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How to make a non profit instagram account


Instagram For Nonprofits: The Ultimate Guide

Some nonprofits seem to get thousands of likes and new followers on Instagram effortlessly. 

And while it may seem difficult to get the same results, it’s totally possible if you know what the important features to include are. 

If you’re struggling to get results (engagement, followers, and so on), or are simply starting from scratch, I’m going to show you the best Instagram strategies for nonprofits that I’ve seen. 

If you want to see success on Instagram, here’s everything you need to consider:

  • The Top 7 Instagram Best Practices for Nonprofits

  • Who to Target to Get the Most Likes

  • How to Make the Most of Hashtags

  • How to Schedule Your Posts

  • How to Get Your Fans and Followers More Involved

  • What’s the Deal With Instagram Stories?

  • The Secret to Success on Instagram

One quick note before we get started: I’m assuming that if you’re reading this post, you’ve already created an Instagram account. If not, go check out this guide on how to do so… and then come back! 

And if you want to learn how to use Instagram to better engage young members, check out our on-demand webinar with Amanda Myers, nonprofit research expert.

The Top 7 Instagram Best Practices for Nonprofits

If you’re only going to read one section in this post… make it this one. 

That’s because I’m going to quickly cover the top 7 most important things you should be doing on Instagram to make sure you’re able to see the most results.

Best of all, none of these will take you more than a few minutes each — so if you have your phone open, you can implement them all right now! 

1. Make a Business Profile

Here are a few of the advantages to choosing a Business profile over a Personal one:

 

  • You can add “Nonprofit” to your bio

  • You can have access to more advanced analytics, like number of impressions and reach

  • You can add a phone number, email and location, so it’s easy to get in contact with you

  • You can create Instagram ads

  • You can make a Donate button to add to stories (more on this later)

 

It’s simple to switch — just click on the gear icon in your bio and then Tap on the Switch to Business Profile option.  

2. Connect Instagram and Facebook

Once you’ve switched to a Business profile, you’ll be able to link your Instagram and Facebook pages. 

 

This is yet another advantage of a Business profile, because it means you can then run ads on both platforms simultaneously and see how they perform. 

You can also see who follows you on one platform and not the other, and ask them to add you on both. 

This way, if you’re sharing different content on each platform, they’ll stay updated no matter where you share. 

3. Include a Link in Your Bio

Sometimes the caption of a photo just isn’t quite enough to tell the story you want.  

And since you can’t click links in Instagram posts, the space in your bio to put a link is crucial to add more details and to get more engagement on the stories you’re sharing. 

By directing your followers to check out the link in your bio, they’ll be able to further engage with your content (and more will do so than if they had to copy and paste a link from your caption into their browser).  

In this example from Unicef, they’ve chosen to highlight a Youtube video related to a campaign they’re running. 

 

I’ve also seen some organizations use Linktree, an app that allows you to tap on one link that brings users to a choice of other links, as MoMa has done: 

 

This is great for situations in which you want to allow users to look at multiple pieces of content, or have multiple CTAs in your photos. 

4. See What Other Content Your Followers Like

To check it out, just go to your notifications, and swipe to the left. You’ll see a screen that looks like this: 

This can help you see what accounts might also engage with you, or see if there are other types of content you should be testing out. 

 

(You can see that I follow a lot of food accounts... so maybe this means I should be posting more food photos myself!)

5. Tag, Tag, Tag

Did you run an event with another organization? 

Do you have a sponsor you’d like to thank?

Or maybe a volunteer of the week?  

Tagging them in photos on Instagram will ensure they see your post, and can help you build connections (who doesn’t love a shout-out?).  

 

Plus, the more engagement you get, the more likely your post is to show up in users’ Feeds, meaning the more likely you are to get your work in front of more people. It's basically free marketing!

6. Make Use of the Donate Sticker

If you’re sharing an appeal on your Instagram, you might as well make it as easy as possible for your supporters to donate without even leaving the platform. 

That’s where adding a Donate Sticker to your Instagram Stories comes in. 

