How to target the right social media audience

An essential factor to consider when defining your channel strategy is the demographic makeup of users for each platform.

Objective Setting for Social Media Channels

Setting KPIs can be difficult, as metrics vary greatly between the different social media platforms. Also, be aware that engagement levels are also industry dependent. Therefore, the best way to start is by benchmarking against your competitors.

Social media audience tools

Use tools such as FanpageKarma and Followerwonk to find and compare similar profiles to your own.

There are two types of benchmarking to take into consideration; your aspirational benchmarks and your direct competitors’ benchmarks.

Aspirational benchmark

“Who is the leader in your industry? The one whose results are realistically achievable by your organization within a defined timeframe.”

Direct competitors’ benchmarks

Who are you currently similar to? What results are they achieving? The answer to these questions will highlight any urgent issues.

Perhaps, your company has a similar size to one of the competitors, and whilst they lead you slightly in followers, you have a drastically lower engagement rate on posts.

This tells you that your content needs to become more engaging before you attempt competing with the best in your industry.

Benchmarks allow you to understand what “good” looks like on each platform for your industry, comparing it with your position. Once you have completed your benchmarking activity, you can start working on your Social Media Channel Strategy.

If you’d like to learn more about your social media strategy, check out the full online course, from the Institute of Data & Marketing, below.