At this point, it is fairly safe to say that almost every marketer or producer knows that social media is a force to be reckoned with, both as a means of communication and for the seemingly endless marketing possibilities that it provides. Even so, most people do not know how to effectively utilize social media to sell themselves or their products, including watching out for the information different social media sites reveal about your target market. So what is target marketing and what relevance do social media sites have to this concept?
Target marketing is an important weapon in the arsenal of any marketer or producer with a mid to sizable market. Here, the marketer aims marketing efforts toward a defined group. As far as social media is concerned, your target audience could be young people (who are most likely to be more active on social media), other stated age group, income group, ethnic group, certain religious or political affiliations, gender, race or any other parameter. The concept of social media marketing can be a little overwhelming due to the abundance of social media sites that are constantly evolving and growing. Some of them are more prominent than others, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedln, and even other connection points like a business or personal blog. An analysis of your target market engagement on such sites can reveal certain information that may affect the way you plan your marketing strategy. Some of the tales social media tells about your target market include the following.
1) If Your Social Media Campaign is Working
Having defined your target audience, the very first thing social media will tell you about your target market is if they are responding to your marketing efforts. Through a study of the feedback from various social media sites, you can discover if the defined target audience is taking the bait. For instance, if you are promoting a brand of sneakers to young men aged between 14 and 22, an analysis of the response from social media networks will reveal if they are indeed interested in the sneakers through a poll of the median age group and gender of the most active responders to your marketing campaign.
2) If Your Target Market Likes Your Product
When you have established that your target market is indeed very much responsive to your marketing efforts, the next thing you can find out through monitoring social media sites is what they are actually saying about your product or service. If the response is positive, you can tell by the comments on the various social media sites. You can also tell by factors such as the amount of “likes” the product or service gets on sites like Facebook. Other indications of acceptance include promotion of your product or service by the target audience through forwarding to friends and family, or through direct commendations on your social media handles.
3) If Your Target Market Hates/is Lukewarm Towards Your Product
You can also tell if your target market does not like your product or service through an analysis of their responses on social media sites. Even more, you can tell what they actually dislike about your product or service, in other words, whether they hate everything, or just some aspects. If your target market dislikes your product, you can obviously expect to see some negative feedback. For instance, you can tell from the number of complaints, negative comments, “dislikes” and other similar feedback. In this sense, social media is a powerful tool for getting an immediate feel how the way your target market feels about your product.
4) Suggestions
A study of your target market engagement on social media can reveal their suggestions regarding the sort of changes they would like to see in your products. For example, if they do not like the color combination used on the sneakers, they may make recommendations on social media sites that might actually help you in making a more constructive effort towards giving your defined target market a product that they can relate to and appreciate.
5) Who Your Competition May Be
Through a study of target market participation on various social media platforms, you can tell who your competition is. If most of your target market keeps bringing up the name of your competitor’s product, then you should pay attention – since this an indication that you have to study the competition in order to perform better than them, and gain a giant share of the market.
6) How You Rate Against Your Competition
Apart from revealing your competition, another thing social media can reveal about your target market is their perception of your product in comparison to the competition. When they are discussing your product viz-a-viz that of the competition, they are also revealing how they feel your product measures up in terms of the stated competition. As such, still using the analogy of the sneakers, if they do not like any aspect of your product, they might reveal the reason why they prefer your competitor’s product. This is a heads up for you to intensify your marketing efforts, and to study the product of your competition with the intention of producing something superior, and more appealing to your target market.
7) Experiences
Social media analysis can tell you about user experiences regarding your product. For instance, you can be aware if there is any defect in your product through the types of experiences people are posting on social media sites after using your product.
8) How Extensive is the Impact of Your Marketing Campaign?
One of the advantages of social media is that it can tell you just how extensive the impact of your marketing is. For instance, even though your primary target might be a certain demographic within a stated geographic location, you might be pleasantly surprised to find out that your brand has grown beyond that target market and gain acceptance across other markets that are not included in your initial marketing campaign.
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