5 Ways To Build The RIGHT Audience On Social Media
How can you grow the right audience if you don’t know who your right audience is?
Do you feel like you’re not attracting the right customers for your business? Maybe it’s time to narrow down WHO you want your audience to be. Who are you trying to attract? Who do you want buying your products/services?
Defining your target audience is something that I tend to preach a lot on. That’s because your marketing efforts stem from knowing who you are trying to market to - who your buyer persona is.
By creating a buyer persona, you’ll be able to attract the quality leads and customers who will be most likely to buy from you and become loyal customers.
Buyer Persona are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on data and research.
They help you
Focus your time on qualified prospects
Guide product development to suit the needs of your target customers
Align all work across your organization
Here are 6 ways to build your audience on social media
1. Review your current data and analytics
Take a look at your insights and analytics on your social media platforms. You can learn a lot from that data and how your current audience is engaging with you… or not engaging.
The things to look for are the spikes in the graphs - what caused the spike or the most engagement?
You can also learn if your audience is mostly women or men, which can play a huge factor in how you word your messaging or style your content. You’ll also be able to see where your audience is located. If they’re mostly in a specific area or city, you can focus on content that relates to that area.
Let's take the example of running a boutique coffee shop and wanting to attract coffee enthusiasts in your area. When you dig into the social media analytics, you find out that most of the engagement on your posts happens in the early morning and mid-afternoon - you know, the typical coffee break times.
And guess what? The posts that show off latte art or introduce new flavors get the most comments and shares, mainly from folks aged 25-35 within a 5-mile radius of your shop. This is some valuable information right here! It tells you that your target audience includes local professionals and millennials who love coffee art and crave unique flavor experiences.
Armed with this insight, you can now tweak your social media content to showcase more behind-the-scenes action of latte art creation, roll out new seasonal flavors, and even run special promotions during peak engagement times. Trust me, it'll totally resonate with this crowd!
2. Create your buyer persona
Like I mentioned before, a buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on data and research. Based on what you learned from reviewing your data and analytics, you can create a persona that reflects your ideal client. By identifying and defining that ideal persona, you can create content that is focused on reaching those types of people. It will become easier to come up with creative content because you have a focus and person you are trying to attract.
Take, for example, a local artisanal bakery that just hopped on the social media bandwagon to attract more customers. They dug deep into social media stats and found that most of their followers are all about that organic, whole-grain goodness. And guess when they're most engaged? Between 6 PM and 9 PM, right when hunger strikes! .
But that's not all. These followers are all about healthy eating and sustainability, and they're mostly women aged 20-40. So, the bakery creates a buyer persona called "Healthy Holly." Holly's all about being healthy, loves organic stuff, and is likely to swing by the bakery after work or when she's craving a wholesome dessert.
To win over "Healthy Holly," the bakery whips up posts showcasing their whole-grain and organic options, shares tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and even throws in loyalty programs during peak engagement hours to keep customers coming back for more.
3. Research your competitors - what are they doing?
It’s not cheating or stealing if you go stalk your competitors and see what’s working for them. As long as you don’t copy EXACTLY what they’re doing, you are being strategic in learning what the audience in your industry is attracted to and wanting to know.
Look on their social pages and discover what type of content is getting the most engagement, comments, reactions, or shares. Analyze the comments and find out what people are saying, what questions they’re asking, and what concerns they have.
In addition, go to your own page and do the same thing. What are your followers saying, asking, or concerned about? Are you answering their questions? Addressing their concerns? Or Educating them about what you do?
4. Identify your goals and objectives?
Now that you’ve researched your own data, discovered who your perfect customer is, and learned what your competitors are doing and what people are saying or concerned about - now let’s come up with some goals to achieve.
If you’re wanting to build your audience, you’re on the right track. So, now let’s set some measurable goals. How much do you want to increase your following? How many leads would you like to collect? Are you wanting more messages or people engaging with your content?
What would be the best strategy to accomplish that goal?
Whatever your strategy is, be sure to include a Call To Action (CTA). Tell your reader what to do. Do you want them to message you? Sign up for something? Go somewhere? Tell them!
Let's take the case of 'Bella's Boutique', a small business that makes amazing handmade jewelry. After checking their social media engagement, the owners set SMART goals to grow their Instagram following and boost online sales. They aimed to increase their following by 25% over the next quarter, which is a Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound target. This goal was relevant because it helped build a strong online presence, which is super important for their digital marketing strategy. To achieve this, they decided to post really engaging content three times a week. They shared customer testimonials and behind-the-scenes looks at how they make their awesome products, all based on competitor and audience analysis..
To keep track of their progress, they used social media analytics tools to check follower growth and engagement rates every week. They made sure their plan was attainable by breaking the overall goal into smaller targets. They aimed for a 2% increase each week, so they were consistently making progress toward their main objective. And on top of that, they added clear CTAs to each post to encourage followers to check out their latest collections online and engage with their content. They wanted to make the most of Instagram's algorithm to increase their content's visibility.
READ MORE ABOUT HOW TO STAY CONSISTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
5. Create quality content.
Valuable, educational, motivational, promotional & Relatable
Finally, take all the above to create quality content. Based on what you learned about your buyer persona, what your audience wants to know, and your goals you’re trying to achieve, you can create creative, engaging content with a focus and objective!
The key to quality content is clear, clean, and creative messaging and visuals.
Don’t use floofy words - get to the point and be clear on what you are saying.
Don’t use poor quality pictures - find some quality stock photos, or better yet, get some branded photos of you or your business.
Give more than you take - provide free information, value, education, and motivation more often than you ask for a sale or for them to come to your store.
And above all - stay on brand. Brand awareness is crucial! Stay consistent in your voice, visuals, value, and vision.
Discovering and connecting with your target audience is key to the growth and success of any small business. Leveraging social media analytics not only highlights who your followers are but also what resonates with them—allowing you to tailor your content to meet their needs and interests. By knowing your audience well, you can create a brand message that speaks directly to their desires and challenges, fostering stronger connections and driving business results. Take the leap today and begin the journey to understand and engage your unique audience.
