Using Social Media Marketing to Target a New Market Segment
This article is going to answer the question: how to use social media if your main campaign goal is to target a new market segment.
This article will address the user demographics of various social networking websites, how to use content to grab the attention of different segments, and last, it will discuss how you track the success of a social media campaign with this goal.
Demographics on the Big 3 Social Networking Websites While tremendous growth in the number of users over the age of 50 on Facebook continues, the fact still remains that Facebook's primary demographic is younger users.
In fact, if you explore Quantcast.
com for Facebook's estimated demographics you'll find that there are really no surprises.
Although Facebook skews older than MySpace, the primary user group is 18 to 34 year olds with children.
Twitter, the newest addition to 'the big three' social networking websites runs very similar to Facebook.
It makes sense that adopters of Facebook would be the same group who would also adopt Twitter as a method of social networking.
Also, when you look at the overwhelming celebrity presence on Twitter, a presence that catapulted Twitter into the elite group of most visited websites during 2009, its no surprise that again, we see the demographic skewing young-ish.
While LinkedIn, being a professional social networking site naturally attracts older users - 79% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older.
The other insights Quantcast lends about LinkedIn aren't surprising either.
It's overwhelmingly Caucasian, and mostly college educated professionals making more than $60,000 a year.
One demographic that may surprise you is the small percentage of users who have kids - only 21%! Perhaps if you have children you don't have time to build your professional network.
Another thing that Quantcast reveals about LinkedIn which is likely to be highly accurate, is the fact that 2/3rds of users are not from within the U.
S.
If your considering including within your social media marketing plan a social networking presence on one of the big 3 websites, you need to understand a few things: 1) is your demographic present on that site, and if so, is your demographic utilizing the social networking site in a way that you can tap in to in order to communicate with them? Or 2) is the demographic you would like to target present on that site, and if so, are they using the social networking site in a way that you can tap in to in order to communicate with them? For example, one marketer whose main target was moms of grade school children, included Facebook in their social media marketing plan.
She first created a profile for her CEO, who wanted to step out as the face of the company, and she also became the administrator for the brand's Facebook Fan Page, which was set up next.
But she knew that the old adage "if you build it they will come" would not hold water on the web, so she didn't stop there.
So she helped the CEO create a personal presence within Facebook sub communities that were mom-oriented (such as Circle of Moms which is an app that currently boasts over two million users) and the CEO joined mom groups and became fans of other "moms on Facebook" pages.
From there, she was able to conversationally drive traffic back to their corporate fan page, by pointing out informational posts and special product offers that moms were interested in, driving their fan base up and increasing their ability to communicate with the demographic they desired to meet.
How to Use Content to Attract Certain Demographics In the example above, the content provided on the Facebook page was crucial to attracting the company's desired demographic.
Even though the company's products and services were not exclusively used by moms, the goal of their social media marketing was specifically to attract moms through their Facebook presence so they kept our content focused and specific.
They presented studies and surveys related to the products they were trying to "sell" which discussed the impact they could have on children and their ability to learn, be safe and grow.
The company also utilized excerpts from blog posts that specifically discussed issues that moms deal with every day.
And most importantly, the face of the brand, who in this case was the CEO herself, was a mom of grade school children, just like the demographic they were trying to target and she personally answered questions and involved herself in conversations with other moms.
The company also used specific content during their article marketing campaign.
They could have written articles about any number of things that could have been tied into the company's products but instead they wrote articles about subjects that appeal to moms - and subjects that were most likely to be republished on other websites whose primary demographics were moms.
Tracking Social Media Success if Your Main Goal is to Target a New Market Segment Knowing who your customer is, is key to beginning a fruitful social media campaign.
The days of self-centered marketing are over, replaced by marketing which is focused on your customer.
With that said, if your campaign is successful in appealing to a new market, you can easily find out.
Here are some ideas: 1.
Ask them.
Surveys, polls and brief questionnaires are still a great way to ask your customers about themselves.
After all, web 2.
0 hasn't changed this simple fact: people love talking about themselves.
2.
Use your analytics software to help you determine if your demographics are shifting.
Google Analytics, for example, can tell your customer's geographic location.
Other analytics programs can tell you much more about your customers such as age and income (sometimes based on census information).
3.
Use websites like Quantcast.
com to help you see if your own customer demographics are shifting.
You can also observe, "websites also visited" by your customers which can help you see if the sites you're marketing in start showing up on those lists.
4.
If the above three ideas don't give you enough information to truly measure the success of your campaign, consider purchasing software to help you understand your different market segments.
There are various tools like this out there such as Empower.
com.
Although this represents an additional investment, if you're already investing in the marketing campaign (which means time and money) then you should believe it is worth it to invest a little more in a way to track its success.
