Nonprofit Social Media: 6 Ways You Can Use Instagram to Further Your Mission
Reprinted with permission from FireSpring.org. Read the original article here.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to social media, you usually find that picture posted on Instagram with a filter and motivational quote. Although Instagram is still pretty new to the social networking world, it has already experienced exponential growth. With over 400 million users, Instagram is the largest mobile social network in the U.S. (Nonprofit Tech for Good). The platform encourages visual storytelling and brand marketing through audience engagement, creative intimacy, and emotional appeal. Users share personal photos and videos on their account, follow others and discover new trends by using #hashtags.
So, how can Instagram benefit your charitable cause? Well, Instagram is no longer just a millennial-centered app. It can actually reach out to audiences by promoting global engagement and encouraging cause awareness. For some ideas on how Instagram can further your nonprofit organization’s mission, check out these 6 useful tips.
1. Tell your story.
Instagram focuses on visual marketing, which makes it a useful outlet for your nonprofit group to tell its story. Why is your mission important? How are you impacting the world? Why should people care about your cause and donate to your nonprofit? These are questions Instagram helps answer. With a majority of its users aged 18–29 (Nonprofit Tech for Good), the social networking app has a highly engaged community for cause awareness and responds to images and videos that foster goodwill. This means your nonprofit can tell its story in a simple, impactful manner that followers easily receive.
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With Instagram, every post should tell about your nonprofit organization’s impact. Use captions to expand on any photos or videos in order to give readers the whole story and show how your efforts benefit the community. Post #ThrowbackThursday about your history, share pictures of involved volunteers and give testimonies of those your nonprofit helps. For example, take a look at how Feeding America uses Instagram to tell its own story.
