Do You Know Where Your Social Audience Is?

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For your social media investments to pay off, it’s not just about creating the right content; it’s about creating the right content for the right channels.

As a responsible brand steward, you’ll want to claim your profiles across all the major platforms, but that doesn’t mean you’ll want to invest in them all equally. Social media is not “one channel fits all.”

Answer these three questions to identify the best social channels for your brand.

1. Which channels does your target audience prefer?

To find out which social media channels your target customers like, it’s helpful to review your buyer personas. What are the basic demographics of your target audience? What are their age ranges, their gender, and their income level?

While everyone is on Facebook, other social platforms display clear demographic preferences, according to 2018 research by the Pew Research Center:

• Women dominate Pinterest, with nearly three times as many women using the platform than men.
• LinkedIn claims an outsized proportion of college graduates and affluents among its user base. Over 50% of LinkedIn’s user base has a college degree, and only 10% have a high school diploma or less.
• Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram are especially popular younger demographics, but there are differences even among adjacent generations. For instance, Snapchat use falls from 78% among 18 to 24-year-olds to 54% among 25 to 29-year-olds.  

Reflect on your current customer base and consider where they align demographically. Choose to invest in the platforms popular among their shared demographics.

2. Which channels are your competitors investing in?

For another indicator of where your social audience lives, take a look at the platforms where your competitors are shining.

To figure this out, set up social listening software and monitor your top competitors, or simply follow them on social media. Pay attention to which of their posts drive a higher engagement rate, and on which platforms. This will give you competitive insights into which platforms resonate best with your audience.

You can also look at how their website content performs on social media. Pop your competitor’s domain into a tool like Buzzsumo. This software reviews the blogs and articles on your site and ranks them according to their social media shares. Looking at some of our blogs here at Your Marketing People, you can see that our posts perform especially well with our Facebook fans.

Pro tip: Limit your research to just the competitors you actually admire, perhaps even with a bit of jealousy. The ones who are flailing on social media are not the ones you want to model yourself after.

3. What channels are relevant to your industry?

Your social audience isn’t limited to social media networks. They’re also following blogs and reading reviews.

Who are the movers and shakers in your industry? These are the influencers behind the popular blogs and viral videos. Connect with them and see if you can provide guest posts for their sites, participate in their online communities, and develop influencer marketing relationships with them.

Today’s consumers read an average of 7 online reviews before they decide to trust a business, a number that’s gone up in previous years. Engage with potential customers on the review sites they’re frequenting to learn information about you and your competitors. For local businesses, these review sites often include Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook.

Depending on your industry, however, you also probably need to be looking at niche review sites. Niche review sites are industry-specific. For instance, TripAdvisor and Hotels.com represent the hospitality industry, while Thumbtack and Angie’s List represent local service providers.

Bright Local has a comprehensive list of over 300 niche review sites spanning 30 industries. Take a look through the ones listed for your industry and see which ones are popular amongst your audience (in other words, the ones with a lot of reviews). Then, start collecting new reviews from your happy customers, and responding to the reviews you already have.

Find Your Audience

Just because you happen to like a channel, and are good at using it personally, does not mean it’s the right fit for your brand.

You need to focus your energy on the channels your audience prefers. You may even need to expand your in-house team by hiring the experts skilled in those particular channels.

That’s where Your Marketing People can help. Our team of social experts know what works best on each social platform, and we know how to drive results for businesses. Take a look at our social media marketing services and contact us to learn more.

Success is in the results.

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