Get Personal(ized) in Your Social Media Marketing! | Social Joey

Social media marketing is an essential tool for businesses of every size. Today, there are over 2 billion people using and interacting on some form of social media—that’s one-third of the entire population.

No matter what product or service your business is offering, a large portion of your audience is engaging on social media. Engaging with them and joining the conversation is vitally important.

Even more important, however, is the need for your business to be connecting with your consumers on a level that feels personal, friendly and approachable.

A huge challenge for businesses is learning how to reach consumers on a personal and individualized level. You don’t want your consumers feeling as though your business is stuffy or intimidating.

In order to become more approachable, your product or service needs to be catered to a specific group of individuals known as your “target audience.” For example, this could mean all females ages 25–60, or even generation-specific—like targeting mostly millennials or baby boomers.

This target audience is the group of consumers who will be most attracted to your product and use it most often.

Defining Your Target Audience

Target audience is a phrase we hear often, but no matter how often you’ve heard it—it’s essential in developing a marketing strategy that actually works. Once you know your target audience, establishing a successful and engaging marketing strategy not only becomes more effective…but the process itself becomes simpler. So how do you do this?

First, you’ll need to know who your “ideal” customer is. Think about this person’s age, appearance, interests, hobbies, etc. Would this person be likely to purchase what you’re selling?

Do he or she have a need for it? Will he or she use it often?

Once you have developed that persona and have it in place, you can begin to strategize how you can market your product or service specifically to that person. This strategy can include solving a common problem this person struggles with—and the medium that would be most effective in marketing to this person in particular.

Once you have the groundwork laid for your target audience, you can begin establishing your business’s brand voice. In your brand voice, you’ll want to be light-hearted, approachable, kind and professional.

If your voice appears too pushy, sales-y or broad, people will tune you out—and it won’t take them long to do so. The more approachable and conversational your brand voice is, the more positive engagement you’ll receive from your target audience.

Make Your Brand Personal

1. Create positive and engaging content. People will begin to tune out your voice if most of what you share is negative. Instead, write uplifting content that asks specific questions and encourages your followers to react and engage. Avoid trash-talking the competition and too much self-promotion.

2. Stay relevant. Know what your consumer base is talking about, and how they’re talking about it. This could be funny memes, gifs or even the lyrics to popular songs. If you stay up-to-date with what’s going on in popular culture, you’ll be able to have direct and engaging conversations with your target audience in unique ways. If you have no idea what’s going on in the world and culture, you won’t be able to respond to your consumers on a personal level.

3. Give! People love companies who are willing to give! That could be a portion of your business benefitting a local charity or event, or a local Facebook page giveaway that involves free stuff. Giving reflects positively on your business and shows that your company sincerely cares about its customers. People love free stuff, and everyone loves a generous leader! Social media giveaways are also a fantastic way to have your fans advertise for you. You may not initially be making a lot of money, but brand awareness is key. Don’t be stingy—generosity and kindness go a very long way, especially when you’re creating quality relationships with your fans.

4. Simplify. If your brand is simple and what you offer is easy to communicate, people will remember you. Businesses often make the mistake of over-complicating their brand to the point that people don’t even know what they’re offering! Take Coca-Cola, for instance. It’s not healthy by any means, but people know it’s a refreshing and delicious beverage. By keeping their message simple, they come across as approachable and inviting.

5. Use unique content and verbiage for each social media channel. Many companies make the vital mistake of copying and pasting their message identically across all social media channels. Cross-promotion can be a great tool, but be sure that each message is specifically written on each platform. For example, LinkedIn is going to be a more professional-sounding tone, and Twitter more laid-back.

6. Talk to people. There’s no better way to personalize than to have quality conversations with your fans online. Create unique answers to each one of your audiences’ questions and respond directly to comments your receive on your platforms. Don’t just copy and paste an answer to every comment your company receives. Even if it’s a negative comment, responding politely and professionally looks better than not responding at all. When people see that you are willing to have quality conversations with your consumers, they’ll engage quickly and more often.

Knowing what your consumers want isn’t always easy, but connecting with them on a deeper and more personalized level will help you tailor an effective marketing strategy and establish quality relationships with your followers.

Being approachable doesn’t have to be difficult! By combining personalization with your target audience, you’ll be able better understand your market and create an effective marketing strategy to boost sales and grow your consumer base.

We would love to help you get started with this process! If you’d like more information on how Social Joey can help you connect with customers and produce content they’ll love, get in touch with us today.