Back in 2021, Instagram hit around 2 billion users. Facebook has 2.91 billion users and TikTok is growing with around 1 billion current users. Inside socials, there’s a world of opportunity for businesses to identify their target audiences and grow.
You can use them for advertisement, feedback, or referral marketing tools to help your business grow.
Following this seven-step guide will enable you to find your social media target audience.
1. Identify
So first thing first, answering the question of who? Who are “they” and how are you going to find “them” through social media?
The best initial step you can take is to consider these important questions:
- Which age groups would you like to prioritize when selling your product?
- What does your target audience have in common?
- How do their interests divert?
- Would you like to target all genders or do you think your product appeals to one or more in particular?
- What is the income of your potential client base? Does your product appeal to wealthy or not-so-wealthy consumers?
- What do you want to make your target audience aware of? Is it a new product, your website, or the ecommerce platforms your business uses?
- Will you take an ethical stance and partner with NGOs or other non-profits?
After you have answered these questions it is then important to consider which form of social media you would like to prioritize.
2. Survey
A simple questionnaire sent through email will help with information gathering about the social media outlets your customers use.
If you’re a new business, go through the questions above first and then proceed with surveying.
So once you know who your target audience is, what comes next? Well, you need to decide which socials to prioritize.
Use Instagram to market to younger potential clients and Facebook for older generations.
Pew Research survey taken in 2012 94% of adolescents had a Facebook account. Now in 2022, in that same group, only 27% do.
Yes, that may still be a huge amount of people, but it’s clear that if you want to attract a younger target audience you need to focus on slightly more modern socials like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
3. Determine Your Size and Niche
It’s important to try to narrow down your target audience as much as possible when it comes to social media advertising.
For example, “email marketing” is a wide term that will have many other businesses using it in campaigns.
Advertising to a wide audience can be effective, but generally, targeting people specifically is seen to be more successful when it comes to ads and conversions. To do this, ensure you reduce ambiguous, generic language and look for terms relating to your business area which are particular.
Following these steps will help potential clients find you and vice versa.
4. Stay Connected
Once you have established who and how you must connect and stay connected with them.
Some tips and tricks to doing this effectively are:
- Use online personas which appeal to your potential clients. Make sure you pitch correctly to improve engagement.
- Regularity. Social media moves quickly and advertising algorithms will lower their favor for your business if you don’t upload frequently.
- One post of curated content per week
- Up to two promotions per week
- One piece of engaging content every day
- Interaction with customers.
Social media is a great tool to help you hear feedback from your target audience. Reflecting on how customers respond to your uploads can help you respond and alter how you approach them in the future accordingly.
5. Manage Your Content
Establishing the type of content your target audience wants to see can help greatly when it comes to what you upload.
Knowing influencers who can help market your product will benefit your business greatly. Using personalized videos for marketing and memes will also contribute to more engaging content if you want to target younger users.
For older generations, it can help to include clear information in an informative way. For example, using infographics is a great way to communicate details of your business and what they do in a simple, formal manner.
Whatever approach you use, ensure it is tailored to your audience’s interests.
6. Create a Content Plan
Content management systems can help you create content calendars and give clear views of your campaigns and the content which will fuel them. It will also produce data on how they were received and help you develop plans for the future.
If you’re a larger business, having a content plan means all of your social media contributors are on the same page when it comes to what your customers will see. It will clarify the type of posts you want to share and how you want to approach your target audience to benefit business growth.
7. Personalize Your Content
Personalization matters to customers. They’re quick to disengage with information that’s irrelevant to them.
All this comes down to is having a clear understanding of who you want to target and producing content that interests those groups of people.
Final Thought
In 2022 an estimated 6.64 billion people have a smartphone. It’s clear that social media is the future of mobile marketing but it doesn’t come without challenges. With the growing number of hand-held device users, it’s time to not only find your audience but best optimize the content that will speak directly to their hearts and minds.
You need to carefully consider who you want to target and the socials you want to use to generate more interest.
Vitally, having a very clear understanding of who you want to buy your product will help you when it comes to finding your social media target audience and using it to your businesses’ benefit.
