Charities in the UK are failing to engage social media users with visual content, according to the PR agency Aberfield Communications.
The company looked at the social media presences of 200 charities, discovering that 55% fail to maintain an active profile on two or more image and video-based social platforms, such as Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr. Of those surveyed, 18% lacked a presence completely.
The communications director at Aberfield, Phil Reed, said that the potential of videos and pictures to influence social media users and bring in donations has so far been ignored by many not-for-profits.
He said:
“Getting people to become active and committed supporters would arguably be more effective if the charities harnessed the power of images in social media, rather than just words.
“Text gets information across, but images are what bring the campaigns to life and drive real emotional engagement with supporters and volunteers.”
A report from one think tank showed that many charities need to revise their internet marketing strategies.
New Philanthropy Capital compiled a report that said the UK’s charity sector is missing out on an extra £665 million every year, simply because people are ill-informed about their aims and accomplishments.
While Aberfield did find that most charities (90%) maintained active presences on social media sites like Facebook, just one in five (22%) were regularly sharing visual content on their chosen social platforms.
The PR agency said charities should keep their video and image sharing as active as their written content.
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