(Image: Photo by @jaredwhitney | Taken for the “Stand With Me” campaign aimed at ending child slavery – see standwithmemovie.com)
Instagram For Nonprofits
Instagram is an incredibly powerful way to reach your target audience in a personal and creative way while maximizing your potential to reach large groups. Here is everything you need to know to start engaging your supporters on this popular platform:
CONTENT
Nothing captures your audience’s attention better than a great photograph. Most users only look at a photo for a few seconds – so you need to keep them captivated long enough to engage with your message in the caption. The content can be specific to what your organization does or whatever or whoever inspires and influences your organization – however you want to engage your audience.
You don’t need to be professional photographer to begin gaining attention to your organization’s account, however, some photography and editing tips from YouTube or a one hour sit down with your photographer friend can go a long way. There are dozens of high quality photo editing apps for iPhone and Android phones that can leave your audience questioning whether or not you took the photo with professional equipment.
Some recommended photo editing apps: Snapseed, VSCO, Afterlight and Camera Plus.
ENGAGEMENT
It is important that any presence on Instagram is reactive – not just active. When someone leaves a comment or a valued member of the community gives a lot of “likes,” be sure to respond and acknowledge those users. Additionally, explore accounts and hashtags that are in line with you organizations values and interests. Each like and comment you leave behind eventually shows up in the feed of someone’s account. How sincere and intentional you are will determine how much engagement – and followings – you will reap in return.
EFFECTIVENESS
One of the best things an organization can do for enhancing it’s effectiveness with Instagram is researching the best times and events to post. Some hours of the day are much better for reaching your audience than others and varies from account to account. Iconosquare.com is one of the best ways to receive customized metrics for analyzing the best times of day to post, the most effective hashtags to use and discovering who’s who in your audience. Another is Klout.com which is insightful in measuring Instagram’s effectiveness in relation to other social media outlets being utilized by your organization.
