Brand awareness is vital in growing your organization. Building a strong, organic presence online that offers consistency and value to your audience will grow your impressions. But how do you know if you’re grabbing your viewer’s attention? Start with specifying a social media strategy, putting it into action, and assessing its effectiveness in achieving the desired goals for your organization.
Your audience wants to see more than just call to actions that ask for their donation. Begin to cultivate experiences for your supporters that keep them coming back for more.
While other social media platforms are important, today we will focus on how you can more effectively use Instagram to foster relationships and develop ongoing support for your organization!
Show Face(s) on your Page
Stay connected to your followers by showing the real people behind your organization on social media. Let your followers get to know you as you get to know them by talking on Instagram stories or sharing behind the scenes photos!
Wondering what to talk about? You could share a personal experience, teach them something related to your mission, or offer inspiration. This is your chance to be a storyteller, make direct connections, and increase retention of current supporters by allowing them an inside look at the face(s) behind the organization.
Leverage Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories help you to share your moments of the day and are a great way to practice putting a face to a platform. Showing people what you do behind-the-scenes increases their interest and return rate to your page. Using stickers or other interactive features also increases an Instagram Stories’ potential for engagement.
Instagram Stories is also a great place to share relevant content from other pages and provides the opportunity to connect with other accounts in a meaningful way!
Develop your Nonprofits Voice
Don’t be afraid to develop your organization’s writing voice. While there is a safe way to write a caption, it typically won’t get you very far on Instagram. Figure out what your organization’s voice is and what your audience resonates with and run with it!
Add Variety to your Call To Actions
A Call To Action (CTA) gives your supporters direction on what to do next. While you should always use a CTA with your posts, they should not always be asking for donations and they should not always require the follower to leave Instagram. For example, you could make a statement and tell your followers to “drop an emoji if you agree” or simply ask your followers to answer a question in the comments!
Get to Know your Nonprofit’s Audience
You can find some analytics on your audience if you look at your Instagram insights (only available if you are signed up with a business account ) but there are many more ways to get to know the people who follow you! For example, you could look at what pieces of content are getting the most engagement or ask your followers questions on IG stories (you have the option to use the poll, questions, or quiz stickers).
Engage with Other Accounts
Engaging with other accounts creates more visibility for your organization so start liking and commenting on posts from both your followers and accounts that are relevant to your mission and to your audience!
Use Hashtags on Your Posts
Hashtags are a great way for new supporters to find your page! We suggest only using hashtags relevant to the post. While finding hashtags that work for your content takes trial and error you can try mission-related hashtags, location based hashtags, and hashtags that are relevant to your audience.
Consider your Bio & Page Aesthetics
When a supporter visits your page the first thing they see is your IG bio and the general aesthetic of your page. When someone arrives at your page they should know exactly what you do from your bio and be able to somewhat deduce what you do from the photos shared.
One thing that is important to Instagram but much less important on other platforms is the overall aesthetic of your page. This is an extension of who your organization is and should reflect your brand while also speaking to your audience on the app! You can enhance your feed’s look by choosing a color palette, fonts, or filter that reflects your organization’s brand identity or “feel” and stay consistent with it throughout your posts!
