The total global social media population is now about 5.17 billion<\/a>. Trying to find your brand\u2019s specific social media target audience from that enormous number of people can feel a bit overwhelming.<\/p>\n Learning who your audience is and what they\u2019re looking for on social channels is the only way to stand out from the crowd. Narrowing your approach helps you build meaningful relationships with the people most interested in your brand.<\/p>\n A social media target audience is exactly what it sounds like. It\u2019s the audience you want to target with your marketing message on social media. Understanding who your target audience allows you to:<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus: <\/strong>Get the free template<\/strong><\/span> to easily craft a detailed profile of your ideal customer and\/or target audience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n There\u2019s no one right way to define your social media target audience. You might have different target audiences for different social media platforms, or even different campaigns.<\/p>\n The key is to define a group of people using a similar set of characteristics. Then you can speak to them in a way that makes sense based on their particular wants, needs, and pain points. Here are some typical factors to consider when defining your social media target audience.<\/p>\n Understanding their target audience\u2019s interest in Momofuku recipes is a major contributing factor explaining why the Goods brand itself has 142,000 followers.<\/p>\n There is no shortage of data available to help you define your target audience on social media. You just need to know where to look. Here are the top ways to research your audience and narrow down the characteristics you want to target.<\/p>\n If you have not already created buyer personas<\/a>, you should do so as part of this exercise. If you already have those personas, get them out now. These define your ideal customer. Your social media target audience will not necessarily be exactly the same as your ideal customer base. But there will certainly be a lot of overlap.<\/p>\n Also consult your overall marketing goals. What is your marketing department trying to achieve? And how does social media contribute towards those goals<\/a>? If you\u2019re aiming to build brand awareness<\/a>, your target audience may be broader than it would be if your core goal is sales conversions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Social media analytics tools provide a wealth of information about who is already following and engaging with you on social media.<\/p>\n Again, your existing audience does not necessarily share all the common characteristics of your target audience. But knowing who already follows you \u2013 and especially who already engages with you \u2013 provides a lot of insight about how social media audiences in general categorize your brand, product, or service.<\/p>\n You can get this information for individual social channels using native analytics built into the tools<\/a> (as long as you have set up business accounts). Or you can use a tool like Hootsuite Analytics<\/a> to track and compare your audience on various platforms. You can also learn when they are most likely to be active on each platform so you can post at the right time.<\/p>\n Hootsuite Listening<\/a> includes even more detailed audience demographics analytics. You get a full picture of who\u2019s interested in your brand on social media.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t stop by figuring out who your audience is. Take things a step further by using these same social analytics tools to figure out what they want from specific social channels.<\/p>\n Your social media target audience will not be exactly the same as that of your competitors. You are unique, after all! But understanding who your competitors are targeting can help you get a think about how to reach your target audience on social media in new ways.<\/p>\n Hootsuite Analytics provides some good basic research capability here. Using the competitive benchmarking<\/a> features, you can see how many fans your competitors have. You\u2019ll also learn how their audience size is changing. This can give you a sense of the potential audience for you to target.<\/p>\n You can also see which posts (and types of posts) are performing best. Plus there\u2019s a word cloud of the top hashtags based on engagement goals. Combing through these hashtags can help you uncover niche communities for you to include in your social media target audience.<\/p>\n Hootsuite Listening provides even more useful data here. It uses social listening<\/a> powered by artificial intelligence to reveal how people feel about your competitors, as well as your own brand.<\/p>\n You can dig in to see what kind of competitor content resonates with the groups you\u2019re trying to reach, and what falls flat. You can then identify the most relevant trends and conversations. This helps identify specific interests and even accounts to include in your own social media target audience!<\/p>\n Taking a broader look at your industry on social media will help you understand what kind of content your potential audience is looking for. You can work backwards from here to deduce some key characteristics about the potential audiences for you to target.<\/p>\n Hootsuite Listening is a useful tool here as well. It can help you understand what topics people in your industry are talking about while digging into your potential audience\u2019s like and dislikes.<\/p>\n At the same time, look for gaps in the conversation. Are there any underrepresented topics that you could dominate? If yes, think about the characteristics of the people who would be most interested in this approach. They\u2019re a target audience that is currently underserved.<\/p>\n You can also identify important influencers<\/a> in your industry niche. Taking a closer look at their content can help you think about your niche in a different way. Are they using approaches you hadn\u2019t considered to target groups you may not have targeted before?<\/p>\n Finally, look at the bigger picture of how social media users are engaging with brands like yours. Are they likely to make purchases through social links? Or are they primarily looking for information? Knowing what your customers want and expect on social channels from brands in your industry can help you narrow the audience to target.<\/p>\n Once you have a sense of who your social media target audience is, it\u2019s time to think about how to reach them on social media.<\/p>\n Demographics are a good starting point here. Check out our social media demographics post<\/a> to find the platform(s) that best align with the target audience you want to reach.<\/p>\n But remember that this is just a starting point. You will need to do some testing<\/a> to see which platforms work best for your particular brand and your specific social media target audience.<\/p>\n Your competitor analysis<\/a> can provide some useful guidance here too. If your competitors are active and engaged on a particular platform, it\u2019s likely worth your time to try it as well.<\/p>\n Remember, your audience may use different platforms for different purposes. Meet them where they are with the kind of content they want there.<\/p>\n For example, on TikTok, Ikea USA embraces Brat Summer and does a take on the \u201cLooking for a Man in Finance\u201d trend:<\/p>\n Neither of these very memey posts appear on the Ikea USA Instagram account. But this preview of Halloween items appears on both channels, since it speaks to a broader target audience:<\/p>\n Once you understand who your social media target audience is, you can learn to speak their social media language.<\/p>\n Your brand voice<\/a> should be relatively consistent across all marketing channels. That said, the casual and conversational nature of social media allows you more freedom to play with your voice than you may have in other formats. A more conversational voice also helps to encourage engagement and develop relationships with your target audience over time.<\/p>\n Wendy\u2019s is well-known for its cheeky brand voice on social media. Especially when responding to content by and about competitive brands.<\/p>\n They\u2019re completely engaged in the conversations on their social posts, too, maintaining the same strong voice throughout. It\u2019s relatable, authentic brand conversation that keeps the audience active and engaged.<\/p>\n Source: @wendys<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Staying relatable and true to your brand is critical: 56% of consumers <\/a>think that brands should be more relatable on social. And 68%<\/a> said that inauthentic content has caused them to unfollow or hide a brand in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n Not sure what to say with that well-developed brand voice? Generative AI<\/a> tools like OwlyWriter AI<\/a> can help you come up with relevant content ideas using the right tone to connect with your audience.<\/p>\nKey Takeaways<\/h3>\n
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What is a social media target audience?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Types of social media target audiences<\/h3>\n
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How do you identify your target audience on social media?<\/span><\/h2>\n
1. Check your business\u2019s personas and marketing goals<\/h3>\n
2. Analyze your existing social media audience<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/social-media-target-audience-5-620x319.png.webp)
\n<\/picture>\n<\/noscript><\/figure>\n3. Peep on your competitors<\/h3>\n
![\"Performance](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/social-media-target-audience-4-620x378.png.webp)
\n<\/picture>\n<\/noscript><\/a><\/figure>\n4. Research your industry on social media<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/social-media-target-audience-6-620x435.png.webp)
\n<\/picture>\n<\/noscript><\/a><\/figure>\nHow to reach your target audience on social media<\/span><\/h2>\n
Set up shop on the right platforms<\/h3>\n
Find your brand voice<\/h3>\n
![\"Wendy's](\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/social-media-target-audience-7.png.webp)
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