Standing up for herself. When an Instagram user doubted Bethenny Frankel‘s skills and abilities as a chef, the Real Housewives of New York City alum didn’t let the dig go unnoticed.Celebrity Health Scares
It all began on Monday, June 22, when Frankel, 49, introduced her new line of preserves in an Instagram post. “I’m so excited to share my newest @skinnygirlbrand product with you – #Skinnygirl preserves!” she gushed. “There are 5 flavors that are completely sugar free — seriously, you won’t believe it they’re SO good.”
The reality star added: “As a natural foods chef, I love to create healthy alternatives that are delicious AND affordable. Right now, they’re on the shelves at @publix and soon they’ll be online, as well! #staytuned. I can’t wait for you to try these in all 5 flavors! ?????.”
Though the Skinnygirl founder actually got her start as a natural foods chef prior to her reality TV days, this was apparently news to one social media follower. “Bethany. When did you become a chef? In your small NY apartment you used your kitchen for storage. Right?” the naysayer recalled. “Branding and promoting is always a great business practice but please stay true to your authentic self because you are fabulous just being you!!!”Inside Stars’ Meticulously Organized Fridges and Pantries
Frankel kept her retort short and sweet, simply writing back: “Wrong girl.”
The commenter then claimed she confused the New York native for someone else and noted she’s a fan of Frankel’s.
While this jab may have been a mix-up, it’s hardly the first time the Bethenny Ever After alum has had to defend herself, especially in situations involving food.
In May 2019, a fan called her out for eating a seafood tower on an episode of RHONY despite the fact that she suffers from a potentially fatal fish allergy. “I am deathly allergic to fish not shellfish but I have since stopped shellfish because of cross contamination,” she explained of her choice at the time.Real Housewives in the Restaurant Business
The BStrong founder was on the defensive yet again in February 2019 when multiple Instagram users criticized her thin frame. After she posted a video of herself tearing into an ice cream sundae, Frankel preempted trolls by writing on her Instagram Stories: “Yeah I’m skinny. So tell me to eat a burger or that I’m gonna throw it up #f–koff.”
Cher, who appeared on series seven of The X Factor back in 2010, posted a series of sweet photos of her daughter and husband Craig Monk together.
In a rare personal post, the singer celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday (June 21) by wishing her partner a “Happy Father’s Day” on Instagram. “Delilah-Rae loves her Daddy, and so do I,” she added.
Cher married her partner Craig in 2013, and the pair welcomed Delilah-Rae in 2018.
“They gave me a few suggestions but it was just a crazy thing to ask,” she said. “Sadly it still happens. That’s still happening in this day and age — that it’s still OK to try to make a young girl do something like that.”
The X Factor star insisted that she “was never going to be that girl”, calling publicity stunts “messy”. And although she’s now happily married, Lloyd also admitted that her relationship with a “normal guy” angered label bosses at the time.
“You can’t help who you fall for,” she insisted. “I’m sorry to big music heads that I didn’t marry a very successful celebrity to make money for them.”
How To Promote A Spotify Playlist Using Instagram Stories Ads
Brian Hazard of the project Color Theory shares how he recently saw some promotional success with his Spotify playlist by utilizing a classic industry technique: paying for advertising – in this case Instagram Stories ads.
If you were wondering how I found your work, it was through Spotify. I was looking for vocal synthwave playlists. Yours had the most followers and I really enjoyed the first song.
My Spotify playlist is getting a lot of action lately. Not because the search algorithm starting picking up on it, or because it went viral on Reddit. No, I’m growing it the old-fashioned way: by paying for it.
On March 10, it had 1079 followers. As I write this on March 19, it has 3124 followers. That’s 2K followers in two months, for a total of $378.46 in ad spend (click to enlarge).
I learned a lot in those two months, and I’m paying much less per follower now than I was at the beginning. More on that later!
The benefits of owning a popular Spotify playlist
Owning one of the top playlists in your genre offers several advantages:
Strangers are more willing to check out a playlist than a song, album, or artist profile.
You can promote your entire scene instead of just pushing your own stuff.
You can trade placements on other artists’ playlists.
You can place your name (in the description), likeness (in the cover art), and music alongside the biggest names in your genre.
A high follower count legitimizes the playlist and generates more streams due to its perceived authority.
A high follower count attracts higher quality submissions on SubmitHub.
