It’s no secret that social media marketing is among the top digital marketing methods available for businesses to utilise in 2023. That being said, there is a wrong and a right way to go about it. For example, you could put all of your efforts into crushing FB advertising, however, if the bulk of your target audience is spending their time
elsewhere, you won’t be half as successful as you could be.
With that in mind, how easy is it to determine which social media platforms your target audience are using? Read on and let’s find out more!
Step 1: Know your audience
The first and most important step of all is to know your audience. After all, how can you determine where your ideal customers are spending their time if indeed you have no idea who your ideal customers are?
So, how do you figure it out? Here are a few ways to determine your ideal target audience:
- Analyse your existing customer base: take a look at who already buys your products and engages with your services. How old are they? Where do they live? What are they most interested in? You can learn more by engaging on your existing socials or by distributing some customer surveys.
- Conduct expensive market research: conduct your own or look at existing, recent market research. This is an effective way to look for gaps in the market and find a way to differentiate your brand (or find a USP).
- Study your competitors: look at who your biggest competitors are and who they are engaging with. You can learn an awful lot about your audience through your rival companies and where they are investing much of their time and resources.
- Know who your audience isn’t: another effective way to identify your audience is to know precisely who your audience isn’t. What type of people would have zero interest in your products or services? This activity can be very helpful indeed with building your ideal buyer personas.
Step 2: Know your goals
Next you want to have a very clear idea with what you wish to achieve through your social media marketing. Naturally you want to make more money, but are you looking to achieve something specific? (e.g., greater brand visibility, more trust, or more qualified lead generation, etc.).
Pro tip: Don’t target multiple goals at once. If you wish to attract more qualified leads, focus all of your efforts into that. Simply put, think about what will get you to the ‘golden hill’ the fastest.
Step 3: Know the platforms
After that, you need to conduct extensive research into the various social media platforms available – including those you are currently active on and do not currently use.
It could be that your audience is active on the social platforms you already utilise – in which case you need to dial in your messaging and put together a content development strategy.
In any case, when conducting your platform research, think about audience size, fit, the content format, and your various advertising options.
Common sense also prevails in this regard. For example, it’s safe to assume that if your audience is Female aged between 16 and 24 – TikTok would be a pretty important place to start looking. Just as if your audience is men aged between 18 and 35 – Reddit and Facebook are worth a looksee.
BUT! Don’t rely on common sense alone. There are so many resources available at your fingertips, ready to be leveraged, like this article on 109 social media demographics marketers should know in 2023…
Once you’ve determined some of the key social media platforms that align with your goals, get busy with a content delivery plan. Just don’t forget the 80/20 rule when publishing content…
Conclusion
So, to recap, you should begin by knowing your audience. Conduct extensive market research and see where your brand fits into it all. Then, set out some goals and simplify things by focusing your efforts on one primary goal, and then finally use what you have learned to determine which platforms best align with your goals.
Of course, if you would prefer to save yourself an awful lot of time and effort, we recommend hiring social media advertising services and let the dedicated professionals take care of absolutely everything for you instead.
