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Instagram has become the favorite social network of many — and not just for teens or Millennials. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, 32% of online adults use Instagram — up 5% from the previous year. Compare that, for example, to 24% on Twitter.

Plus, folks don’t just use Instagram casually — 35% of them use it several times each day.

But for those who have never used the platform before, or those who just want to take their usage to the next level, Instagram has some lesser-known tricks and features. That’s why we set out to find them and list them all in one place.

Whether you’re a recruiter looking to showcase your company’s culture, a marketer in the ecommerce industry, or an individual who’s just looking to use Instagram in the best ways possible, there are tips and features here for you.

And for a quick overview of these hacks, check out this rundown from HubSpot ‎Content Marketing Strategist Megan Conley.

Note: Before getting started, make sure you’re operating on the latest version of Instagram. At the time of posting, the latest version is 10.20 on iOS, and varies according to device.

15 Hidden Instagram Hacks & Features

1) Get notifications when your favorite people post.

Never want to miss an Instagram post from your favorite influencers again? You can choose to get a notification every time a specific user posts a new photo. All you have to do is turn on notifications for each user individually.

To turn on these notifications, visit a user’s profile, click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post, and choose “Turn on Post Notifications” from the menu that appears.

Want to turn post notifications off? Just follow the same steps. It’s important to note that you must enable notifications from the Instagram app in your phone’s settings — here’s how.

• To allow notifications on iPhone/iPad: Go to “Settings,” then “Notifications.” Choose “Instagram” and then turn on the setting to “Allow Notifications.”
• To allow notifications on Android: Go to “Settings,” then choose “Apps,” then “Instagram.” Select the option to show notifications.

2) See all the posts you’ve Liked.

Ever wanted to see the posts you’ve Liked, all in one place? All you have to do is go to your own profile and click the “Options” button — a gear icon on iPhone/iPad, and three dots on Android — then, click “Posts You’ve Liked.”

To un-Like any of the posts you’ve Liked, simply go to the post and deselect the “heart” icon below it. Don’t worry — the user won’t be notified that you’ve un-Liked the post.

3) Create a collection of saved posts.

In addition to being able to view all of the posts you’ve liked, Instagram also has an option to save or bookmark certain posts in collections that you create.

Start by going to your profile, and tapping the bookmark icon on the top-right menu above your photos.

Select the “Collections” tab, and tap “Create Collection.” Below, I’ve created one for food-related posts I particularly like.

Hit “done,” and you can start adding photos to your collection. To do so, tap the bookmark icon below the post you want to add.

Then, go back to your saved photos by following the previous steps. You’ll see the photos you’ve saved — to add them to your collection, select the collection you want to add to, and tap “Add to Collection.” From there, you can add any of your saved photos.

4) See the posts your friends have recently Liked or commented on.

When you’re looking to discover new people to follow on Instagram, there’s nothing like asking your friends. There’s a quick way to do that — by viewing the recent liking and commenting activity of the people you follow.

To do that, click the heart icon at the bottom of the home screen — the first thing that should appear is a list of likes and comments on your photos. Choose the tab near the top that says “Following,” and you can see the activity of users you follow.

5) Look through pictures without worrying about accidentally Liking them.

This step is more of a hack than a feature. To look through someone’s Instagram photos without “double-tap paranoia” — the fear of accidentally liking a post you didn’t mean to engage with — scroll through Instagram feeds with your phone set to airplane mode. Without internet access, you won’t be able to Like a photo, even if you accidentally double-tap it.

The pictures won’t load in the first place if you start on airplane mode, though. You’ll have to go to the feed first to load the posts, then turn on airplane mode, then start scrolling. When you reach the end of the first rows of posts and want to load more, simply turn airplane mode off, let more load, and then turn it on again. Cumbersome? Maybe a little, but it could be worth the paranoia mitigation.

• To turn on airplane mode on an iPhone/iPad: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and click the airplane icon. Or, go to “Settings” and then “Wi-Fi,” and switch “Airplane Mode” on.
• To turn on airplane mode on an Android device: Swipe down from the top of the screen. Then, swipe from right to left until you see “Settings,” and then touch it. Touch “Airplane Mode” to turn it on.

