirlo (andreapirlo 21, 7. 9 million): currently a football coach; in the past he was a high-level footballer, among other things winning the 2006 world championship with the Italian national team. 7. Mario Balotelli (mb 459, 8. 9 million): a footballer originally from Ghana but born in Italy; he played for the Italian national team reaching second place in the 2012 European championships. 6. Valentino Rossi (valeyellow 46, 9. 2 million): a motorcycling champion, who has won nine world titles. 5. Gianluigi Buffon (gianluigibuffon, 9. 5 million): footballer of the Italian national team for many years, he was world champion in 2006. Considered among the best goalkeepers in the entire history of football. 4. Belén Rodriguez (belenrodriguezreal, 9. 7 million): the most famous showgirl active in Italy, omnipresent in the television schedules. 3. Fedez (fedez, 10. 9 million): Italian rap singer, he achieved considerable success and also participated, as a judge, in the television program X Factor. 2. Gianluca Vacchi (gianlucavacchi, 17. 4 million): controversial figure, he is part of a well-known family of wealthy industrialists, majority shareholders of the IMA. 1. Chiara Ferragni (chiaraferragni, 20. 9 million): the best known Italian influencer, Forbes magazine named her in 2017 “the most important fashion influencer in the world”. In the same year, Mattel made a Barbie doll with her features.

Instagram profiles in Italy and the world Ø It is not difficult to notice the enormous difference in the number of followers between the Italian characters and those most followed in the world, who generally belong - except for the three footballers Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar - to the American show business. Ø Both in Italy and in the world, the strong presence of footballers, singers, actors and television personalities - individuals who are therefore also linked to more traditional media such as cinema and television - is immediately evident. Ø The photo that has scored the most “likes” on Instagram is of an egg, published by the profile @world_record_egg, with over 50 million likes and more than 3 million comments.

Advertising campaigns can be set up and managed directly by Facebook: Instagram is included among the positioning options of Facebook Ads, so the technical part for creating campaigns from the “ads manager” is basically the same. Instagram, with its one billion active users, works well as an advertising tool, but mainly when the content to be promoted is suitable for visual representation, through photographs and videos, and when the target audience has an average not too high. Over half of Instagram users are within the age range 18 -29, while another 28% are between 30 -50 years old. It is also a particularly suitable social network to awaken latent demand: over 60% of users have discovered some new products on Instagram.

Advertising campaigns To create an advertising campaign on Instagram, the procedure is the same as for Facebook. In selecting a goal for the campaign: • only a smaller number of goals are available • A greater importance, compared to Facebook, will also have the use of appropriate hashtags • Like on Facebook, it will also be possible to create a full-screen experience § At the level of the “ad sets”, after choosing the target audience and other preferred settings, you must also choose whether to place your ads on the Feed or on Instagram Stories (or both). § At the level of individual ads, it will be possible to create the actual advertising that will appear to Instagram users.

The prerequisite of any advertising strategy is an indepth analysis of the target audience, trying to grasp their interests and desires as accurately as possible. A headline that attracts attention, intrigues, and highlights the company’s unique value proposition (UVP). The ideal length is 5 -6 words. A valid unique value proposition must possess the following three requirements: 1. Show a specific product or service can solve some customer problems, or how it can improve their lives. 2. Offer clearly identifiable benefits. 3. Explain to potential customers why they should choose that company and its products over all companies and competing products.

To create effective headlines, an elementary scheme based on five generic strategies is sometimes used: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Eliminate the problem Number of remedies Find out what you are missing Did you know that… How to The text represents one of the main elements of advertising and is divided, on social networks, basically in two parts: Some advertisers make the mistake of always using an ad with the same text in all advertising campaigns. This strategy favours: 1. The phrases that are displayed immediately below the title of the ad. 2. The description of the link that refers to the company website (or to another landing page). • Banner blindness • A progressive decrease in the CTR (clickthrough rate)

Call to action Consistency § Consistency between offline and online communication, as well as between the various channels (Facebook, Instagram, You. Tube, etc. ) that contribute to “creating the experience” of a certain brand in the digital world § Marketing strategies must always be in line with the general characteristics of the brand § What is promised in the ad is then also respected on the landing page

Incentives to buy ü Highlight in the ad, in a short but effective way, the features and potential benefits of the product (or service) offered ü Integrate the promise contained in the advertisement with some additional “bonus” ü The so-called «social proof» Obtain credibility and to influence the decisions of potential customers 1. In the ad you can insert a link to a source considered authoritative, which speaks well of the company 2. You can create ads using the reviews of satisfied customers 3. You can insert figures relating to past sales or to the number of customers 4. Use the technique of stressing urgency or scarcity 5. Use the mechanism of “reciprocity”: the free trial periods, the offer of free samples, the welcome coupons

