Instagram for Nonprofits: How the New Feed Works
An Instagram feed update in attempt to engage Instagram users will certainly affect Instagram for nonprofits as well.
The recent Instagram announcement showed they’re looking to keep up with the likes of Facebook, by showing the posts users want to see first. This replaces the former way of showing posts in chronological order. For each new post your nonprofit publishes, you’ll want to consider a few new aspects.
Why this update?
The previous Instagram feed showed posts based on what time they were published. The downside to this was users were seeing a lot of posts they didn’t care to see. On top of that they were missing posts they cared about because they had been published earlier when the user wasn’t logged in. Instagram started losing users because of this (TechCrunch).
How the new Instagram algorithm will work:
Now the algorithm is being set up so that the social platform will pull in posts based on users’ previous likes and interactions. A post with more likes/comments/interest will be pulled to the top of users’ feeds more often.
What this means for your nonprofit using Instagram:
In order for your nonprofit’s posts to show up in front of users, according to Christopher’s Pen, you’ll need…
a) High quality images: You’ll want to focus your social media time and budget on producing only the best images. Rather than posting as often as possible to stay in users’ feeds, you can now spend your time finding and editing engaging photos. If you have great images, it’s more likely users will interact with your posts, and you’ll show up at the top of feeds.
b) Specific and relevant tags: Instagram also uses your hashtags in its new algorithm. Only choose ones that are fitting, rather than spamming your posts with as many hashtags as possible (or with ironic hashtags users often use to be funny).
c) An understanding of users: Now that users will have a more personalized feed based on what they like, you need each of your posts to be more targeted so you can fit your ideal audiences’ preferences. Use our audience persona guide to more fully understand your users.
More on this post from TechCrunch and Christopher’s Penn. To receive help with your social media efforts, contact our team at ArcStone!