6) Clear your search history.

We swear — this blog post isn’t all about how to convince people you’re not an Instagram creeper. But many of us can relate to the desire to clear our online search history everywhere, including on this particular social channel.Luckily, you can.

To clear your search history, go to your own profile and click the “Options” button (a gear icon on iPhone/iPad and three dots on Android). Scroll down and click “Clear Search History.” When prompted, click “Yes, I’m sure.”

7) Reorder filters, and hide the ones you don’t use.

If you use Instagram a lot, chances are, you have a few favorite go-to filters, and others you never touch. To make editing photos easier, you can reorder the filters in your editing window, and hide the ones you never use.

To reorder or hide filters, add a new post and begin editing it. When you get to the filters page, scroll to the very far right of your filters options and click “Manage.”

To reorder filters, hold your finger down on the three grey lines on the far right of the filter you’d like to move, and drag it to reorder. To hide them, deselect the checkmark to the right.

8) Use Instagram as a photo editor (without having to post anything).

Perhaps you love Instagram’s filters and editing capabilities, but aren’t quite ready to post the photo to your account — right now, or ever. To use Instagram as a photo editor without posting anything, all you need to do is publish a picture while your phone is on airplane mode.

First, be sure you have “Save Original Photo” turned on in your settings.

Then, turn on airplane mode — see instructions in #5.

Next, follow the normal steps to post a photo to Instagram: Upload the photo, edit it, and press “Share.” An error message will appear saying the upload failed, but you’ll be able to find the edited image in your phone’s photo gallery.

9) Insert line breaks into your bio and captions.

When you write a caption in Instagram, you’ll see the keyboard doesn’t give you an option to press “Enter” or “Return.” The same is true for your bio. So how do all those people put line breaks in there?

It turns out that all you have to do is press the “123” key in the bottom lefthand corner of the keyboard, and the “Return” key will appear on the bottom right.

I know this tip sounds simple, but a lot of people miss it — myself included, until a colleague clued me in. We’ve seen some elaborate solutions out there for hacking through this problem, like writing the caption copy in another app, then copying and pasting it into Instagram. Thankfully, it’s much simpler than that.

10) Hide photos you’ve been tagged in.

When someone tags you in a photo or video on Instagram, it’s automatically added to your profile under “Photos of You,” unless you opt to add tagged photos manually (see the next tip).

To see the posts you’ve been tagged in, go to your own profile and click the person icon below your bio.

Then, to hide the posts you’ve been tagged in from other users, click the three dots in the top right of your screen and choose “Hide Photos.” Select the posts you’d like to remove from your profile, and when you’re done, tap “Hide Photos” at the bottom of your screen. When prompted, tap “Hide From Profile.”

This won’t remove the posts themselves from Instagram, but it will remove them from your profile, so you and others can’t access them.

11) Adjust your settings to approve tagged photos before they show up in your profile.

As we mentioned in the previous step, when someone tags a photo or video of you on Instagram, it’s usually added to your profile automatically. But, you can change your settings to enable manually selecting which photos you’re tagged in that show up on your profile.

To add tags manually, follow the same steps above to get to the photos in which you’ve been tagged, and click the three dots in the top right of your screen. Tap “Tagging Options,” and select “Add Manually.”

You’ll still be notified when someone tags you in a photo. Once that happens, to manually add a tagged photo to your profile, tap the photo you were tagged in, then tap your username and select “Show on My Profile.” And if you’d rather it not be visible, choose “Hide from My Profile” instead.

12) Browse posts from certain locations.

One fun thing you can do on Instagram is browse photos and videos from a specific location, or taken near your current location. I like to do that when I’m planning a trip somewhere, or want to check out a new restaurant and scroll through the pictures taken there.

Here’s how to do both of these things.

To Browse Posts From at a Specific Location:

You can either search for a specific place, or you can click into a geotag on an existing photo.

