By Avery Baxter

Image by Ibrahim (Wikimedia Commons)

Social media marketing may always be about numbers. Marketing, as a whole, is generally about casting a wide net. But, you can’t just cast a wide net. You have to toss your net into the right area. Additionally, for marketing, including social media marketing, to be successful, you must understand your target audience’s perceived needs.

Using social media to get to know your target audience

Understand whether members of your target audience perceive that their lives will be more comfortable, safer, enriched or advancing if they take in entertainment that makes them feel more deeply connected to their childhood, a time in their life when experiences seemed more fun and joyous. You can do this by following certain members of your target audience at their social media accounts and paying attention to what they post about most.


As an example, if your target audience feels attached to happy times from the past, you might get the most out of using social media marketing scheduling to show potential customers images of your products with symbols, song and book titles that were popular two to three decades ago. Other perceptions that you need to understand about your target audience before sending social media marketing messages include:

• Time of day they feel they function at the highest levels
• Whether they perceive that they are better flying solo or moving in a crowd
• Less material belongings will lead them to greater peace
• Books and stories that raise questions within them, the types of questions they could ponder for hours or days, are highly valuable
• Knowing the time of day that your target audience feels they function at their highest levels will have a direct impact on your social media marketing scheduling. Instead of going with articles that tell you when is the best time to send social media marketing messages to your target audience, listen to your target audience.

Observe when key influencers who are part of your target audience send and answer questions through social media platforms. You could do this by following these influencers.

Using social media marketing schedulers to reach target audiences

Reach your target audience at scale using social media marketing scheduling and, if your messaging is effective, you should notice a spike in sales. At the very least, you should notice an increase in customer contacts.

For example, potential clients might email or call your office asking for details about your products and services. This is a time when social media marketing scheduling could truly prove worth it. Don’t just answer potential customers’ questions, find out what these consumers perceive as their greatest “right now” challenge.

Find out what they think it will take to meet or resolve these perceived great challenges. Tie your social media marketing messages to the challenges and the solutions. Just make sure that you highlight how your products and services help your target audience to enjoy the solutions.


After you get the social media messaging down (link messaging with images and sound), identify when you will send messages. Be open to changing social media marketing scheduling distribution days and times. You also might find it advantageous to work with other social media marketers, as they could help you to cast an even wider net.