Visual content § Advertisements that contain a visual element have a tendency to be more effective on social networks than those in which there is only a written text § Images, photos and videos tend to be more shared by users and attract greater interest on social networks § Some research shows that people remember on average 10% of what they read and over 60% of what they see Which images for an Instagram ad? ü Use as a basis the “stock images” available on various specialized websites and platforms, such as Shutterstock, Fotolia, Depositphotos, or Freepik ü Personalize them with the use of specific original graphic effects Ø The description of the link must be short and make the most of the space available Ø The section “info and Ads” is useful for studying competitor advertising strategies and comparing them with yours

Dynamic Product Ads (or DPA) allow you to promote an entire catalogue of products without having to configure individual ads for each element 1. To sell “cold” 2. In the “remarketing” phase, with more complex and reasoned purchase paths Going to the menu of the “ads manager”, you can select the specific item “catalogues” and click on “create a catalogue”.

The «showcase» option Remarketing & Targeting The catalogue can always be viewed and modified; it will also be possible to create a “set of products”. Up-selling & Cross-selling Once selected the target to address and chosen all the other parameters of the “ad set”, you can proceed with the creation of the actual ad, choosing “single image”, “ carousel ”or“ collection”.

With the duplication function you can test all the variables used in the creation of the campaign: the objective, the positioning and the creative part (images, text, etc. ). The advertising evaluation and optimization process must try to monitor the data that really matter. To carry out the monitoring, you can once again make use of the Facebook “ad manager”. From the menu, click on “columns” and then on “customize columns”: a screen will be open, from which you can choose all the parameters to be traced.

1. The budget allocated to each “ad set” 2. The amount spent 3. Coverage, the number of “unique users” who have viewed a certain advertisement 4. The impressions, i. e. how many times a certain ad is shown 5. The cost per thousand (CPT), which represents the cost of an advertisement for every thousand views reached 6. The frequency, to indicate how many times a specific advertisement has been viewed by a particular user 7. The click, that is the total number of “likes”, comments, shares 8. The click on the link 9. The cost per click (CPC) 10. The click through rate (CTR) 11. A relevance score: calculated on the basis of several parameters, it is a number (from one to ten) approximately indicating how much the ad proved to be relevant to the audience to which it was shown. When evaluating the results of an advertising campaign, there always many factors to take into account. If it is possible to attribute an economic value to conversions, for example on the basis of higher sales, it will also be possible to calculate the return on advertising spend (ROAS).

To analyze a campaign in even more depth, there is also a function called breakdown, with which you can segment and select the results of a campaign on the basis of a variable of your choice. Another aspect that should not be underestimated concerns the so-called “conversion time window”, i. e. the time within which the conversion must take place. To monitor conversions from a temporal point of view, just go to the “ads manager”, select “customize columns” and activate the “window comparison”.

If an advertising campaign is doing well and giving satisfactory results, the next step is to “scale it up”. The correct methods for “scaling up” a campaign by increasing its budget are basically the following three: 1. With a moderate percentage increase in budget for “ad sets” that perform best. 2. With a duplication of “ad sets” that perform well 3. By setting the budget at the level of the entire campaign using an automatic tool provided by the advertisement manager, which is called “budget optimization”. If you want to manage multiple pages and accounts at the same time, you can use an advanced platform called Business Manager. So you can load, using the “add” function.

Facebook VS Google Analytics The latter tracks user actions essentially through the use of cookies, while Facebook Analytics has different techniques (based on user ID), which are sometimes more effective: the discrepancy between the information provided by the two systems can in fact be so significant as to reach as much as 70%. Facebook Analytics allows you to study the customers’ purchasing process more precisely, because it also provides data relating to everything that users have done before the conversion and purchase.

• Growth metrics • Engagement metrics • Metrics relating to people • View full report By selecting the item “repeated purchases” you can know exactly how many buyers have made a purchase, and then have returned to buy again.

