Target Audience

The target audience for any product describes the people to whom the product is targetted.

In terms of social media use, a target audience can be composed of:

• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Income
• Interactions
• Attributes of ‘life’

For example, specifying a target audience in terms of age and gender makes perfect sense. Many products are gender specific, and many are appropriate to certain ages groups more than others.

Interests also form part of the definition of a target audience. On social media, users frequently share their interests and hobbies, and so this information is easily available.

Income bands are also important: you wouldn’t market a premium product at those who can’t afford it, and equally you wouldn’t promote a budget brand to those with plenty of disposable income.

The interactions users have made with other social media profiles, users and your previous posts can also form part of a target audience.

Finally, “attributes of life” includes things like whether you are single, in a relationship, have children, pets, or are vegetarian, vegan and so on.

The more specific a target audience is, and the better defined it is, the better the value obtained by marketing to it, as the resources are being directed to where they have the greatest chance of being effective.