How to use Instagram for your charity

Social media has been rapidly growing over the past decade that it can be difficult at times to keep up with it, as a result many new mediums get deemed as just fads by overworked charity leaders.

Whilst it may be a changing landscape, social media is here to stay and it is an important vehicle for reaching those who should hear your message.

As leading experts in the online field for charities, we like to keep up-to-date with the latest trends, some are indeed fads but many online platforms can be incredibly beneficial for the charity as a whole. Those that we believe you could benefit from, we choose to highlight for your consideration, as to whether you regard it’s implementation beneficial to your individual vision.

Instagram is a visual social media platform, where users share photos with their follower groups. Visual platforms have seen a tremendous growth over the more established text based platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Whilst Twitter and Facebook are of course still top ranking platforms, even they have changed their formats and algorithms to allow for the rise in the popularity of visual content.

We are bombarded with advertising messages everyday, which is why visual communication has become so popular, as it is a fast way of getting a message across in a crowded space. With millions of app users across the world, Instagram can be a very effective social media tool to use for your charity.
Below are a couple of suggestions in the use of Instagram:

Consider your audience. Instagram has a primarily young user base, however many older groups are picking it up too, just as Facebook once started with younger generations and moved into accommodating a wider demographic. Create engaging content for all age groups but remember that the majority of Instagram followers will be young adults. This generation have been brought up with social media and they can easily spot something that is fake, Instagram’s popularity spread because of its unique nature to be authentic. Do not look to create picture perfect advertising on Instagram, use the platform instead to highlight real life and stories that make an impact.
Tell your story. Instagram launched their new Stories feature and within 2 months the feature claimed 100 million active users, daily! (out of their existing 600 million active monthly user base). Instagram’s Stories are a great way to share testimonials in a real and authentic way, short videos behind the scenes are also a good way to capture people’s attention. The unique incentive for Instagram users is that it is a way for followers to get closer to a particular brand or person that they are following, so the best way to capture interest and gain followers is to give them unique access to areas they otherwise wouldn’t have had. This could be a short insight into a current affair with a leader, a look behind the scenes of an event or an short encouraging story. Gives your followers the feeling of being involved in the action, right with you.
Involve the audience. The great thing about social media is that everyone can get involved, it is no longer about just one person, dictation turns into conversation, so remember that you are talking with and not to your followers. Ask questions, reply to comments, if something goes wrong or a mistake is made, be open about it. Your followers want to be and need to be involved with you in your journey, that is the beauty of social media, it opens the field so that we can work together. Ask your audience for their thoughts, social media is about being social, getting involved in the world around us and working together towards the same goal.

There are lots of ways that you can use Instagram, we hope that these give you some ideas but the best way to get ideas is to get onto the app yourself and just find out what people are doing, so head over to our tips section and find out how to get started.

Remember if you need any help or advice, our team always welcome your call or email. You can call us on 0121 651 1120 or you can email us on hello@chaityedit.co.uk