Recommendation: Build Credibility with Younger Audiences through Instagram Stories

Increase social media engagement with younger audiences through credibility. Having weekly or monthly “story takeovers” increases authenticity and highlights the main goal of the organization. Stories are highly interactive and can promote participation from their followers. This can also motivate volunteers or donors as they directly see whom they are supporting.

 

Increasing Instagram Outreach

Instagram has become an important marketing tool for many organizations. Instagram provides a variety of features that allow for a large range of content such as stories, carousel posts, hashtags, Instagram Live, IGTV, and Instagram ads. With over 1 billion uses worldwide, Instagram has become a staple in social media platforms. It is influential in the success of countless organizations and businesses by allowing them to instantly connect to their intended audience. 

 

The Set-Up of Instagram Stories Increase Engagement

Not only does Instagram attract a large number of users overall, but specifically Instagram Stories has over 500 million daily active Stories users worldwide. One reason why this feature of Instagram is so effective at engaging an audience is because of the story-telling aspect that draws an audience in. 

 

The Global Giving Team is a nonprofit organization that supports other nonprofits by connecting them to donors and companies. They have supported over 30,000 nonprofit projects and have helped raise more than $607 million since their start. From their experience they have collected marketing tips and claim that “by using the Instagram Stories feature to its full potential…It makes you want to know more. It makes you feel like part of its story” (2019). 

Other nonprofit organizations have had success through the use of Instagram Stories because it compels its audience to continue to watch and makes them feel connected to their message. Clicking through slides on Instagram Stories is like pages in a book and with each slide, the audience gets to know more and more. 

 

The Dynamic Features of Instagram Stories Improves Audience Attitude

Instagram Stories help organizations create unique content which improves audience attitudes towards them. This tool also makes it very easy for the user to edit content to be more eye-catching and interactive. 

 

Three Professors in the Department of Marketing and Market Research in Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, Daniel Belanche, Isabel Cenjor, and Alfredo Pérez-Rueda, agree that Instagram is an effective marketing tool, even more than Facebook. Their research “results confirm that the more dynamic social-media formats (i.e. Instagram Stories) enhance users’ attitudes toward an ad more than the more static formats” (2019, p. 16). 

The tools available to Instagram users allow them to create more dynamic content which is more appealing to users. Instagram stories can be used to not only reach a large number of people but improve customer attitudes and engage the audience. 

 

Some ways that DSI could use Instagram Stories include:

• Quick picture or video updates from events

• Short polls to get an insight into the preferences of your followers

• Easy reminders for upcoming dates or events

• Reemphasize and draw attention back to an earlier DSI post

• Story takeovers from staff or families to give insight into the organization 

 

IUPUI Dance Marathon does a great job of utilizing stories to provide information and show their events. Jagathon is their big event and they post updates to their story all throughout the night. They incorporate videos, pictures, and polls into their stories to increase interaction and make the viewers really feel like they are there experiencing Jagathon.

 

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Another feature of Instagram stories is the ability to make

them into a highlight which will be featured on your Instagram

page right underneath your bio. This makes it so the story

stays longer than 24 hours and anybody can watch the story

as many times as they would like. This is also a great way to

share information about your organization and make it easily

accessible for anybody who comes to your Instagram page.

IUPUI Dance Marathon uses highlights to show how to

register for their events,  share FAQs, and show each of their

events from past years. 

 

Story Takeovers Increase Credibility and Enhance Follower’s Perspective

The last suggestion of story takeovers from staff or families allows for more authenticity which will increase your credibility. Story takeovers would show the day in the life of certain staff members and their jobs in the organization or families who have been impacted by DSI. This can increase the family feel of your Instagram and show the people behind your organization. 

Marketing consultants claim that companies who take an authentic or unscripted approach to their digital marketing will increase consumer loyalty. Best-selling authors and professional marketing consultants, Stephen Denny and Paul Leinberger talk about how “reworking the brand to be unscripted and achieving “heroic credibility” by standing by their values” (2020, p. 82). They highlight that an effective way to gain trust is through transparency and vulnerability in an effort to show the customer their true values.

 

Local Survey Supports Instagram Stories 

In our local survey, we wanted to know exactly how IUPUI students prefer to use their social media. We asked IUPUI students which part of Instagram they are most likely to look at and over half of them answered Instagram Stories. Additionally, a majority of viewers would prefer to see pictures from the everyday life of the organization or of photos of helped families and individuals. 

People enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look into an organization and want to know who they are supporting. Instagram Stories would make it extremely easy to provide quick and authentic updates about what is going on at DSI. 

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