Post by landytd on Sept 30, 2014 14:00:08 GMT -5
In contrast to the massive size of The American Red Cross, the organization's Instagram presence is minimal when compared to Charity Water and other non-profits. It would seem that with the manpower behind the Red Cross and its global presence that they would be more engaged on the platform. As far as numbers of followers go, the Charity Water Instagram has over 226,000 followers while The American Red Cross is just below 10,000. Another surprise that may be contributing to its lack of success on Instagram is that unlike Charity Water they do not post on a daily basis. It is surprising that an organization as well known as the Red Cross would not have a multitude of high-quality pictures from different causes around the world covering relief efforts. The American Red Cross also fails to post quality campaign graphics and noticeably triple posts a similar campaign graphic that takes up space of the already minimal engagement.
This is a major detriment to The American Red Cross's ability to communicate effectively through visuals which could draw more support and donations from the public. Another problem with the lack of engagement is the lack of reach to could-be followers. These followers could help magnify its ability to successfully run campaigns like it has on other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. After the previous successes of campaigns on other social media platforms they have not fully embraced the help that Instagram could provide. Posting on a daily basis for The American Red Cross should not be a difficult goal within itself and I'm sure donors and volunteers would like to see what they are doing to make a difference.
Besides having only 165 posts total, the content of the posts is also contributing to its lack of success on Instagram. Almost half of the posts focus on text based content such as campaign slogans or quotes. The lack of personal engagement given off by numerous text based posts does not make it interesting enough for people to want to follow.
According to Sales Force Marketing Cloud the Red Cross responds to over 70,000 disasters a year and uses social media to "listen" to what is going on in the world. I think it would still be extremely beneficial for The American Red Cross to engage more on Instagram rather than just listen. The sheer number of responses should yield enough for daily postings. Another article from Information Week in 2012 highlighted their digital command center and its success with Twitter and Facebook. It seems that they do have the manpower to engage the public via Instagram but either don't know how or have decided to overlook it even today. It shouldn't be difficult for The American Red Cross to engage more visually as soon as they realize that people would be interested in seeing the efforts and disaster responses we read and hear about regularly.
instagram.com/americanredcross
www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/blog/2013/08/red-cross-and-social-media/
www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/inside-red-cross-social-media-command-center/d/d-id/1103392?
This is a major detriment to The American Red Cross's ability to communicate effectively through visuals which could draw more support and donations from the public. Another problem with the lack of engagement is the lack of reach to could-be followers. These followers could help magnify its ability to successfully run campaigns like it has on other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. After the previous successes of campaigns on other social media platforms they have not fully embraced the help that Instagram could provide. Posting on a daily basis for The American Red Cross should not be a difficult goal within itself and I'm sure donors and volunteers would like to see what they are doing to make a difference.
Besides having only 165 posts total, the content of the posts is also contributing to its lack of success on Instagram. Almost half of the posts focus on text based content such as campaign slogans or quotes. The lack of personal engagement given off by numerous text based posts does not make it interesting enough for people to want to follow.
According to Sales Force Marketing Cloud the Red Cross responds to over 70,000 disasters a year and uses social media to "listen" to what is going on in the world. I think it would still be extremely beneficial for The American Red Cross to engage more on Instagram rather than just listen. The sheer number of responses should yield enough for daily postings. Another article from Information Week in 2012 highlighted their digital command center and its success with Twitter and Facebook. It seems that they do have the manpower to engage the public via Instagram but either don't know how or have decided to overlook it even today. It shouldn't be difficult for The American Red Cross to engage more visually as soon as they realize that people would be interested in seeing the efforts and disaster responses we read and hear about regularly.
instagram.com/americanredcross
www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/blog/2013/08/red-cross-and-social-media/
www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/inside-red-cross-social-media-command-center/d/d-id/1103392?