Earlier this month, I wrote about researching your digital audience. This is a followup to that post, where I present three scenarios that might’ve happened.

Scenario 1: Current Audience Does Not Match Target Audience

This is a pretty common scenario. You’ve gone through the audit and realized that the people you are talking to don’t actually match the people you want to reach. What next?

In this case, we’re going to assume that you want to change up your strategy so you can reach your target audience.

Take a look at your audit again to see if there are any demographic differences in your fans/followers and those who are engaging with your posts. If there are, it’ll direct how you want to set up any ads (for increasing fans or for increasing engagement).

To do: Take a little cash, let’s say $20, and spend it on one ad. Set the goal to be either increase your followers or to increase your engagement. Set your audience to match your target audience’s demographics. Over time, you’ll see if your ad is resonating with this target.

Keep in mind that there are many ways for an ad to be unsuccessful. It could be:

  • Your copy
  • Your photo / video / graphic isn’t eye-catching enough
  • Your targeting is too broad or too specific

There are plenty of great ad examples out there. Don’t rule out ads if this first try isn’t successful.

Scenario 2: One Network’s Current Audience Does Not Match Target Audience

Maybe most of your networks’ audience currently match your target audience. That’s great! In many cases, your target might vary between networks. If this is the case, I recommend creating multiple target audiences and matching them to different networks.

To do: Adjust your target audiences.

Social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are especially popular among those ages 18 to 24

To start with, you can check out Pew Research Center’s datasets or Sprout Social’s wrap-up post (disclosure: client). If one of your target audiences is more in line with what’s average in a particular network, then you should try and match that.

Scenario 3: Your Audiences Match, But Nothing is Engaging Them

There are a few reasons this could be happening. First, algorithms are tricky and nothing is really chronological anymore. Is this a standard drop in engagement because of an algorithm change or have you not had much engagement at all to begin with?

To do: Take a hard look at your content, your voice, and your posting strategy. If you’re inconsistently posting and always talking about yourself, then it’s your content that you need to work on.

 

And there you go! Some actionable items you can do when you’ve finished your audience audit. I hope this has been helpful for you. And if you need additional help, you can schedule a consultation with me.