About 42% of the world uses social media.
Quite obviously, that’s a ton of people. Reaching the world through social media seems nearly impossible at times with all of the activity constantly taking place. You need to cut through the static.
One of the best ways of getting through to potential customers is targeted social media marketing. It sounds aggressive, but it can be done in a casual yet effective manner.
Keep reading to discover exactly what you need to do to reach success. See if you have what it takes to reach success.
Forget the Old Ways
If your social media manager is overly concerned with likes on Facebook, get rid of them. Obsessing over how many thumbs-up a post can get won’t get you anywhere fast.
This isn’t to say a click on the ‘like’ button is 100% useless, but there are many more brilliant ways to boost your business on social media. Many ‘likes’ come from someone mindlessly scrolling and half-nodding at your post before smashing their thumb into the button.
In order to really leave an impression on someone, you first want to determine who you want to impress. You need to figure out your target audience.
Who Is My Target Audience?
The first step in achieving the most out of targeted social media marketing is to fully understand what you are marketing. Take a while to really look at your product, service, and overall goal.
If you’re pushing a new, sexy bikini line, don’t aim towards suburban dads. That won’t do much for you.
Are you unsure about your overall goal? That’s the first major problem that you need to fix immediately.
Think about factors such as geographical location, gender, age, and hobbies. All of these things will steer you towards who you want to see your post. They will tell you what groups to target.
Use Provided Data
Once you know the type of data to search for, you need to know how to find it. Luckily, people give out a lot of information online, whether they know it or not.
If you see a product similar to yours doing well, dive deep into who is interacting with that company’s social media. Scroll through names, check out any public Facebook groups, and even click on individual profiles.
As you do the job, you should feel a bit creepy. A thorough investigation will eventually boost sales.
Another approach that doesn’t involve checking out individual people is taking a scroll through any hot trending topic page on social media platforms. You can see what hashtags and discussions are popular among different audiences.
Take whatever is popular and use it in your posts. You can even make captions and posts talking about popular current events. Relating to the targeted audience is crucial in gaining online success.
Use Other People
Before going any further, this has nothing to do with taking advantage of people and manipulating them. It’s all about striking up collaborations with social media influencers that will prove beneficial for both parties.
Platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are packed full of influencers. Whether you see them talking about a new health drink or promoting their favorite restaurant, these people are changing the business game.
While it does take a bit of snooping to know who would bring in the most online traffic, you’ll be happy you took your time to search. If done correctly, it can result in a high ROI.
For example, you can offer a popular local influencer and 3 friends the chance to eat free at your new restaurant. While they’re there, they receive complimentary drinks, food, and t-shirts. In exchange, they have to post a couple of Instagram stories and one post, tagging your business in all of them.
You may have given away a couple of hundred dollars worth of free stuff, but the traffic they bring in your doors could bring you $1,000.
Use Ads on Facebook
Platforms such as Facebook do a lot of the dirty work for you. Once you purchase an ad, you’ll start receiving data on the post engagement. Plus, the ROI is pretty high.
Facebook takes data from personal profiles, activity performed by users, and even information from public records. This may strike fear in users but creates a wonderland for social media managers.
It’s smart to post an ad on Facebook and re-direct once you receive ample information. Take a hard look at activity on a general post to gather ideas for an extremely targeted post.
If you put out a post about the shoes you are selling and notice much of the engagement comes from high school females, target them with posts about shoes they can wear for prom. Sneak into their life with your posts.
The ROI is high for Facebook ads because you aren’t a ton out of pocket for all of the information you are receiving. It’s up to your own clever ideas to turn the information into cash flow.
It’s also a fun game to see just how targeted Facebook posts can get.
Create a Community
Once you have your active audience, give them a chance to interact and speak up about your products and services.
Instagram is a great place to do this because of the option to create stories. In the stories, you can ask questions, create polls, and add music. You can even do live stories and talk about products in real-time to customers.
Using Targeted Social Media Marketing to Your Advantage
For a noticeable change in your online presence, really study above on how to take advantage of targeted social media marketing. If done correctly, your community will grow and your ROI will climb.
First, decide your goals as a company, and then determine what audiences can help you reach those goals. Determine the best route of reaching your targeted audience and take action. Don’t be afraid to re-direct if something isn’t working.
For more information on how to ultimate marketing success, make sure to check out our blog post and amazing services.