Verified nonprofits are able to create stickers, which their supporters will be able to add to their Stories in order to raise donations for them. 

Image source: Later 

 

To allow supporters to do this, you’ll need to have connected Instagram and Facebook, as well as having a Business profile as I mentioned above (just another reason why doing so is important!). 

 

If you’re interested in setting this up and want a full guide, click here.

7. Use Other Apps to Edit Photos. 

This isn’t a must-do, but many creators find that using only the Instagram native editing options just don’t quite cut it. 

Other photo editing apps offer much more flexibility — and different filters — so that when users are scrolling mindlessly through the app, they’ll recognize your profile. 

A few of my personal favourites are: 

  • VSCO
  • Lightroom
  • Snapseed
  • Instasize

Who to Target to Get the Most Likes

Once you have the basics set up, it’s time to decide: who are you hoping to target with your Instagram? 

You can only start creating content that will resonate with your audience once you know exactly who you’re hoping to engage.

This is crucial because if your audience doesn’t find your content relevant, they won’t take action. For example, a lower-income audience might not be as likely to donate to your charity or nonprofit, so to combat this you could create content to tell them that even the smallest contribution counts—or that sharing their time is equally as important.

The same goes for interests. 

Let’s say a large chunk of your audience is very interested in sports. In that case, they’re more likely to react to your content if it includes sports-related imagery.

To make sure you’re creating the right kind of content, try to build a few different audience personas. Each one should outline:

...and any other information about your target audience that will help you create content that resonates with them.

To put together these personas, start by talking to your current supporters. You could send out an informal poll asking them what kind of content they’d like to see from you, or just see which of your current social media posts have performed best. You can also check out their social media feeds, to see what kind of content they’re sharing and reacting to.

How to Make the Most of Hashtags

Instagram, like Twitter, is a hashtag-heavy platform, with many of its users searching for keywords and hashtags to find good content (or even following hashtags that they’re particularly interested in).  

If you use the right amount of the right hashtags in the right places, you can end up driving a lot of traffic to your account.

In this section, I’ll show you exactly how to do each of these things.

Where to Find Relevant Hashtags For Your Account: 

Many nonprofits end up including hashtags like #impact, #donations, or #nonprofit. Unfortunately, these hashtags are so generic, they end up having little to no impact. 

The way I’ve seen nonprofits find success with hashtags is to first learn what hashtags their target audience is already using.

For example, a writing association might include the hashtag #amwriting, which is widely used and searched for by aspiring writers.

To find your target audience on Instagram, simply type in some relevant search items into Instagram’s search and see what pops up. You’ll quickly discover common trends in hashtag usage, which can help you decide which ones to use for your account.

If you need help with finding the right hashtags, here's a list of every nonprofit hashtag, which is a great place to start.

One tool that can help you in your search for relevant hashtags is #tagdef, which will tell you what a specific hashtag is commonly used for.

If you're looking for a more comprehensive guide, you can check out this one by Hello Social. 

The Perfect Amount of Hashtags to Use

This a highly debated subject. 

Should you go for 30 hashtags per post, the maximum allowed? Or, should you keep things simple, and only include a couple of hashtags per post? 

The answer is somewhere in the middle; although there are no exact numbers (every account and every audience is different!), studies show it’s best to keep your hashtags between 5 and 10 per post. 

One of the recent studies I read from Agorapulse’s Social Media Lab, found that 8 hashtags generate the most engagement – but 6,7, and 9 hashtags generated close numbers to. 

The Best Place to Include Your Hashtags

Many nonprofits’ first instinct is to include hashtags in their posts’ captions.  

But, there’s another option that many find better success with. 

As marketing guru Neil Patel points out, using hashtags in your caption often clutters your description and call to action and can actually put people off. 

The better option is to put your hashtags in a comment, like Water for People does, a non-profit aiming to bring clean water all over the globe. Here’s an example of how this looks: 

View this post on Instagram

The town of Thagoni in Bolivia is so remote that national water programs never would have reached it. Most of the town had lost hope they would ever get water. But today, with your support, families in Thagoni can count on reliable drinking water.

