- By Write RN
Table of Contents
You started your dream business, and now you need to build your social media marketing strategy. But it’s tough, and one question comes to mind – how do you know who to target? According to a survey, there were 4.70 billion social media users by the start of July 2022, but only a few will take action on your offer. Or even worse, some people ignore your offer altogether because they have never heard of you before; therefore, strategy is important.
Social media marketing is not all content creation and sharing. It’s an extended strategy where you need to target people on social networks so that they see and get hooked by your message and then click on it. It will help introduce them to your products or services. The best part of knowing your target audience is not wasting time, money, and effort.
A clear understanding of your target audience is to focus your marketing efforts on interested people to convert them into clients.
Your target market is not “everyone.” Every aspect of your social media strategy will be influenced by your target audience, it is crucial to identify and understand your social media audience if you want to become an established brand in your niche.
Create appropriate content, messages, and advertisements using audience research. Higher conversion rates and improved social media ROI may result from these efforts.
If you are just starting or want to learn more about social media for your business, this guide is for you. Here I will explain how to target people on social media for your business and why you must do it correctly.
What Does Target Audience Mean?
Your target audience is the people who are most likely to buy from you or use your services. The more specific you can be when defining your target audience, the more likely it will be that you’ll get the right results.
They more than likely have some common characteristics, like demographics and behaviors.
And when developing your target audience definition, don’t be afraid to be specific. You’ll get the finer details if you do target audience research.
How to Target People on Social media
Finding your social media target audience is about narrowing your focus while expanding your reach.
1. Create your ideal customer avatar.
Before you can understand the needs and wants of your target audience, you need to know who they are.
- What age groups are you trying to reach?
- What is their location?
- What are their common interests?
- What is their spending pattern?
These kinds of questions will help you picture your ideal client. You can also compile the information from you’re existing clients and social media audience to have a solid view of your target audience, making it easier to find people.
2. Use social listening
There are several ways businesses can use social listening to target potential customers.
- They can monitor social media platforms for mentions of their product or service. This can help them identify people who may be interested in what they have to offer.
- Businesses can use social listening to track customer sentiment. It can help them identify issues and pain points that customers are experiencing.
- Businesses can also use social listening to improve their customer service. By monitoring social media, businesses can quickly identify and respond to customer complaints.
- Social listening can help businesses identify trends in customer behavior and uncover relevant keywords or hashtags they use. This information can be used to improve the overall customer experience and using them on your content can extend your reach.
Keep an eye on relevant hashtags and keywords through social listening to show what people are saying online about you and your competitors. This way you can gain valuable insights into your target audience to improve products or services.
3. Look through social channels
Do you have a clear view of the target audience and their interests? Then let’s start finding out where they are spending time on social media. Lucky for us, there are tools that we can use to get this information.
- Google Analytics – See which social networks appear in your referral traffic report by checking Google Analytics.
- Keyhole.co – Look for the relevant hashtags you found when doing social listening. And see Top Sites to figure out which social networks are often the referring domains.
- Hootsuite – In the search bar, type a combination of relevant keywords for your business. Take note of which authors, hashtags, and websites are that are popular for your search.
4. Analyze your social media analytics
You can create and run ads to target the right people with the right message, send them to an optimized landing page, and then measure how your campaigns work.
5. Find out what your target audience wants.
As a business owner, it’s important to understand what your target audience wants. Only then can you give them what they need and keep them coming back for more. There are a few ways to go about finding out what your target audience wants.
- Simply ask them. You can do this through surveys, polls, and questionnaires. You can also ask for feedback after they’ve made a purchase. This is a great way to get honest and direct feedback.
- Research your competition. See what they’re doing that’s working and what’s not. You can also look at industry trends to see what’s popular. This will give you a good idea of what direction to take your business in.
6. Observe your competitors
One of the simplest ways to target an audience is to look at your competitors on social media.
- Who is the target audience of your competitor?
- What are they posting?
- How frequently do they publish on social media platforms?
- Which posts are the most well-liked by their target audience?
You will be better able to pinpoint your target audience and increase your following if you gather some insight into how other businesses in your niche have grown their followings and engaged their audiences.
7. Tailor content for your target audience.
You need to create content that’s relevant to your audience. It’s not just about creating content that’s useful and informative; it’s also about creating content that resonates with your audience so they share it with their friends and followers.
It’s important to understand that social media marketing is not about “deploying content” and hoping for the best. Tailoring the content you share on social media is a great way to influence your audience and create a community around your brand.
Here are some tips on how to do it:
- Use eye-catching images
Images are a vital part of social media marketing, especially in this age of visual content. But remember to use images that are relevant to your topic.
- Use GIFs, emojis, and other visual elements
You can use GIFs and emojis to attract attention and drive engagement, but they don’t have to dominate your posts. You can use them sparingly to keep people engaged without overwhelming them with too many graphics in one post.
- Make sure your posts aren’t all sales pitches
Sales pitches are great but a bit bland for the target audience. Instead, create helpful, informative, and entertaining content to hold their attention.
Once you know how to do it effectively, capturing your target audience on social media isn’t necessarily difficult.
Ready to connect with your target audience? Build an effective marketing strategy and use it to great success with the help of our team. Get in touch with us today!
About the Author
Janine Kelbach, RNC-OB
Janine is a Registered Nurse since 2006, specializing in labor and delivery. She still works at the bedside, as needed. She built Write RN back in 2015 when she started as a freelance writer.
Over the years, and many clients later, she studied marketing, grew her marketing skills, her portfolio (over 200+ pieces), and her business to the agency it is today.