More Related Content
Similar to 24 Rules for Nonprofits on Instagram
Similar to 24 Rules for Nonprofits on Instagram (6)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
24 Rules for Nonprofits on Instagram
- 1. 24 Rules for Nonprofits on Instagram Nonprofit Institute: Newport News, VA @TheOtherFulton
- 2. @TheOtherFulton 1. Craft content 2. Build a following 3. Inspire action
- 9. And what are you going to get out of it? @TheOtherFulton
- 13. @TheOtherFulton
- 15. @TheOtherFulton
- 16. @TheOtherFulton
- 19. @TheOtherFulton
- 20. Let’s get you towards that goal... @TheOtherFulton
- 21. Start with the content @TheOtherFulton
- 22. @TheOtherFulton
- 23. @TheOtherFulton
- 24. @TheOtherFulton
- 25. @TheOtherFulton
- 27. Content should feel authentic Rule #1 @TheOtherFulton
- 28. @TheOtherFulton
- 29. @TheOtherFulton
- 30. @TheOtherFulton
- 31. @TheOtherFulton
- 32. @TheOtherFulton
- 35. Visuals first, text second Rule #2 @TheOtherFulton
- 36. @TheOtherFulton
- 37. @TheOtherFulton
- 38. Show who you’re helping Rule #3 @TheOtherFulton
- 39. @TheOtherFulton
- 40. @TheOtherFulton
- 41. @TheOtherFulton
- 42. @TheOtherFulton
- 43. Inform and inspire Rule #4 @TheOtherFulton
- 46. @TheOtherFulton
- 47. Show what’s behind the scenes Rule #5 @TheOtherFulton
- 48. @TheOtherFulton
- 50. Build a community Rule #6 @TheOtherFulton
- 51. @TheOtherFulton
- 52. @TheOtherFulton
- 53. @TheOtherFulton
- 54. @TheOtherFulton
- 55. Pay attention to the format Rule #7 @TheOtherFulton
- 56. @TheOtherFulton
- 57. @TheOtherFulton
- 58. @TheOtherFulton
- 59. @TheOtherFulton
- 60. 85% Facebook video is watched without sound
- 61. @TheOtherFulton
- 63. @TheOtherFulton
- 64. Try out new features Rule #8 @TheOtherFulton
- 65. @TheOtherFulton
- 66. 20% Increase in daily active users
- 67. @TheOtherFulton
- 68. @TheOtherFulton
- 69. Get a content scheduler Rule #9 @TheOtherFulton
- 72. @TheOtherFulton
- 74. People follow you for your content Rule #10 @TheOtherFulton
- 75. @TheOtherFulton
- 76. @TheOtherFulton
- 77. @TheOtherFulton
- 78. @TheOtherFulton
- 79. Use location tags Rule #11 @TheOtherFulton
- 80. @TheOtherFulton
- 81. @TheOtherFulton
- 82. 79% More engagement for posts with locations
- 83. Use the right hashtags Rule #12 @TheOtherFulton
- 84. @TheOtherFulton
- 85. @TheOtherFulton
- 86. @TheOtherFulton
- 87. @TheOtherFulton
- 88. Use analytics to optimize reach Rule #13 @TheOtherFulton
- 89. @TheOtherFulton
- 90. @TheOtherFulton
- 91. @TheOtherFulton
- 92. @TheOtherFulton
- 93. Invite people to share Rule #14 @TheOtherFulton
- 94. @TheOtherFulton
- 95. @TheOtherFulton
- 96. Go find your followers Rule #15 @TheOtherFulton
- 97. @TheOtherFulton
- 98. @TheOtherFulton
- 99. @TheOtherFulton
- 100. @TheOtherFulton
- 101. Give advertising a shot Rule #16 @TheOtherFulton
- 102. @TheOtherFulton
- 103. @TheOtherFulton
- 104. @TheOtherFulton
- 105. 11% Follower growth during ad campaigns
- 106. Connect with “Influencers” Rule #17 @TheOtherFulton
- 109. @TheOtherFulton February 2017 Influencer post 66% growth May 2017 Influencer post 50% growth August 2017 Influencer post 100% growth
- 110. @TheOtherFulton
- 111. @TheOtherFulton
- 112. @TheOtherFulton
- 113. @TheOtherFulton
- 114. @TheOtherFulton
- 116. Don’t abandon the content rules Rule #18 @TheOtherFulton
- 117. @TheOtherFulton
- 119. Start with the easy asks Rule #19 @TheOtherFulton
- 120. @TheOtherFulton
- 121. @TheOtherFulton
- 122. @TheOtherFulton
- 124. Link in bio, link in bio, link in bio Rule #20 @TheOtherFulton
- 125. @TheOtherFulton
- 126. @TheOtherFulton
- 127. @TheOtherFulton
- 128. @TheOtherFulton
- 129. @TheOtherFulton
- 130. @TheOtherFulton
- 131. Try ads here too Rule #21 @TheOtherFulton
- 132. @TheOtherFulton
- 134. @TheOtherFulton
- 135. @TheOtherFulton
- 136. Optimize for mobile Rule #23 @TheOtherFulton
- 137. @TheOtherFulton
- 138. @TheOtherFulton No scrolling required Inviting form (only one field) Finger-friendly button
- 139. Keep an eye on comments Rule #24 @TheOtherFulton
- 140. @TheOtherFulton
- 141. @TheOtherFulton
Editor's Notes
- -
- Here’s what we’ll cover today. Crafting effective content. Building a following. And how to get conversions.
