Instagram, a social media platform owned by Meta (Previously known as Facebook), allows picture and video sharing. With over 120 million users across the United States, it is one of the most influential platforms among Millennials, Gen Z, influencers, and celebrities. This alone makes Instagram an ideal social media platform for political campaigning.
Instagram as a Political Marketing Channel
Political parties and candidates can use Instagram free of cost to start a political campaign. However, you can buy ads and promote a political campaign by strategically targeting an audience. You can select the target audience based on demographics, including location, age, gender, interest, profession, etc. You’ll be able to search for the right target audience for your political campaign ads. The paid ads will appear on users’ accounts whether they follow your account or not.
Instagram can also help political campaigns spread the word and content through posts, short video messages, stories, and going live on Instagram TV (IGTV). Instagram can be a valuable political tool to help candidates and parties reach potential voters in their homes.
3 Benefits of Instagram for Political Campaign
Apart from targeted paid ads, here are three of the best benefits of using Instagram for political campaigns.
Tell Your Story
A picture can speak a thousand words, and that is what Instagram capitalizes on. Share your political journey with potential voters. Create a visual story with images and videos or go live on IGTV to share the events during your campaign. Instagram’s posting structure allows you to share your platform with your audience in a simple but memorable way.
By showing your supporters what you are doing for the community on a daily basis, you’ll be able to build your reputation, credibility and strike an emotional chord with the constituents.
Reach Younger Voters
Over 59% of the US Millennials are active users of Instagram. If they are your target audience, there’s nothing better than creating a presence on Instagram for your political campaign. Not only will you be able to share posts, but you’ll get to engage with your target demographic through comments. By directly responding to questions or concerns, you’ll create a one-on-one communication that makes your supporters feel like you care about them and their concerns.
Real-Time Engagement
By using social media, there’s no need to run from town to town to engage the public. You can sit in your office or at a single location and broadcast your town hall live across the city, state, or the country. You can run polls on Instagram to gauge the interaction and engagement of voters, and conduct political surveys to learn what voters expect from you and how likely they are to vote.
Keep in mind, social media depends on consistency, so be sure to post daily to build momentum and keep young audiences interested in your cause.
Instagram Features to Aid Political Campaigns
Here are four Instagram features that can help political parties and candidates run an impactful campaign.
Images
Images and visuals are the key to gaining attention and building a voice on Instagram. Use high quality images and take advantage of Instagram’s array of filters to make sure your photos stand out. You don’t want someone to scroll past your photo without noticing.
Post photos of events in your political journey and plan how you want to create and arrange a collage of images.
Insta Stories
Instagram also allows you to share pictures or videos as a story. You can add captions, emojis, and different effects/filters to ramp up its popularity. The story will be visible for the next 24 hours to ensure maximum viewership from existing and new followers. You also have the option to add it to your archive to save it for future use. Use this to highlight a fundraising event or any public event where you speak to voters and talk about your platform.
Live Streaming
Live Streaming is one of the most powerful social media tools of the modern era. Take advantage of this free streaming service to speak to voters and interact in real time. You can even add other people from your political campaign to a live streaming session and conduct a political debate for voters’ benefit and information. Your followers will receive a notification when you go live and they’ll be able to join with a single click.
IGTV
IGTV or Instagram TV is one of the most beneficial features to create trending video content for political campaigns. Create a video message or cover an event and upload it on Instagram. This is the modern alternative to running paid ads on TV. The only difference is that Instagram allows you to upload your political advertising on your profile free of charge.
You can leave as many video ads, speeches, and messages for your followers on your profile as you like. Ask your followers to share these ads within their network to maximize your reach and increase your followers.
Work with Top Political Campaign Solutions
If you are a political party or a candidate looking for digital solutions for political campaigns, Aristotle is here to help. Aristotle’s comprehensive Campaign Manager is a three-in-one product for compliance, fundraising and accounting reporting, streamlining your political campaign. With all your campaign data in one place, you can focus on marketing and advertizing your political campaign with ease.
