Social media throws down a gauntlet down to all marketeers, whether you are talking to consumers or businesses. With the potential of reaching tens of thousands of followers, how do you stay relevant?
The answer to this is rooted in the traditional marketing practice of creating then referring to user personas to help you connect better to your audience. Available data and insights mean that the fictional snapshot of your target audience should not only include the traditional demographics, desires and challenges but now go even further and include attitude traits, behaviours and interests.
User personas are worthy of a novella – fictional characters, with names, images, their daily routine, what they like to do, and what they don’t as well as where they are in their life and what motivates them. We live and breathe these characters every day; we talk about them like they are real life people as essentially, they are.
But it’s not just the creation of the user personas that is key. Once they have been crafted, what should we do with them?
Competition in social media land is very fierce so the personas can help you post content that engages your audience dependent on how they behave on the platform; a much more effective approach than taking the one-size-fits-all approach. This will then more than likely trigger that all important reaction as we are speaking in a relevant way that matters to them.
And what about paid-for campaigns? Our defined audiences mean we can zone in when we set up the ad targeting to ensure the relevancy of the ad for the brand’s audience, thereby making them more likely to be an active customer.
Our journey begins and stays centred on our audience and who they are. Which leaves one key question…do you know who your ideal customer is on social?
