Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Instagram

Over the past several years, Instagram has transformed from a selfie and foodie prevalent social network to a storytelling platform nonprofits can maximize. According to our latest Nonprofit Social Media Benchmark Survey results, 44% of the over 500 nonprofits surveyed said that they’re active on Instagram.

Here are some tips, best practices, and things to avoid to help your nonprofit utilize Instagram to its max potential:

Answer these questions

• Set and keep your goal(s) in mind. Do you want to increase brand awareness or generate interest in memberships or donations?
• Who are we ultimately trying to reach? Is it current or potential donors, or is it someone else?
• What does your audience like most about your brand?
• Do you know of similar nonprofits that are successful on Instagram?
• What marketing strategies have worked in the past?

Do your research

• Research and use relevant hashtags before posting.
• Figure out the theme of this channel.
• Figure out the best days and/or time of day to post.

Create a content calendar

A content calendar is a great tool to help you post regularly on Instagram. Creating a social media content calendar can help you easily plan most posts out in advance.

Build a community

• Build a community on Instagram by following people who like or interact with your content.
• Search relevant or industry-specific hashtags and engage with posts and users.
• Get your audience to participate.

Incorporate storytelling

• Always use high quality, meaningful photos.
• Creating the appropriate caption to go with it is just as important.
• Include a good balance of fun, entertaining images and thought-provoking or serious ones.
• Incorporate more video when appropriate.

Monitor and pivot

• Track engagement through the number and quality of post likes and comments you receive.
• Track follower to following ratio.
• Test different hashtags or posting times to see if results differ.
• If something isn’t working, ditch it.