Knowing Your Audience

   As a marketer we are trained to know your audience, craft your message and target the dissemination channels accordingly. Imagine my surprise as a Girl Going Digital and tackling the digital world when I recently read a SmartBrief headline that quoted a Los Angeles Times story saying “Facebook is a ‘mom thing,’ teenagers say” (Guynn & Faughnder).

   My first thought went to today's article that I read about Facebook. Could this be why “Facebook Inc. is developing technology that would allow children younger than 13 years old to use the social-networking site under parental supervision, a step that could help the company tap a new pool of users for revenue”? (Troianovski & Raice, 2012)

Then there was relief when the data saved the day…

“Researchers who track the technology habits of teens say there is no statistical evidence that Facebook is becoming a teenage wasteland. Just because teens are using other services like Twitter and Tumblr more — and they are using these services in huge amounts — doesn't mean they're using Facebook less," said Alice Marwick, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research, where she studies how teens interact with technology. In fact, 8 of 10 teens who are online use social networking sites — and more than 93% of those users have a Facebook account, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.” (Guynn & Faughnder, 2012)

Luckily for us marketers, we have ways to track usage between audiences. Otherwise, this recent article in the Los Angeles Times and the few teens interviewed could have changed the way we planned our messages.

   This article got me thinking about who is the Facebook audience and I soon decided many times it’s the same audience as your other online messages. They are just hanging out in different places. I imagine Facebook like a mall, there are always tons of teens and tweens hanging out, but there are also their parents and grandparents walking around too. So, saying Facebook is a ‘mom thing’ is like saying the mall is a ‘teen thing’ – not true- there’s something and somewhere for each of them.

This is why it’s important to know your brand. A study by Facebook looked at 1,200 posts from 23 brands, it found that

"By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand," said Sean Bruich, head of measurement platforms and standards at Facebook. "It impacts everything, from lightweight likes to more invested shares. It's actually one of the most important things a brand can do. People are seeing the content because they liked the brand, and it makes sense that content about the brand will get them engaged." (Creamer, 2012)

   This ties in to my previous post about having a purpose. According to Kaushik, “the single biggest mistake web analysts make is working without purpose” (Kaushik, 2012). So, with the online world changing so quickly how do you know who your audience is and where to find them? By tapping into the Facebook Insight tools that can give you demographic information about your visitors including age, sex and geographic area.

“Tip: Target posts to your ideal audience. If you’re not getting steady, increasing clicks on your posts over time, the most likely culprit is that you’re not giving your audience members the information they need.

To create more targeted posts, ask yourself:

• Who is my ideal audience? Age? Male/Female? Location?
• What type of information do they want from me?
• What are the main challenges I can solve for them?” (Porterfield, 2012)

Now that I am getting savvy enough to know that numbers and data does exist to help me craft my digital plans and how to start implementing them, I’m one step closer to becoming an analysis ninja!

References:

Creamer, M. (2012, May 7). Facebook to Brands: You’re Posting Stuff Wrong. Advertising Age. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-brands-posting-stuff-wrong/234580/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AdvertisingAge%2FLatestNews+%28Advertising+Age+-+Latest+News%29

Guynn, J. & Faughnder, R. (2012, May 30). Some teens aren’t liking Facebook as much as older users. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-teens-20120531,0,5676320.story

Kaushik, A. (2012, February 20) The Biggest Mistake Web Analysts Make…And How To Avoid It! Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/google-analytics-custom-reports-paid-search-campaigns-analysis/

Porterfield, A. (2012, January 20). 3 Metrics that Will Change the Way You Market on Facebook. Mashable. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/facebook-metrics-marketing/

Troianovski, A. & Raice, S. (2012, June 4) Facebook Explores Access for Younger Kids. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303506404577444711741019238.html?mod=dist_smartbrief