A post shared by Water For People (@waterforpeople) on

The Best Way to Find Hashtag Success

From what I’ve seen, the nonprofits that continuously experiment with hashtags learn how to generate the most success from Instagram.  

One great way to experiment with hashtags is to keep a few different (but similar) hashtags on rotation to see how using them affects your results. 

Likewise, try different numbers of hashtags per post; you might reach more people and get more engagement if you use fewer or more than 8 hashtags.

If you’d like to experiment with more than just hashtags on your Instagram account, check out this list of 10 of the best Instagram tools to help you analyze your results and reach more people to greater success.

How to Schedule Your Posts

You don’t need to write and create each and every post months in advance, but putting together a content plan or social media calendar for your Instagram strategy helps in several ways especially if you're telling a story with your posts.

Firstly, when you plan your content in advance, you can make sure it’s the best it can be. You don’t have to scramble at the last minute to post something just because you have to, but rather you have the time to think of a great idea and put it into practice. You can also use your calendar to make sure that you’re creating a good variety of posts, instead of posting the same thing repeatedly and boring your audience.

Scheduling can also help your organization be more coordinated. If you have any specific donation or membership campaigns coming up, planning a calendar in advance will also help you ensure you’re properly promoting it, instead of publishing updates whenever you have a spare moment.

And finally, preparing your calendar in advance means you can schedule your Instagram updates using apps such as Tailwind or Hootsuite (or just preparing drafts in the app ahead of time) and save time during your busier days.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you’re starting to build your calendar:

  • How often will you post? There’s a ton of content being shared on Instagram every minute, so if you want your content to reach your audience, you’ll need to post new updates frequently — preferably several times daily.

  • What times will you post? Research shows that the best posting times for nonprofits are during weekdays in the afternoon. However, the best way to find what works for your nonprofit is to experiment. Post updates at different times to see how they affect your results, especially if you have a global audience.

What to Post to Maximize Success

Hashtags can help you get more traffic, but what you do with your Instagram posts determines if that traffic engages with your account and stays.

While there are many Instagram strategies for nonprofits to maximize engagement, the content you post is by far the most important.

In this section, I’ll cover three types of posts that always engage people well on Instagram.

IGers love quotes

"IGers" are what people who use Instagram are commonly referred to — and one thing they absolutely love are quotes.

Whether it’s something inspirational, something motivational, or simply something to put a smile on people’s faces, quotes get a lot of engagement.

Even better is when you can relate that particular quote to your cause.

TWLOHA, a nonprofit helping depressive and suicidal people, often uses quotes to inspire their audience. Here’s an example that got over 5,000 likes:

View this post on Instagram

Today is International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. In honor of his late sister, our friend and former TWLOHA intern, Billy Dwyer, shared his experience with losing a loved one to suicide. You can read “Carrying My Sister’s Story” at the link in our profile now. If you or someone you know is struggling, please visit our FIND HELP page at twloha.com/find-help. You are not alone.

A post shared by To Write Love on Her Arms. (@twloha) on

In fact, quotes for this nonprofit tend to be more successful for them in terms of likes and comments as opposed to image posts.

If your nonprofit hasn’t tried creating quotes for instagram yet, an app that makes it easy to do so is called ImageQuote.

Don’t be all about business, all the time

How well do you know your target audience? What are their likes and dislikes?

Sometimes, to get people’s attention and get them involved, it helps to post some fun content – just to help you reach more of your target audience and hopefully keep them around for longer, so that they get involved in your nonprofit.

Something fun can be a picture of a cute dog that someone brought to the office one day, candid shots of your team from around the office, or something you know your audience is interested in.

For example, DoSomething (the global movement for good) received over 1,000 likes (they usually get a few hundred), by posting this Stranger Things image.

View this post on Instagram

Buying snacks for tonight's #StrangerThings2 binge. ..

