Knowing which social media your target market uses is essential information if you want to implement a successful online marketing plan. Your website, as professional as it might look, is not enough on its own to succeed. Social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, should also be part of your marketing strategy – so knowing which social media your target market uses is a vital piece of knowledge. With this in mind, here’s some advice on finding the customer you’re after.
Research is the key
Google could become your best friend when you search for your preferred market. There is no shortage of demographic research available for your perusal on the net. Type in words such as ‘social media demographics’ and the facts and figures you need will be at your fingertips. Always look out for the date this research was conducted – even facts and figures that are just two or three years old might already be out of date. Trends, fads and phases could make this information obsolete so always use the most recent information you can find.
Social media is not perfectly balanced
Never assume that every type of social media is 50/50 in the gender stakes. For example, more women than men use Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, about 60/40 in fact. And if you’re marketing to women, social media platforms such as Digg and Reddit might not be the best choice for you – these applications are preferred by men.
Social media – for the young at heart
If age is a consideration, particularly mature age, you might not have a great deal of luck connecting with the older demographic through social media. Basically, our more senior citizens are not great users. Only about 5% of MySpace users are 65 or older. Same for applications like Facebook and LinkedIn, and even less for Twitter! If you’re prepared to wait, this percentage will increase as today’s current users begin to age. But it will be a long wait! At the other end of the scale, about one third of MySpace users are youngsters, between 0 and 17 years. The professional site LinkedIn lacks young entrepreneurs, with only about 3% in that teen bracket.
Where the money is
The goal of your marketing is to attract their money. Most of the money is found at professional networking sites, with LinkedIn being one of the better known ones. This should come as no great surprise, given that a large proportion of members on these sites are high income earners and see these platforms as a way to do more business rather than make a purely social connection. If you’re targeting people on a budget, Ning and MySpace are the places where lower income earners will be found. Again, not a surprise when you look at the relatively youthful demographic populating these sites.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive guide to finding your target market. But it should indicate that different applications attract different demographics. This will be confirmed when you carry out your own search for your perfect customer!
Finding the target group is an important and little hard task. It takes some time. But once we find the target market then we can really grow our biz or site whatever it may be.
I agree that it’s important to research your target market in social media. It makes your marketing so much more effective after.