Convinced yet? Here’s how I did it…
How I created my Instagram Stories ads
Instagram Stories ads are 15-second videos with a 9×16 aspect ratio, essentially 1080p flipped sideways. iMovie can’t do it, but it’s a breeze with ScreenFlow.
ScreenFlow is also great for making square videos, which take up more screen real estate on social media. I’m using a really old version that I bought years ago for screen capture, but it still does everything I need.
I’m hyping ScreenFlow so much, I may as well become an affiliate… done! If you want to try it out while supporting the site, click on the banner below:
Note that it’s Mac only. If you know of any good Windows alternatives, please share them in the comments!
I just add my assets to the sidebar, drag them to the video window and/or timeline, resize them to 15 seconds, add text and “effects” (mostly just fades), and export using the following settings:
I’m sure that’s way overkill video-wise, but I love that it encodes audio at 320 kbps!
My winningest Spotify playlist ads
Here’s a playlist with 4 of the 24 ads I’ve tested so far. Remember that Instagram also includes a call to action (“Listen Now”) at the bottom of the screen, with a caret telling the user to swipe up.
FRAME DJ was a huge help in coming up with ideas. He noticed that “scrolling through the playlist” ads like the first were being used to build massive EDM playlists.
He also came up with “imagine the warmth of 80s synth music.” I was skeptical at first, but it outperformed the others at the time.
I’m quite proud of “it’s always midnight somewhere,” featuring the music of The Midnight. Clever, huh?
Still, I was glad that “bask in the neon glow of an 80s that never existed” performed just as well using my own music.
Facebook Ad Library is a helpful resource. There are several expensive courses on Spotify promotion that center around Instagram Stories ads. Rather than pay for them, I just looked up the relevant artists’ ads for inspiration.
Test, test, test! I can’t stress this enough. Try different songs, background images, copy, fonts, timing, you name it! Don’t forget to test which 15 seconds of your track converts best, rather than just starting at the top of the chorus.
I test each ad by letting it run solo for two days, ideally two weekdays because weekends may perform differently.
Remember that followers are the goal, not clicks. Every morning I write down my follower count and track the increase from the previous day. It should scale with clicks, but if it doesn’t, your ad may be confusing users.
I place the song from my ad, typically my own, in the top slot of the playlist so people recognize it immediately and know they’ve come to the right place. Sure, it’s self-serving, but not entirely selfish!
Setting up my Instagram Stories ads
I won’t walk through every step in the ad creation process, because yawn. The campaign objective is traffic, and the sole placement is Instagram Stories.
I mostly targeted US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Once I launched my free CD campaign, which I’ll write about soon, I restricted my targeting to US-only, where I charge $5 to ship a CD rather than $15 internationally.
Eventually I opened it up to Mexico and Brazil, where I’m getting clicks for $0.04, versus $0.11 in the US. The lower cost per follower is offset by a lower payout per stream.
Ultimately I settled on splitting my geographic targeting into two ad groups at $2.50 each per day: US, and Mexico/Brazil. If I kept them in the same ad group, the latter would eat up the vast majority of my budget.
I’m getting about 50 new followers a day, so $0.10 per follower if we attribute all growth to the ads. That assumes that organic growth is canceled out by unfollows.
Interest targeting no more
You may have noticed that I mentioned where I’m targeting, but not who I’m targeting.
That’s because I already spent a few hundred bucks to build a lookalike audience of 75% video viewers — yet another topic for a future post! I know I previously said that lookalike audiences don’t work, but it turns out I was doing it wrong.
You’ll likely need to use interest targeting, in the form of “artists I sound like” or “my genre” plus Spotify. Remember, you want to narrow the audience using Spotify as an additional interest.
Hopefully, there are targetable artists that you sound like, or genres your music fits into cleanly. I’m not so lucky, which is why it cost so much to create that lookalike from mostly non-music-related interests.
Deep Linking with URLgenius
Let’s swap places with our potential fan for a moment. Imagine you see an ad for a cool playlist, swipe up, and are greeted with this screen:
“Wait, don’t I already have the Spotify app?,” you wonder. Yes, you do, and clicking the “download app” button will open it.
We want to avoid this confusion at all costs. The solution? URLgenius.
URLgenius creates deep links that bypass the download prompt and open the relevant app directly.
