Post by haywoodss on Oct 2, 2014 11:19:39 GMT -5
While researching non-profit organizations, I came across the American Liver Association and analyzed its Instagram presence. In comparison to another non-profit I studied called Barnardo’s, and pretty much any other that I’ve seen classmates post about, the American Liver Association’s impact on social media is miniscule. Though social media strategist David Barton notes the challenges of finding a community online in an interview with Inspire, there’s really no excuse why a nationally recognized organization only has 187 followers and a total of 17 posts on Instagram.
“We realize that you can't cultivate a community overnight. It's important to reach the right people — after all, not everyone wants to see the liver regularly show up in their newsfeed. But we try to make it interesting, and with about 30 million people living with liver disease in this country, we have a huge audience to reach,” said Barton. The strategist goes on to say that graphics and pictures are the most effective when discussing health online, but the truth is this – there’s only one graphic on their entire Instagram account that gives followers any kind of insight on what their message is. In order to do a complete turnaround, something needs to happen fast to this portion of their social media branch.
First of all, they need to remove all photos that seem somewhat unprofessional in relation to their cause, which is about half of their posts. Once this occurs and there’s a change in marketing and photography, they need to start making daily posts that focus directly on who they are and why liver transplants are so important in the United States. These pictures must be clear and concise, letting audiences know immediately what they’re looking at when they click on images. This sort of daily consistency is a must, and despite having a social media button link on their actual website to their Instagram, they need to start cross posting on both Facebook and Twitter in order to breathe some sort of life into this account.
In addition to better pictures, they need to implement a hashtag campaign in the captions. An awareness walk in Phoenix earlier this year gained a lot of attention online through the success of people getting the word out, specifically through the American Liver Association’s hashtagged tweets. An underlying theme I discovered while researching the organization and watching videos of supporters and patients that received liver transplants is that liver disease is somewhat left in the shadows and considered a “not sexy” health concern to support. I think it would be incredibly easy to use that direct idea as a hashtag campaign on Instagram, somewhat poking fun at themselves while spreading awareness. An example of an Instagram caption could go something like this: “A healthy liver is a #sexyliver.” These new options will likely inspire more followers and essentially result in a more successful social media platform on Instagram.
“We realize that you can't cultivate a community overnight. It's important to reach the right people — after all, not everyone wants to see the liver regularly show up in their newsfeed. But we try to make it interesting, and with about 30 million people living with liver disease in this country, we have a huge audience to reach,” said Barton. The strategist goes on to say that graphics and pictures are the most effective when discussing health online, but the truth is this – there’s only one graphic on their entire Instagram account that gives followers any kind of insight on what their message is. In order to do a complete turnaround, something needs to happen fast to this portion of their social media branch.
First of all, they need to remove all photos that seem somewhat unprofessional in relation to their cause, which is about half of their posts. Once this occurs and there’s a change in marketing and photography, they need to start making daily posts that focus directly on who they are and why liver transplants are so important in the United States. These pictures must be clear and concise, letting audiences know immediately what they’re looking at when they click on images. This sort of daily consistency is a must, and despite having a social media button link on their actual website to their Instagram, they need to start cross posting on both Facebook and Twitter in order to breathe some sort of life into this account.
In addition to better pictures, they need to implement a hashtag campaign in the captions. An awareness walk in Phoenix earlier this year gained a lot of attention online through the success of people getting the word out, specifically through the American Liver Association’s hashtagged tweets. An underlying theme I discovered while researching the organization and watching videos of supporters and patients that received liver transplants is that liver disease is somewhat left in the shadows and considered a “not sexy” health concern to support. I think it would be incredibly easy to use that direct idea as a hashtag campaign on Instagram, somewhat poking fun at themselves while spreading awareness. An example of an Instagram caption could go something like this: “A healthy liver is a #sexyliver.” These new options will likely inspire more followers and essentially result in a more successful social media platform on Instagram.
