Elizabeth Dyrsmid
Does Twitter leave you feeling baffled?
Have you ever logged into your Twitter feed and wondered, “how can I pull out any information from these short messages?”
You’re not alone. Twitter bewilders many marketers. You know there’s quality insights and information buried in the 140 character tweets, but how do you extract that?
Here are five ways that you can use Twitter to get more familiar with your target market.
1. See what they tweet (shows where they hang out and who they follow)
Perhaps the easiest way to gather insights about your target market is to pay attention. Watch what your target market tweets about.
- Where do they hang out?
- Who do they follow?
- What topics interest them?
- What topics get them fired up?
This data is telling of what your target market is most likely to talk about and explore on Twitter.
2. See who they follow
You should also pay close attention to who your audience follows. What brands and people are they listening to? Whose tweets fill their news streams?
The people and places your audience follows shows who they want to hear from. Even if their followers are not directly related to your brand, there could be crossover that you can tap into. For example, if you sell a health supplement and notice that your audience follows a lot of fitness blogs, you might want to focus your content on more fitness related topics.
3. Find influencers on FollowerWonk
FollowerWonk is one of the best Twitter research tools we’ve come across. It lets you discover new people, analyze trends, and get detailed insights about your target market’s behavior online.
In addition to pulling together your own data about who your audience follows, use FollowerWonk to get more insight into influencers on a larger scale.
An influencer is a person or brand that your target market listens to and trusts for information. Influencers guide buying decisions and show what interests your target market on a deeper level. With this data on hand, you can start finding bloggers, websites, and newsfeeds that you can target for an endorsement of your product or service. The more influencers you have giving positive testimonials for your business, the more your target market will listen and buy.
On Twitter, we gain insights into influence based on how often someone is retweeted or mentioned. – Carter J. Hostelley, LeadTail
4. See what lists they have (personal and business interests)
Twitter lets people segment twitter feeds into lists. These lists can be personal (for example, gossip or health information) or business related (for example, marketing trends or tech updates).
Watch what lists your target market creates. Research both the personal and the business lists, regardless of which category your company falls under. These lists show where your target market spends the majority of their time while on Twitter. It shows the topics they’re interested in and who they want to get opinions from.
5. Follow the messages of your best prospects
Up until now, you’ve researched followers and topics of interest, but what does your target market engage with the most? What inspires your target market to respond and react publicly?
Follow the messages your best prospects are sending. Do they tweet other accounts regularly? What is the subject matter? Knowing this will give you a better idea of what’s most likely to spark the attention of and engagement from your audience.
What’s Next?
Once you’ve gathered your insights it’s time to put them to work for your business. There are numerous ways that you can take the information you just learned and put to use in your brand’s marketing strategy.
Download our free copy of “8 Ways to Leverage New Online Marketing to Attract Customers” to learn how to attract your target market effectively online.
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