No Target Audience Who is your target audience? Have to think about that one? Well that’s a big problem since everything in the social media world revolves around this one piece of critical information. If you want to waste an enormous amount of time with social media just skip this step… most do. Knowing the target audience is the whole point of market research and the hundreds of millions spent on it annually. It is really that important. If you do not see everything through your target customers eyes you will never be able to speak directly to them in their language. Once you really understand your customer you can speak to their deepest desires, fears and wants in a way so powerful they will be drawn to your every word.

Social Media ManagementSocial Media Management helps you understand your target audience. Knowing and understanding your target audience is a process of continual adjustment and fine tuning. The current events of a day can change the mindset of your audience and you must be able to take a fluid approach to communicating with them. Many smaller companies consider themselves to be the target customer of their own products. This can be a big advantage when true but often its not the case. There is nothing more dangerous than a company that falsely believes they understand their target customers. It leads to developing products that never sell. Take a moment to identify the following information about your target audience:

Name the Target Audience: (seriously name it! preferrably one that gives you a mental image of the typical customer) Is Age important? Than list a range: Is sex important? Than list it: Is Geographic location important? Than list it: Main interests around your product: Main interests away from your product: Problems they are experiencing: How much pain are they in from these problems? Can you solve one or more of these problems? Do they even know they have this problem? How do they describe the problem?

What are the main fears behind this problem? What are the main frustrations around each problem? What words do they use to describe the problems? What do they want…or want to eliminate? OK, this should give you a better handle on who your target customer is and the deeper motivations they have. Don’t forget if they don’t think they have a problem and are not looking for a solution its an uphill battle to have to explain to them they have the problem in the first place. Yes, you are right… in order to answer the questions above you may need to actually speak with a few current or prospective customers! Armed with this information you may have just avoided Deadly Mistake number 1