In 2020, about 4.41 billion people were using social media. That’s a huge number. You know what it means! If you’re not leveraging the power of social media, you’re missing out on a lot of potential opportunities.
You could be converting users into leads and customers every day. But, that’s only possible if your marketing efforts on social media are in the right direction. All of that starts with knowing who your target audiences are and reaching out to them.
In this post brought to you by SPOPLI Web Development & Services, we look at the most effective ways in which you can define and reach your target market on social media. Here they are:
1. Listen and Ask Questions
It’s amazing how many brands don’t really listen to what their audiences are saying. If you’re not listening, you can start by asking. It’s easier than ever now that you can create polls and ask questions on virtually every platform be it YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.
If only you can listen keenly to what people are saying about their fears, desires, goals, needs, and frustrations – you can work out ways to engage with them by devising helpful content that resolves their pain points.
By listening carefully, you can also figure out what influences their buying decisions on social media as well as all the concerns they may have regarding your services/product.
2. Define Ideal Customers
You can only make informed business decisions if you know exactly who you’re catering to. Otherwise, all your efforts, time, money, and resources you put into marketing will be a total waste. Marketing to the wrong demographics won’t amount to anything.
The best way to figure out who your ideal customers are is to use social media and website analytics tools such as Google Analytics. Different social media also have their own analytics tools and sources that will give you a comprehensive picture of the users who are most active with you.
You can learn about the demographics of your audience, their age group, their buying habits, income, as well as the kind of content they’re consuming. In this way, you can narrow down your audiences.
Be sure to pay special attention to these metrics:
- Engagement factor
- Click-throughs
- Reach
- Paid vs. organic likes
- Hashtag engagement
3. Utilize Industry Hashtags
The past decade saw an explosion of hashtags all across social media. Hashtags are incredibly useful when it comes to staying informed about the latest events, hot topics in your industry, and all that’s trending.
If you can use them properly in social media posts, your chances of getting your content out to a wide audience can increase several-fold.
If you want to reach your target audience on social media, start by cherry-picking all the relevant and useful hashtags. Make sure they’re not too general or broad. Hashtags for small businesses are most effective when they are specific because that way they can attract a very specific kind of audience that matches the brand.
Also, do create unique and creative hashtags specific to the brand. In this way, people will start to associate those hashtags with who you are.
4. Invest in social media ads
Getting yourself in front of a huge audience may not always work organically. In that case, paid ads can come to your rescue. It can connect your target audience with your website and social media channels.
Almost all social media platforms are now letting brands run sponsored ads to get in front of the right audience. You too can use paid ads to widen your outreach and improve visibility.
But, beware! Only use those platforms where your potential audiences are most active. Use your best-performing content to drive traffic and fuel the ads. Go to your analytic tool and see which post had the highest engagement. Pick that one for the ad campaigning to improve your chances of getting click-throughs.
5. Leverage Influencer Marketing
This is easily the trendiest and most effective way to reach your target audience organically and in a short time (if done right). Influencer marketing essentially involves reaching out to social media channels that already have a wide audience and getting them to shout you out.
In exchange for a fee, you can get your brand heard and seen by thousands and millions of already active and engaged audiences.
Think of it like a celebrity endorsing your brand. The only difference is unlike celebs, who get paid to do what looks like a typical advertisement, influencer marketing is a lot more genuine, subtle, and has a trustworthiness factor. That’s Because influencers connect with their audiences in an informal and personal manner. So, anything they suggest – audiences are much more likely to try that brand.
Therefore, if done right – influencer marketing could be the most powerful tool in your arsenal in getting yourself out there in a big way.
In Conclusion
You have to know that when it comes to expanding your reach on social media, there’s no right or wrong way. Also, nothing is set in stone either. You will have to keep experimenting until you stumble upon the right combination of techniques that work best for you.
Sunny Popli is the owner of SPOPLI Web Development & Services. He loves to learn and grow. His key interest areas are to learn and implement the latest & impactful ideas in the field of digital marketing.