September 19, 2016

Get Your Content Into the Right Hands

Your content is the basis for creating a credible voice for your brand, and for building customer trust and loyalty. Now that you’ve crafted content that you’re proud of (and if you haven’t yet, see us), make sure it’s making the best possible impact by ensuring it gets to your key targets.

To maximize your opportunity to engage consumers, you must understand the ins and outs of how they use social media platforms to communicate with brands. For example, do you know where your messages are most likely to connect with millennials? What about baby boomers? Are you aware of the differences that exist across mediums for men vs. women? You need to answer these types of questions before planning your next marketing campaign to avoid having messages miss their marks.

Source: Pixabay

Yet, before you can hone in on this opportunity, you must first develop buyer personas for each segment of your unique base of potential and existing buyers. This tactic will enable you to better personalize and enhance your marketing campaigns to target and reach specific groups of customers. In other words, don’t waste your time learning where millennials are most likely to engage with brands if your products or services aren’t aimed at that demographic.

Once your buyer personas are defined, use this research from Sprout Social and Pew Research to see where certain groups are ripe for the picking on today’s major social media platforms:

  • Facebook: Facebook (FB) is the most popular social media site by far, used by 71 percent of online adults, with women (77 percent) somewhat better represented then men (66 percent). Age-wise, you will see more millennials (87 percent) than any other generation on this site. Usage actually declines with age; nevertheless, a majority of the over 65 crowd (56 percent) use FB.
  • LinkedIn: Known widely as a social platform for business, it’s no surprise that demographics for the site include a higher average income (44 percent of adults make over $75,000) and education level (50 percent graduated college).  A vast difference exists between urban (32 percent) and rural (14 percent) users, as well.
  • Pinterest: A high percentage of females (42 percent), compared to males (13 percent), use this social platform. Plus, this is the one major social site used by more rural (30 percent) than urban (25 percent) adults. The network (as with every other major social platform) does skew younger—with millennials at 34 percent, compared to seniors at 17 percent. Also, more college graduates (32 percent) favor Pinterest than do adults with at least some high school experience (22 percent). The site is more popular, as well, with higher income (over $75,000) earners, 34 percent, than lower income (less than $30,000) earners, 22 percent.
  • Instagram: Twenty-six percent of online adults engage in photo sharing on this social media site. Millennials dominate usage (53 percent) compared to other age groups—from 25 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds to just 6 percent of seniors. Here you’ll also see a significant difference between urban (28 percent) and rural (19 percent) users. Plus, more women (29 percent) than men (22 percent) are fans. It’s also the one major social platform that does not have college graduates (24 percent) as the top education demographic; that honor goes to users with some college experience at 31 percent.
  • Twitter: Used by 23 percent of online adults, Twitter is a fast-paced and high-volume social media platform preferred by the 18- to 29-year-old crowd (37 percent). Usage skews down significantly with age, as just 10 percent of 65+ adults partake of its offerings. Twitter is also used significantly more in urban (25 percent) than rural (17 percent) areas. The platform is differentiated by education level as well. Thirty percent of Twitter’s audience has graduated college vs. 16 percent who have high school degrees or less. The Twitter audience also skews higher with adults earning over $75,000 (27 percent) vs. less than $30,000 (20 percent).

Although it doesn’t have the large user base of the platforms listed above, you may also want to consider online search engine site Google+ for building your brand’s presence. YouTube is another great option if you have video content to promote. Snapchat, too, has gained prominence as a social media site—where content lives for 24 hours, tops. Its popularity with millennials makes it the darling of marketers for this target audience. Just be careful how you employ it because users value the app’s personal flavor.

To grow customer engagement and loyalty, choose the right channels for your brand (you don’t necessarily need all of them—and not all at once), and use them to deliver meaningful content.
 



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