As a not-for-profit (NFP) organisation, the ability to connect with your community in a meaningful way has a direct impact on your success and survival. Social media networks, such as Instagram, can help you to cast that proverbial wider net, and reach individuals that otherwise would have never discovered your cause.

Instagram is rapidly becoming the network to use when you want to share your most touching stories and memorable moments. This is because the network is designed to make it easy to convey thoughts, emotions, and news with pictures and other images rather than a lot of words. This format is perfect in a world of people who are increasingly mobile and busy.

While many Individuals and businesses use Instagram, you’ll need to tailor your approach if you want to share your mission with your community so that resonates and motivates current  and potential donors, volunteers, and others who might be interested in helping your charity, cause or other NFP reach its goals.

Try some of the following tips to get your NFP’s message across to those who share your vision and will want to help.

Designate an Instagram Account for Your NFP

If you already have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, you might be tempted to just start sharing images and posts about your NFP, but to maximise the effectiveness of the network, your NFP really needs its own account.  This way you won’t alienate your personal friends and family with posts that they aren’t interested in.

By creating a separate account, you’ll be able to easily customise the URL in the bio section of your NFP’s profile, so that it refers viewers back to specific pages for your NFP’s site, such as the landing or donations page.

Seek Clarity and Define Your Mission for Both Your NFP and its Instagram Account

When you are creating your NFP’s account, it’s really important to have a clear picture in your mind of what you want the account to accomplish. Are you trying to raise awareness about your cause, increase donations or find more willing volunteers?

Once you are clear on your mission, you will have a better understanding of what types of posts you should and should not share, as well as how to measure your success so that you can constantly refine and tweak your approach.

Post Content that Helps Others Understand and Connect with Your Mission

Once you’ve set up your account, and defined your mission, you are ready to start posting on Instagram.  Instagram allows users to post short videos that are up to 15 seconds long, as well as pictures with captions. Your captions can be short or as long as 2200 characters. In general, shorter captions will do better, but be certain that you include unique hashtags in your posts that relate to your NFP and its mission to make it easy for others to find and see your posts.

In our next post we will continue this topic and look at  some specific tips on how to use Instagram.