In marketing, a Persona is a fictional representation of your actual customer that’s used to help hone your brand’s marketing efforts.
They’re based on segments of your target customer base and have assigned attributes, characteristics, and qualities. Brands use them to create and steer marketing strategy that’s built on a crystal-clear understanding of the intended target audience.
But when it comes to building and growing your brand with social media strategy, typical marketing personas can make for wimpy messaging, lackluster connection, and weak engagement.
Think about it – social media is sort of like the college happy hour of marketing. Firstly, it’s a fast-paced scroll-fest where encounters are casual and connections happen fast or not at all. Those who get noticed and make friends are the ones who have magnetic personalities and a striking presence.
Social media is opportunity to present your brand as that certain someone who has that certain something that’s wildly attractive to the right people.
Head back to the whiteboard and add some flavor by asking questions that go beyond the same old persona-building template everyone’s already seen.
15 Questions To Help Brands Develop Personas Built For Social Media
- What accounts do they follow and what are their top five most visited?
- Which social networks are they most active on?
- What emojis do they use?
- Are they passive scrollers or engaged and involved?
- Do they want to follow brands that are: Civically engaged? Opinionated and outspoken? Passive and neutral? Engaged in a social impact mission? Champions of the environment?
- What acronyms do they use?
- When they’re on the internet what are they doing?
- Are they the type that bookmarks blogs to return to weekly or the type that scrolls to unwind at the end of the day?
- What is their current point of view on your industry or product?
- What hashtags do they follow and engage with?
- What are their psychographics? Personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles
- What factors do members of your target market have in common?
- What motivates them to take action (any action)?
- What does “fulfillment” look like for them?
- Do they have any major fears or anxieties that drive their behavior?
What Comes Next?
Now that you’ve answered all of the questions (using tools like questionnaires, Google Analytics, Facebook Audience, focus groups, and some good old fashioned sleuthing, aka stealth stalking of customer profiles), how do you put your shiny new persona(s) to use?
First, call on your inner scribe and create a 600-word count character description as though it’s the first page of a novel intro’ing a hero character where the narrator is omniscient. This needs to describe the human beyond their being a buyer.
Once this is done, you’ve got a cheat sheet for who you’re talking to and how to talk to them. When you create content, you now know what emotional levers to pull, what words to use, and how to best leverage each channel to powerfully promote that content you worked so hard to create.
Do you need some help finding that sweet spot? Content strategy geek, right here. I know what works and I might just be the strategic peanut butter to your content jelly needs, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you could use some support.
In your corner,
