In order to find out where your target audience is hanging out, first you need to learn what a target audience actually is. It’s pretty easy getting friends and family to like your Facebook Page or Instagram account, but beyond their initial support, are they really the people most likely to need, or actively seek out, your product or service?
Connect with people
It’s natural to want to connect with people in a similar business and form a support bubble; this is something that happens a lot in creative industries, such as writing and making/crafting. Accounts tend to follow each other for support, but again, beyond the first few initial supportive purchases, they are not the right target audience and may, in fact, be messing up your account’s algorithm by providing the wrong type of customer data, stopping the algorithm from leading you to your real audience.
Your target audience consists of the people who would walk into your shop, if you had one. Break it down into demographics. For example, do you sell baby clothes? Your target audience is parents, and you could probably drill right down to an age range as well. What do they relate to? What are their other interests? Think about the price point of your products; this will give you an idea of the income your target customer will earn.
Target audiences
This works for services too. Do you sell IT repair? Your target audience could be business owners with multiple devices. Check your social media insights to ascertain the type of person clicking on links and purchasing products or services; these are your valuable customers; don’t let them pass you by whilst you focus on interacting with an audience unlikely to bring value to your business long-term.
The more specific you can be with regards to your target customer, the more likely you are to be able to find them amongst the millions of social media users. The age of your audience is a big clue as to which social media platform they are likely to be using. Older users tend to be on Facebook, while younger generations are using Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Post onto all these platforms to test them out, drilling down and fine-tuning as you glean more information from your analytics.
Your competitors are a great clue as to where to find your audience! Check out their tone of voice, content, and hashtags and keywords to find out what is working. See who is responding to their posts and follow and engage with them. We aren’t suggesting cloning an account, but getting inspiration from a handful of competitors’ accounts is a great way to find your audience, and once you’ve found them, keeping them hooked with lively, vibrant content and on-brand messages.
