It’s a question that every business owner must ask: Who are my customers? If your answer is “whoever has money”, you are fooling yourself. Every single product or service has an intended audience, even if those who sell it do not want to believe it. As you begin to step into the social media world, this is something that must be thoroughly explored.
Figuring out just who your customers are, where they are, and what they want to see will help your social media marketing succeed.
For established businesses, you may know the people that buy your products. However, do you know what demographic they fit into? One technique we always promote to our clients at The Go! Agency is buyer profiles. Create fictional customers that fit your usual demographic. Give these “people” as much detail as possible. Start with one and see how far can you go. What is his or her age? Gender? Race? Beliefs? Income base? Geographic location? All of these ideas are very important when you begin to formulate a social media plan.
After you have created a few buyer profiles, you will have a better idea of who exactly you are trying to sell to. Details are key! This will guide you on how you should write out your posts, as well. Tone, references, and content should be molded to accommodate a specific niche audience. After all, you wouldn’t write the same social media post for Jesse Custer, a 33 year old conservative male truck driver who lives in rural Texas as you would for Maria Stark, a 50 year old female who runs a web company in Manhattan who tends to vote Democrat, would you? Even if you have a general hygeine product, you will at least be able to determine if you are targeting cost-conscientious families or wholesale purchasers.
After you figure out who your customer base is, you need to find them. Younger audiences currently gravitate towards Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Older internet users are sticking with Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter seems to find a home for many individuals. This will also help you further refine exactly what to share. Instagram, obviously, focuses on the visual. Facebook is a nice mix of both and tends to prefer native content. LinkedIn allows users to share articles easily.
So, if your answer to who your customer is “whoever has money”, you need to reassess your business with this exercise. Otherwise, you may struggle with social media marketing. In reality, your business as a whole will benefit from figuring out who exactly you are trying to target.
What other ways do you know of to pinpoint your audience? Share your thoughts!
