What It Will Take To Target Your Social Media Audience: 3 Simple Steps

There are a few things that one can do to have a successful campaign with social media communications, one is to target your audience. There are three critical elements that must be in place for a company to be able to target an audience and have an effective target marketing strategy.

1. Placement:
2. Patience  
3. Practice

Placement 

Placement is simply having a social media site from which to post from. Social media marketing content is about building relationship, the same way that traditional customer service is. When a customer comes in with questions, the relationship has a chance to grow. Online, through social media, the very same interaction occurs. A firm must have the social media outlet such as Facebook, where customers can ask these questions. So build a Facebook Fan page, a Twitter Business account, or a YouTube channel for business. Customers are on these social media outlets and businesses should be too. 

Patience

Patience is the other extreme of the above example. In the brick and mortar location a customer will ask a question and walk away without a sale. Typically another customer will walk through the doors and the business has a chance to engage them. The business representative effectively layers the sales presentation through conversation and then closing. Online businesses typically have two different locations for the interaction listed above. Social media outlets for conversations and a business ecommerce website for closing; if a business has a website, all the social media activity drives to the site. This divides the natural progression of the sales conversation. At the brick and mortar location the social conversation of the clerk or salesperson builds the relationship and lays the foundation for trust which leads to a closed sale. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter act as this relationship building and trust laying foundation, then the customer goes to the website to purchase the product. Ecommerce essentially severs the two layers of the sale into different locations. The patience comes is over the aggregate of the campaign. As a social media manager, one must constantly provide a voice for the firm even when it may seem as if it is not directly related to sales.  The sales conversation is driven by the trust building and then the close, not the other way around. 

Practice

Practice is the breakfast of achievers. All great achievers have practice under their belt. If a company wants to achieve greatness on Facebook or Twitter, they must simply block some time out and post several times a day. Once customers respond, they must address them thoroughly and thoughtfully.  If it is not in the marketing plan and marketing objectives to improve your conversation, then the social media development of the firm is in need of change. Companies ask “how are businesses using social networking.” Effective companies are using it the ways prescribe above.  

Target Acquired

A business's best source for what their target audience is online is their current customers who are looking online. Following these three steps will enable a firm to target the social media channels and demographics that will effectively lead to success in social media marketing. 

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How March Madness is like the Business world

The current NCAA basketball championship game is a few weeks away, yet there are a few things that small businesses can learn from the games that are being played today. As of this writing I have witnessed Harvard and Florida Gulf Coast beat teams with better players and I have also seen Liberty (my School) persevere against all odds to play in the tournament. The lesson here is that when it comes to competition the bigger, more talented teams do not always win. Similarly, in the business arena larger industry leaders can be defeated. March Madness teaches small business the two keys to surviving and advancing; compete, and never give up.

Beat Goliath

Small businesses enter the business arena similar to small schools that play in the tournament. They have wide eyes and are often intimidated by the more popular, cash rich programs.  How can small businesses compete? The answer is in the way that lower seeded teams compete and beat the higher, more favored teams; with the right moxie.  Each small business has a unique background that led them to start and believe in their business. Is it an exclusive business model, high quality customer service, or just plain availability? When we think of large corporations we do not usually think of these qualities. We usually think of multileveled management where no one can make decisions in a timely manner.  This advantage is similar to the stresses on the student athlete from the power schools.

No…no…no…YES!

Think of the multilevel management as people that must be pleased with a decision at a corporate level. If you work in a corporation and have a unique idea, how quickly can you put that idea in play? If you fail, there is another hotshot middle manager AKA highly recruited player that will step in if your plan does not work.  As a small business you have the flexibility to change, fail, and change again.  You can take risks unlike many in the corporate arena.  Don’t think that you cannot compete and beat the industry leaders because you do not have the pedigree or the history. Make your own history, take some risks.

I run a small business that specializes in social media marketing such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others. I have been looking in the corporate want ads for the positions that they have listed for this type of vocation and realized they are sticking to their old style thinking. They are looking for someone who has several years of experience and who can do this and that, but they are too busy creating the position that they are letting their opportunity slip away. As small businesses we have the chance to shift on a dime and make changes. This is why we succeed. I keep thinking of the railroad executive when I read the social media job descriptions. The railroad executives kept saying that they were in the railroad business. As we all know they were in the transportation business and automobiles soon surpassed them.  I build customer relationships by speaking the language that your customers speak, a digital language. I do not have to wait for my supervisor to give me the okay to post anything.  If I make an error, I can correct it immediately. When I make several in a small time-frame  like an underdog giving up several baskets in a row, I need to take a time out.

Never Give Up

When a coach takes a time out after their team has given up several baskets it is to calm the team down and allow them to re-frame the situation. The coach will explain to the team that it was only a few baskets and that there is time to run plays in order to take higher percentage shots. The key to these timeouts is to get the players in the mindset to keep going forward, to not give up. The famous coach Jim Valvano once delivered a speech in which he said “don’t give up, don’t ever give up!” every college basketball player alive has heard this speech, because every coach uses it or some variation of it to encourage players. As small businesses we need to keep playing this out in our heads; don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up.

