How do you research and understand your target audience on social media?

Clarity is the goal is needed first. Then we can build objectives. If we are working to generate leads and build loyalty. We need conversational, fun, and informative copy. Each post needs a soft call to action (CTA). On social we do not want to always hard sell people. That happens all day everyday. Being conversational in your copy. Identify the goal. Break the goal down into phases. Each phase needs specific focus areas and goals. These can be small. Then we make specific objectives to be met in a specific time line. Then monitor and adapt based off customer and social team feedback. Flexibility will be key in managing objectives as things evolve quickly on social.

The paragraph LinkedIn has posted more or less covers it. Though it's also important to keep in mind what the game you're playing actually is. Sure, you may want Gen Z to buy from you. Sure your content may speak to Gen Z. But is your content playing to the rules of the platform you're on? I'm not talking masquerading advertisements as content. That's basic level content marketing. I'm talking having fun with your brand and entertaining your customers. it's important to keep in mind that customers do know when they're being sold to or advertised to. They also know when they're being entertained. Choose entertainment and you'll get a better return.

A/B Testing. This does require you understanding your audience base. And I truly do mean understanding them instead of assuming based on statistics. Talk to them. Ask them questions. Figure out what they want. What makes them tick. What gets them going on an emotional level. Then craft your content around that and focus on one KPI.

This is standard practice for copywriting and should be 2nd thing that you do after understanding a brand. You need a general idea of what and who your customer is. Every company should have this. You then should go into depth about that customer. Their emotional wants, needs, and why they would be interested in you. Understand them down to even hobby levels. For instance, the videogame Assassin's Creed. On the surface, the customer likes action games, likes adventure, likes combat and stealth games. But from a far more in-depth level, the customer likes history, likes lore and story, likes the dopamine release of performing well after a particular level. That data creates a more detailed description for your marketing and R&D team.

Keyword research via AnswerThePublic is my favorite. It gives a ton of frames to the question idea. You can take this information and generate copy that answers consumers questions. Using their own words.

AnswerThePublic is incredibly useful. Though simply google searching for a particular topic and seeing what else people search for that's related to that topic via Google Suggestions is also a fantastic idea. Not everything has to be paid. Sometimes it truly is common sense when it comes to SEO.

As much as they are still a work in progress, I have found that using AI platforms like ChatGPT to help me develop more concise or dynamic ways to tweak my copy can be productive. While I don't believe that AI can replace the human element behind writing, capitalizing on the editing capabilities of something informed by the entire Internet knowledge base is a worthwhile use of these polarizing tools.

Testing is the feedback key we need for A/B testing. I recommend starting with the hook for testing. If the content is great and the hook is weak. People will keep scrolling. Headline analyzing tools work well. Always include a number where you can. There is plenty of insight on hooks. A word of caution do not over consume and forego practice. ChatGPT is a great tool to look at other ways to say things in the body copy.

A/B is so important. Truly. Some customer bases responded horribly to fear-based/loss aversion questions where as they respond fantastically to gain-related questions. The metrics should be able to give you insight into what works. Again, this comes down to understanding your customer. What they respond to on majority. What they dislike and like. Then simply crafting your offer to aid them.

To make your copy easier to produce. You need three things. 1. Time set aside to write 2. Templates that work 3. Swipe files of competitor content. Then write and edit last. Preferably the next day. Have writing and editing sessions. Nothing beats practice.

To research and understand your target audience on social media, you can use various tools and techniques such as social media analytics, surveys, focus groups, and competitor analysis. Social media analytics tools can provide insights into your audience's demographics, interests, and behavior on social media. Surveys and focus groups can help you get direct feedback from your audience. Competitor analysis can help you understand what your competitors are doing and what works well with their audience. By combining these methods, you can gain a better understanding of your target audience on social media and tailor your content and marketing strategies accordingly.

Once you have data and some broad intelligence, I recommend following relevant individual conversations to understand more in-depth how your audience is thinking and feeling. Things like sentiment analysis are useful for this, but that kind of aggregated data can distance you from the human part of social media. Paying this kind of attention will help you understand specific ideas, concepts, turns of phrase, or style of humour that your audience is using. You can tap into these things and reflect them - showing that you understand them and keeping them engaged.