Why do we market businesses on social media?
There is quite an obvious answer; so that as many potential customers as possible can see our products and services, engage in posts, and buy. It’s a shopfront, the place where people see your products, and in much the same way that you would think long and hard about where your physical ‘shopfront’ might be, the same consideration needs to be taken over your social media audience. If you consider it on a physical level, would you open a designer boutique specialising in expensive one-off clothes in an area predominantly inhabited by students on low incomes? The obvious answer would be “no”. The business would do far better in an area where the residents have more disposable income.
The same can be said about social media. Defining the right target audience for your social media channels and tailoring the content to meet that audience’s needs can be game-changing. Getting it right means you can reach the right people and open up an audience of potential customers; getting it wrong means that whatever your message is will fall on deaf ears.
So, how do you ensure that you are using the right tool for the right job?
Know your Social Media Marketing platforms.
There are currently five major social media platforms, each of which has its own particular audience. For example, Facebook has 2.74billion monthly users, with the largest portion being 25–34-year-olds. Twitter (X), on the other hand, has 340 million users, with 80% of its global audience fitting in the under-50s bracket with interests in politics, pop culture, and sports. Three-quarters of Instagram’s users are under 34, and their top interests are travel, music, food, and drink. And then there’s TikTok, which despite starting out as a platform for silly dances and challenges, appears to be becoming a place for educational videos. You get the picture.
So, one of the most important things to consider is where your target audience is hanging out, how they use the platforms (are they doing posts, stories etc), and what content formats they interact with. When you consider that the average time a tweet lasts is 7 seconds and the limited window you have to create an impact on any platform, this understanding helps to make sure that your content is seen by the right people at the right time.
Do some research
There are two types of research that are going to aid any social media campaign. The first is researching what your competition is doing and where they are marketing. At this point, we should add that we aren’t saying copy them; they might not be advertising in the right places, but it’s a good idea to see what services they are offering and where.
The second key piece of research is employing social listening. Social listening is the monitoring of particular keywords and hashtags that may be connected to your business. Not only does it let you see what kind of interaction posts using those terms get, it can also help you to uncover other hashtags and terms that you wouldn’t have considered.
Target your message
Now you know which channels your audience is using, select products and services to feature on that channel that match the audience’s wants and needs. At the same time, you should also consider changing the tone of voice and language for each channel. So, for example, your tone on LinkedIn, where the biggest portion of the audience is aged 46-55 and where 50% of users have a degree or higher education, will be different to the tone you use on Instagram, where the audience is younger.
Think about where to place paid advertising as part of your Social Media Marketing Plan.
With paid advertising on social media, it’s even more important (and easy) to define your target audience. Not having the right audience set up will give a poor return on investment, but it’s extremely worthwhile if you get it right. Paid advertising allows you to be very specific about your audience, including factors such as age, skills, and location (in Twitter’s case, you can even target specific postcodes). Placing a paid advert on the right platform with the right content can be worth its weight in gold. However, be warned, getting it wrong can be a turn-off (most women over 40 aren’t interested in orthopaedic shoes, social media advertisers).
Speak to some experts.
Alternatively, you could just get some people who know what they’re talking about to do it for you. We’ll create the customer personas, do the research, set the tone, and create the content that will bring you more customers. All you need to do is contact us for a chat.
