How to define your target audience

Age: What age group will your audience most likely be?

Top tip: Millennials (20 – 30-year-olds) will often interact with businesses through social media in a very different way to their parents (40 – 50-year-olds). Millennials are likely to be more active throughout the day on their smartphone, whereas their parents may only access social media once or twice a week and may prefer to use their desktop computer.

Gender: Are they mostly men or women or is there an equal split?

Men and women often have different tastes and preferences, meaning a focus on one over the other could be useful to establish early on.

Location: Does your business rely on customers coming into your store or can they make purchases online? If you rely heavily on them coming to you, make sure you adapt your social media activity to those who are local to you.

For example: It is no use advertising your beauty store in Mumbai to an audience in Bangalore. They are unlikely to visit if it’s too far away!

Language: Which language(s) do they speak?

To improve your reach and engage more customers in a multilingual area, translate your content into the most widely used languages. Think about which language(s) your audience speak and tailor your content to them. While some social channels automatically translate – not all can. To be safe, check twice before posting.

Occupation and income: Are your customers mostly university students, housewives or busy working professionals? You can learn a lot about your audience’s buying behavior by looking at their occupation and income.

Top tip: Working professionals are known to access social media during their commute to and from work. To capture their attention, try to post during the morning or evening.

Marital or family status: Are your customers mostly married? Do they have children, and if so, what age?

Understanding this may reveal some interesting insights into what really moves your audience to take action.

on Twitter. He finds he gets more followers and more dads start bringing their sons with them to have a haircut together.

Keywords :

·         Demographics will help to ensure you target the right type of people (age, gender, location)

·         Psychographics will help to ensure you deliver the right type of content, using the right channels (based on their needs, interests and lifestyle)