Today’s digital consumers are constantly connected, and they’re using social media more than ever to share their views on products and services. Because of this, marketers need to look beyond standard influencers like celebrities when planning their marketing strategies. Social media users have become the new generation of influencers because of the scope and volume of influence they wield. According to a recent study by You Know Media, a whopping 80% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 trust peer recommendations on social media when buying a product or service for the first time. Even older demographics trust recommendations from friends over any other source. With these stats in mind, marketers should adjust their focus from traditional influencers to social media users as part of their marketing strategy in order to capture this audience segment. Let’s take a look at why and how you can do so effectively.
Why Are Social Media Users the New Generation of Influencers?
Social media users have become the new generation of influencers for a variety of reasons. First, it’s important to note that traditional influencers are still very present in marketing today. Celebrities, athletes, and other high-profile figures are still used as spokespeople and are still very valuable to brands. However, they have a very niche appeal, whereas social media users have a much larger reach. Additionally, social media users are much more accessible than traditional influencers. While booking a TV personality or other high-profile figure can require months or even years of planning, social media users can be approached almost instantly. And finally, social media users are accessible to a much wider variety of brands. From small startups to global corporations, everyone can reach social media users. This makes them more accessible to a larger portion of companies.
How to Use Social Media User Data as Marketing Strategy
Since social media users are the new generation of influencers, it’s important to take their data into account when creating your marketing strategy. To do so, you’ll first need to identify some key characteristics of your target audience. You can do this by using social listening software like Sprout Social to track what people are saying about your brand, product, or service on social media. From there, you’ll have access to demographic data such as age range, gender, geographic location, and more. You’ll also be able to track engagement, sentiment, and other data you can use to inform your strategy. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can tailor your marketing strategy to capture their attention. First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure your social media marketing efforts are designed to resonate with your audience. This means including their language, visuals, and other touchpoints that will get their attention and keep it.
Identify and Leverage Key Behaviors
Social media is a great place to identify key social media user behaviors in your target audience. After all, you have access to an unfiltered view of how they interact with others, what they’re interested in, what they care about, and more. At first, you might find yourself feeling a bit overwhelmed. How do you begin to untangle all that data? Where do you even start? First, you’ll want to make sure you’re listening to the right channels. You’ll want to pay attention to all of your target audience’s social media accounts. This includes both personal and business accounts, as well as any niche-specific channels they might be active on.
Identify and Leverage Brand Sentiment
One of the best ways to identify and leverage brand sentiment is to look at what people are saying about your brand on social media. This includes both positive and negative comments. Since social media users are the new generation of influencers, this data can be tremendously valuable to your marketing strategy. It can help you find out what your audience really thinks about your brand, as well as what they’d like to see in your products and services. You’ll want to make sure you’re regularly monitoring social media for brand sentiment. Make it part of your social media listening strategy.
Identify and Leverage Content Trends
Social media users are also great for identifying content trends. After all, they spend a lot of time on social media and are constantly interacting with friends and engaging with brands. By closely examining what types of content your audience is engaging with, you can get a better understanding of what they want to see. With this data, you can create more engaging content in your marketing efforts. You can see what types of visuals are resonating with your audience, how they’re interacting with that content, and what they’re interested in learning from brands.
Summing up
Brands can no longer rely on celebrity influencers to drive their marketing efforts. Instead, they need to look to social media users for their marketing campaigns. Social media users are the new generation of influencers, and marketers need to take their data into account when creating their strategies. By identifying key characteristics of your target audience, including their key social media user behaviors and brand sentiment, you can tailor your marketing strategy to resonate with this audience. This will help you drive more engagement and conversions from social media users.
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