Yesterday Instagram announced that users now have the ability to tag any person or brand in their own photos. Instagram spent over a year building the new tagging and Photos Of You section.
The obvious advantage for nonprofit organizations that operate an Instagram account is that supporters can now tag your organization in their photos when they are participating in an event or volunteering on your behalf. TechCrunch provides great information on how the tagging will work and provides imagines and tutorials.
This leads to a larger question – how often are your supporters tagging your organization on any of their social media platforms? Any mention of your organization is positive, but getting volunteer to specifically tag your organization provides greater value and traffic to your social media accounts or website.
Below are four quick tips that will help your supporters tag your accounts when they mention your organization.
Smart social media handles – ensure that your social media handles are easy to use. It is best to avoid long handles, but don’t use internal acronyms when naming your social media accounts. These can confuse volunteers. Keep it simple and, when possible, keep it short.
Ask your volunteers to tag – talk to key volunteers who mention their involvement with your organization on a regular basis but aren’t tagging your accounts. They’ve already shown that they are committed to your cause. Ask their relationship manager to explain the additional value that it will create.
Provide sample content – when appropriate, you can provide your volunteers with sample content to share. For example, when Marfan Syndrome Awareness Month launched in February, the National Marfan Foundation provided volunteers sample Facebook and Twitter posts that included their handles and links to their website.
Thank people for their support – it is important to practice what you preach. When you thank volunteers on social media link to their name/handle so that they can be recognized by their peers.
These easy tips will help your organization ensure that your constituents are connecting to your accounts on a regular basis.
As it is Friday, below are more weekly links for your perusal. As always, check out our Tumblr for more links throughout the week.
- Google made news by launching a new app, One Today, which aims to connect donors to philanthropy through micro-donations. For more information we recommend checking out NPQ or HuffPost.
- There has been a lot of recent news and opinion pieces about how nonprofits are spending their money on overhead costs. The Guardian discusses recent data that investigates the relationship between spending on overhead/administration and an organization’s performance.
- Bloomberg Philanthropies has been a relatively silent supporter of a lot of work around New York. As the Chronicle of Philanthropy highlights, the organization finally released a website and giving priorities.
- We’ve provided advice in this space on how to avoid a social media crisis. What about a typo or minor error? PR Daily shares some advice on how to handle those situations.
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.