Opening our social media every morning is almost second nature for some of us. It’s a place that was literally created for sharing personal facts, activities, and desires. The marketing experts of days past would be incredibly jealous if they knew how much information we had at our fingertips today thanks to social media. In fact, there’s so much valuable data being exchanged on places like Facebook that in some areas on the web people have suspected the whole of the network to be a CIA front. And can we blame people who wonder?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter….they’re all powerhouses of personally valuable information. Information that as social media marketing experts, we can use.
Social Media Segmentation: The Inside Scoop
In no way is segmentation a new idea for marketing professionals. After all, we’re using segmentation to do daily tasks like sending emails, creating pricing models, and perhaps the most popular way to use segmentation: using it to track the behaviors of our most loyal customers. But then, if we’re doing this, why aren’t we applying the practice to something as simple as social media marketing services?
A lot of people assume that social media segmentation just means social media advertising, but it’s so much bigger than that. Let me explain:
Organic Targeting allows you to narrow down on a target audience without having to pay any sort of fee the way you do with paid social ads.
On most social networks, like Facebook, you can filter by age, gender, area, relationship status, interests, and the list goes on. Using these tools allows you to take advantage of the organic side of social media segmentation.
Make a List. Check it Twice.
We’re all familiar with lists, of course. We make them all the time! Especially for things like email campaigns and other sorts of outreach.
However, making a list on social networks like Twitter and Facebook that includes friends, followers, potential clients and so forth is a perfect way to embrace social media segmentation. Let me show you:
By sorting people into lists, you’ll have more time to focus on content and quality because you won’t be fighting so much noise.
So for starters, create a list for clients in different industries, a list for potential leads, and then a list for potential leads similar to those you’ve already closed. This will lead to significantly more relevant conversations and more conversions.
Spread Out Your Engagement
But make sure in spreading it out, you aren’t spreading your efforts too thin. There are several approaches you can take to make sure you’re staying engaged with your target audience:
- Be Visible and Engaged on Multiple Social Media Platforms
But pay special attention to where your audience is spending the majority of their time. You don’t want to be putting the biggest effort into Pinterest, Snapchat, or TikTok and then find out that your target audience is spending more time on Instagram.
- Post at Different Times of the Day
You’d be surprised at just how effective this strategy is when it comes to reaching different portions of your target audience. Not every one of your followers, (or even those you haven’t reached yet) is going to see every single one of your posts. Posting at different times allows you to embrace a wider audience.
- Build a Community
In essence, social media is one big community. But by segmenting your audience out into groups of people with common interests and goals, you can more easily find out how your audience feels about your product, service, and brand as a whole.
Social Media Segmentation is Important for Measurements
Segmenting your social media audience means you can much more easily learn about what’s working and what isn’t. And figuring these types of details out means you can adjust your strategy to get better results.
Start with the mini conversions. Things like clicks, shares, follows, the time of purchase, email subscriptions, repeat visits over time, etc. By tracking these types of things, you’ll know what you can do to make your strategy better and get more of what you want from your audience.
So what do you need to succeed when it comes to social media segmentation? Do yourself a huge favor and pry into the detailed demographics of your audience. Don’t just track the engagement itself, but age, location, all that good stuff. This will allow you to better target the specific personas in your niche that will give you a better idea of who you’re reaching and who you need to focus on. Then you can pursue that audience with creativity and precision.
How are you using the power of social media segmentation? We’d love to hear your feedback.
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