3 Ways to Identify Your Social Media Target Audience

3 Ways to Identify Your Social Media Target Audience

There’s no way around it. Social Media Marketing is one of the most important ways to engage with customers. Your social media target audience includes current and future buyers who identify with your product or message.

Social Media trends change each year and so can the demographics and psychology of your audience. Before you can use social media marketing strategies to your advantage, you must know how to identify your social media target audience. The process is not as difficult as it sounds.

If your business has a clear and important offering, you can identify your target audience on all social media platforms. Soon you’ll be able to create meaningful content that will foster relationships and grow your following.

1. Create a Buyer Persona

You can identify your social media target audience by understanding your business’s current customers. Your customers’ demographics and behavior patterns will show you how they interact on different social media patterns and why.

Here’s an example on how to organize customer information from Sprout.

For example, our Buyer Persona includes the following:

• A company with 1-10 and 10-59 employees
• A company that doesn't have a marketing strategy implemented for their business
• A company that relies mostly on Outbound Marketing strategies i.e. cold call, cold email, print media distribution)
• A company that has less than 2,000 monthly website visitors
• A company with an annual revenue more than $200,000
• A company that doesn't have enough time or interest to implement an effective marketing strategy
• A company with a monthly budget of $3500

Once you’ve created your buyer persona you will know how to use social media marketing to your advantage. Pay special attention to image quality, tone of voice, posting frequency, and organic traffic.

2. Study Your Competitors

Competition analysis is a necessary component to business strategy and growth. You can identify your social media target audience by studying how your competitors engage with followers on social media.
Be sure to note the types of social media platforms your competitors are using. For example, if your competitors are appealing to baby boomers and older millennials then they will likely be on Facebook.

Even if you are trying to appeal to a younger audience, it’s important for every business to maintain a Facebook page. Facebook is a very useful platform for small businesses as it helps you discover new buyers through organic search and low cost paid marketing.

3. Get Feedback

 
If your current marketing plan isn’t working, then it might be time to reassess your social media target audience. One way to determine if your content is engaging or not, is to simply ask! Consider creating a customer survey that asks what type of content your customers tend to consume and where. The results may surprise you.
Be sure to incorporate this new information into your monthly social media calendar.

MSDS Entrepreneurs is a Houston-based digital marketing agency. We have one objective:  To make sure your company shows up whenever a customer searches for your products or services so you can get more sales. Learn more about inbound marketing and how we can help you get started today.