Which industries are using social media to address a female audience?

Content which engages a female audience is particularly important for industries where women are in the minority as employees, or overlooked as potential customers, but is relevant for all businesses. With more women than men likely to post content on social media sites such as Instagram, if your image, video or article is good enough to share, it will attract an even wider audience through recommendations.

BP often now uses its company magazine to provide the leading story on its website, and in September that was a discussion between its chief scientist, Angela Strank, and Rachel Fort, a recent chemistry graduate working for the company, on the challenge of keeping young people interested in science and technology.

With women outnumbered by men in energy companies (particularly in roles as senior as Strank’s) and in science and engineering subjects at school and university, BP has obviously thought carefully about creating and displaying this content so prominently.

Fiat created an ad for the Fiat 500 which looked as if it was made for sharing on social media, and succeeded – “The Motherhood”, a spoof gangster rap from a young mother covered in yoghurt and baby sick, made its target audience laugh and has attracted 4.5 million views on YouTube. It also stood out from the typical man-driving-a-beautiful-woman-through-an-appealing-landscape car ad.

Finally, a brand which has been addressing women for years came up with a very successful viral marketing campaign earlier this year by approaching its subject in a new way.  The #LikeAGirl campaign for P&G’s Always sanitary towel brand has gathered more than 48 million views on YouTube, and is intended to boost girls’ self-confidence around the time of puberty.

The company commissioned documentary maker Lauren Greenfield to film various adults being asked to “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl”, which they all do with predictable soppiness. A group of young girls is then asked to do the same, and they all run, jump and kick with athleticism and strength. The adults are then shown what the children did and asked if they want to perform their actions again which, shamefacedly, they do.

P&G have created interesting, shareable content by addressing body image, an issue which really concerns their female customers, young and old. There is no direct sales message for Always but viewers of the film are directed to the brand’s website to read more or to tweet their responses, the kind of engagement every brand is seeking.