Audience Targeting

Audience targeting, what really is it? Well, it can be a daunting thing to think about, and we get that! Sometimes you don’t even know where to begin! In our latest blog article ‘Audience Targeting’ we debunk all the scary myths around targeting your audience on Insta, whilst providing you with a few simple steps to get you thinking! By truly understanding your audience within the hospitality industry, it can significantly improve your social media strategy and you’ll be able to better tailor your content to your audience. Take a look at our step by step guide on how to target your audience on Instagram the right way! 

Audience targeting can be a big and scary thing if you don’t know where to begin. Understanding your target audience is crucial in creating a successful Instagram marketing strategy for your business. 

If you aren't able to curate content based on the interests of your audience, it’s going to be really difficult for your content to spark any interest with your followers. Knowing when your audience is active on their socials and knowing what motivates them will really help you gain insight into what your audience wants to see, and this will help guide the content you make in the future. This is Social Fixation’s guide to finding YOUR target audience (the simple way!). 

Step 1: Take advantage of Instagram Insights 

You don’t need to waste time or 💰 looking for analytics sites to help you learn about your audience. Instagram has done it all for you and it's FREE! Instagram provides information about your audience, content interaction, and engagement through Insights and the Professional dashboard. 

The audience segment of the insights is what you need to look for here. It’s got all the information on what has or hasn't been working for YOU and your Insta, and who you can keep targeting in the future to significantly up your game in the social media world. 

Your audience’s location plays a vital part in who interacts with your account. If you run a cafe based in Melbourne, your followers will most likely be living in Melbourne too. With this in mind, you would target your content and captions towards Melbournians. Take lockdown restrictions, for example, Victoria has gone through the most lockdowns in the country, so Melbournians get it, and they understand the feeling. As a cafe owner, you can channel your own feelings towards lockdown through captions and content in order to engage with this geographical location and target demographic. We all feel the same pain, we all want to get through this together. So make this mutual feeling known to your followers. 

The most active time feature on Insta’s insights is also super important. You are able to track which days your followers are most active on the Instagram app. By posting at the most active time, you are more likely to be shown at the top of Insta’s algorithm and at the top of your followers’ feeds. You know what this means - increased engagement and impressions of your content! (That's a positive for us!) 

If you’re questioning your Insta skills, you can always take it to the next level by adjusting small things like posting times to engage with your audience better! 

Step 2: Collect Competitors Insights 

It’s always good to take a look at your competitors on social media, and you can learn a lot from them. Who is interacting with their content? Liking it? Commenting? Once you establish the accounts that are interacting, you need to look at who they are. Are they people from the local area or are they from a different country? Do they work at the business or are they local customers? This could be the difference between organic and bot followers! Answering all of these questions can help you identify who you should be targeting on Insta. By taking a deep dive into your competitors in the area, you can find out what is and isn't working for them so you can learn from their experiences and improve your audience targeting. 

It’s all about trial and error. If something isn't working for you, there’s always a way to fix it - you’ve just got to find out how! 

Step 3: Find Your Local Audience 

Geotagging is a MUST when it comes to hospo! Nowadays, people will search for a restaurant on Instagram and look at their content before searching them up online! This is why it is so important to geotag each post you create on Insta. This way, your audience is able to simply tap on the location to find you on the map! 

Now, how does this relate to finding your audience? Well, by geotagging your locations you can take a look at what kind of accounts are posting in your local area or surrounding suburbs. By doing this, you’ll be able to learn more about what people in the local area are interested in. And… you’ll be able to incorporate their interests into your feed so you are targeting them! (Insert mind-blown emoji here!) 

Step 4: Curate & Create Based On Your Findings! 

Last but not least, one of the most important steps is to create content based on all of your research and findings! We know it can take a while to find your feet and to establish a good pattern of posting and interacting on your socials, but you don't want to let all that hard work go to waste! Now you have all the information you need to engage with your target audience, so go and make some Insta magic!

If you need a helping hand in upping your Insta feed, the team at Social Fixation are only a call away.