The first 1000 clicks are free. After that, it’s a penny per click. In this case, a penny spent is more than a penny saved in cost per follower!
Here’s a URLgenius link to my playlist. Now you owe me a penny.
My Spotify playlist results
Do people actually listen to my playlist? Indeed they do!
Here’s my Spotify for Artists data for the top slotted track (click to enlarge):
I’ve got another track in the middle of the playlist, which only generated 436 plays over the same period.
If I consider my playlist campaign only in terms of my two songs, that’s 2K streams for $174. That’s not terrible relative to what you’d pay for Spotify PR, and I know the streams are legit!
SubmitHub to the rescue
When my playlist hit 2K followers, I made the mistake of announcing it on social media. Suddenly I was receiving submissions from every corner of the internet.
Most obviously didn’t fit, because they didn’t have vocals, or weren’t even close to synthwave. Some artists sent me full albums, or worse, directed me to their Spotify profile, expecting me to scour it for any appropriate tracks. It got to be too much, so I turned to SubmitHub:
If you’re unfamiliar with SubmitHub, you can read all about it in last month’s article. It’s a platform where curators of all stripes screen and manage submissions from artists, labels, and publicists.
I’ve always pushed back against claims that SubmitHub was payola and that curators were somehow scamming artists, but now it’s obvious how off-base those accusations are.
Once I worked through 200 submissions I was allowed to raise my price to two premium credits. Now I get $1 out of every $2 submission.
I’m currently receiving 15 submissions per day on average, making $20 per hour while falling behind on mastering and production work that pays far better.
SubmitHub is no get rich scheme.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of curators only charge a single premium credit, which is $10 per hour at my pace.
It has its perks though! Curators can purchase credits at a 50% discount. 45 minutes per day of my time covers both the cost of my playlist ads and my own artist submissions.
Feel free to submit your track to me if it has 1) great vocals (not just vocoder), 2) obvious 80s elements, 3) traditional pop structure, and 4) a synth-driven arrangement. You wouldn’t believe how many people send me instrumentals!
Spotify playlists conclusion
I think that covers the entire ecosystem!
What do you think? Is playlist promotion a viable substitute for artist promotion, at least on Spotify?
It’s definitely a ton of work, but I take pride in my playlist, and genuinely enjoy listening to it. It’s nice to be in a position where I can help other artists, rather than feeling like we’re all competing in a zero-sum contest. I suppose that goes for this blog too.
Do you curate a Spotify playlist? Have you tried Instagram Stories ads? Let’s swap strategies in the comments!
Like it? Share it!
Brian Hazard is a recording artist with over twenty years of experience promoting eleven Color Theory albums, and head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California.
His Passive Promotion blog emphasizes “set it and forget it” methods of music promotion
Instagram models and other social media influencers are all starting to look the same. Known as the “Instagram Face,” the selfie-ready mug is a common look for many female celebrities. It also includes the kinds of features that many cosmetic surgery clients ask for in their appointments. What is the “Instagram Face,” and who has it?
‘Instagram Face’ is on the rise; what does it look like?
Emily Ratajkowski in 2019 | gotpap/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
What is the definition of the Instagram face? Per writer Jia Tolentino in the New Yorker, it’s “a single, cyborgian face.” She continues:
It’s a young face, of course, with poreless skin and plump, high cheekbones … It looks at you coyly but blankly, as if its owner has taken half a Klonopin and is considering asking you for a private-jet ride to Coachella.
Tolentino continued that while the Instagram face is “distinctly white,” it’s also “ambiguously ethnic.”
A top plastic surgeon, Dr. Demetri Arnaoutakis talked to Showbiz Cheat Sheet about the concept of “Instagram face,” too.
“We’re now seeing uplifted eyes that appear ‘catlike,’ the lips are pouty, and the eyelashes are overly long,” he said. “Plus, the person’s foreheads are typically wrinkle-free.”
The popularity of social media is releasing the “taboo” of plastic surgery and Botox
In search of the social-media-approved face, many wanna-be models are already perfecting their Instagram posts with filters and apps.
“Art directors at magazines have long edited photos of celebrities to better match unrealistic beauty standards; now you can do that to pictures of yourself with just a few taps on your phone,” Tolentino explained. Apps like FaceTune make blemishes a thing of the past. One make-up artist told Tolentino:
“I think ninety-five percent of the most-followed people on Instagram use FaceTune, easily. And I would say that ninety-five percent of these people have also had some sort of cosmetic procedure.”
Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in February 2020 | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
This is why, as he explained, plastic surgery is also getting “trendy—like, everyone’s getting brow lifts via Botox now.”
“Social media has played a huge role in the rise of cosmetic procedures,” Arnaoutakis agreed. He went on to explain why that mattered:
We have access to our favorite celebrity or influencer 24/7 now. And more importantly, a lot of them are open about which treatments they undergo. This has removed the taboo label from undergoing plastic surgery and has made it more commonplace to undergo certain procedures.
Plastic surgeons reveal which celebrities have ‘Instagram face’: the Kardashians, the Hadid sisters, etc.
So, which celebs have the face everyone seems to want so bad?
“When you look at Kim, Megan Fox, Lucy Liu, Halle Berry, you’ll find elements in common,” a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon told Tolentino in the New Yorker. “the high contoured cheekbones, the strong projected chin, the flat platform underneath the chin that makes a ninety-degree angle.”
Tolentino also wrote that the Instagram face “suggests a National Geographic composite illustrating what Americans will look like in 2050.” Well, that is: “if every American of the future were to be a direct descendant of Kim Kardashian West, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Kendall Jenner (who looks exactly like Emily Ratajkowski).”
Cosmetic surgeons report that the Instagram face features — “high arched brows with Botox like Kylie Jenner or high cheekbones like supermodel Bella Hadid” — are super in right now.
Still, one celebrity, in particular, stood out as the most-requested face at cosmetic surgery clinics.
Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Gigi Hadid in 2015 | Kevin Tachman/amfAR15/WireImage
“I’d say that thirty percent of people come in bringing a photo of Kim, or someone like Kim,” the surgeon explained to Tolentino. “She’s at the very top of the list, and understandably so.”
Arnaoutakis advised anyone interested in a potential procedure “to seek out an expert in the procedure they are considering having done.” Not to mention, hit the breaks on social media use, when you need to.
“There can be heavy psychological impacts from Instagram, as well. It is such a visual platform with a variety of filters that may, unfortunately, mislead our teenage population,” the doctor said.
You can’t trust everything you see on the Internet.
An influencer from Amsterdam is showing off how camera angles and good lighting can significantly alter how good (or bad) someone looks in a photo. Based on the number of followers she has, it seems that social media appreciates the honesty.
Rianne Meijer has been posting the images to her Instagram account, which has about 678,000 followers. While her account includes a variety of images, including shots from her daily life and even some conventionally posed photos, she regularly includes photos that reveal the truth behind glamor shots.
Many of her photos are actually composites of two photos, placed next to each other. One will show a photo that would normally appear on a typical influencer’s page. These shots are well lit and have perfect angles.
While she’s getting attention for her work now, she’s been doing it since at least 2019. At that time, she said she wanted to show that photos from influencers aren’t ever really real, MSN reports.
According to the news outlet, she also said that she’s found her voice through this project and that she’s building a community around a positive message.
Kandi Burruss and her family live busy lives, with managing and continuing to build up their empire, as well as school for the younger members of the crew. So it’s not often that we get to see the whole Real Housewives of Atlanta fam together in one place.
Luckily, Kandi and her family were able to put all of their other commitments aside to spend some quality time with one another this weekend. Kandi even commemorated the special occasion by posting a series of family photos on Instagram on June 21.
Kandi captioned the snaps, “Today was a good day! #FamilyTime.”
Todd also showed a lot of love to his family on Instagram. “Family is forever! I love my kids so much! [Blaze, Ace, Riley, and Kaela] and my amazing wife!” he wrote in the post. “[Kandi] thank you for the best Father’s Day!”
Kandi returned the love by showing her gratitude to Todd for being a wonderful father. “Happy Father’s Day my King aka #DaddyDayCare aka [Todd]!” Kandi gushed in another post on Instagram on Father’s Day. “Thank you for being such an awesome father to our blended tribe. I love you!”
She also honored her own father and her stepfather, Leroy Jones, who passed away in May 2019. “Happy Father’s Day to my dad [Titus and] Happy heavenly Father’s Day to my stepfather #LeroyJones!” Kandi shared in a post on Instagram featuring photos of herself with Titus and Leroy. “I hope all Fathers are enjoying your day today!”
