With over 1 billion active monthly users – half of them logging on daily – Instagram has evolved from a neat place to post filtered pictures of your breakfast to a powerful marketing tool. And while most of those active users live outside the U.S., the stats for the states are still pretty impressive.
In 2018, 71 percent of young adults (18 to 24) used Instagram, nearly double the number (37 percent) who used it in 2013. Teens have also embraced the visual marketing minefield of Instagram, with 72 percent of the adolescent crowd using it in 2018.
We could throw numbers at you all day.
I mean, we kind of want to. Statistics are fun and tweetable.
But instead of going into the nitty-gritty of things like where these people live (everywhere) and which posts get the most likes (ones with lots of negative space), we’re going to break down the reason these stats matter – specifically why you, a pregnancy resource center, need to be logged on and connected to Instagram.
You’ll reach more people (especially women).
In the U.S., 31 percent of Instagram users are female while 24 percent are male. It’s not a significant split, but it does give you more insight into who’s engaging the most. And while you might support fathers at your center, your target audience is, of course, women. It’s also likely young women, perhaps those without the resources or knowledge base to handle an unplanned pregnancy.
People under the age of 25 use Instagram for a little over half an hour each day. Given that our attention gets pulled into a million different directions every day, spending half an hour on any one social site means it must be particularly alluring.
Let’s do some quick math: Nearly a third of U.S. Instagram users are women. Young people spend half an hour every day scrolling through their feed.
Seems like an ideal scenario for reaching the exact audience you’re after, no?
And if you’re wondering if it’s really effective for a small or local organization like yours, we’ll give you the short answer: absolutely. Instagram posts with geotags (a tagged location) get 79 percent more engagement than nonspecific posts. No matter how small your town or population base, Instagram opens up a wider network for you to reach the people you’re trying to reach.
Sharing is caring.
Given Instagram’s massive and growing popularity, you likely have an account yourself. About 80 percent of Insta users follow at least one business. When you’re catching up on your feed for the day, which businesses do you look forward to hearing from? Why?
Now, we know that your line of work is different.
You’re not trying to sell great shoes or hook people up with sweet software packages. You’re trying to support women when they need it most.
As a nonprofit, you have the added advantage of caring about your work and your clients, of serving a greater good in the lives of women.
Wear that advantage loud and proud on Instagram, where, per marketing guru Neil Patel, authenticity reigns supreme. Like most social media users, the Instagram audience is filled with people looking for a good story and a way to connect. That’s why lifestyle posts far outperform classic marketing imagery. When you share a real story, you get a real following.
And a real following leads to better engagement and increased trust in who you are as an organization.
That dusty SEO strategy needs an upgrade.
It’s 2019. Search engine optimization (SEO) is still a thing, but it’s not the same thing that it’s always been. New strategies exist for bringing in organic traffic. But more important, there are better, more effective ways to draw people in without wasting time, money, and energy on outdated tactics like keyword-stuffed blog posts or ad work.
Enter Instagram. Enter real life.
Neil Patel did an experiment a few years back to see how well he could boost his brand’s ranking on Google. Using some savvy Instagram hacks, he managed to bump the number of Google searches for his name by 71 percent. No SEO gimmicks. No tricks. Just a smart Insta strategy that used the social platform’s potential to his advantage.
Patel emphasizes the fact that Instagram is about real life, which means your posts should be about real life.
When you’re trying to reach women at a turning point – a very real, very critical point – in their lives, it’s essential not only to meet them where they are but to meet them on their terms. You’re more likely to draw in the kind of audience you need to reach when you’re posting real stories from real women.
All the cool (and not cool) kids are doing it.
Far be it from us to suggest jumping on a bandwagon just to jump on a bandwagon, but, well, you kind of need to. About 71 percent of U.S. businesses use Instagram, including Planned Parenthood, which has over 451,000 followers at the time of this writing. Those followers may not know what other options are out there for them or where else they might be able to turn to for advice or information.
Our point here is that there are lots of messages being sent over the visual airwaves, some good, some not. Your message – one of hope, compassion, truth, and support – needs to be out there, too. And we can help you get that message out.
Not sure where to get started? We can help with that, too. Contact us today and learn more about how social media and Instagram can help you grow!