A post shared by DoSomething (@dosomething) on

 

While it was a bit of a risk, the post ended up connecting with fans of DoSomething on a deeper level, proving that sometimes letting your hair down can have a positive effect.

Behind the scenes pics and videos

Another way to attract people’s attention and get them to engage is to post more candid behind the scenes shots.

This can be anything from the prep you’re doing for a campaign, or your volunteers hard at work – whatever interesting is happening in the backstage, share it with your audience.

For example, PETA frequently teases their Instagram fans with upcoming campaigns and projects by showing a glimpse from behind the scenes, like they did with this Mena Suvari campaign, which received over 5,000 likes:

View this post on Instagram

We went behind the scenes with actress @mena13suvari for her new #PETA campaign 💞 Tap our Instagram Story for all the #BTS fun 🎥 #PETAlife

A post shared by PETA (@peta) on

 

If you’d like to do this too, simply ask a volunteer to snap a few pictures of their day at your event and then send them to you to post. 

And for more examples, take a look at CharityHowTo's post on visual storytelling for nonprofit Instagrams.

How to Get Your Fans and Followers More Involved

User generated content (UGC) can be an extremely effective form of spreading awareness of your nonprofit.

And best of all? You’re getting your most loyal fans involved as well.

The way it works is simple; first, create a branded hashtag for your campaign (try to keep it short, self-explanatory, and make sure it includes your nonprofits’ name), then ask your followers to take pictures using your branded hashtags and following your instructions on what images you want.

You can then feature the best pictures and videos on your account; and not only are you getting some awesome free content, but you’re also making a difference in spreading the word.

The reason why this is so effective is because people trust regular people more than they do brands, charities, nonprofits, and so on.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not selling anything per se; you’re still asking for money and support for your organization, so people are naturally reluctant to trust your intentions. 

But, if they see their friends supporting a nonprofit, wearing their branded clothes, and so on, it’s much more likely they’ll make a bigger impact than whatever you might post yourself.  

For example, the aforementioned TWLOHA created the #TWLOHAInTheWild hashtag and asked their fans and followers to take pictures of themselves wearing TWLOHA clothes.

View this post on Instagram

Want to be featured on our page? Take a snap of you or your friends in some TWLOHA gear and share it with us using the #TWLOHAInTheWild hashtag! This one’s from @kwynngp at the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Thanks, Kwynn! (📷 by @_ericgp)

A post shared by To Write Love on Her Arms. (@twloha) on

 

Like TWLOHA, feature the best images on your Instagram account and don’t forget to shout out the person who initially posted the image. 

Another similar example comes from NEDA (the National Eating Disorder Association) during their Halloween campaign.

At a time when people usually gorge themselves on treats, those who have eating disorders might find themselves alienated. NEDA, instead, found a way to boost morale and provide some much-needed motivation with their campaign. 

They simply asked their Instagram followers to share their costumes using the #NEDATreat hashtag with the promise that they’d re-gram (post) a few select entries. 

View this post on Instagram

Happy Halloween! Post a pic of your costume using #NEDAtreat! Remember: even if you aren't dressed up today, you are always a #recovery warrior! 🎃 #prorecovery #edwarrior #eatingdisorderrecovery

A post shared by NEDA (@neda) on

 

The response from their followers was fantastic (nearly 60 people participated) and provided a whole week’s worth of instagram posts for the nonprofit.

Another big plus of using UCG? 

Fans love being reposted by the accounts they follow, which could potentially turn them into better brand ambassadors for your nonprofit! 

What’s the Deal With Instagram Stories? 

Instagram Stories are a great way to share content instantly. 

 

Since they’re shared at the top of users’ feeds when they first open the app, they’re a great way to get more engagement — and since they disappear after 24 hours, you’re free to experiment with different content a lot more freely than you are with posts in your Feed. On top of that, stories can help engage younger audiences like millennials and Gen Z.

 

Plus, as I mentioned before, verified nonprofits can add a Donate button — what’s not to love? 

 

And you don’t just have to use static photos, either. 

