Understanding Your Online Audience

Your audience online is changing? Are you? Do you really know who your target market is and more importantly, do you know what it wants? Often times we spend and waste time "talking" to an audience that is not our potential consumer. Have you thought about how many of your Facebook fans or followers would actually be interested in your product or service? For example if your content or wall posts on Facebook is geared toward sales in sporting equipment and most of your Facebook followers or friends are elderly people who rarely get out to ski, you are definitely not going to get the results you are looking for. Another example is you own an expensive wellness spa but your followers are all college students that have little to no disposable income. Perhaps you are the CEO of a trendy swim trunk company and your followers are friends that purchase maybe one pair of swim trunks every year. You need to do some reaching out to find an audience that really "fits" your product. You need to find out who your evangelists are and you need to cater to them.

What forums do you actively participate in? Are you offering interesting and valuable information in these forums or are you just trying to make a fast sell? The same holds true for online associations, groups and clubs. You need to find the people that are truly interested in the same product or service you provide.

Understanding your audience takes a lot of research and does not happen overnight. The payoff however is great. The engagement between you and your audience will be a natural consequence and that engagement will lead to future sales.