4 Ways to Reach the Right Audiences on Social Media

4 Ways to Reach the Right Audiences on Social Media

Finding your target audience on social media can feel like a game of Whack-a-Mole. Between the many platforms they might be using to the different ways they prefer to communicate and consume content, getting your messages to people who are most likely to follow and engage with you can be challenging. Here are four ways you can zero in on your target market through social networks.

1. Survey your current customers

It might seem obvious, but many companies overlook the simple act of asking current customers which social networks they use. This should have been your first step before setting up social network accounts for your company. If you didn’t do it initially, now is the time to refine where you’re spending the most time online to engage with your followers and the money to advertise.

You can survey your customers in person, on the phone, via email, and on posts you publish with a link to an online survey or a quick poll tool. Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn all have built-in poll features. SurveyMonkey, TypeForm, and JotForm all provide tools to create online surveys.

2. Refocus your social media marketing efforts

Once you have results from your polls and surveys, determine which social networks may give you a better return for your efforts. While you might end up shifting focus from one social network to another, that doesn’t mean you should ignore any social network where you currently have a presence. It does mean rethinking everything from how you craft your messages and the type of posts you’re publishing to the days and times you publish.

Do a deep dive into not only the habits of your current audience but how and where similar audiences are interacting online. You may want to “lead” with one social network, developing content for one that you’ve identified as the most popular amongst your customers. You can then modify the content, as needed, for other social networks you manage.

3. Refine your ad targeting

If you are paying for social media ads, make sure your ad spend is targeting the right audiences based on the information you’ve learned through surveys and polls. Each social network provides different ways to reach specific markets on their platforms. For example, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) lets you create an audience in their Ads Manager platform where you can direct your ads to people using demographics data such as location and age but also by interests and behaviors. The default selection in their Ads Manager is to attract new customers. You can also create a Custom Audience to get your ad in front of people who have already shown interest in your business. That could include your actual customers or people who have visited your website or Facebook Page in the past.

Through Ads Manager, you can drill down more specifically to show ads to Lookalike Audiences consisting of people who are similar to your current followers and customers. To set up this specific kind of ad, you need a source as your base audience consisting of at least 100 people. Those people will not be targeted by your lookalike ad but will be used to identify similar audiences.

Each popular social network may offer similar targeting tools for paid ads with some variations. Before you spend any more money on social media ads, educate yourself on the different ad features for the social networks where you’ll be putting the most ad dollars.

4. Partner with complementary businesses

If spending on social media ads is not in your current budget, there are other lower cost or free ways to attract new prospects. One straightforward and effective way to get your marketing messages out to new people is to work with other companies who are targeting similar audiences but are not your direct competitors.

There are several easy ways to partner with other businesses and share audiences such as:

• strategically sharing one another’s posts
• co-hosting a post, a feature available on Instagram (Collabs)
• co-hosting an Event Page on Facebook

Select partner companies that receive a high level of engagement, not just those that have robust followings. Get creative when you look for companies for marketing collaborations. For example, a bar might obviously collaborate with liquor and beer companies, but they could also partner with fashion boutiques or jewelry companies, businesses selling products that might appeal to a nightlife audience. A cosmetics company could partner with a skincare company and a hair salon. Approach businesses in your community or in industries adjacent to yours to share audiences.

When you’re looking to reach new customers, you aren’t targeting a single group of people but multiple audience types. It is rare that any business has just one specific target market. Get to know the different people who frequent your business and develop your outreach and ad campaigns to be as diverse as your current customers.