Defining your target audience. Social media strategies perform best when the vision of the brand is clear and the posts can be highly targeted to your desired audience. While a lot of businesses may seem like they could be useful for people in all walks of life, there are a lot of factors that will dictate what type of person is actually likely to be interested in the offered products or services. This can include anything from the prices to the colours of the products to the location of the business.

Today, we’ll explain why it’s important to be specific about your target audience when using social media, and two approaches to take to understand who your target audience really is.

Why it’s important to get clear on your ideal audience

Social media platforms are a noisy place and users are constantly bombarded with information from different people and brands throughout the day. While a lot of companies attempt to appeal to everyone, this approach can backfire. By appealing to everyone a little bit, they fail to really “click” with the people that are actually likely to buy whatever they are selling. 

So, how can you stand out? By pinpointing the exact type of person that is not only able and likely to buy from you but who is excited to do it! Then you can work on curating content that really makes your ideal audience feel heard and understood.

There are two general routes you can take to define your target audience, a psychographic approach, our suggested choice, or a demographic approach.

Psychographic

Unlike demographics, the more typical approach to marketing, which relies on hard facts like level of education and income, psychographic studies more qualitative ideas, such as interests, values, and personalities. 

Today, demographics are far less telling of a person’s status than they once might have been. Age, for example, won’t typically dictate a person’s position in a company and more importantly, their income level. On the other hand, their favourite restaurant will suggest how much money they are willing to spend on luxury – an insight that is far more valuable than simple numbers that can tell us if the person has money, but not where they want to spend it. 

Suggested psychographic aspects to define:

There are hundreds of different psychographic segments that you can define. These are a few to get you started in the right direction. Try to define the type of person they are, what they’re doing on a daily basis and what they’re interested in. In each of these categories, there may also be more ways to segment it or get more specific. For example, when looking at outdoor vs indoor, be clear about what types of activities exactly. Maybe you know they are more outdoorsy – but does that mean they love to hike or that they love to spend time in the ocean?

• Extrovert vs. Introvert
• Budget vs. high-end lifestyle
• Busy vs. relaxed
• Outdoor vs. Indoor activities
• Fitness fanatic vs. couch potato

Demographics

Demographics could also be used to help decide a target audience and social media strategy. As mentioned, these may be less effective at targeting the type of person that will want to purchase from you. Nonetheless, there are still some beneficial measures that could be used to help define your social media strategy.

Suggested demographic aspects to define:

With demographics, you can also divide into countless different categories. Here are some that can be considered when you’re defining your target audience.

• age
• race
• family size
• education level
• Religion
• occupation
• ethnicity
• income
• gender

Combined Approach

For many companies, it helps to take a combined approach that takes into consideration certain demographic aspects but narrows them down even further by layering in the psychographic aspects. This can work amazing, as it helps to get as specific as possible so that your messaging and imagery can be very easy for your ideal audience to click with.

After you’ve picked your approach and narrowed down who your perfect audience is, it’s time to get posting with messages that immediately connect with your target customer!