Women’s World Banking is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic support and technical assistance to a global network of microfinance institutions and banks that offer credit and other financial services to low-income women in developing countries. Their goal is to build a more equal world and reach gender equality through the financial inclusion of women.
Media Cause partnered with Women’s World Banking to help manage their social media presence on Twitter and LinkedIn, providing regular social media strategy and guidance to grow their social media account.
Women’s World Banking has a goal that is shared by many people—increasing gender equality. Their focus on financial inclusion, however, can sometimes be very technical and appeal to a niche audience who understands financial terminology and acronyms, like “fintech” and “MSMEs”. A challenge for this client is reaching a broader audience who is interested in the overall goal of gender equality, and explaining—in engaging, social content—how financial inclusion can get us there. When we started working with this client, they had an existing audience that was well versed in their field, but it could sometimes feel like an echo chamber. Our challenge is to move beyond that and build Women’s World Banking’s brand as a thought leader in educating about the important work that they do.
We addressed this challenge by testing and implementing new Twitter strategies to pique the interest of a broader audience while educating on the work of financial inclusion and microfinance. Our shifts in strategy included data-driven changes to content and post formats and an emphasis on community management and interaction with others in the industry space.
Since some of the topics that Women’s World Banking posts about can be complex and niche to their industry, we explored new ways to translate concepts. Some of our top-performing posts were thought leadership posts that paired explainer graphics/images with concise and informative copy to help break down a complex topic. We also created posts that broke down reports by zooming into one part and providing bite-size and digestible information. Twitter is a scrolling platform where users are less inclined to click off and read a full report. Capturing concepts and findings in the copy and creative of the tweet was an effective way for followers to read the content and share it with their audience.
In our work with Women’s World Banking, our Twitter strategy gradually shifted from majority link + third party direct tweets toward a combined direct tweet + interaction strategy. We found success when posting equal parts direct tweets, equal parts quote tweets/retweets to boost interaction and conversation on the platform.
Leaning into community management also helped ensure that Women’s World Banking was engaged in industry conversations and interacting with higher-profile users in the space. One effective tactic for this strategy was leveraging Twitter Lists to keep track of influential people, conversations, and organizations in the field. Cross-promoting events from partner organizations and work from influential people in the industry through quote tweets also helped drive visibility and engagement.
As mentioned above, when Media Cause partnered with Women’s World Banking, our Twitter strategy was mostly posting links and third-party direct tweets. As we diversified our post types in order to foster more community management and engagement, we also shifted toward more creative content types by incorporating animated graphics and video. Although this type of content is a heavier lift, it allowed Women’s World Banking to educate in a more engaging way. Virtual events were an effective way to capture video content and clips of panels + experts to share on Twitter.
2021 is our year of action to reach financial equality.
Hear @unilever CEO @alanjope discuss how we can use digital financial inclusion to build a society that is more equitable and inclusive. pic.twitter.com/MWTD3YaiIU
— Women’s World Banking (@womensworldbnkg) March 9, 2021