To search for a specific place: Tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your home screen, which will bring you to the general search page. When you click into the search bar at the top, four tabs will appear. Choose “Places,” and type in the name of a place. When you press “Search,” it’ll show you all the top and recent posts that were geotagged with that location.

To look at posts with a certain geotag: Go to the photo that’s geotagged with that location, and click the geotag. It’ll show you all the top and recent posts that were geotagged with that location.

Browse Posts Near Your Current Location:

Follow the same instructions above to get to “Places.” Tap the search bar, and select “Near Current Location.”

Choose which geotag you’d like to browse from the options that appear. Let’s say I chose to browse posts with the Museum of Science geotag. When I click “Museum of Science, Boston” on the menu, I’ll see the top and recent posts that were geotagged at that location.

13) Drive traffic to an external website.

One of the biggest frustrations people have with marketing on Instagram is that clickable URLs aren’t allowed anywhere except the single “website” box in your bio. If you put a URL in a photo caption it’ll appear as plain text, meaning users would have to painstakingly copy the URL, open a web browser, and paste or type it in there.

One sneaky way to get people to visit your Instagram profile, which is where that one clickable URL is allowed, is to use your photo captions to encourage people to visit your profile for a link. Then, update that URL frequently to point to your latest blog content, YouTube video, product, or offer.

Check out the example from food magazine Bon Appétit below. This photo’s caption provides a text call-to-action to visit the user’s profile so you can click the link related to the post.

 

Comfort food gone green 🌱. Brandon Jew, chef at @misterjius, put a spring spin on his mom’s congee for @healthy_ish. Head to the link in our profile for the recipe. 📷: @laurashoots

A post shared by bonappetitmag (@bonappetitmag) on May 11, 2017 at 3:02pm PDT

Then, in Bon Appétit‘s profile, you’ll see the link itself. Update this link frequently to point to your latest content or offer.

Plus, if you have a verified Instagram account, you can also add links to your Story. Right now, that feature is still being tested, so you can read more about it here.

14) Hide ads you don’t find relevant.

Instagram tries to show you ads that are interesting and relevant to you. You might see ads based on people you follow and things you Like on Instagram, or the third-party websites and apps you visit.

If you see sponsored posts you don’t find relevant, though, you can let Instagram know and slowly teach its algorithm what you like and don’t like to see.

To hide ads on Instagram, tap on the three dots to the right of a post labeled “Sponsored,” and choose “Hide This.”

From there, it’ll ask you to share why you don’t want to see the ad anymore.

You can also opt out of seeing ads based on sites and apps off of Instagram and Facebook from your device’s settings. Note that even if you choose to opt out of seeing these types of ads, you’ll still see ads based on your Instagram and Facebook activity.

• To limit ad tracking on an iPhone/iPad: Go to “Settings” and choose “Privacy,” then “Advertising.” From there, choose the option to “Limit Ad Tracking”

• To turn off interest-based ads on Android: Go to “Google Settings,” then “Ads.” From there, choose the option to “Turn off interest-based ads.”

15) Send photos privately to your friends.

Posting photos with all of your followers or with the public isn’t the only way to share content on Instagram. You can also share them with individual or multiple users, kind of like a Facebook message or group text message.

You can either send a new photo to friends, or send a photo that you or someone else has already posted.

To send a new photo privately, upload a photo and begin editing it, as you would when editing a new post. When you get to the “Share” page, tap the top where it automatically says “New Post,” but when prompted, select “Direct Message.” From there, you can pick and choose whom you’d like to send the photo to.

You can access your direct messages at any time by clicking the mailbox icon at the top right of your homepage.

To send an existing photo privately, start by opening the post you want to share — it can be your own or someone else’s, as long as the latter has a public account. Next, click the paper-airplane-like icon below the post, then select who you want to receive it when the “Send to” box appears.

Insta-Hacks

I might be biased, but Instagram is one of the most fun (and visually appealing) social apps around. And now, with these tricks, you can use it to an even fuller extent.

Plus, many of these features can help to enhance your brand’s presence on Instagram. Now, you know how to use the app more efficiently, to make sure you’re only tagged in photos you want to appear on your profile, and have even more ways to engage with the people who you’d like to be discovered by.