 

Instagram Stories can include GIFs, polls, and many other stickers — as well as hashtags, tags, and locations like standard feed posts.  

 

This means it’s possible to engage even more with your followers than you can with normal posts. 

 

Here’s a great example from TED: 

Image credit: Whole Whale

 

And one final bonus: if you have more than ten thousand followers, you can include a link directly from your Instagram story with the “Swipe Up” function. 

 

This means you can direct users to your website or to content posted elsewhere . 

 

And considering 15%–25% of people swipe up on a link in branded Stories, if you have this feature available, you might as well use it! 

 

Read More: How Nonprofits Can Use Instagram Stories to Raise Awareness For Their Cause


Keep Stories Around A Little Longer With This Trick

 

Have you seen the line of circular photos beneath Instagram bios, just like the ones on DoSomething’s account? 

Those are Highlights — stories that have been saved and added, so that followers old and new can watch them past the original 24 hour timeline.  

 

There are a few ways you can use this space: 

  • They’re great to promote recurring events, so that your supporters can see what the last event looked like and be inspired to sign up for the next one. 

  • They’re also the perfect place to share updates on ongoing campaigns. That way, anyone who’s new to your Instagram account can easily tap into them and see everything that’s happened, all in one spot. 

  • Finally, they make it easy to save any videos or images that are evergreen and that you think supporters might want to refer back to or watch again. 


The Secret to Success on Instagram

While you can gain a lot of success from the strategies I covered in this post, and from following best practices like:

  • Post new content consistently to keep your audience engaged

  • Use hashtags strategically to reach a wider audience and gain more engagement on your posts

  • Diversify your content to keep followers interested and engaged

  • Post Stories as often as you can so that followers stay in the loop as well as scheduling them for maximum engagement

. ..the best advice I can give is to try not to obsess with the number of likes and followers your account has. 

If you want to grow a targeted, engaged following and community, quality over quantity wins every time. 

Stay true to your organization’s voice, and keep sharing the content that matters to you, and you’ll see genuine growth. 

If you'd like to see more examples of nonprofits crushing their Instagram strategies, check out this post by CommunityBoost.

And if you want to learn more about marketing your organization to young members on Instagram, please join our on-demand webinar with Amanda Myers, nonprofit research expert. 

This post was originally written by Lilach Bullock, content marketing expert, but has since been updated for comprehensiveness and to reflect changes in Instagram’s interface. 

Instagram for Nonprofits - The Master Checklist

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In NPM’s  “Top 5 Social Media Tips” article, creating an Instagram account was our #1 recommendation. Why Instagram?

The statistics speak for themselves! The platform has over 700 million users, and 200 million of those users visit at least one business profile per day. Continually growing, Instagram allows brands to interact with users in unique ways that generate engagement.

How do you make the most of this popular platform for your nonprofit? We’ll guide you through every step of creating and maintaining your account.

 

Table of Contents

  • Determine your nonprofit’s vision for the account as the first step in creating a successful profile. What is your organization hoping to accomplish? The answer to this question should drive the rest of the process.
  • Set measurable goals to continually track the progress of your account. You may decide on a certain amount of new followers or “likes” per week. Nonprofit Megaphone’s “Marketing Scorecard” article explains the importance of clear goals and how to reach them efficiently.
  • Decide who will run the account, whether that be one person or several. Users can toggle between business and personal accounts without logging out for easy access. Consider turning on push notifications on at least one device so that your nonprofit can quickly respond to comments and other engagements.
  • Remember your overall social media plan for other accounts. How will your Instagram account fit into this? Because Facebook and Twitter have a connected relationship to Instagram, you can integrate content between the platforms, bringing one post to three social media audiences. Don’t always use identical content for all platforms, though.
  • Consider your budget for ads since these are another way to gain viewers if your nonprofit has the budget available. You can create Instagram ads through Facebook and target them toward specific audiences.

