When your early decision is what social media platform to use for your marketing, Kim Walsh Phillips makes a strong case for Instagram in The Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business.
Instagram’s engagement with brands is 10 times higher than on Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest and 84 times higher than Twitter, according to Hootsuite, she points out, while its mobile ad revenue is expected to reach US$3 billion this year – a tenth of the colossus Facebook, even though it is six years younger.
Ms Walsh Phillips, who is based close to New York City, knows her onions. She runs three businesses – Elite Digital Group, a direct response social media marketing agency launched in 2001; Elite Capital Advisers, a marketing agency for financial advisers; and the Powerful Professionals community. She works with brands including Harley-Davidson and Hilton Hotels and has already co-authored one book, The No BS Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing.
This book acts as a step-by-step guide, with lots of explanatory screenshots on how to set up an Instagram account, write your bio, use filters (“the best thing about Instagram”) and hashtags. There are interviews with leading Instagrammers, case studies of clients’ return on investment and detailed lists of useful apps for editing images, scheduling posts, creating videos and analysing your statistics. Ms Walsh Phillips is also frank about the merits of buying followers. Additional toolkits are available on her site when you buy the book.
Ms Walsh Phillips’ favourite app is Word Swag, which she used to transform her own Instagram account. Originally, she posted quotes from different people; she now uses the same template and font each time, with Word Swag, and adds a watermarked logo. And she only uses her own quotes as posts. “There should be consistency,” she says. “So if someone picked 10 random posts, they could tell they are all yours.”
Some good tips? Use a unique URL and landing page in your bio so you can track traffic from Instagram, use relevant hashtags and one unique to your account each time and get professional headshots and logos. And don’t “spam-tag” other accounts or you’ll become an “annoying gnat”.
More than just an Instagram guide, this book is really worth a skim-read for anyone working with social media.
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business by Kim Walsh Phillips is available from Amazon.com for US$14.63.
Q&A: Kim Walsh Phillips offers Suzanne Locke more insights into her book The Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business.
Why was Instagram your social media of choice?
Instagram is one of the last platforms that allow you to reach your target market organically (for free), using hashtags. While I love Facebook Ads, Instagram crushes it.
How likely is Instagram to stay in the game?
As Facebook owns it, it’s likely to be around for a long time – plus it is focused on pictures, the most shared medium on Facebook.
Instagram Stories and Instagram Live are new – any tips?
Just get started: the more you do it, the more comfortable you will be. Lead with a question addressing your target market (“Want more blog traffic?”), tease a solution (“There is a free way to get people to your blog”), give content by offering two to three tips and end with a call to action – where to go for more information.
What difference did creating a uniform look and theme make to your Instagram?
I made the shift when I started writing the book and researching successful accounts. Creating a brand board (of brands whose Instagram accounts I liked) helped me to attract new followers and get more opt-ins on my page. I am no longer embarrassed to have people visit it.
You have about 6,000 followers, which seems modest when compared to celebrities’ 100 million plus. Is it enough?
By growing slowly, we have been able to get quality followers. For everyone who joins the list, we are making on average US$43. I am not planning on being an Instagram celebrity, so this method works well.
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Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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