- I’ll teach you the rules I learned helping my client, African Parks, grow their Instagram following.
- From 1,000 followers to 20,000 in one year.
- But first - let’s talk basics. What is Instagram?
- It’s visual storytelling. Every piece of content on Instagram is tied to a photo or video that should explain how your nonprofit is making the world a better place.
- It’s mobile. Assume all your users will be on their phone. Functionality is extremely limited on desktop. Also the app isn’t really designed for tablet.
- It’s young. 55% of adults under 30 are on Instagram. Consider this when thinking about connecting with your audiences Sources: Pew
- So why should you be on it?
- Are you expecting a sudden increase in donations or volunteers? Sources: http://time.com/money/4833875/ultra-wealthy-americans-millionaire-billionaire/
- If so, you’re going to be disappointed. Sources: http://www.mybligr.com/20-most-funniest-face-pictures-and-photos-try-not-to-laugh/baby-crying-sad-face-funny-image/
- Instagram is a relationship building tool. So - YES - you’re working to get more donations, but you’re playing the long game. Sources: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/6-reasons-grateful-friends
- For example, take my client. Here’s a breakdown of last year’s donation sources.
- This small red sliver is the number of donations that come directly from Instagram. I know it looks disappointing.
- But let’s consider the customer journey map. And all the touch points before someone really makes a commitment. Sources: https://rezolto.com/2018/01/30/dear-cxo-just-focus-costumer-journey/
- The bulk of your work on Instagram is right here. Before someone donates. Sources: https://rezolto.com/2018/01/30/dear-cxo-just-focus-costumer-journey/
- So although the number of donations that come directly from Instagram may feel small.
- Your instagram followers can be on your email list. Or come to you directly. Your users live multi-channel. So your relationship with them will likely be too.
- Your job on Instagram is to move them along the customer journey to get closer to your big digital goal of donations or volunteers or whatever. Sources: https://rezolto.com/2018/01/30/dear-cxo-just-focus-costumer-journey/
- So how do we make that happen?
- Content is the foundation of ALL your work on Instagram
- First you have the feed. It is presented based on engagement, not chronologically
- And the feed is made up of posts. They’re images or videos with text descriptions.
- Then there are stories They have their own feed
- This is Instagram’s answer to snapchat It’s a content series that lasts for only 24 hours so it’s a little more informal
- Stories are meant to be more than one thing: you mix photo and video to have a beginning, middle, and end
- So let’s get into the rules. Rule 1. Content should feel authentic.
- This means taking pictures on your phone is okay.
- It’s even expected with stories.
- You can show some personality and humor on Instagram.
- Instagram is fine for groups that don’t have great photography on file. You can actually crowdsource them from your supporters
- Location tags and hashtags - which we’ll touch on more later - are a great way to find these photos. When you find one, shoot the user a message to ask if you can share their image! And make sure you credit them in your post.
- Fun fact: user generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate Sources: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/
- Another way to be authentic is to do a take over - a day in the life.
- Rule #2 Instagram is visual storytelling. So the visual content is key.
- You can see as you scroll through the feed how prominent the photos are compared to captions This means your photo/video is what will catch the eye
- In your user feeds, captions cut off after two lines. Users have to click to see more. This is maybe 80 characters?
- Who are you helping?
- This is the core of your story as a nonprofit.
