There is a Charity Connect post from last October asking about using Instagram for Charities. Lots of you gave your thoughts and advice. Whilst Facebook stutters (and suffers) from a variety of problems, the growth of Instagram (with Influencers seeming to be its sole issue) means people are looking at it being a 'must have'.

 

By writing 'must have' it could be Trustees, Supporters, any level of your management, your Volunteers who have started (or now are a chorus of people) saying 'We should be on it (Instagram)'.

 

Your local charities, your actual competition may have started an account or be saying that they will do so in 2019. You have no option - well actually you do because it will be more work and all the social media channels are littered with half baked 'presences', that are embarrassing antiques within days (and then result in you being told that they don't do your organisation's reputation any good so 'can you do something about it ...?').

 

1 Billion monthly users is the statistic that has created all this fuss BUT Instagram is an image (pictures and video) portal and it doesn't like you directing people away from its platform. Add to the 1 Billion that something called 'Stories' are the best thing since sliced bread is fine - bar that if your Instagram account doesn't have an audience, then your stories don't get seen (they disappear after 24 hrs). (That is unless you use 'Highlights' - more in a later post).

 

You can create a pretty static Instagram page (once that you don't post to too often) that can have value. Before giving you some links to advice and help about creating or developing an account, I'll make my own offer that if you want some ideas of what images you could use, please reply to this post with a brief description of your charity or group and I'll try to give you some ideas - and PLEASE anyone reading this who is an Instagram guru, do chip in with your expert advice - do include links to examples of pages people can look at (copy!).

 

Firstly, for the basics on Instagram and what to do (and all the other social media channels) take a look at this 2019 guide from a company called Sysomos. Its well written and pretty thorough. It does have all up-to-date 'the numbers' and step by step guides to how to chose where to be ... more work .....

 

For specific Instagram advice. here are some useful links:

 

There are many many guides to actually starting an Instagram account but this video is one I like

 

Coming up are links about using Instagram Stories which are probably only for those of you who already have an audience but this post includes advice about the basics of story telling. Its well worth a read to give you inspiration about choosing a core 9-12 images or videos that will always be there -

 

 

For more in-depth advice on 'Stories' from this link you can access a benchmark report on what stories work and why.

 

This is another highly detailed report on which stories produced the best engagement in 2018.

 

To actually create a story, this is a really useful (and free) template you can use.

 

A finally (for Instagram), this post is all about 'Vertical Video'. The visual impact of Instagram comes from the square format of the core pictures and videos you post. Stories are in 'Vertical Video format (think holding a mobile phone upright rather than so that it gives you a landscape image.

Its a four part course (free), all about how to make 'vertical video'. Its really well researched and written BUT please ignore the hype that this format (vertical rather than landscape) is the future. I'd reference where you used to get shoes mended (Cobblers) rather than upsetting the Charity Connect language filters. If you go through even the best accounts and look at what the top rated vloggers (video based bloggers) do, the format is really restrictive and hard to watch. Please don't make your core videos in this format, or invest too much in the vertical style. It just won't last ... in my professional opinion.

 

 

If you want to know what worked on Facebook in 2018, Buffer analysed 777 Million pages (yes all those noughts) and this is as definitive a look as you can probably find. Its a 15 minute read (minimum) and it needs to be used carefully BUT it can help.

 

Conversely (and this is about hype and 'duff' data - see below) this is another industry expert's take on why video may not be what you need for best Facebook engagement - and why words still really matter.

 

 

Our sector now has to add to 'Impact' words like attribution and the acronym ROI. Digital promised to be far more measurable than any other media but the Digital World's Watchdogs have started getting very cross about whether and how many metrics are actually accurate ... 

 

 

If you have a web site design (or redesign) project coming up, do take a look at this very in-depth look at using User Experience to make sure that it really will work -

 

But for those just trying to find a way to get rid of clutter, this is some advice about minimalism in web site design -- it really can work.

 

 

Hope these links are of use. I will try to reply to anyone asking for Instagram Ideas - and do so asap!