A common problem regarding social media marketing is the desire to interact with every single user. Social media organizes users like no other platform we’ve seen before, but that doesn’t mean you should get greedy and overextend your marketing campaign.
There’s a reason we identify and segment target audiences. If you don’t, your message will be too general to resonate with any group in particular. This is especially important to remember in the case of social media.
Your posts, content, pictures, and contests should all be made for your target audience specifically. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time attracting and engaging users.
A recent Harvard Business Review article explains how businesses can deal with this problem. According to the article, you should narrowly define your audience and listen only to them:
“Brands cannot talk to everyone in every social channel, so narrowly define whom you want to listen to and communicate with. Are you targeting Millennials entering the workforce, dads with young children, or senior executives nearing retirement? What are they doing in social media, and where are they doing it? What are consumers saying about your brand, products, services, and competitors?”
Social listening is an effective technique where you sit back and observe how your target audience behaves on social media. You’ll pick up on trends, habits, and tendencies just by listening to what they say.
Of course, this is only possible if you segment your audience to begin with. There’s just no way to pay attention to everything that every social media user says. Even if you follow a single popular hashtag on Twitter, you’ll get overwhelmed before you can come away with any conclusions.
Don’t let the vastness of social media distract you from your goals. If you already have a target audience, then focus on finding those users online. If not, then that’s the first thing you should do for your online marketing campaign. Don’t just start marketing to a general audience unless you want to get overwhelmed.