What other lesser-known Instagram features do you love? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Facebook Ads can help you increase your social following and boost the reach of your organic posts. But aren‘t CPC rates skyrocketing and lead generation ads taking over?

Not so much. To help you distinguish fact from fiction as you start designing your Facebook Ads strategy, we’re dubunking 24 common myths about Facebook Ads below. 

The following is an excerpt from 24 Facebook Marketing Myths, a free guide we created with the experts at Socialbakers. If you’d like to access the full guide, click here.

24 Common Myths About Facebook Ads

Myth: Facebook Ads are best for bottom-of-the-funnel marketing tactics.

Fact: Some marketers think advertising is primarily a bottom-of-the-funnel tactic, but Facebook Ads can actually work well for each stage of the funnel.

Think about setting up your ad campaigns with the funnel in mind. While your middle and bottom of the funnel campaigns might be retargeting campaigns to get users to come back to your site and either convert or buy, your top-of-the-funnel campaigns should be content that’s focused on awareness, just like any other organic post.

Focus top-of-the-funnel campaigns on post engagement and promoted posts for content specifically geared toward your Facebook audience. Leave your ad campaigns for farther down the funnel to focus on conversions.

Myth: The competition for Facebook Page Like and Facebook Post Engagement Ads are at an all-time high.

Fact: Socialbakers‘ extensive Facebook ads data reveals that In North America, not only are the Cost-per-click rates for Post Engagement and Page Like Ads decreasing, advertisers are also allocating less of their budget towards these campaigns.

As more Page Like ads have saturated people’s News Feeds, click-through-rate (CTR) on these ads have decreased. Just because CPC is going down, doesn’t mean marketers should use more of these ads. Instead, use Page Like ads to retarget users who have previously engaged with your content.

Post Engagement Ads are all about getting your audience to share and comment on your posts. Given that these ads are becoming more valuable to marketers, now is a great time to start making use of post engagement ads.

Figure out what your most remarkable content is, and use it to your advantage to expand your reach. Don’t just spray and pray with your posts. Focus on writing attention-grabbing headlines, and write posts for your target audience so that your ads are directed towards their needs. And if you’re wondering why your Facebook Ads aren’t converting, this post has a few ideas about what you should look at.

Myth: Most advertisers use Facebook Ads to increase their followers and engagement with their posts.

Fact: According to Socialbakers data, Facebook advertisers are spending more on and creating more Website Conversion ads than any other type of ads.

Although advertisers use Facebook ads for many different purposes based on the options available, many marketers are focusing the majority of the budget on getting people to convert on their website.

Although Website Conversion ads have an important place in your ads budget, remember that because they’re the most popular ad form, they also saturate user’s News Feeds. Don’t just focus all of your ads effort on one type. Instead, reserve your Website Conversion ads for retargeting campaigns and use other ad types for awareness-driven campaigns.

Myth: CPC on all ad types are skyrocketing as more and more advertisers are competing on the Facebook for Business Ads platform.

Fact: Except for Mobile App Installs and Post Engagement ads, most CPC rates have remained relatively steady in recent years.

With CPC rates remaining relatively steady, don‘t miss out on the opportunity to invest in Facebook advertising. Even though rates aren‘t skyrocketing now, that doesn‘t mean they won‘t in the future.

Keep in mind that CPC rates aren‘t the same for every ad type, so if you have a low budget to spend on Facebook ads, look into trying out ads that might have a lower CPC and optimize your strategy accordingly.

Myth: Since you‘re only paying for clicks, it‘s okay to spray and pray.

Fact: Just because you‘re only paying for clicks to your ads doesn‘t mean you shouldn‘t focus heavily on ad targeting to make sure it‘s getting in front of an audience that is actually a fit for your product or services.

While some advertisers opt to reach a maximum audience, we recommend focusing on the ROI of your ads by targeting those users who actually fit your buyer persona. Need help figuring out the targeting options available to you? Check out this post.

Myth: Website Conversion ads are becoming obsolete with the availability of Lead Generation ads.