This article will address the user demographics of various social networking websites, how to use content to grab the attention of different segments, and last, it will discuss how you track the success of a social media campaign with this goal.
Demographics on the Big 3 Social Networking Websites While tremendous growth in the number of users over the age of 50 on Facebook continues, the fact still remains that Facebook's primary demographic is younger users.
In fact, if you explore Quantcast.
com for Facebook's estimated demographics you'll find that there are really no surprises.
Although Facebook skews older than MySpace, the primary user group is 18 to 34 year olds with children.
Twitter, the newest addition to 'the big three' social networking websites runs very similar to Facebook.
It makes sense that adopters of Facebook would be the same group who would also adopt Twitter as a method of social networking.
Also, when you look at the overwhelming celebrity presence on Twitter, a presence that catapulted Twitter into the elite group of most visited websites during 2009, its no surprise that again, we see the demographic skewing young-ish.
While LinkedIn, being a professional social networking site naturally attracts older users - 79% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older.
The other insights Quantcast lends about LinkedIn aren't surprising either.
It's overwhelmingly Caucasian, and mostly college educated professionals making more than $60,000 a year.
One demographic that may surprise you is the small percentage of users who have kids - only 21%! Perhaps if you have children you don't have time to build your professional network.
Another thing that Quantcast reveals about LinkedIn which is likely to be highly accurate, is the fact that 2/3rds of users are not from within the U.
S.
If your considering including within your social media marketing plan a social networking presence on one of the big 3 websites, you need to understand a few things: 1) is your demographic present on that site, and if so, is your demographic utilizing the social networking site in a way that you can tap in to in order to communicate with them? Or 2) is the demographic you would like to target present on that site, and if so, are they using the social networking site in a way that you can tap in to in order to communicate with them? For example, one marketer whose main target was moms of grade school children, included Facebook in their social media marketing plan.
She first created a profile for her CEO, who wanted to step out as the face of the company, and she also became the administrator for the brand's Facebook Fan Page, which was set up next.
But she knew that the old adage "if you build it they will come" would not hold water on the web, so she didn't stop there.
So she helped the CEO create a personal presence within Facebook sub communities that were mom-oriented (such as Circle of Moms which is an app that currently boasts over two million users) and the CEO joined mom groups and became fans of other "moms on Facebook" pages.
From there, she was able to conversationally drive traffic back to their corporate fan page, by pointing out informational posts and special product offers that moms were interested in, driving their fan base up and increasing their ability to communicate with the demographic they desired to meet.
How to Use Content to Attract Certain Demographics In the example above, the content provided on the Facebook page was crucial to attracting the company's desired demographic.
Even though the company's products and services were not exclusively used by moms, the goal of their social media marketing was specifically to attract moms through their Facebook presence so they kept our content focused and specific.
They presented studies and surveys related to the products they were trying to "sell" which discussed the impact they could have on children and their ability to learn, be safe and grow.
The company also utilized excerpts from blog posts that specifically discussed issues that moms deal with every day.
And most importantly, the face of the brand, who in this case was the CEO herself, was a mom of grade school children, just like the demographic they were trying to target and she personally answered questions and involved herself in conversations with other moms.
The company also used specific content during their article marketing campaign.
They could have written articles about any number of things that could have been tied into the company's products but instead they wrote articles about subjects that appeal to moms - and subjects that were most likely to be republished on other websites whose primary demographics were moms.
Tracking Social Media Success if Your Main Goal is to Target a New Market Segment Knowing who your customer is, is key to beginning a fruitful social media campaign.
The days of self-centered marketing are over, replaced by marketing which is focused on your customer.
With that said, if your campaign is successful in appealing to a new market, you can easily find out.
Here are some ideas: 1.
Ask them.
Surveys, polls and brief questionnaires are still a great way to ask your customers about themselves.
After all, web 2.
0 hasn't changed this simple fact: people love talking about themselves.
2.
Use your analytics software to help you determine if your demographics are shifting.
Google Analytics, for example, can tell your customer's geographic location.
Other analytics programs can tell you much more about your customers such as age and income (sometimes based on census information).
3.
Use websites like Quantcast.
com to help you see if your own customer demographics are shifting.
You can also observe, "websites also visited" by your customers which can help you see if the sites you're marketing in start showing up on those lists.
4.
If the above three ideas don't give you enough information to truly measure the success of your campaign, consider purchasing software to help you understand your different market segments.
There are various tools like this out there such as Empower.
com.
Although this represents an additional investment, if you're already investing in the marketing campaign (which means time and money) then you should believe it is worth it to invest a little more in a way to track its success.
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