 

  • Register as a business profile to allow your nonprofit access to special features, including a Contact button and Instagram Insights. Insights help you track who is interacting with your account and how they’re doing so. Best of all, switching your account to a business profile is free through your account settings once your profile is public and connected to a Facebook page.
  • Include a link in the bio, as this can generate additional traffic on your website and make it easy for followers to find out more about your work. Although the platform doesn’t enable hyperlinks in posts, mentioning the link in a caption (“See link in bio”) is a great way to direct viewers to where they can find more information.
  • Use your nonprofit’s logo for the profile photo because this image will appear on every post. Consistent use of this image is an opportunity to gain brand recognition from your followers.
  • Create a clear Instagram handle for your account in order to make it obvious to potential followers that it is your nonprofit. For example, Nonprofit Megaphone’s “@nonprofitmegaphone” removes any doubt our followers have found our company on the platform.
  • Notify Facebook and Twitter users of your Instagram account to bring in followers from these other platforms. Invite them to follow you on Instagram for additional content.
  • Include an Instagram icon on your website that links to your account. While you can bring Instagram followers to your website, you can also bring website visitors to your Instagram. Placing an Instagram icon on your website gives quick access to your photos to your site’s visitors.

 

  • Choose the best format for your particular message, whether that be pictures, videos, or a Boomerang. While engagement is 36% higher for photos than videos, posting both keeps your content interesting.
  • Use Boomerang to add variety to your account. Boomerang adds more interest than a traditional photo without the sound and time commitment of a video.
  • Post to your Story because this allows your nonprofit to post more often, but the content is only visible for 24 hours so that it doesn’t affect your brand’s long term image on the platform. An added bonus is that your profile photo will appear at the top of your followers’ feed until followers view the image or video, exposing them to your brand more often.
  • Use hashtags and reach larger audiences with your content. As of December 2017, users can now follow hashtags. This makes choosing relevant hashtags even more of an opportunity to gain viewers, especially if you begin to use particular hashtags consistently.
  • Hide hashtags to maximize the amount you can use. This may seem contradictory. However, while you want hashtags to register on your post, you can hide them to give your posts a cleaner look.
  • Take part in fundraising trends like #GivingTuesday to take advantage of trending hashtags and ask your followers to donate to your cause. This year, Giving Tuesday is on November 27, 2018, so you can begin brainstorming ways to promote your nonprofit on that day.
  • Tag a location in your post to boost engagement as well. While we often talk about hashtags, one study showed that using a geo-tag increases post engagement by 79%. You definitely want to bring that benefit to your profile.
  • Feature people in your pictures, as faces have been shown to increase post likes by 39%. Including people in your posts makes the post more personal, and you can also use this chance to tell a relevant story in the caption.

 

  • Respond promptly to comments on your pictures and videos. Beyond posts, direct communication through comments gives you more personal interaction with followers.
  • Follow your supporters’ accounts, and comment on their posts as well. In this way, your nonprofit can reach out to others on the platform.
  • Tag other accounts in your posts, both in the captions and in the photos themselves. If you tag a mentioned organization or follower in the picture, the post will appear on their profile in addition to yours, giving your content more coverage.
  • Thank your followers through posts. A picture provides a tangible result for donations, encouraging your followers to continue giving. We loved this example from charity:water.
  • Turn your tagged photos to “Manual” to receive a distinctive notification when your account is tagged in a post. Drawing your attention to these posts, this feature equips you to respond to followers who are reaching out to your nonprofit and looking to engage.
  • Use Story features to post unique, interactive content. When posting to your Story, your nonprofit can include different material than normal posts, like polls, links, and live content. In December 2017, Instagram also introduced Stories Highlights and Archives that remain on your profile longer and are additional ways to cultivate your nonprofit’s social media image.

