How to Capture Women’s Attention on Social Media

by Troy Dean | Apr 11, 2016

Who Run the World? Girls!

Did you know that 72% of all charitable contributions are made by individuals? Or that 64% of all donations are made by women?

Luckily for fundraisers, the vast majority of these same women are online. And, more than 77% are also on social media. Nice odds, right?

So, How Do You Capture Their Attention?

Go Where the Women Are

In a social media study conducted by the Pew Research Center in August 2015, the demographics of social media revealed the following: Women dominate Snapchat, Pinterest, and Facebook, and are the majority users on Instagram. It’s a pretty even split for YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Use Emotional Images

Women are attracted to things that elicit emotion. These emotions can be inspiring, heart-wrenching, jaw-dropping, despairing, etc. Whatever emotion you want them to feel, make sure you pair it with an eye-catching image. Here are some tips to help you pick the right image:

Be original—take your own photos and create your own graphics.
Make sure the image is high quality and in focus.
Crop out any distracting background features.
Make sure the image is sized appropriately for the social media platform.
Make sure the image aligns well with your brand.

Be Transparent

Don’t be cryptic. Give them the facts and state a clear call to action. Pair a handful of powerful statistics with a startling reality or bleak future, and offer a few ways for them to help. Here are some examples:

Share the post to raise awareness.
Follow the brand to stay involved.
Donate now to make an impact.

Give Women Something to Brag About

It’s no secret that both women and men have a competitive side, but let’s be honest…when it comes to social media, women like to share information, so why not give them something to brag about? Here are some ways your social media post can generate something to brag about:

Are you an organization that helps animals? Create a short quiz like “what’s your animal spirit?” with shareable results. Pair these results with a monetary value that can save this animal’s life with a ‘donate now’ button. I would totally take this quiz and donate money to save my animal spirit and then share my results on Facebook…and I can name five friends who would, too.
Are you an organization that provides medical care overseas? Create a short photo collage or video that compares the life of a child growing up in American suburbia to a child growing up in a third-world country. Pair these images with some compelling stats, a strong call to action, and an option to donate in honor of a child you know. I have no doubt that every mother on social media will want to donate in honor of their child. You could even auto-generate a message for the honoree stating that this donation was made in their honor.