How are you using Instagram?
In a lot of countries, it’s the platform the #youth love – and it’s a beautiful medium for storytelling. But many organisations haven’t mastered the form yet.
If a lot of people in your country are using Instagram, you should be too.ย
While we’re still working out how to drive huge conversion from Insta, there’s no doubt
the platform is shaping culture. Every post is influential – and engagement is creative and community-minded.
Insta is a flexible platform, allowing you to craft values-led messages that speak to people simply and effectively. It’s also constantly innovating, and the creative flair of the Instagram community is a real potential resource for all of us. We’veย just got to get the hang of it.
Get started with Instagram by following these accounts
Some of the most exciting developments are happening using ‘stories’ – and we can’t embed those.
From the OPEN Network
- Colour Code, GetUp’s racial justice campaigning platform, is using Instagram for its goal of building a digital community of First Nations and migrant communities organising for change.
- MoveOn uses Insta to provide social commentary, campaign updates, and editorial perspectives on the news. They also have a sophisticated use of Stories, presenting their achievements and movement story in a really engaging format that’s easy to find and follow.
- GetUpย cross-posts most of their Facebook content to Instagram, and while they don’t have much native instaย content, they do use stories during peak campaign moments.
- Zazimย have just launched their Insta account, and are leading with bold graphics and quick videos.
- #aufstehnย are also using Stories really well, to organise longer campaign narratives and showcase actions
Outside the OPEN Network
- WaterAidย are using IGTV (Insta’s native long video platform) to tell stories really well
- AmnestyUK (and most national Amnesty orgs) know what’s up with stories
- Greenpeace Internationalย have over a million followers, and use both stories and IGTV beautifully
Now – what’s instaย good for?
Movement Building
Instagram is the easiest platform for sharing the stories of your members andย their achievements – and doing that will help others see that getting organised and taking action is something that regular people do.
Video storytelling
Instagram is a video-friendly platform, and perfect for short clips from campaign and community leaders, or videos from members themselves. And that’s not even mentioningย
IGTV,ย the newest platform innovation, which is ripe for experimentation – check out
this concept from WaterAid, and let us know if you start using it.
Building issue saliency & connecting with members
Emotional, creative and/or celebratory posts are easy to make – and whether they’re fun or devastating, they’re a powerful way to keep conversations going, and important issues front of mind.
