Review of Literature

Introduction

Younger populations, like college students, are a new target demographic for expanding Down Syndrome Indiana’s reach. Other organizations locally have shown success in connecting with college students such as Riley Children’s Hospital for their Dance Marathons. Our research indicates that by putting out the right kind of content, such as photos and interactive content, and by sharing that content to a popular platform among younger generations like Instagram, more engagement from younger audiences can be built.

 

Using Emotional and Persuasive Appeals in Marketing

Experts suggest that emotional and persuasive appeals should be used in nonprofit marketing. In an analysis of the print ads put out by Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society, student Dominique N. A. Harrison in her thesis for her Master of Arts in Brand and Media Strategy, Harrison determines that emotional advertisements promote support of their cause through volunteering, fundraisers, and donations. "Based on the successes of cancer centers and cancer-related nonprofit organizations, it can be said that their marketing tactics and use of emotional appeals in their strategic communication have led to their success" (p. 16).

 

Emotional appeals can increase engagement and involvement with an organization. Meung-Guk Park explored the use of persuasive appeals in their dissertation for their Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School, Effective public service advertisements for Special Olympics organizations to attract prospective volunteers: An elaboration likelihood perspective.  "... the current study can help practitioners involved with Special Olympics understand the decision-making processes involved in donation and helping behavior. It can also help them develop effective advertising commercials (e.g., empathy evoked ads) to enhance individuals’ volunteer intentions" (p. 4).

 

Empathy is a persuasive emotion that triggers action, in the case of a nonprofit, in the form of donations or volunteering. Strong emotional and persuasive appeals in marketing can yield increased engagement, donations, or number of volunteers. 

 

Benefits of Instagram to Tell Stories

Experts suggest that storytelling on visual-oriented platforms like Instagram creates a positive impact on engagement.  According to Heejin Lim and Michelle Childs of the Department of Retail, Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Tennessee in their research paper Visual storytelling on Instagram: branded photo narrative and the role of telepresence, "Visual storytelling is an effective form of brand communication on Instagram because the platform is highly interactive and effectively facilitates a sense of telepresence" (p. 44). Lim and Childs find that Instagram is one of the best ways to immerse the target audience in a story or message through photos.

 

Instagram is also found to be one of the most effective platforms for increasing engagement. According to PR News in their article Nonprofits’ Engagement Drops 50% in Q1 ’18; PETA’s Instagram Growth 55%, they discovered that while engagement dropped on Facebook and Twitter, it grew. drastically on Instagram. "PETA garnered some 10 million consumer actions, a 21% drop from the previous year’s Q1 figure. Where it grew was on Instagram, where PETA posted 6% fewer pieces of content but grew consumer engagement 55%" (p. 1). PETA's social media growth is used as an example in this article and it demonstrates the decline of text-based social media platforms and the rise of visual-based social media platforms. Instagram provides organizations and businesses a platform to really show (visually) what their organization is about. 

 

Benefits of Marketing on Instagram Stories 

Incorporating Instagram stories in marketing strategies increase the audience met and improves customer attitude. 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 organizations have had success through the use of Instagram Stories because it is an effective way to engage the audience.

 

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. 

 

Increasing Credibility of Social Media Presence

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. Building on that idea, featured in the International Journal of Voluntary Non-profit Organizations, Kerstin Alfes, Amanda Shantz, and Catherine Baily have studied how to increase volunteer engagement.

 

They mention that “volunteers who identify with their voluntary employer’s vision and values are more satisfied and committed with their volunteering work” (2016, p. 601). The research claims that showing volunteers how their work is furthering the company’s vision increases engagement and supports those already involved. Both written works support the idea that credibility and transparency online can support an organization’s values which increases loyalty from both the people who are using the service and those who help make the service possible. 

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Best Ways to Increase Instagram Outreach & Interactions

With over 1 billion uses worldwide, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms today and is a great marketing tool. The Search Engine Journal (SEJ) which is run by marketing experts shared a study which found that Instagram carousels are the most engaging post type. “Carousels have an average engagement rate per post of 1.92%, compared to 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos” wrote Matt Southern, Lead News Writer at SEJ.