In the tournament the team that can play to their strength more frequently usually wins. There are some games that go right down to the last second, however in the business arena the buzzer never goes off. What has worked for the industry leaders yesterday may not work today and definitely will not work tomorrow.  Find your strength and play to it every day and don’t ever give up and you will succeed.  

What your business can learn from Little League

  In Arizona we have dry rivers called washes. I often run a path by a particular wash and it goes right by a set of baseball fields. I saw some children today and I realized something that could help your small business. As I was running, one Little Leaguer roped a single up the middle of the diamond. The center fielder retrieved the ball and threw it towards the second basemen who threw it to home plate. The center-fielder used what is known as his cutoff man, or just cutoff. A cutoff is there so that the outfielders can throw the ball to the infield instead of attempting to throw out the runner from a great distance.

The Little Leaguer here cannot accurately hit his cutoff man at this stage in their life. The children are learning the basics of the game to build on later. Maybe you cannot accurately hit targets that you have set in your business plan. Look for a cutoff. Seeking help is a foundational business practice. Think of the franchise system, it is built on this basic premise. Think of the base runner as a customer who is walking out the door or who is on the verge of a purchase. Who can be your cutoff to close the deal? In baseball there are different cutoffs for different areas on the field. In business there are different cutoffs for different areas in your business field. Do not lose customers because you think that you have to throw the customer out all by yourself, because if you do they may be out the door and you will only be sore.  Seek help when you need it, a basic principle

One area that many small businesses are in need of a cutoff is in online marketing.  In my daily job as I preview webpages, Facebook pages, and YouTube videos. I see small businesses throwing out content as accurately as the children that I saw on the baseball diamond.  Because of companies like YouSocial, there are options for small businesses out there. One point about the cutoff should be addressed here. Without any effort from the center-fielder  the cutoff can switch strategies and throw in a different direction.  The cutoff can even decide not to throw if it is too risky. Similarly, a social media marketing company can give the small business owner a different direction without any effort. The owner may think that Twitter or LinkedIn are going to be effective forms of social media marketing. An experienced marketer may feel that Google+ or Facebook would work better.

Marketing can be a tricky thing and if you try to do it all yourself you will end up overworked and stressed out. Leverage your cutoff people in your business arena, lean on them to make great decisions in areas that you may not have expertise. Learn to use these people to assist you in closing the sales, or making the out.  Children are learning this lesson every day; shouldn't business people do it too?  In Little League these lessons form a basis for children to build on. Where I live in Tucson, there was once a high school team that had five players who reached the pinnacle of baseball - the major leagues. Imagine five players from one high school team in the pros. They all started in Little League, learning to use their cutoff.  If you want to take the next step in your business, take a lesson from these kids; build from basics, do not try to do it all yourself, and use your cutoff.

What has happened to the desktop?

I have online marketing, why do I not have more customers?

When we think of all the possible ways that businesses can reach their customers we rarely leave out the possibility of the online market. Can a business have an effective online marketing campaign and still not attract more customers? The answer is yes. There are several reasons for this, we will concentrate on the mobile market.

What is mobile?

What is the mobile market?  It is the movement from desktops to other devices such as Smartphones and tablets. How can a business reach this market within their current online campaign? They can hire professionals to assist in the conversion of their online marketing so that it is compatible with mobile devices.  

The cost of online marketing and mobile marketing

The online market and the mobile market require money to design and to maintain. However, if firms had started before the shift to mobile devices such as Smartphones and tablets, it would have been risky. Looking back we all can see the benefits of this fast and still developing market. With this development of both Smartphones and tablets, the mobile user is in it for the long run. Sales trends show that mobile users are getting more mobile devices now than ever before. The younger demographics are now using their mobile devices such as Smartphones and tablets as primary, that’s right PRIMARY, search devices.  If businesses are not compatible with mobile devices then they are not engaging younger customers who have the highest rate of discretionary spending

I get it, I need to change. I’ll run some mobile ads

As the users are moving towards mobile, economic principles tell us that when there is a demand, suppliers will follow. Ad makers have flocked to the mobile sphere to try to capture this momentum and with it mobile ads costs have risen. According to Kenshoo Social, a digital software marketing firm, ads are 70% more expensive than their desktop counterparts. Facebook cost-per-click was 1.38 for mobile compared to .81 for desktop ads. These numbers prove the fact that mobile is the wave of the future and if businesses want to survive they must go mobile.

If ads are so expensive what can my business do?

The good news is that it will not take much to get younger, mobile, Smartphone users into your business. If you do not have an IT guy, try hiring a social media marketing consultant, someone who will take a look at the way that you engage your customers in the 24 hour online marketplace. They will let you know search engine basics and give you some tips on how to encourage customers to act. How many ads can do that? Customers are more likely to purchase with firms they have had a relationship with and the best way to connect with your potential customers is by speaking their language - an online mobile language.

A message from YouSocial

YouSocial may help you if you are looking for social media marketing help, if not please enjoy this piece and forward to anyone you know who may need to see it.