Today, we're excited to announce that our community of businesses has grown to 15 million (up from eight million in March). As people continue to use Instagram to discover brands that they love, share and follow their passions across mobile, businesses of all sizes are finding it the perfect place to stand out and tell their story — especially as 80% of Instagrammers follow a business today on Instagram.¹

And with the help of fresh, creative tools such as Instagram Stories, businesses are creating more and more compelling content to share with their communities, whether organically – informed by the insights tools that we provide businesses – or as a paid advert.

While there are dozens of success stories from major brands all around the world, a majority using business tools are small- to medium-sized businesses, such as Vitaly from Toronto and Le Chocolat des Français out of Paris.

During a trip of self-discovery in Bali back in 2011, founder of fashion brand Vitaly (@vitalydesign), Shane Foran (@shanevitalyforan), discovered something more than just himself. Working alongside craftspeople in the small town of Ubud, Shane created the first handmade ring that would later inspire his entire line of fine men's jewellery.

Since that moment, Vitaly has evolved into a fashion icon with over 400 retailers now carrying the brand’s unmistakable, architectural pieces. But despite all the success that has come over the years, the brand still needed a little help with engaging lapsed customers who had visited (and left) its website.

Teaming up with Instagram to develop a mobile-only campaign, Shane (and team) used dynamic adverts to retarget people with products they were already interested in, but had yet to purchase. Blending the brand's highly stylised product and lifestyle shots with a direct focus on the product, Vitaly was able to reach more than 243,000 people and achieve a 3.9x return on advert spend.

For Le Chocolat des Français (@lechocolatdesfrancais), the French creative chocolate brand, "Instagram is one of our principal means of communication," says Matthieu Escande, co-founder of the colourful and delicious brand. "It's a great tool for interacting with our community and developing our brand awareness," continues co-founder Vincent Muraire, "especially as our chocolate has a very visual and creative universe".

Working with selected artists to create each unique wrapper for its artisan bars, "Le Chocolat des Français has been able to be at the frontier of food and illustration; two things that work really well on Instagram," says Vincent. And as a result, the brand is now an international household name.

"Thanks to this platform, we were approached by a number of distributors," and they are now available throughout the world at various department and concept stores, as well as online.

To learn how your business can do more with a business profile and join the growing number of brands doing the same, take a look at these simple how-to steps for updating your current profile on Instagram.