Identifying Your Audiences

Odds are good that you’re going to have a series of different audiences online. Some people in your audiences will be those you’ve connected with face-to-face (such as customers), or they may be people you’ve met online via a blog or social media and connected with over a shared perspective. These people respond especially well to a personal touch in your messaging, since you have a personal connection. It also holds that they are going to want quality information, of course, but by adding that personal touch you show that you remember them, which is a unique form of appreciation.

On the other hand, some people will be attracted to your presence online because they just like the kinds of information that you share. These people will also appreciate a personal touch, but only after you’ve taken the time to develop a relationship. I suggest at least checking out their profiles to see what common interests you may have. It’s a great way to build a bridge into having a more comfortable rapport.

Make a point to include these newcomers into your online communities because they will share your messages and add to the discussion with their own informed points of view. Information grows and develops with reasonable discourse, so be generous with facts and figures that can cultivate lively and thought-provoking discussion. It’s more enjoyable for everyone. Welcoming people who may be more interested in learning fascinating, helpful things about what they love most rather than socializing, can add tremendously to your community by provoking quality discussions.

It’s important to recognize that you must cater your communications to your audience. The stories you share with close friends, for example, are probably not appropriate for the About page on your organization’s website.

Regardless of who your audience is, assume that they’re intelligent, but uninformed. This strategy always works.

Recognizing who your audience is and what kind of followers that audience attracts is crucial in building a great reputation online. As you bear in mind who their people are and what they’re likely to want to share with them, you end up creating and sharing really targeted and useful content. Try to put yourself in their shoes.

Every one of your followers is likely to have engaged audiences of her own, whether they’re friends or family, business colleagues, or both. With the right post, you can tap in to a lot of social networks.

Making the case for psychographics

Psychographics may sound like pictures drawn by psychos. However, psychographics really are a set of personality or value-related characteristics shared by a group of people — groups of people, in other words, who share the same thinking on a product or subject. Some people refer to these groups as “tribes.” When people urge you to “find your tribe” and then “build community,” they’re talking about psychographics.

Don’t confuse psychographics with demographics, which refer to such characteristics as gender and age and income-related groups. Demographics are so last century! Seriously, though, psychographics are surely the future of marketing. With more online communities sprouting up every day, I can’t imagine a single psychographic category that doesn’t have a passionate community of people discussing it online.

If you’re like most organizations these days, you may not have the budget to explore in-depth demographic analysis. But through the miracle of new media, psychographic analysis — spending a couple of hours searching for relevant communities, forums, and groups that are a good fit for your brand — makes a lot of sense.

Think about top magazines that most closely resonate with your brand. They pay lots of money for market research. Take a few tips from them about how to clearly communicate what you’re about in a catchy way, and you’ll save time and money.

Now that you have all this great information about psychographics and know who your “tribes” are, it’s time to get busy searching for online communities, blogs, and discussion forums where these people hang out. Spend some time listening to what people say and how they talk about the subject before you ever begin engaging with them there. Since each group has its own personality and culture, waiting to post until you understand them conveys respect and appreciation.

For example, if you are managing the online reputation for an upscale, boutique yarn company, one of your psychographics is people who love to knit. Armed with information, you can expand your reach by doing any of the following:

Perform Google searches for knitting enthusiasts online by using keywords such as “knitting forums.”

Check out the most prominent knitting forums to see what people talk about, what problems they have in connection with yarn, and what they’d love to see in terms of yarn.

Learn the terminology the people in knitting communities use while describing their projects and issues.

Start relating with people on the forum once you have a feel for the place, if it’s a good match for your brand. When you engage with these people, always remember to

• Be honest about who you are.

• Respect their community by only adding to the discussion. No sales pitches!

• Use their terminology when talking about knitting, so that you fit in.

• Treat this as a long-term relationship and give it time to blossom. If you don’t feel welcome, move on. There are lots of popular forums online with different personalities.

Choosing your social network

In the following chapters I explain how to present visually appealing posts and updates and offer writing tips that help your content draw attention in social media channels. I discuss several social media networks, but I suggest that you focus on, only the three social networks with which your psychographics most closely resonate. For example, if you’re a scientist working on solar X-ray measurement, talking about solar flares on Facebook may result in the proverbial chorus of crickets. On Google+, however, more people tend to be interested in science, and you would probably find a bigger audience there. Twitter can also be a great choice, especially if you use a hashtag that looks something like #Xray.

A hashtag on Twitter is the “pound” sign followed by a term. You can use these tags to search Twitter for relevant discussions.

Picking the right network for your social media communication is one of the most important choices you will make. Over time you may evolve and adapt, of course, and go through a number of networks before you hit the right one. Here are some popular choices:

LinkedIn: Good for professional networking and group discussions. Very friendly toward corporate culture, which makes it a unique social network. Offers content that’s fact-driven and less playful than other social media sites. Serious content circulates better here. You can check it out at www.linkedin.com .

Google+: Runner-up to LinkedIn in terms of corporate friendliness, though there’s much more to Google+ than meets the eye. The hangouts feature is particularly powerful and versatile. Hangouts lets you video chat with up to nine people, face-to-face. I plan to host virtual book signing parties via Google+, for example. How much more fun can you have without leaving the computer? It’s also home to more men than women and tends to attract a tech-savvy crowd. Have a look at https://plus.google.com .

Blogging: Interesting platform because you can make it pretty much anything you want for your audiences. It’s important to remember that blog readers tend to be more introverted than social network users. Blog content tends to be slower moving and goes deeper. It’s the perfect home base for just about any social strategy. Some of the most popular blogs of 2012 include

• Mashable: http://mashable.com

• Huffington Post: www.huffingtonpost.com

• Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com

Pinterest: Feels like the kind of magazines you see at the grocery store check-out line. Shoes, fashion, and craft pictures abound, as well as humor and travel pictures. It oozes estrogen. You can learn more at http://pinterest.com .

Twitter: Feels like a thriving cocktail party, depending on whom you follow and the time of day. Many audiences embrace Twitter; you can attract whatever groups you want by sharing content that appeals to them. Also updating your profile description with your SEO keywords is smart because people refer to your profile information more often than you may think. You can see what everyone’s all-atwitter about at https://twitter.com .

Facebook: “The Social Network.” (One of Facebook’s public mantras is “We want to make everything social.”) Sometimes Facebook feels like a college dorm. People go there to socialize and share personal information with a group of online friends who resonate with them on some level. It’s great for sharing emotional content rather than technical or fact-driven discussions. Learn more at www.facebook.com .