How to Identify Your Social Media Target Audience

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While you can sell to anyone on social media, it is far more efficient and cost effective to target a specific market — that is, to engage in social media targeting. This article is dedicated to assisting you in identifying and implementing the steps necessary to determine your target market.

  • Conduct Polls to Complement Persona Marketing Data
  • Utilize Social Media Audience-Building Tools
  • Make Use of Marketing Personas
  • Carry out Research on the Competitors
  • Leverage on Social Listening

Conduct Polls to Complement Persona Marketing Data

You probably have a mental image of your social media target demographic by now. But wait, social media audience analysis isn’t just about big data. You can also conduct surveys and polls to solicit feedback from current customers.

Include the survey in an email marketing campaign. In your email, ask them what kind of content they want on social media and which platforms they use frequently.

They should help you identify actual needs, gaps, and best social media platforms for business growth.

Utilize Social Media Audience-Building Tools

You can also use Google Analytics and Facebook or Instagram’s target audience insights tools to gather data.

You can use Google Analytics to discover existing customers’ preferred social media platforms and the content they seek, such as product demos or benefits.

Using native platform tools, you can create lookalike audiences using the first step data. This is useful for defining your Facebook ad target audience.

Make Use of Marketing Personas

To get started, analyze your social media audience. This activity has two parts: creating a social media persona based on an existing buyer persona.

Update your social media target market persona with data from your marketing, sales, and support teams. Examine age, gender, education, and income. Include their issues and concerns. Analyze your customer list if you have it. Include details like spending power.

Incorporate persona marketing, but don’t decide if it’s a Facebook, Twitter, or other persona.

Carry out Research on the Competitors

Examine your competitors’ social media activity. Can you identify their social media buyer persona? What content is working for them?

This method is called competitor research and it allows you to compare social media to gain insight or inspiration. It allows you to observe when and why your competitors are engaging with their social media target market. And it enables you to find new ideas for your strategy.

The steps to identify your target market are flexible, so you can perform social media audience analysis in any order. Experts in social media marketing say the process never peaks. You must revisit the steps periodically to keep your marketing personas and strategy current.

With sufficient resources, you can apply such an approach to achieve sustainability and longevity. Otherwise, a social media marketing firm can help you identify your target market.

Leverage on Social Listening

Now it’s time to put theory into practice by using social media. Listen to your target demographic to build a more detailed social media persona.

Also, learn the nuances of each social network. For example, brand conversations around hashtags and trending topics are part of Twitter social listening. However, comments, likes, and subscriptions provide information about a YouTube target audience. If you want to work with a social media marketing agency, find one that understands the nuances of your target platforms.

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