Creating buyer avatars, or personas, has been a successful marketing strategy for decades now, and with the rise of the digital era, numerous amazing tools have been created that can expedite this process and help marketers create more detailed avatars than ever before. One such is, of course, social media and the numerous possibilities it offers for modern brands.

It should go without saying that every growth-oriented company should be present on social media, but beyond mere presence, it should leverage social media insights to define its ideal customer’s persona, improve its marketing and branding, and effectively surpass the competition. With that in mind, here is how you can use social listening to define buyer persona and give your brand a competitive advantage.

Discover your most relevant platforms

In an ideal world, every social media platform out there would grant you access to the active and expansive audience that will propel your brand towards success, but the reality is far different. Quite simply, not all social media networks are created equal, and some will serve your brand better than others. This is why it’s important to find out where the bulk of the conversation about your brand is happening.

Why, exactly? Because by knowing where the bulk of your audience resides, you will be able to tailor a better marketing approach and define the buyer persona. But that’s only the beginning.

Track the most promising SM platforms

It’s not just about listening where the people talking about your brand are spending their time, it’s also about finding out where the biggest conversation growth is occurring – which platforms are performing better than others. For instance, people on one network might be talking about your brand extensively right now, but in the days, weeks, and months to come, they might use a completely different platform.

 

This is why it’s important to track these trends in order to be able to make sound predictions and discover where the biggest growth in terms of recognition actually is. Why not just invest in growing all channels simultaneously? You need a detailed approach that will allow you to invest in the most promising opportunity, as developing campaigns across various channels requires money. If you are a freelancer or you don`t have a flawless credit score, go for personal loans. This way you can avoid being charged with high interest rates or your loan application being rejected altogether.

Gather insights on what drives the conversation

The next big question is what drives this conversation in the social realm, and how you can leverage it to achieve bigger, greater goals. By using comprehensive media monitoring to your advantage, you can discover exactly what are the terms, key phrases, events, and hashtags that fuel the conversation about your brand. This is an indispensable tool for building your buyer avatars.

Not only do you want to focus on the positive hype surrounding your brand in order to tailor your marketing approach to appeal to the right audience even more, but you also want to monitor the not-so-great conversations surrounding your name in order to gain the relevant insights that will help you improve upon your existing tactics. Needless to say, these insights will help you target social ads more effectively, build brand awareness in a competitive marketplace, and engage with notable influencers easily.

Identify the key SM influencers for your brand

Speaking of influencers, they can literally make or break your brand in the digital realm, and you want to master the art of word-of-mouth marketing in order to gain exposure, appeal to the right audience, and build a trustworthy name in the industry. You can achieve this by using social listening as a tool to define your key influencers and their exact personas.

In fact, these influencers, who boast a sizable following on social media, are not only your ideal customers, but they influence and shape the mindsets of their audience as well, which can be an excellent advantage for a brand looking to narrow down its search for the ideal customer. Contact those influencers, establish trusting relationships with them, and watch your recognition and brand awareness soar.

Use geographic locations to your advantage

Knowing where your audience resides physically can nudge your entire marketing strategy in the right direction, as the geographic location of the customer can reveal new information about your audience you might have not taken into consideration before. From the customs of the region, the distinct shopping habits in their location, all the way to tailoring the perfect copy and content to appeal to the local mindset – geography clearly matters.

This will allow you to craft a unique marketing approach for every customer type. Most importantly, it will allow you to craft a detailed buyer persona and give your marketing, product development, and customer service teams something truly meaningful to work with.

Listening to the heartbeat of the market and following the trends in your industry should be one of your primary processes that fuel your entire marketing game. By listening to social interactions in particular, you can define buyer personal efficiently and effectively, and pave the road to long-term success in the field.

Lauren Wiseman is marketing specialist, contributor to bizzmarkblog.com and entrepreneur. She helps clients grow their personal and professional brands in the fast-changing and demanding market, strongly believing in a holistic approach to business.