By leveraging the data that consumers provide on social media platforms, it is possible to build more accurate customer/prospect personas, thus facilitating a more accurate, targeted advertising campaign, be that traditional or digital.
If you know that the consumers you’re looking to target use social media as a platform to follow; their interests, the interests and opinions of their friends and to possibly air opinions of their own, you should be leveraging it to gain a better understanding of consumer interests and to create marketing campaigns that resonates.
The key to getting real meaning from social data is by analysing the interests of consumers. Demographics (age and gender) are good to have but when it comes to igniting a connection with your brand and your consumer, it’s all about playing on emotion; sparking that interest that will resonate with your target audience.
Here we compare conversations around the Sony Experia Z3 Compact and those consumers talking about the Samsung Galaxy S5 or S6:
The x-axis of the graph represents the strength of the affinity towards the particular brand. The further left the interest is, the higher it is indexed toward Sony Experia; the further right, the higher indexed it is to Samsung Galaxy.
Possible strategies for Sony
1. Strategy based on customer retention
The data is showing us that those that are talking about the Z3 Compact on social are heavily indexed in interests such as X-Factor, Nature and Maroon5. Sony may decide on a strategy to consolidate their own fan base and so may choose to focus on these interest groups (the bubbles). A TV advertising campaign during X-Factor could be the perfect way to reach its intended audience. Equally, a sponsorship of an event that appeals to those in the Nature interest group could strengthen the relationship between brand and consumer.
2. Strategy based on customer acquisition
From the graphic we can see that the interest group for Gadgets is positioned closer towards Samsung Galaxy. This isn’t to say however, that the segment of consumers can’t be won over and a strategy aimed at winning new customers from competitors may target this consumer profile. The many interest groups in the middle that are not heavily indexed to either brand are clearly winnable dependent on the success of the phone’s marketing.
3. Knowing where NOT to go
Focusing only on audience interests that your marketers know (through data or gut feeling) can sometimes lead to restrictive or repetitive ideas for a campaign. If a brand is building a new image or looking to acquire new customers it may have to take its brand into unchartered territories... and if the team are going to throw a lot of money at it, this could be a daunting prospect!
Knowing which audience segments your brand really doesn’t resonate with can allow you stay well clear of these high risk segments which could result in a disastrous, money losing campaign. As a result there can be an element of caution attached to allowing the creative team to experiment in new areas.
Delving even deeper into those interest groups
Once you’ve decided which audience interest segments you are going to target, you should spend some time within this community “socially”.
What are they watching?
What are they reading?
What are they sharing?
Who is influential within this community?
By diving into any one of these bubbles we can gain insight into all of these questions.
Choosing the correct type of content
Diving into the Maroon5 bubble from the graph, you can gain insight into which videos were being watched, photos viewed and articles read most by followers of this community yesterday, during the last 7 and 30 days.
Choosing the correct influencers to spread the word
Identifying influencers within this community is also crucial. Third party endorsement of your brand and message will have higher reach, engagement and be more trusted.
This new age of social media analytical tools offers marketers the opportunity to analyse its audience’s digital footprint on social platform which helps create a message that is going to resonate with the right customer...now that principle has been around since the dawn of time!
By Guy Purchase, Crimson Hexagon.