Kandi and her loved ones got in more family time earlier in the weekend as they supported Black-owned businesses in honor of Juneteenth. She also enjoyed a Juneteenth celebration with Kenya Moore and Eva Marcille.
As you figure out the best organic Instagram growth strategy for your profile, it’s going to be important to know pretty much everything there is to know about one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.
You’ve got to make sure that you have the right information on board so that you can make a real difference.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important Instagram statistics to have in your portfolio as an Instagram grower and influencer.
1. Instagram Is Number Two for Downloads
Can you believe that Instagram is the second-most downloaded free app in the Apple store? The only platform that has been able to surpass it and take out the title for number one is YouTube.
This is a pretty good idea of what to expect when growing your Insta – it’s going to keep attracting more and more users, so if you do the math, you’ve got a great chance of doing really well.
2. It’s Number 10 for Google
Did you know that people love to Google search about the weather – still? They don’t just love to talk about it, they love to Google about it. Do you know what else they like to Google? Instagram.
Instagram is the 10th most popular thing to Google these days, behind Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook. However, because Instagram is, of course, an app and not something that you tend to Google, this is still a great sign.
3. Seven Countries Can’t See Their Likes
Did you know that there are seven countries in the world where Instagram has to decide to hide their views and likes? It wasn’t that long ago that Instagram started hiding likes in Canada, but they have since moved on to other countries, too.
These include Ireland, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. While this does mean that if you live in any of these countries, or your Instagram followers are from any of these countries, they can’t see your engagement, it doesn’t mean that you still can’t be popular.
4. 1 Billion People Are Active on Instagram
How many people do you think use Instagram every month? Would you believe us if we said one billion? This is a heck of a lot of people, which means a heck of a lot of traffic for your page, potentially.
This officially makes Instagram number two in terms of active users. What’s number one? Facebook, of course.
However, Instagram is owned by Facebook, so what’s the difference, really?
This is a pretty impressive amount of users, which means that the sky’s the limit in terms of your exposure.
5. A LOT of People Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is a relatively recent feature that Instagram has decided to implement, as other apps like Snapchat attempt to stay updated and relevant. Nobody saw the writing on the wall with Instagram Stories, but needless to say that it’s popular.
In fact, it’s 500 million people popular. This is how many people use Instagram Stories every single day.
It’s only been three years since Instagram added this feature to their list, and it’s clear at this point that Instagram Stories are a pretty integral part of your overall presence.
6. The Majority of Instagrammer’s Aren’t From the U.S.
How many of the people that you follow as influencers or role models on the gram are from the states? Probably quite a few.
However, you might be surprised to know that the vast majority of Instagram users aren’t actually stateside.
In fact, out of the billion people that use Instagram every month, only 110 million of them are from America. This means that 89% of Instagram users are outside of the states. The top country is Brazil, followed by India, then Indonesia, and lastly, Russia.
This kind of information is vital to know what your target audience looks like so that you can accommodate them in your content, and post at the right times.
7. A Lot of American Adults Use the Gram
When was the last time you asked your mom or dad if they use the gram? If it’s been a while, there’s every chance that they’ve jumped on the bandwagon since. This is because 37% of American adults are on it.
So, how many of our parents’ generation are actually using the social media app, then?
Of that 37%, only 23% of them are between the ages of 50 and 64 – the vast majority still fall into the younger generation’s category. This doesn’t mean that they’re not on it, though.
8. The Majority of Instagrammers Check It Every Day
How often do you find yourself checking the gram to see if someone has commented or liked your latest post? You might have been feeling a bit trigger happy lately, and if so, you’re not alone.
This is because 63% of people on the gram log in to the app at least once every day. While this isn’t everyone, it’s still a lot of people.
This means that if you’re putting more content out there every day for your community to see it, you should be able to receive a lot of attention for it.
9. Business Profiles Are Becoming More Popular
Have you changed your Instagram profile to a business profile yet? Well, maybe now is the time to do so.
This is a lot of eyes on your product or service, and a great chance to bring more traffic to your website.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it – some of the most important stats about Instagram right now.
If you’re serious about your Instagram growth, you need to know what’s what. You need to know who’s using the gram, and where they are.
You also need to know what’s good with Instagram business profiles.
Clearly, there’s room here for growth, and the opportunity to turn your brand or online presence into a wild success. Get started with Insta today and discover the endless opportunities it offers.
