Information from this blog post was obtained from kontentino.com, inc.com, and sproutsocial.com
Do you find yourself struggling to reach new customers with marketing messages on social media? One of the toughest things to do in marketing is reach the people you want without wasting time and money on people who don’t fit your target audience and are unlikely customers. This becomes especially difficult across multiple social media platforms because each one is different and people consume each one differently.
The great thing about social media is that you don’t have to pay money to post, however, the content has to be just right to show up on consumers’ screens unless you pay for an advertisement. For example, If I was a marketing manager for a startup snowboard company, my target consumer would be young men living in areas where the sport is popular. I would want all of my social media posts to appear to that demographic so my posts should be tailored to fit the social media usage of that group. I wouldn’t want 60-year-old women living in Texas seeing my posts on Facebook unless it was completely organic. The Meta Business Suite offers a good advertising platform for Facebook and Instagram but can get expensive depending on how far you want your posts to be spread. In addition, there are other platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, and a few others that are very popular and require different tactics. Here are a few tips to help you reach your target audience more effectively on social media.
Collect and Analyze Data Over Your Target Market
Collecting data is the first step when developing a social media marketing strategy because it provides insights about who you are selling to or who you are trying to sell to. Some important data to pull is demographics such as the average age of your followers, sex, and where they live. With this data collected, you can put together a consumer profile about who it is that actually follows your accounts and buys your products. Thus, narrowing down your target market so you can make specific posts to appeal to that group. By setting up a business profile on all social media accounts, you can pull some very basic demographic data about your followers and some analytical data about the performance of your past social posts. If you are looking for more in-depth results there are some tools such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Hootsuite, and others that offer more in-depth analytics and social listening tools. Collecting data on the people who are already seeing your social media posts can help form a strategy on how to reach new people more effectively.
Use Effective Hashtags
One cheap and easy way to get people to see your social media posts is by putting the correct hashtags on the correct posts. Hashtags are like keywords and they help optimize your post making it more likely that your target audience will run across the post even if they do not already follow you. It is important that you pick the right hashtag for it to be effective. A common mistake that people make when creating hashtags is being too broad or general. According to Jared Atchison at Inc, Hashtags can also help you brand your business by using a specific hashtag that people associate with your brand. While it is important to use hashtags to optimize your social media content, you have to be careful about what hashtags you use, and how many you put in your post. Be sure that the hashtag doesn’t mean something inappropriate or stand for something that doesn’t align with your business's values. Always review them before posting! For example, if the electronic company LG meant to post something to Twitter with the hashtag #LG but got autocorrected into #LGB (“let’s go Brandon” ) they could face some serious backlash. In everything you do on social media, it is important to revise and edit before posting.
Understand the Platform
A big mistake that some businesses make is always posting the exact same content to each of their social media platforms. As I stated earlier, each platform is consumed differently and has its own identity and users. To increase your reach it is important to have a strong presence on all platforms. But if your target audience is more likely to use Instagram than any other platform, then it is important to have that be your bread and butter account that you focus more time and money on. It is important that you cater each post to the platform. For example, if I wanted to let people know about an oil change special taking place at a local dealership, my Facebook post might be a lot more in-depth with more detail than my Twitter post.
Don’t Be Afraid to Pay For Social Media Ads
Trying to boost your social media presence organically can be tough, which is why paying for ad space can be very effective. Most social media platforms, especially the main ones, all give your business the ability to pay for ads. The great thing about these is that you can target your audience much more effectively than just a regular post. One downside to the Meta business suite is that you can no longer target audiences based on age, but you can target based on location and other demographic information. According to Ola Kozielska from Kontentino, Facebook also offers lookalike audience ad targeting where you can select a consumer profile who you want to target and Facebook will target those people with similar profiles and interests. Depending on your marketing budget will determine how much ad space and reach you can buy. While your budget may be too small to pay for social media advertisements often, it is important to do every once in a while to expand your reach and create leads. It might just pay off in the long run.
Create Engaging Content
I know, I know, it sounds easier said than done, but the real trick to reaching your audience is to give them the content that they want! The best way to get your post shared and seen by the masses is to earn it with engaging content. Short videos such as Reels, Stories, and Tik Toks are becoming increasingly popular and are a good place to start when creating engaging and shareable content.
Find more Social Media Marketing Tips and Tricks and other helpful blogs on the SMMU.
Resources
Atchison, J. (2019, August 9). How to reach your target audience on social media more effectively. Inc.com. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/how-to-reach-your-target-audience-on-social-media-more-effectively.html
Barnhart, B. (2022, April 13). Building your social media marketing strategy for 2022. Sprout Social. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-marketing-strategy/
Kozielska, O. (2021, November 30). How to capture your target audience on social media: Kontentino. Kontentino Blog – Simplifying Social Media Approval Workflow. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.kontentino.com/blog/target-audience-on-social-media/
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