- Focusing on the individual you’re helping develops an emotional connection
- The more personal, the more of a connection you’ll see
- Use detail in your caption to take the story further
- Okay, so how do you build an emotional connection if you don’t have pictures of kids and dogs?
- Here’s an example from Southern Poverty Law Center that answers the “why” behind what they do - ending extremism and hate. You can see there is still a big focus on the individual
- TWLOHA is an organization help people struggling with depression find hope They also focused on the why.
- Even if you have great, obvious visuals there’s an opportunity to inform. I love this video from Alvin Ailey Dance Company that explains how to do key movements
- Use your content to show what’s really going on
- If you’re an arts organization, you can literally go behind the scenes
- I love when nonprofits cover their own events. Stories are especially effective here
- Rule 6 Don’t just build a relationship with your followers. Help them build a relationship with each other.
- You want to engage your supporters Here’s an example from the Pacific Crest Trail Association
- Where they ask a question - encouraging user to interact with you - and each other - in the comments.
- Take questions to the next level in stories by using polls. Imagine you’re hosting an event - you could ask your supporters to choose the music or a signature cocktail
- Another way to build community is to give your volunteers and supporters a shout out. Recognize them for their efforts and hard work.
- Rule 7 You have to think about where you’re putting your content and how people will interact with it.
- You can’t just slap the content you create for FB and Twitter on Insta… For example, default size for Instagram is square. And you could end up with cut off text
- Or if you try to keep the same dimensions you used on FB and Twitter, your images could come out small and make less of an impact in the feed
- On Instagram, you want to keep flyers to a minimum - it goes against the other content rules. But if you have to use them, make sure the dimensions work and you can actually read the text
- On Instagram, video should be able to stand on its own without sound. Like Facebook, it autoplays and you have to click to hear sound.
- Facebook and Instagram are different - obviously - but you can draw similar conclusions about how often video will be played without sound Sources: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/
- So maybe that means you need captions or some sort of text on your video.
- When it comes to description text, remember you’re on a mobile phone and no one wants to scroll forever. If you need a lot of text use whitepsace so it’s easy to read
- Stories have a pretty unique format, you move through episodes by tapping. You can play with that by building up or adding on in each episode
- If you want to try out new features, you need to keep the ap updated! I missed out on nice new story fonts for over a week
- Too many nonprofits aren’t exploring stories. They’re pretty new, but they’re growing
- Instagram saw a 20% increase in daily active STORY users between Q2 and Q4 last year Sources: https://simplymeasured.com/blog/use-instagram-stories-analytics/#sm.000aqq85k19epefuvrj120pyhbzmg
- Stories only last 24 hours. Do you want them to last longer? This is a new feature: highlight them on your profile view. You can actually string together episodes from different stories
- Products - this is a relatively new add on for posts. I’m not super familiar with it myself because I don’t have any clients who sell merchandise. But it allows you to tag products within your post and link to your own store.
- Get a tool that lets you schedule your content. What if you want to post on the weekend or after work?
- There are a couple out there, but schedugram is what I recommend. From our research, it’s the only one that actually posts directly to Instagram at the appointed time and allows you to post from a computer.
- Now that you know how to craft good content, how do you build a following?
- This is my client’s Instagram following over 2017 We went from about 1,000 followers to 20,000
- If we don’t have any major initiatives, we look for 2% growth each week. But you need to determine your own benchmark and keep working to beat it.
- Rule 10: Take a step back and look at the big picture. You need to think beyond the single post.
- When you look at your profile, how do your posts look? Do users know what you stand for?
- Remember that if someone mentions you in their post or story - which we’ll talk about more later - users will be directed to your profile. My client sees about 1,000 profile views a week. Each view is a potential follower.
- Here’s an example that could use some work. I look at this and I have no idea what this nonprofit’s story is - things are too general.
- Here’s an example where almost every post is an event flyer. If you’re only talking to an audience that knows you, maybe this works. But if you’re trying to reach new folks, you’re not developing the relationship.
- Use location tags
- These help people find you. Imagine you’re killing time at the empire state building. You start scrolling through Instagram and want to see what other people posted about the Empire State Building.
- With location tags, the more specific the better. Think small town or particular landmark.
- Bonus: Posts with a location see 79% more engagement Sources: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/
- Hashtags are another way to help people find you
- I like this example from Kiss the Ground - a group who strives to educate people on the importance of healthy soil
- They used hashtags that connect to their mission AND their target audience uses. Like “farmers market”
- You can also capitalize on trending hashtags
- Like Charity Water did for Small Business Saturday
- What hashtags should you always use? When is the best time to post? You won’t know until you look at the data
- Instagram does offer analytics. But it’s pretty limited - especially looking weeks or months back.
