Social media has grown to be a central part of marketing for many businesses in recent years. It’s an affordable approach to marketing with a wide array of options. Businesses can utilize LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more to generate a relationship with their consumers. The main question is, how does a business or brand know where they fit into their customers’ lives on social media?

Define your social media target audience:

Social media marketing is an impactful tactic to connect with your audience. Because social media is used by nearly everyone, it’s important to narrow down who is most important for your business to target. This is also known as identifying your target audience. These are people you can connect with on a deeper and more personal level. The relationships you create will be the most impactful for your overall business success. They will be the most meaningful and long-lasting of relationships.

How do you find your audience?

Finding your audience is a critical step to building your image and reputation on social media. You want to use social media to market toward your target audience. However, the challenging step is the process of finding them. The process can be started by creating a buyer persona – an outline of the characteristics you think your buyers have. Using real data and market research can help build this persona. Next, you should discover where your audience spends their time online. Do they favor Facebook or Instagram? Youtube or Twitter? This knowledge will help you identify the most impactful platform. 

Don’t be afraid to look at your competitors:

Another way businesses can identify their audience and define their social media marketing activities is by considering their competitors. How does your competition use social media to effectively interact with their consumers? Look at your competitors’ followers to get an idea of who you want to market to. Use their successes and failures to build your own unique strategy to apply to your social media. 

Identify what your audience wants to see on social media:

Knowing what your audience likes to see on social media is one part of the marketing puzzle. If you are posting content that’s not meaningful to them, they will be less attentive to your brand and message. Consider what type of content your audience will relate to. Then, ask yourself what tone would be most appropriate to use to communicate with your followers. These should all tie back into your brand image and should be consistent with how you represent yourself across all platforms. 

Go to the source:

Your following on social media will be made up of your most loyal and engaged customers. Don’t shy away from gathering real data from your target audience. Ask for information, send out surveys and interact with them on a personal level. Take the time and care to define what your audience likes and dislikes. Cater your messaging to best suit their preferences. The most successful brands know what their customers want to see. They will adjust their content accordingly to match the preferences of their audience.

Stay consistent and active:

You have decided how you are going to present your brand on social media, where you are going to do it and who you are going to target. Now, you must create an atmosphere of consistency. Upkeep is important because social media marketing needs to stay relevant and recent. This is the final step to building and maintaining a relationship with your customers on social media. Let your audience know that they are still relevant. Create a long-lasting relationship with them. Let them know that your business is striving to continuously listen and improve to meet your customers’ needs. Whatever your business is, your customers want to see that you respect and value them. Overall, maintenance and consistency on your social media will enhance your audience’s relationship with your business.

Need help finding your target audience? Contact Burkhart to see how we can help you.