FACT: As of 2016, Socialbakers found that less than 1% of advertisers‘ budgets was spent on Lead Generation ads. Meanwhile, budget allocation for Website Conversion ads increased by 50% in one year.

Despite being possible for advertisers to generate leads without forcing users to leave the app, so far, adoption of Lead Generation ads has been minimal. Whether marketers don‘t like lead ads or just aren‘t sure how to use them, we recommend trying it out. Want help? Check out this full guide to using Facebook lead ads.

Myth: With the rise in popularity of video, most advertisers are spending the largest chunk of their budget on Video ads.

Fact: Although budget allocation for Video ads increased by 150% from 2015 to 2016 according to Socialbakers‘ data, they still only made up 12% of total advertising spend for marketers.

Facebook continues to encourage marketers and users to post more and more video content. However, that doesn‘t mean marketers are putting the majority of their budget behind Video ads.

Why? Video takes more resources and effort to produce than other content. Use this to your advantage. Get the most ROI out of your ads by putting the resources into Video ads that will (ideally) convert at a higher rate. Since video content isn‘t making up the majority of ad space, it‘s not overly saturated in the same way.

Myth: Advertisers prefer to spend most of their budget on ads that keep users on the Facebook app.

Fact:  In February 2016, Website Conversion ads made up 39% of all ads on Facebook, and 39% of total spend.

That‘s the largest chunk of marketers‘ Facebook ads budgets. Website conversion ads take users away from Facebook to the advertiser‘s tight in an effort to get users to convert.

Facebook wants its users to stay in the app, but marketers clearly still prefer Website Conversion ads to similarly-goaled ads, like Lead ads, that keep users in the app. Use this to your advantage and try using Lead ads to increase conversions without forcing users to leave.

Worried about leads from Facebook not making it to your CRM? Don‘t worry, Facebook has you covered. Get the whole scoop on how to use Facebook lead ads in this guide.

Ready to learn about organic search, PPC, and video myths? Click here to access the complete guide: 24 Facebook Marketing Myths. 

If you’ve spent time in front of a television lately, you’re probably familiar with the formula for many women’s razor ads: A woman shaves and gets glowing legs that attract positive attention from her male counterpart. You can see the formula at work here, here, and here.

If you roll your eyes when you watch these ads, you’re not alone. But this formula has been highly lucrative for more than a century.

Effective advertising taps into the viewer’s emotions to compel them to take an action with a product. And in the case of the women’s razor and shaving industry, product messaging and ad campaigns tapped into emotions like shame, fear, and love to create an entirely new market and demand for a product previously restricted only to men.

Today, women in the United States spend roughly $1 billion dollars on razors per year — and it’s estimated that women spend between $10,000 and $23,000 on hair removal over the course of their lifetimes. Personal care trends come and go, but this one’s been growing for the last 100 years. Let’s dive into how marketers used effective advertising to get women to change their grooming routines — and budgets — forever.

The History of Women’s Razor Marketing

1910s: Armpit Hair Is Embarrassing

With the 1901 invention of the safety razor and the U.S. Army contract to supply every soldier with a razor, Gillette was a household name at the beginning of the 20th century — but it was only being used by men. Women’s fashion was starting to transition from 19th century-era buttoned-up, conservative gowns to more relaxed sleeveless dresses for dancing and going outside.

Then, when Gillette created the first women’s razor in 1915, it took advantage of the advertising opportunity presented by more exposed skin. Below is the first ad for Gillette’s Milady Décolleté that specifically targeted underarm hair shaving in 1917:

The ad copy effectively makes women feel embarrassed and left out of the trend if they aren’t already shaving their underarms. The razor “solves an embarrassing personal problem” and is “welcomed by women everywhere. Gillette used its product to create a problem and provide the solution — a genius marketing strategy, if you ask us.

In another ad, Gillette posits its razor as serving “the modern woman” to further convince women to start using its product or be left behind. The tagline drives home the importance of buying a razor and shaving: “A Refinement which has become a Modern Necessity.” It acknowledges the novelty but emphasizes the urgent need for women to start shaving.

