What Twitter knows about your target audience

The importance of knowing your target audience

For a blogger – as with any writer, performer, or restaurateur, for that matter – knowing your audience is just as critical as knowing your subject-matter, perhaps more so.

For instance, if I know that my audience consists of newlywed husbands who want to contribute more to household chores – Hey! It could happen! – then it may not matter so much that my cooking skills are beginner-level. In fact, we’re often more open to learning from people who are learning alongside us.

If on the other hand, your audience consists of seasoned chefs, you clearly can’t fake it or consistently make mistakes – or boring recipes that any cook worth his salt would already know.

No matter how masterful I am as a cook, homemaker, or writer, if I don’t know who my audience is, I can’t give them what they want.

Do you assume your audience looks like you?

It’s a common mistake among new bloggers to assume that they know their market. We picture someone exactly like ourselves and write for those people. While that sometimes works, if you give the logic a little thought, you’ll recognize the flaw. In particular if your blog is intended to instruct, your audience is not a mob of mini-yous. After all, mini-yous already know what you know, so why should they bother following you?

The most lively audience, the most loyal market, is one that you’re able to surprise and delight, which means that you might be just as surprised by who’s in that audience.

What Twitter knows about your target audience

Twitter provides an incredible amount of data for bloggers to mine when they’re attempting to identify their organic audience – the audience who is looking for you whether you recognize them or not. Here’s how to gain access to that powerful information so that you can begin to fine-tune your posts to really hit their sweet spot.

How to access Twitter’s Audience Analytics

1. Sign in to Twitter.
2. From your Profile drop down box in the upper right corner, select Analytics.
3. Select Audience from the tabs at the top of your Analytics window.

What you’ll learn about your target market

Their demographics

Here, you’ll learn the most common languages spoken by your followers as well as the countries and regions in which they live. If you discover that a healthy portion of your audience speaks Spanish, you might decide to bone up on your own language skills and incorporate some Latin spice in your posts. Likewise, if you discover that a large number of your followers live in the Northeast while you’re all the way in the Southwest, you might take that number into consideration during their longer, colder months and include some yummy stews for chilly weather even though you’re feeling the spring in your heart.

Their interests

This tab adds TV genres alongside interests.  Imagine that you discover your followers love sci fi novels. Can you think of fun ways to occasionally sprinkle in a bit of stardust to tantalize them? If you discover that your followers are interested in gardening, you may want to include more recipes with fresh ingredients that can be pulled from the common kitchen garden plot.  If your followers are into sports, you might remember to include some recipes for game day.

Their internet access

Yes, even this should be taken into consideration as you plan for your audience. If the majority of your market use iOS devices to access Twitter, there’s a good chance they also use these devices for reading and sharing blog posts. Make sure that your site is mobile-friendly so that your posts look just as vibrant on a small screen as a large one.

Twitter offers powerful insight into your followers, and understanding the people who are already following you on Twitter should help you understand your market. These are your people even if you didn’t recognize them. Remember when you’re using these analytics that the platform offers one more way to find out what your followers want: ask them!

How are you using social media to get to know your audience better?