INSTAGRAM || community engagement
We all know that social media is a useful tool for connecting with people around us, sharing the values of our organizations with others, and ultimately connecting with the community at large. The question is not, is social media valuable, the real question is…
“How do I use social media to connect with my neighbors and build community? “
The key is intention.
Content Strategy Worksheet
Write out your Instagram goal.
As you build a content strategy around posting, you must first identify the goal of your social media feed. What are you hoping to accomplish? Are you hoping to get people involved with your initiatives? Is your focus sharing community stories? What do you want the majority of your followers to see and know when they go to your page?
Your target audience.
Take a moment to think through who you are communicating with on this feed. For some people, it’s helpful to have an actual face/name of a resident in mind while you think through the questions below.
WHO is your main audience?
WHAT do you want them to know?
WHY is it important for them to know this?
What is of value to post
List out 5 different things that your people should expect to get from following your organization on Instagram. (Ex. events, values, ABCD, etc.)
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
Posting Schedule
According to who your community is and the values you want to communicate, what are your posting goals? List out the posting expectations. (ex. the goal of 4/week)
Invite people in
Now that you have established your goals, make decisions around what is important to post, and laid out the groundwork for your social media communication, it’s time to invite others in to help.
For more information on how to build a team to join you, check out the post on building a social media team.
Posting Tips!
Captions
Only post one of the 5 values. Rinse and repeat those five focuses. That makes your job easy and trains people on what to expect from you (helps with branding + trust).
Focus on engagement. When creating a caption, think about how to best engage with a person rather than just sharing info. End with a question. Share encouragement. Ask people to tag someone. Etc.
Clarity is kind. You have less than 3 sec to stop the scroll and get people to finish the caption they glanced at. Be clear on value. Be brief when possible.
Branding
Make it stand out
Marry a filter. Lightroom app makes it easy to choose a group of presets (often free or cheap) to use as consistent photo filters to create a visually consistent page.
People connect to people. As much as possible, use photos of people (preferably residents) to cultivate authenticity and build relationships.
Visual consistency is helpful. When you cannot share photos of people, tools like canva can help you create visuals that stay consistent with the organization's brand.