 

  • Keep your account updated through consistent posts. Once you’ve created your account and begun posting, it’s crucial to continue to post regularly so that the content on your account doesn’t become outdated, and always represents your nonprofit at its best.
  • Track post times to discover which days and times reach more viewers. Recommended times vary, with some sites agreeing that weekdays at 5 p.m. is preferable. One way to discover the best time for engaging with your followers is to track which posts generate the most likes and comments for you.
  • Utilize Instagram Insights for more information regarding your followers and how they engage with your content. As mentioned above, Instagram Insights are free for business profiles to use.
  • Use Instagram’s free training courses or their business blog for further instruction on the platform. These resources will give you more ideas to boost engagement, and will keep you updated on the newest features.
  • Still looking for ideas? Follow other nonprofits to see which types of posts are performing well. Giving yourself a clear model can help your nonprofit begin the posting process, and as your account gains its own style, these accounts can still stimulate your own creativity. Check out this great article on “6 Nonprofits on Instagram” to get started.

 

Whether you’re just beginning your Instagram campaign or have been using the platform for awhile, keep these steps in mind to create and maintain content that engages! #success

Nonprofit Megaphone2021-09-03T19:49:08+00:00

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Instagram for Nonprofits: A Complete Guide

Instagram is a powerful marketing hub that works for brands, businesses and nonprofits.

Some non-profit organizations easily get thousands of likes and new followers on Instagram.

To be successful on Instagram, you need a well-defined strategy, an engaging visual style, a commitment from your employees to post consistently, and a deep knowledge of your target audience.

Whether you're struggling to achieve results (engagement, followers, etc.) or just starting from scratch, here are the best Instagram strategies for non-profits you can apply to get you started:

  1. -profile

Here are some of the benefits of choosing a business profile over a personal blog:

  • 0024
  • You can access more advanced analytics like impressions and reach
  • You can add a phone number, email address and location to make it easy to contact you
  • You can create ads on Instagram
  • You can do donate button to add to story (more on this later)

Important: Before switching to a business profile, you will need to create a Facebook page for your NGO.

Switching is very easy - just click on the "Edit" icon in your profile header, go to your public company information settings, and then click on "Switch to business account".

  1. Connect Instagram and Facebook

By going to your Business profile, you can link your Instagram and Facebook pages.

This is another benefit of having a business profile because it means you can run ads on both platforms at the same time and see how they perform.

You can also see who follows you on only one platform and ask them to add you on both.

So if you post different content on each platform, it will update no matter where you post it.

  1. Complete your profile As they say, they are greeted by clothes. It's the first thing people see when they find you, so highlight it.

    1. Include a link in your bio

    that you share.

    By directing your followers to follow the link in your profile header, you create a strategy for them to continue interacting with your content (much more convenient than if they had to copy and paste the link from your header into their browser) ).

    1. See what other content your followers like

      However, you can go to the pages of individuals and see who they are watching, what they are interested in and do some analytics.

      This will help you find new content ideas to test on your NGO's blog.

      1. Tags, tags, tags

      Did you organize the event with another organization?

      Do you have a sponsor you would like to thank?

      Or maybe Volunteer of the Week?

      Tag them in your Instagram photos to make sure they see your post and build a closer connection or collaboration.

      Also, the more engagement you get, the more likely your post is to appear in people's feeds, meaning you're more likely to get your work featured in front of more people. It's free marketing!

      1. Raise donations with Instagram ads

      You can determine how many people came to your site from ads and took the desired action.

      1. Use the "Donate" sticker

      Verified nonprofits can create stickers that their supporters can add to their stories to raise donations for them.

      To allow supporters to do this, you need to connect Instagram and Facebook, and have a business profile.

      1. Use different photo editing apps

      It's not a requirement, but many creators find using only the visual style of Instagram's editing options boring.

      Other photo editing applications offer much more flexibility and filters to help you create your own branded visual content.

      The best applications for processing photos:

      • VSCO
      • Lightroom
      • Snapseed

      on whom to get the largest likes and subscribers 9000 9000 9000 , it's time to decide: who will be your target audience for Instagram?

      You can only start creating content that will resonate with your audience if you know exactly who you are hoping to attract.

      This is very important because if your audience doesn't find your content relevant, they won't take any action. For example, a lower income audience is unlikely to be able to donate money to your charitable or non-profit organization. To avoid this, you can create content that emphasizes that even the smallest contribution matters.

