Targeting a Niche Market on Social Media
Posted by Visceral Concepts on Friday, June 30, 2017
Targeting a niche market is an incredibly effective way to make sure your business gains traction, especially in the early days. And because Facebook is one of the best ways to reach millions of people within that market at very little cost to you, you’d have to be a fool to ignore it.
But how do you put them together?
That’s the hard part about Facebook, isn’t it? How do you use it to target exactly the people you want to make customers of? Is there a simple way? I wanted to jump in to that today and help you figure out exactly what you need to do to catch a niche market’s attention on Facebook.
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Targeting A Niche Market Is A Mysterious Process For Many
Recently, on another social site, I was asked the following question. “What is the best way to get a return on advertising when trying to market to niche businesses through Facebook or other social media sites?” Oddly, that was already a topic I had been researching for another client.
I’ve said before, when I get a lot of the same question, it’s time to write about it.
This is one of those topics that gets really underdiscussed, too. Yes, there are a few other articles out there, but most of them are weirdly geared towards a specific type of business. That’s not too helpful for most, unless you happen to be in that business.
It’s Time To Find That Niche Market On Facebook
If you want to target a niche market on Facebook, you need actionable steps. That’s why we put this article together with small business owners in mind. You see, I’m not interested in making some technically difficult article that you simply can’t follow. I want to make something that’s easy to grasp and use.
Otherwise, these steps are useless to you.
Know Your Market
I’m going to operate under the assumption that you aren’t totally clueless about your target market. You have a pretty good idea about who you’re looking to sell to. But now I want to challenge you.
Find out what their common interests are. That cliché about birds exists for a reason. Similar people share similar interests. You’ll find your target market has more in common than their need for your product. Use those similarities to determine everything you need for the next step.
Facebook offers you a ton of this information in your insights panel. However, you may want more information. I suggest a psychographic data gathering service like FullContact. They’ll provide you with way more data than you could gather from a casual stroll thru Facebook.
Build A Solid Content Strategy
Now that you know the details about your target niche market, you can start to speak their language. Create content – blog articles, emails, social media posts, etc – that answers the questions they’re asking.
More importantly, make sure the content is relatable. Make it use slang and phrases attached to the niche. Comment on issues your target niche market cares about. Reinforce their moods, emotions, and interests.
When you speak their language, they’ll hear you better.
Use Hashtags, Keywords, And Tag People
Social tagging comes in many forms. Facebook has been adaptable, accepting all of them on the same platform. In fact, most social channels have followed suit. Tagging your posts correctly helps to spread their reach and engagement.
Hashtags, a form of tagging originally found on Twitter, have become the standard means of tagging a post. However, Facebook isn’t only interested in the hashtags, but it’s also watching keywords. Using the two together in a relevant way can get you noticed on Facebook’s “Trending” sidebar, which is a great place to find relevant keywords for your post.
Also, make sure to tag people who fit your target niche market. Don’t just tag anyone, however. Only tag people you know that you think might be interested in the content. Tagging a bunch of people at random only increases the likelihood of getting marked as spam, so it’s not going to help at all.
As you build a case that your content is relevant to your target niche market, Facebook will naturally begin to serve it more often to them. Slowly but surely (as long as you’re making good content), your reach will expand.
Share Content To Groups Built Around Your Niche
Have you ever paid attention to Facebook’s groups? There are tons of them built around every interest there is. That means your target niche market is likely to have one. Search the groups for those keywords you’ve been using in your content and join all the groups that fit what you’re looking for.
Be warned, not every group will accept you, and that’s ok.
Once you’re in a few, start sharing your content to them. While you’re at it, engage with the members of the group by answering questions, participating in discussions, and posting things that aren’t related to your business, like a funny picture or interesting article (within the rules of the group, of course).
By building real, solid relationships with those group members, you’re immediately more trusted and liked, and they’re more likely to at least see the content you’re putting out for your business.
Create A Group Based Around Your Niche
Sometimes you need to have a little more freedom to move in your group. Other times there just isn’t a group that fits your target niche market. If that’s the case, it’s time to start your own.
Starting your own Facebook group is a little tough at times, and sometimes they grow slowly. Part of the reason is that the people you want to join it don’t know it’s there yet, and you must get people to share it.
On the positive side, people are far less scared of joining a group than they are of liking a business page. There’s much less chance of being sold to, so they’re not likely to avoid it. Just remember that running a group can be time consuming if you want to keep it clean and make it cultivate leads in your target niche market.
Use Facebook’s Targeting Tools
The last – and possibly greatest – tool at your disposal is Facebook’s targeting tool. You can literally target any number of interests, from Small business owners to millennials, to “people whose friends have an upcoming birthday”. Yes, it really can be that specific.
Use those keywords you researched, plus anything else you know about your target niche market, to select targeting options. When you do, your page’s content will specifically be shown to matching people more often, making the best of your content.
Targeting Your Niche Market Is Worth The Work
Though it may be a mystery to most, it doesn’t have to be. A combination of a little common sense and a lot of research can help you target your niche market on Facebook, or any social network, with greater ease.
The results will speak for themselves. Higher engagement, higher conversion, and higher profits will all prove that taking the time and putting in the work are the way to go.
