Every passing year Instagram is breaking its own records of the number of users and the number of photos being uploaded. At the last count, more than 70 million photos were being uploaded daily by the 75 million users, out of the more than 400 million monthly active users. With the financial might of Facebook now available to Instagram, these figures will only keep on rising, giving all organizations, including non-profits a unique opportunity to connect with communities that they serve as well as to acquire new supporters.
While Instagram has made photo-posting extremely simple and intuitive, often many non-profits are somewhat disappointed to learn that their efforts are apparently not paying off to the extent of their expectations, and efforts. There could be myriad reasons why followers are not been acquired or why they do not seem to have the level of engagement that should have existed. Some smart tips for non-profits on what mistakes to avoid:
Posting Poor Quality Photos:
The advent of digital photography, especially with camera phones, has enabled the new generation to keep clicking photos incessantly. However, this has led to a situation where even the most uninteresting of subjects are being photographed mindlessly. When these dull and boring images find their way onto social media platforms you can guess the effect they have on friends and followers. You should make it a point to only post photographs that have relevance and are of interest to your followers. Also, if you are going to lead the social media initiative with photographs, you might as well learn to how to make the photographs interesting.
The basis of good photography lies in the extent of details that you are able to capture so it is generally vital that you get as close as possible to the subject. Unless you are shooting with sophisticated camera equipment, making use of the zoom feature in the low end and typical camera phones can make the pictures grainy. Another good tip is to remember to take photographs that are natural and candid because posed photos look extremely artificial and can turn off your followers. There are also a number of free internet resources that you can use to edit your photographs so that they look better without any extraneous elements.
Not Tagging the Photographs:
Many non-profits are so taken by the importance of the photos that they neglect to tag them appropriately. However, not tagging your posted photos is akin to making them invisible because your followers can now never search for them even in case they are interested. So if a user has missed the opportunity to view a photo that you have posted, the chance of the user being able to revisit it is virtually gone forever. Apart from writing a crisp photo-caption, you should make it a point to tag the photographs with hashtags that are relevant and popular. You can use as many as you like, but it is generally accepted that seven is perhaps the ideal number. If you are finding it a problem to build your follower base, you can take help of services like instamacro.
Not Posting Regularly:
The key to having an active and meaningful presence on Instagram is posting photos very regularly, and with the sort of volumes that the platform is witnessing on a daily basis, you can very well guess that the shelf-life of posted photos is extremely limited. An average follower is so completely inundated with photographs that the window available for her to see your post is very short indeed. If your non-profit is extremely large and active then you can find adequately interesting photographs to post several times a day. However, at the very least you should make it a point to post daily, preferably selecting a time slot when your followers are most likely to see your posts. Think creatively about the issues that are relevant to both your organization and your followers, and you will find an interesting photo. In case you are badly stuck, it can help to repost an earlier photo under some pretext or the other to refresh the minds of your followers.
Author bio: Mary Childs helps non-profits attain better visibility on social media. She makes use of service providers like instamacro to get her clients followers and user-engagement that is genuine and relevant.