- Depending on your needs, a spreadsheet may be enough to understand what content variables changed your reach
- But maybe consider a third party tool like sprout social, simply measured, or hootsuite to take a deeper data dive
- Out of the box, Instagram analytics tells you when your users are online. And stories should be started just before your peak times.
- People trust referrals more than anything else. So invite your followers to invite their friends. Sources: https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/apac/docs/reports/2015/nielsen-global-trust-in-advertising-report-september-2015.pdf
- I want you to imagine this post with the caption “tag a friend who hates mondays”
- This is how the big meme accounts build their followings Bring this tactic in for your funny or entertaining posts
- Go follow the people you want to follow you
- These are my notifications
- I have never interacted with any of these accounts. But I did start following a popular Chihuahua account the day before
- Open up the account of an organization that’s pretty similar to you - a competitor Because you want to find people who will care about YOUR content.
- Click here to see their follower list. Start going through and following people. Or for a less obvious approach like a post of theirs. They will receive a notification when you do this. You’re building awareness.
- Technically, there are no follower ads, so it’s hard to measure direct return on investment. But you may want to try advertising.
- You can run ads through the Instagram ap
- Like this example of promoting your profile. This ad would optimize based on the number of people who click the red button. And the red button takes them to your profile view.
- But you can also run ads on Facebook. Like this one, which would optimize based on post engagement.
- We promoted a post like that and saw our growth rate go up from 2% to 11%
- Connecting with influencers is the most successful way we’ve gained followers.
- Here’s an example of a wildlife photographer talking about the value of the work we’re doing and mentioning our account
- It resulted in a 66% increase in followers
- In fact, every big bump is the direct result of an influencer posting about us. So how can you make this happen?
- Start with your existing partnerships People who you’re already connected to your mission. AND they have a sizable Instagram following.
- Whole Foods is a brand everyone recognizes. They partnered with two local nonprofits at an event and mentioned them in a post.
- Here’s a celebrity mentioning a nonprofit. If you’re already getting good press coverage, see if you can work in an instagram mention.
- But you don’t have to just look at big brands or celebrities! This dog account has 60,000 followers.
- Look at the klout scores of your followers. Anyone over 40% is a valuable influencers. Anyone over 70% is outstanding.
- Now that you’ve built a following, how do we connect to your goals?
- When you post a call to action, it should fit in with your other content
- This is a call to action that doesn’t feel out of place. Even if I’m not going to apply for the job, I can still get value - an emotion - out of it
- Here’s a post that takes me on a journey! Build to your call to action with stories
- Volunteering and donating are REAL commitments.
- So try calls to action that will move your followers along the user journey Sources: https://rezolto.com/2018/01/30/dear-cxo-just-focus-costumer-journey/
- Maybe ask them to check out some longer content - like a blog post
- But my favorite call to action on Instagram is an email sign up - whether it’s a simple join us, a pledge, or a petition
- And that is because I know emails are my largest source of donations
- Link in bio. I can not say it enough. This is specifically for posts - not stories
- Because you can not have clickable links in your posts
- But you can have links in your bio.
- So when you want users to go somewhere, put the link in your bio.
- And then on the post...
- You want it to say “link in bio”
- Remember that your followers could be seeing your post a few days after you post - so don’t change the link in bio every day
- If you really want to have a clearer call to action in your post, try ads
- You can see the link is right below the image. You can’t have whatever text you want. But you can have “sign up” or “donate now” You need to use Facebook’s advertising platform for this kind of ad.
- Stories are easier because you can reduce friction.
- Followers don’t have to go to a new screen - the call to action is a part of the format You can see that “see more” arrow at the bottom
- We’ve found that the closer the CTA is to the bottom of the screen, the better chance someone will swipe
- Remember that your users are looking at your Instagram on mobile. So when they go to the link, they’ll still be on mobile. You need a strong mobile experience to be successful.
- Charity Water is always one of our favorite web examples. They go beyond just making sure nothing is broken on mobile...
- There are little things you can do to take your mobile experience to the next level Like simplifying the form and having large links.
- Here’s our last rule.
- Sometimes users will ask YOU how they can help
- Make sure you tell them.
- And that’s it!
- A few minutes for questions?
- Okay - now it’s your turn. If I could have you do one thing different tomorrow morning, it would be try Instagram stories and do them well.