 

Carousels are posts with multiple slides of pictures and, or videos that allow accounts to share more material and better interact with their audience. Falcon.io, a platform that specializes in social media monitoring and analytics, also agrees and encourages the use of Instagram carousels because “Instagram video formats are an increasingly invaluable tool for targeting a selected audience.” Instagram is often seen as a platform for sharing pictures, but their video tools are great for increasing outreach and are often overlooked. These two experts agree that utilizing carousels is a great marketing method and including videos in those posts can take user engagement even farther.

 

Hashtags have grown in popularity over the years and are now used on a variety of social media platforms as they are a great way to reach a wider group. Later, an Instagram marketing platform, posted on their blog, "the right hashtags can put you in front of your target audience, even if they haven’t connected with you before" (Chacon, 2021). However, it is important to ensure that the hashtags being used are tailored specifically towards brand and target audience.

 

Jenn Chen, writer for Sprout Social, a top rated social media software company, agrees and expands on this point by saying, "The most general branded hashtags are often placed in the Instagram bio along with a call-to-action for using them" (Chen, 2021). This is a great way for accounts to get their name associated with events and actions while spreading awareness. Utilizing hashtags effectively is an excellent technique to increase outreach and help raise awareness.

 

Millennial's Donations Through Technology 

Millennials donate online through social media, websites, and messaging. In order to reach millennials, your information should focus on human rights, their benefits, personal connection, and a strong online presence. It is highly recommended that nonprofit organizations use online marketing when targeting millennials. 

 

Michael Jung, author of How to Attract Young Donors to Your Nonprofit Organization reported "23% donations increased in online giving compared to in 2017 compared to 15% in the previous year" (Jung, 2020).  Promoting your organization online is proven to increase the number of donations per year. Millennials' lives revolve around their phones due to constantly being on social media, websites, messages, etc.

 

The use of virtual technology and marketing is a way to increase funding and awareness for the organization. Jingjing Jiang, research analyst, discovered that "nine out of ten millennials have a smart phone in the United States. This accounts for 54% of online shopping" (Jiang, 2018). This statistic proves that millennials are likely to use their phone for shopping and relaying currency. Later stated on Pew Research Center, Emily Vogel states "86% of millennials say they use social media, compared with smaller shares among older generations"(Vogel, 2019). Millennials are extremely tech savvy and use this to their benefit. They continuously give money digitally and learn about different organizations online.

 

Using social media to market towards millennials has proven to be the most efficient method to promote and maintain organizations. The use of technology can vary in positive ways. Using resources such as technology will inevitably expand your company to millennials. 

 

Millennials are Known for Being "Change Makers " 

Millennials believe in activism, making a difference, and changing the world together. They are very vocal about their civil rights, equality, and fundraisers for awareness. Jean Case, the founder of Millennial Impact Project, states "Millennials exhibit social good in small acts they perform every day: making an impulsive point-of-sale donation, bidding in an online charity auction, getting their friends together for a bike ride for charity, purchasing a product that supports its indigenous maker or from a company that shares its profits to help fill a need" (Case,2019,p.6). These are all ways to include millennials and their peers.

 

Influencing group activities will increase the amount of participation and is a great way to reach millennials. They are driven to make a difference. They stand out by using their voice to participate in charity events to advocate for not only themselves but those who cannot advocate for themselves. "Millennials are willing to be active about issues that affect them directly... they engage on behalf of people who cannot speak for themselves. To a degree not seen in any previous generation, millennials see themselves in the shoes of others who don’t look like them, speak the same language, have the same education or come from the same background, perhaps because of their high level of diversity"(Case,2019,p.8).

 

Diversity brings the generation together as they share the common goal of changing society through volunteer work. Brigid Schulte, a publisher of The Washington Post continues to say "70 percent of millennials spent at least an hour volunteering their time to a cause they cared about, with more than one-third volunteering 11 hours or more"(Schulte, 2015 np). Millennials will continue to support their beliefs through time, money, and freedom of speech.

 

Conclusion

Our materials shared in the review of literature helped shape and inform our research and recommendations for Down Syndrome Indiana.