Instagram is an online social network that lets users take pictures and videos, tell stories, apply filters and captions to them, and share them on the platform. You can also share the content on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. Over 80 million images are shared everyday on Instagram and it’s a great visual platform for getting people engaged in your project.
How can Instagram help my cause?
Instagram is the perfect platform to share images that build your project’s identity and showcase your work visually, helping to create an affinity with followers and prospective supporters. Instagram is effective for fundraising as you can publish inspirational content to encourage user-generated content to widen reach (for example, photos of supporters raising money, before and after images, progress being made etc).
Find out how to connect people to your cause and build your community
Set up a business profile on Instagram
There are many perks to registering your account as a “business profile” on Instagram, including insights about followers and posts and promoting posts to drive business objectives. List yourself as a non-profit organisation so when someone comes across your profile, they’ll know right away that you have a social mission. You can add pertinent business information such as opening hours, a business address, and phone number.
Use hashtags to widen your reach
Instagram uses hashtags, with many of its users searching for keywords and hashtags to find good and relevant content. Some of the hashtags you use for your other social platforms might work here, like #Charity, #donations, #nonprofit or #AvivaCommunityFundUK. If you add hashtags to a post that's set to public, the post will be visible on the corresponding hashtag page.
Behind the scenes content
'Behind the scenes' images and videos work well, subtly reinforcing that there’s a human element behind every community group or project, no matter how large or small. It gives your followers access to things usually kept under wraps. Consider showcasing your good work by telling people how and where money is being spent. Instagram allows you to publish a ‘story’ which could work well if you’re holding an event and want people to experience in the moment content. You can even ‘go live’ and broadcast your story to your follows in real time.
Get people involved
Encouraging people to create their own content is another way to grow your presence on Instagam. User generated content can be powerful when you tap into it the right way. For instance, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust asks Instagram users to put lipstick on, smear it, take a selfie and post on Instagram with the hashtag #SmearForSmear to raise awareness of cervical smear tests.
