‘Instagram Academy’ launches in Hong Kong
Instagram today launched its first “Instagram Academy” in Hong Kong through a partnership with the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. As seeing Instagram is becoming a platform for young people to build careers and realize their entrepreneurial aspirations with its high level of interactivity, visually impactful contents and large population of young users, the launch of “Instagram Academy” aims to educate and empower young entrepreneurs with digital skills that are essential for local businesses to grow.
“Instagram Academy” will recruit and train around 300 young entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 35. Registration starts from now until December 11, 2020, and the training program will be completed in April 2021. In phase one of “Instagram Academy”, the Instagram team will use a specially-designed curriculum to coach young entrepreneurs on using Instagram’s free business and creative tools. Besides, the program will hold virtual hands-sessions focus on creating engaging Instagram content for businesses. The program will take entrepreneurs dive deep into Instagram and learn how to use this powerful visual platform to amplify contents, engage users and build brand awareness, also best practices for posting and launching ads on Instagram, eventually to grow their account.
In phase two, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups will select ten “Instagram Academy” top graduates to join a transition program for local traditional businesses, with the aim of helping them digitalize and passing on their traditional business to next generation. The graduates will transfer the Instagram-specific digital skills they have learnt in phase one to participating traditional businesses, including teaching local traditional business owners about features such as promotional tools, Instagram Stories and Direct Messaging, which will ultimately help the owners elevate and digitalize their businesses with their very own platform to connect with customers, continuous to grow and pass to the next generation.
Whether it is via hashtags, promoting inspiring content on stories or offering a peek into what happens in the background, many businesses around the world are taking advantage of the over one billion monthly active users that 90% of them visit at least one business profile per day. With more businesses joining every day, Instagram is a natural place for businesses to tell their story with photos and videos.
“E-commerce has been a trend for small to medium-sized businesses, and COVID-19 has given online shopping a boost as more consumers resort to searching brands and products, and buying goods online, which also creates business opportunities to young people. Instagram is changing the way people discover local businesses, shop online, choose and experience travel destinations. With the help of Instagram, local entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger, some even start in their early 20s. We’re deeply inspired by the many young people who have used Instagram to start their own business, and therefore launch ‘Instagram Academy’ in Hong Kong,” said Jayne Leung, VP, Head of Greater China at Facebook. “We are excited to partner with Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and keen to see how this program will inspire and empower tomorrow’s young entrepreneurs.”
“Online shopping has long been the norm, not only in Hong Kong but around the world, especially among young people. Through this training program, we hope to facilitate young entrepreneurs to make the most of this effective marketing channel to improve their skills, grow their own businesses and attract more customers,” said Gary Tang Leung-shun, Coordinator of The HKFYG, overseeing social innovation and youth business services. “The Federation is dedicated to helping young people start their own businesses, by providing financial and other practical support. It is our honour and privilege to partner with Instagram, to be able to provide professional trainings that nurture young people and promote exchanges.” He encouraged young people to grasp this opportunity and enroll online.
The program also enlisted the help of total 7 established business owners to serve as “Instagram Academy” Ambassadors, and share their experiences with using Instagram to build their businesses successfully. At the program launch today, “Instagram Academy” ambassadors Jenn Lam and Tawnia Lai, founders of vegan cosmetic and skincare brand WULT, and Alfred Ng, co-founder of budget tourism website Flyday.hk and retailer store Travelpop shared their experiences on using Instagram to leverage and grow their businesses, and shared learnings on their pathways to becoming successful young entrepreneurs.