March 8th is International Women's Day
International Women's Day is coming up on March 8th, and if your social media editorial team is still struggling to keep generating great content ideas, this one's basically a freebie – and a potentially valuable one at that!
So, let's instead focus on an important event that signifies goodwill to your followers, is easy to get behind, and easy to talk about!
Why is International Women's Day important for organizations?
It wasn't too long ago that business was business and social issues were a no-go. While the two may have always been intertwined in some ways, the prevailing wisdom for businesses everywhere was not to rock the boat. Get too political, and you'll lose customers. You'll damage your reputation. Boycotts.
You couldn't afford to take a stance.
As the years go by and companies and organizations around the planet grapple with these merging worlds of business, politics, and society, it is becoming clearer and clearer that social movements and corporate responsibility in terms of equality and environmentalism are at the forefront of consumers' buying habits and motivations.
The way a business conducts itself in the public eye, and the visibility and transparency that the Internet and social media have provided, have resulted in a dynamic shift in public perception.
Now, increasingly, you can't really afford not to take a stance.
Especially on social media.
Where are we going with this?
And really, is being supportive of women's rights and issues really a stance at all?
Stemming from the labor movements of the early 20th century in both Europe and North America, International Women's Day champions the professional, academic, and civil achievements, among others, of women and girls around the world and has been a key event in the fight for women's equality.
In fact, IWD is an official holiday in many countries, including China, Russia, and other nations in Central Asia, among others.
Made official by the United Nations, this celebration of womanhood is extremely popular on social media and is well worth any organization's recognition.
Each year features a different central theme.
This year, the United Nations' theme is "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality."
Women make up around half of the global workforce and have been taking an increasingly larger share of jobs in traditionally "male-dominated" fields. In fact, in social media management positions in the US, still by far the world leader in this digital marketing industry, 57.3% are held by women.
It's not just North America, either. facelift's users and even our own marketing team, suggest similar or even higher proportions of women to men in similar positions in Europe.
Why Create International Woman's Day content for social media?
International Women's Day is a great opportunity for businesses to create simple, straightforward, and highly engageable content that presents a positive company image. Social media generally leans progressive, and while men still hold a narrow lead in overall global social media usership, this isn't true everywhere or on all platforms.
In the United States and Europe in particular, women tend to lead the way in overall social media usage by a considerable margin, especially on more visual platforms such as Pinterest.
Here're some figures on women's usage:
These figures are now a couple of years old, but the trends haven't changed significantly. They indicate many things, but chief among them is, the importance of reaching women digitally has never been higher, and we're not talking about commercial or business motivations, either, but simply open and honest dialogue surrounding the things that people care about most.
Civil activities, including women's movements of all sorts, are driving the evolution of Internet culture with an ever-increasing participation rate and a voice that is becoming louder and stronger.
And social media is shaping global sentiment. For better or for worse, the spread of ideas and information is faster than ever, and businesses looking to become – and remain – part of the conversation must keep up.
This means taking an active role in discussions traditionally left to activist groups and politicians that really matter to people.
From a purely business perspective, participating in dialogue of this sort also comes with an increased opportunity for engagement! This means everything to expanding your pages and getting people talking about your business. Highly shareable, engaging content increases the likelihood of being noticed in general, and more sensitive topics that reach outside products and services are even more likely to cause a stir.
Sometimes, a stir is exactly what you want to cause. Just do it right!
What does "doing it right" mean?
Whether it's Women's Day, Black History Month, Pride Month or something funny like Star Wars Day (It's in May, it's awesome, it's always essential to get your facts straight and present them in a sensitive and educated manner.
This is generally true of anything you post on the Internet, because going viral for the wrong reasons is way too easy. This is part of why some businesses and organizations wouldn't touch anything that sounds even vaguely political with a 10-foot pole, and we get that. Phrase your posts incorrectly and you can sound indelicate, ignorant, or just stupid. Mess up your facts and confuse Klingons with Wookies, and you're going to invite ridicule.
Whether it's angry women or angry sci-fi fandoms, it's not a good look, so do your research beforehand and get your facts straight.
It also means that you need to avoid pandering!
Companies often get in trouble for things like this when their posts on social media feel disingenuous or overly promotional. Many industries that traditionally cater and advertise heavily to women, such as cosmetics and body care, fashion, and anything related to childcare, have huge opportunities to create uplifting content. If your only motivation for creating International Women's Day content is to cash in on the event, maybe skip it.
Promotional sales, giveaways, or other content like that aren't necessarily a great way to do things (though that doesn't mean you couldn't make them work at all). Pandering just makes it seem like your only goal is to capitalize on something sensitive and important to a lot of people, but that you don't really care.
Instead, send a message that empowers, educates, or shows genuine support for issues. People of all kinds love to see businesses that genuinely care about their well-being, not simply making their next sale.
What does this International Women's Day social media content look like?
Really, it can be as simple or complex as you like. Basic, friendly gestures that show your business cares about its employees, customers, families, and women in general, can often be sufficient, and are generally pretty safe and fast to make, but of course they make a smaller impact.
The right content for your organization or business is impossible for us to figure out for you, and your own team will have to decide what is feasible, sensible, or whether it's even worth it to participate at all, but here're a few ideas of what this content could look like.
- Issue a simple supportive sentence or quote accompanied by a tasteful image
- Highlight the human side of your business and talk about your own employees.
- Create issue awareness content featuring facts and statistics related to your industry
Grand gestures are riskier, more involved, and more time consuming, but fortune favors the bold – and so do social media analytics. If you're feeling controversial and don't mind standing out, these can include things like:
- Championing or sponsoring a specific cause or issue by running digital fundraisers or pledges
- Developing collaborative influencer campaigns with prominent figures
- Running a user generated content campaign such as photo or caption contests
A lot of this boils down to who your target audience is, what your product or service is, and perhaps where you're located.
That's not all that's coming in March!
In addition to International Women's Day on March 8th, there are other global events worth considering for your content editorial. The beginning of Spring itself is a noteworthy event that just about everyone can relate to, and you can't really go wrong here.
Otherwise, events include:
Pi Day, on March 14th. In the United States, the date format goes month/day/year. Thus, March 14th is written 3.14, resembling the mathematical concept of pi (π). In English it rhymes with pie, making this goofy homage to Euclidean geometry extra delicious. The Internet, and social media in particular, took this comedic "holiday" and ran with it, turning it into a minor event that may merit a small, fun nod in your editorial. This is some low-hanging fruit if you're a bakery! But, if you're marketing outside the US, you may need to explain the date thing.
There's also the Hindu holiday of Holi, which also begins on March 8th. Also known as the Festival of Color, or the Festival of Love, Holi celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Holi is observed primarily in India, Nepal, and by minority populations of Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as in diaspora communities around the world. The Festival of Color is certainly one of the most photogenic world holidays due to the custom of color fights wherein participants battle it out by tossing and smearing various vibrantly colored pigments at one another, which tend to descend into jovial rainbow melees, creating some iconic holiday imagery.
As with International Women's Day, however, be cautious when creating content around any religious events. When done right, these celebrations are perfect opportunities to drive engagement and grow your social media pages, but mistakes are to be avoided at all cost.
Conclusion
If your social media editorial needs a bit of bulking up in 2023, International Women's Day is an important date for many people around the world and serves as a great opportunity for your organization to send a message of positivity and support to billions of people.
And finally, helping your team keep its social media editorial organized and prepped well in advance is what we're all about. facelift now features a free two-week trial with zero commitment. With facelift, you can develop and plan your upcoming social media campaigns, create and schedule content in an editorial calendar, and manage your communities across all major social media platforms in one place.