1920s: Shorter Hemlines Mean Shorter Hair

During the 1920s, flapper dresses got shorter, and women even started swimming in more revealing bathing costumes that started to show off other body parts that could be shaved. In 1922, Harper’s Bazaar ran one of the first magazine ads specifically targeting underarm hair:

Magazines were consumed during this era for fashion advice, household tips, and women’s advice, so a spread like this signaled to readers the continued importance of underarm hair removal.

During this period, magazines also started targeting leg hair removal. In Christine Hope’s paper, “Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture,” Hope surveyed older editions of Harper’s Bazaar and found that 66% of ads mentioned leg hair removal and that most ads ran seasonally during summer months when women exposed more skin.

1940s: No Nylons, No Problem

By the time the 1940s rolled around, leg hair removal had become more ubiquitous. All hair removal ads in Harper’s Bazaar mentioned leg hair, and 56% of ads were specifically about leg hair removal.

Then, during World War II, there was a shortage of nylon used to make stockings, which drove more women to shave their legs and use depilatories so they could go bare-legged. Remington started selling the first electric women’s razor, which was presented as a faster alternative to manual shaving and keeping legs bare.

1950s: Hairlessness Is Classy and Feminine

Once leg and underarm shaving was more widely accepted, advertisers started using language and imagery to conflate shaving and hairlessness with femininity and classiness. In the ad below, the “Debutante” makes the razor an aspirational, ladylike product women feel like they have to buy.

1960s: Shaving Is Normal

By 1964, 98% of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 reported they removed some body hair, and advertisers were determined to make sure that number inched up to 100%. Ads featured shaming and scare tactics to get all women on board with the shaving trend.

The ad is designed to make women feel more comfortable with shaving by advertising a starter kit, but some of the copy is a little more intimidating: “Stop shaking. Sharp blades give you the best shave.” It’s meant to challenge readers to woman up and use Gillette to shave their legs — and it worked.

1980s: Shaving Is Sexy

1980s razor advertising seemed to be focused on women shaving to make themselves hairless to be more appealing to men — just check out Gillette’s “Just Whistle” ad below.

Subtle, huh?

1990s-2000s: Shaving Everywhere Is Normal

In the 1990s and 2000s, ads and commercials shifted to tell women about the importance of shaving to keep their entire bodies hairless — still to the appeal of men — for all of the occasions when they’re in short skirt, swimsuits, or wearing nothing at all. Razors bore new features to shave legs and bikini lines, adding to the list of body parts ads encouraged women to shave.

2010s: Shaving Needs to be Disrupted

Nowadays, razors are an expensive industry — especially for women. Women’s razors are subject to the “pink tax,” wherein women’s products are more expensive than the male versions despite identical functionalities. The disposable razor market is worth $34 billion and isn’t environmentally ideal, so other companies are trying to compete with the giants like Gillette and Schick. On-demand services, such as Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s, are advertising razors primarily to men, but the products are unisex, and the ads appeal to different motives — like price, convenience, and a better solution to traditional razor shopping.

If You Build it, They Will Shave

Razor companies used fear, shame, loneliness, and sex appeal to create a massive women’s shaving industry from scratch. And however frustrating that is for the modern buyer, women’s razors are a fascinating case of effective emotional advertising. It will be interesting to see if newer, on-demand razor companies can disrupt such an entrenched industry, and we’ll keep you posted on more fun ads from disruptors like DSC.

Can you think of other industries that were created with the help of marketing and advertising? Share with us in the comments below.

Image Credit: Razor Archive, Farmer’s Wife, Vox, Bustle

We know empathy — the ability to understand and relate to the emotions of others — is a core competency of creativity, leadership, and being an all-around happy, successful person.

Consciously approaching situations with an empathic perspective enables us to devise more inventive, impactful solutions to problems, form meaningful relationships, and ultimately, understand ourselves more thoroughly and with more self-acceptance. 

But is empathy a static trait? Or are we capable of improving our own capacity for empathic thinking?

“You can learn [empathy] with time and dedication” said Annie McKee, author of Primal Leadership and Happy at Work, in Harvard Business Review. “It starts with having a dream– a vision of the future that means enough for you to put in the hard work needed to change old habits. And, you need to accept how important empathy is at work — and perhaps […] the realization of the damage done by not having it.”