      Let's say the majority of your audience is very interested in sports. In this case, they are more likely to respond to your content if it contains sports-related images.

      To make sure you're posting the right content, create images of a few of your potential followers. Outline each in the features according to the following criteria:

      • Age
      • Place of residence
      • Profession
      • Marital status
      • hobbies, hobbies

      ... and any other information about your target audience that will help you will help you create content that matches it.

      You can send out an informal survey to see what content they would like to see from you, or just to see which of your current social media posts have been the most popular.

      . Let's take a look at how they differ and help you choose.

      "Personal account" on Instagram

      Business Account on Instagram

      Author account

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      " Personal account" on Instagram

      Initially, Instagram appeared as a social network for sharing impressions through photos with friends and family. Everyone had the same personal account and functionality: users posted photos with descriptions, liked and commented on the posts of others. The platform gained popularity, the number of users grew every year, and gradually business representatives began to register accounts of their companies on Instagram for commercial purposes. They experienced a lot of inconvenience on the Personal account type:

      Inability for the user to contact the account owner from the application

      The phone number can only be specified in the "About Me" section or in the text of the post. Therefore, users, in order to contact the owner of the account, must first rewrite the number somewhere, then dial it on their smartphone. Uncomfortable.

      No statistics

      You can only watch the figure with the number of subscribers and thus track whether the account is growing or not. Content can only be judged by the number of likes.

      Inability to communicate with users
      tete-a-tete

      All communication with users takes place in comments or in instant messengers. Even if the user is interested in the product, and the price is not indicated in the text of the post, not everyone will bother with the correspondence of the number in order to find out the price.

      Lack of official promotion methods

      It was during the period when “Personal accounts” were the only ones that mass following and mass liking services flourished.

      In this regard, Instagram introduced "Business Accounts".

      "Business account" in Instagram

      No one predicted such popularity of this social network at the launch stage, and even more so that it would become one of the main channels of communication with users for many companies in the world. Benefits of a "Business Account" on Instagram:

      Statistics

      In Instagram itself, you can see how many subscribers interacted with the contacts section (called, looked at the address), find out the TOP publications, IGTV videos and stories by reach, see interactions with the publication (reach , likes, comments, etc. ). For those who have more than 100 subscribers, statistics are available for their analysis: the periods of the greatest activity of subscribers, gender, age and top locations.

      Instagram's internal statistics are cut down, you can get more data with the ability to download PDF reports in LiveDune. An analysis of these statistics will help you understand, for example, which hashtags bring more views and which posts do not reach your audience and, accordingly, they should be abandoned.

      Convenient communication with customers

      Subscribers do not have to rewrite a phone number somewhere to call. In the "Business Profile" they just need to click on the "Call" button under the profile header. Similarly, you can add a button with an address or email. Set up frequently asked questions and saved answers.

      Advertisement

      "Business profile" allows you to start promoting a post and stories directly in the Instagram app.

      Shopping Tags

      For the online store category, the function of adding Shopping Tags posts to photos is available. When you click on this tag, the name, a small description, the price of the product and a link to the site where you can buy it appear on the photo. All this information will be linked, and when clicked, the subscriber will be taken to your site, where they can make a purchase. Cool? But while this function is officially unavailable in Russia.

      “Author” account on Instagram

      Wishing to get statistics and run ads, not only commercial accounts, but also bloggers switched to “Business accounts”. Therefore, in 2019, Instagram introduced another type of account "Authors" specifically for bloggers.

      As soon as this type of account appeared, it had extended statistics on the growth of subscribers and small differences in functionality. Now all the functions and statistics of the "Author" account are similar to those of the Business account. The only difference is branded content tools.

      Auto-posting to LiveDune is not yet available for accounts of the “Author” type, so if you do not post branded content, it is better to give preference to the “Business account”. Switching from one type of account to another will not affect the feed algorithm and account reach, so you can switch to test both the “Author” and “Business accounts” and choose the one that suits you best.

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