The section «Funnel»

By selecting the “maintenance” item, you can also see the percentage of users who return to the page or website after a first interaction, while the “overlay” option is a tool to understand which device is used to make purchases, and which one to add products to the basket. Ø The section relating to “people” contains the main demographic data (age, gender, country, city, language, etc. ), as well as more advanced statistics relating to the type of technology used Ø The “add a segment” option can be selected on the basis of different variables, or of the actions users have performed

Design and implementation of an advertising campaign on Instagram and Facebook 1. Prepare the ground by setting the various tracking criteria, i. e. by installing the Facebook Pixel and creating custom audiences and conversions. 2. Analyze three hierarchical levels in which it is structured: “campaign”, “ad sets” and “single ads”. Fundamental characteristics such as the “objectives”, the “target”, the “positioning” of the ads and the “budget” will be set in the various levels. 3. Deal with the “copy”, i. e. the creation of text, images and videos to be proposed in each individual ad. Ø Advertising on Instagram is essentially equivalent to using almost all the tools available for Facebook, but adapting them to the characteristics of Instagram Ø It is necessary to optimize advertising campaigns, analyzing the results, “scaling up” those that have worked best

A concrete case: Velux skylights A good starting point for the organization of the campaign was the analysis of the statistics relating to the Velux company website: from those data it appeared that over 75% of the traffic on the website was generated starting from searches on Google, both “organic” or deriving from paid advertisements through Google Ads. “The goal of Velux’s web marketing cannot be to sell skylights directly, because that is a commercial goal that will only be achieved at a later time. The marketing of Velux must instead aim to create awareness of the importance of natural light, of a light in the home that comes from above and that improves the quality of life in the house. If you achieve this marketing goal, sales will come later as a natural consequence; social networks, therefore, should not speak directly and immediately about the product (windows), but start from the concept that natural light can change people’s lives for the better”. Marco Cordioli, Velux marketing manager (2017)

The strategy into three phases: The corporate website is structured in such a way as to respond to two kinds of demand: § Private individuals (Business to Consumer target) § Professionals (Business to Business target). How the strategy for a web marketing campaign can be structured, and which channels should be involved? Since the website was already effective in informing and enticing people who consciously reached it starting from a keyword search on Google, a social media campaign had to be aimed mainly at those who did not know the company, but who theoretically could have installed a Velux skylight at home. 1. In the initial phase, the focus was on a specific project, called “Indoor Generation”, aimed above all at raising parents’ awareness of the opportunity to raise children in an environment where there is also natural light. Thus the campaign began with ads in which it was observed that in recent decades humanity has spent more and more time in closed spaces illuminated by artificial light § The most appropriate objective was “interaction”, to identify that portion of users who did not just view the post, but felt the need to intervene with a comment, a “like” or a share § The “Indoor Generation” campaign was disseminated on social networks of various countries for a month and cost about 5, 000 euros, procuring over two million views; in addition, it has also been reported for its originality by some traditional media, such as the Fox News channel and the Washington Times newspaper.

2. In the second part of the campaign, some indepth videos were shown to the selected target. § Thanks to the Facebook Pixel, the people to whom submit further ads were identified, in an attempt to convert them and transform them into real customers § It had a more encouraging name (“Stories of light”) and three main placements: on the main Instagram feed, on the Instagram Stories and on the Facebook app for smartphones and tablets § The objective chosen at the campaign level was “traffic”, with the optimization aimed at the “landing page”: the purpose was to ensure that the public was directed to a specific landing page, where the five “Stories of light” were available What were the main goals of the Velux company during this second phase? ü Continuing to intercept the latent demand by making itself known, but this time sending a positive message ü Narrowing the target audience, also monitoring user interactions ü Getting closer to a real conversion result, by adding a button “request a contact or a free consultation” This second phase, “Stories of light”, had a greater length than the first phase, a similar budget (about 5000 euros), and it reported the following results: 176, 000 views of the videos, 20, 000 clicks on the pages of the “Stories of light”, and 391 contacts acquired.

3. The third and last phase sought to transform the work carried out in the two previous phases into a concrete objective of contact and conversion of customers. To this end, a further part of the campaign was launched, called “Daylight Experience”. The company’s objective was divided into two aspects: • an active action was requested from the potential customer • a very powerful lead magnet was provided to the public The target that was addressed in this final phase of the advertising was made up of those people who had interacted with both the first and the second phase of the campaign, while the goal was to “acquire contacts”: in the first week alone, with a total cost of 350 euros, 63 contacts had already been obtained and various renderings and projects had been requested for the installation of the skylights. In advertising campaigns on Instagram and Facebook, creating a well-selected audience through several stages is fundamental: a segment of people who must not be abandoned, but constantly cultivated and followed through further ideas and proposals (which ultimately lead them to become customers).

business. instagram. com «First steps» According to some data collected by Facebook Inc. : • Users are over a billion, half of which are active everyday • 200 million users visit one of the company profiles on the platform at least once a day • About a third of the most viewed “Stories” belong to company profiles, and not to private individuals • 25% of the videos that are shared in “Stories” are made with the “Boomerang” effect Advertising Ø “Find out how to use Instagram for your company” Ø “Toolkit for Instagram Business” § Instagram Direct § «Shopping» function § How to add a «Call to action» to the adds