Sometimes it feels like absolutely everyone has a blog today.
This in itself is not a bad thing. Having a blog and social media channels for your business is a great way to get found online and to educate your prospective customers about what you do, and more importantly, why you do it.
The problem is when what you say is dull or boring. Who wants to read something that they won’t learn from or be entertained by?
The best way to get people to be more enthusiastic about your business online is to write about things your audience cares about.
But what if you don’t know who your online audience actually is or what they’ll want to hear about? Don’t worry. I’m going to tell you how to do just that.
Who cares?
No blog or social media account can have impact without a strong understanding of the audience it’s catering to. Luckily, it’s very easy to find out about your readers if you have a Facebook or Twitter account for your business.
Your Facebook Audience
You can find out exactly who your audience is on Facebook right from your business’s Facebook page. Once you’re on the Insights page, all you have to do is go to the tab that says “People” and you’ll see your audience, segmented into different groups.
These segments tell you the sort of age range your fans fit into. They also tell you their gender and what city they live in. This is particularly helpful if you are a small or quite localised business – then you can make sure you’re talking to the people that matter to you!
Your Twitter Audience
Twitter can be a bit trickier than Facebook when it comes to getting information on your audience, but it’s still easy to do. At Constant Contact we use a tool called Demographics Pro, which is a free app that you can use with a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer. It will trawl your followers for information and give you a break down based on age, location and their own interests and profession. It does the hard work so you don’t have to!
Survey your Audience
Now that you know who your audience is, want to know the easiest way to find out what they want to know from you? Ask them.
Surveying your customers and prospective customers is a massively underrated exercise for businesses. It is much better to actually go and ask a customer what they would find useful, rather than just guessing at what they might want.
You don’t have to ask them much. A quick 5 question survey is ideal for finding out what they like about you and what they need to know more about before buying your product or service. You can set up surveys online very easily and distribute them to your Facebook, Twitter, and email contacts with great success.
Once you know who your audience is and what’s important to them you can start creating great images, blogs and social media posts that make your audience take action.
I’ll be covering more of that in my next article. Until then, why not sign up to our Hints and Tips newsletter to get monthly marketing advice sent straight to your inbox?
Author Bio:
I am the Marketing and Communities coordinator at Constant Contact UK. I blog about things social media related (and other cool stuff) and keep our social feeds up to date with loads of useful stuff for you and your business. I am also a part time mountain climber, cricket fan and font enthusiast.