So what does strengthening our empathic fitness look like in practice? The team at Sub Rosa, a strategy and design practice based in Manhattan, believe it begins with asking yourself some tough questions. To help more people embrace an ongoing habit of acknowledging and consciously improving empathy, they developed Questions & Empathy, a card deck with 49 questions designed to provoke authentic discussions and strengthen empathic thinking.

The deck has been used in workshops across a number of different industries and disciplines — from the Fast Company Innovation Festival to West Point. Each question is aimed at uncovering a deeper truth about the way we navigate the world — one we might not have discovered without direct provocation. 

“Some of us are naturally predisposed empaths, but for the rest of us, it’s a skill that is learned and developed,” explains the guidebook for Questions & Empathy. “It requires curiosity and imagination, and it’s a muscle that we must constantly train. Doing so will help you discover greater purpose, inform sound decisions, build deeper relationships, and create better solutions.”

In their ongoing work with empathy, the team at Sub Rosa has identified seven key components of empathic thinking, and given each archetype a title and core purpose:

• Inquirer: Interrogate assumed truths
• Convener: Anticipate the needs of others
• Alchemist: Test and learn at all costs
• Confidant: Summon the patience to observe and absorb information
• Sage: Inhabit the here and now
• Cultivator: Purposefully nurture and actively develop
• Seeker: Be confident and unafraid to take risks or pivot

The Questions & Empathy deck is designed to put you in the mindset of each archetype, challenging you to explore different areas of empathic thinking through uncommonly direct questions and self-reflection.

We’re sharing 15 of our favorite questions from the deck below, broken down into sections corresponding to five different components of empathy. So gather your team, your friends, or just a pen and paper, and approach each of these questions with an open mind. There are no right or wrong answers.

15 Questions to Strengthen Empathic Thinking

Interrogate assumed truths.

Challenging preconceived notions enables us to better navigate a world of diverse belief systems and conflicting opinions. Part of embracing empathy in your daily life means pushing to discover the big, messy, underlying reasons behind the beliefs and patterns you’ve always accepted without question.

Sometimes, we need to excavate the “why” behind seemingly fixed points, and demand contemplative responses from ourselves and others. 

1) When have your instincts led you astray?

2) What are your personal biases that most interfere with finding truth?

3) What types of questions make you most uncomfortable?

Creatively anticipate the needs of others.

There are times in your professional and personal life when it’s up to you to intentionally cultivate space for other people to grow and thrive. This means learning what others need to be successful, and figuring out how to give it to them without compromising your own sense of well-being. 

4) What about you most comforts others?

5) What makes an experience meaningful?

6) How do you balance being self-serving and selfless?

Constantly test and try.

To constantly improve yourself and your work, you need to be willing to test, fail, and pivot accordingly — often over and over again. Remaining curious and patient in the face of failure is not without its emotionally charged challenges, but it creates resilience, focus, and a deep, first-hand appreciation for the victories and losses of those around you. 

7) When does your curiosity create difficulty?

8) Who has challenged you to be better than you once were?

9) How does iteration inform the outcome of your work?

Summon the patience to observe and absorb information.

Understanding is formed in those silent, observant moments of a deep conversation — when we stop planning what to say next, and focus instead on absorbing everything we can. You might be surprised how much you come to understand about the people around you when you give them a secure, nonjudgmental space to confide. 

10) What role can silence play in a conversation?

11) What should people better understand about you?

12) When are you most observant?

Inhabit the here and now.

“Be present” isn’t just a self-help mantra — it’s a reminder to acknowledge how you feel in a given moment, and recognize the feelings of those around you. When you feel yourself becoming untethered from the present moment or clouded with concerns about the past or future, make a conscious effort to bring yourself back and check in. 

13) Where do you feel most present?

14) When negative emotions arise, how do you deal with them?

15) How do you stay grounded when the world gets overwhelming?

How do you plan to strengthen your empathy this year? Let us know in the comments.