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How do companies target customers through their social media pages?

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Question added by Dana Qaisi , Social Media Specialist , N/A
Date Posted: 2016/12/05

Thank you so much for the A2A!

 

I think that there are a NUMBER of ways how the companies can do this but I'll limit myself to the following five!

 

#1: Know Where Your Customers Spend Their Time

Three recent research studies show active Internet users spend anywhere from% to nearly% of their online time on social networks.

In comScore’s  U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, researchers found that% of all U.S. Internet users visited social networking sites in December. Additionally, consumers are spending1 out of every6 online minutes on social networks (.6%). That’s up from less than% at the end of.

share of total time spent on internet

If trends continue, social networks will soon surpass Internet portals like AOL and Yahoo!

Nielsen recently released the State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumption Report, Q3-Q1. The study found Internet users spend.3% of their time on social networking sites. This report shows a much smaller percentage of time spent on Internet portals like Yahoo!

share of internet time by category

Note the significant differences between this Nielsen study and comScore's.

PQ Media found the average U.S. Internet user spends around hours per month on the Internet and about 8 of those hours on social media.

 

These researchers didn’t disclose their methodologies, so we can’t explain why the results differ so dramatically, though I imagine it’s due to how they defined some of their terms. That said, all three reports show an upward trend in the volume and percentage of time spent on social networks.

#2: Find Content That Will Resonate Deeply With Your Audience

The comScore graphic above shows an upward trend in online entertainment consumption. Given the growing numbers of consumers ages- who watch videos and engage on social networks simultaneously, it is important for marketers to become skilled at engaging in conversations about hot cultural topics seen in the entertainment industry.

Nielsen’s study revealed that owners of mobile devices are increasingly multi-tasking while watching a TV program. While the majority of people check their email, a significant% also visit social sites.

nielsen graph

Nielsen shows what people do on their mobile devices during a TV program.

The top two sites visited while watching TV are the social sites Facebook and YouTube. This paints an interesting picture of people watching YouTube videos while also watching a TV program. It suggests that people want to be engaged.

top websites visited while watching tv

Nielsen also revealed the top sites mobile users visit while watching TV.

What if your brand could engage people in conversations about popular TV shows, movies or sporting events while they are watching it? What if your brand became a trusted thought leader on a hot cultural topic?

 

I’d like to introduce you to someone who did just that. While he stumbled upon this, maybe you could proactively learn from his experience.

#3: Focus on Facebook—It’s Where Consumers Spend Most of Their Online Social Time

We’ve known Facebook is the biggest social media site in terms of monthly active users (last published as million). But comScore’s study shows Facebook dominates in two other ways.

First, Facebook is the premier player among all web properties in terms of time spent—and that means engagement.

google exceeds facebook graph

Google exceeds Facebook for monthly unique visitors, but Facebook wins the engagement game.

 

Second, when compared with other social media platforms, Facebook has achieved an even more impressive percentage of mindshare. Facebook captures.6% of Internet users’ time compared to a combined2% for all other social networking sites. Facebook also captures% of all page views.

facebook share of total time online

Facebook's level of engagement has progressively exceeded all other social platforms.

The rise of Twitter and LinkedIn as the second and third most visited social networking sites is evidenced by another comScore graphic. Equally revealing are the rapid decline of MySpace and the ascendance of Google+ and Pinterest. (It should be noted that social sites like Twitter and Google+ likely get significant engagement through mobile devices, third-party apps and other forms of content.)

myspace fell from2nd to4th

In just months, MySpace fell from second place to fourth and appears on a further decline.

To highlight the engagement issue even more, comScore shows how Facebook keeps the average user onsite for7 hours each month. Tumblr and Pinterest have also successfully engaged their users by keeping them onsite for more than an hour each.

average minutes per visitor

Tumblr and Pinterest are the only second-tier sites to successfully keep users onsite for more than minutes each month.

A final sign that Facebook is getting more eyeballs comes through comScore’s findings about display advertising.

 

top ten us online display ads

Facebook ads receive more than twice as many impressions as Yahoo! sites and eight times more than Google sites.

 

#4: It’s Time to Take Video Seriously

Americans are watching increasing numbers of videos online. According to comScore, this number has jumped over% to million daily views (that’s roughly one-third of the U.S. population watching a video online each day).

growth in total online video content market

More Americans are watching a growing number of videos online.

Of the.5 billion videos viewed in December, over half of those were on Google properties (.9 billion), primarily YouTube.

With the advent of long-form video content online through vendors like Netflix and Hulu, there’s been an increase in how long users will watch a video from5 minutes to nearly6 minutes. This may open the door for marketers looking to produce edutainment videos (combining education and entertainment to produce engaging videos that keep people watching).

The way people watch videos is changing with the advent of mobile phones, notebooks and gaming systems. These differences are especially pronounced in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

For example, Nielsen found that someone from the Asia/Pacific region is more than twice as likely to watch a video on a mobile device as a North American. However, a European is half as likely to watch on a mobile device as the average global consumer.

daily video viewing around the world

Nielsen found users from the Asia/Pacific region exceed global averages in all four categories of video consumption.

Learn From the Best

Many companies are using video channels well, but many small- and medium-sized businesses have yet to embrace this powerful platform.

I like what Whole Foods has done by creating over videos that have been seen by over2.8 million people. They provide a wide variety of videos including how-to’s and a funny organic love story series. None of these require professional videography skills. All you need is just a bit of training on how to use YouTube to drive traffic to your website.

whole foods market video

Be sure to watch the funny Organic Love Story video from Valentine's Day (already their most popular video after only3 weeks).

#5: Consider the Role of Mobile

PQ Media found that million U.S. users access the Internet through smartphones, with% of those being business end-users. comScore determined that 8% of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

The time spent on social networks through mobile devices is relatively low (around5%), but the numbers are still significant. For example, Facebook found that million unique visitors accessed their site in December through mobile devices.

Nielsen compared how men and women differ in how they access social networking sites. Aside from the obvious choice of computers, mobile phones take second place with women being% more likely to access social sites on their phones.

social networking by device

The impact of gender on how users access social sites.

 

Mobile devices are changing the landscape of retail sales. Shoppers can compare prices, read reviews and get real-time opinions from their friends through social media channels all while on their smartphones. Smart marketers will take this into account when creating content and finding ways to engage customers.

Jawad Azam
by Jawad Azam , Relationship Manager , Interactive Insurance Brokers LLC

most of the companies target their customer through social media as:

  • you should know that what is your target audience of your product.
  • the company may have a social media page where the can communicate with all their customers and can advertise their product.
  • most of companies follow the other way of advertising, like posting ads in other pagers or advertising the product by the help of other pages who perform services on behalf of company.

tamer al-hefny
by tamer al-hefny , Digital Marketing Specialist & Free lancer , Bridge to Market

you can target any customers throw your social media pages by know your customers so you will know where your customer to target them you have to chose the right words and right positions so your product or service will reach them

First of all, you have to decide who you're targeting as a customer, and then move on to the next step. The next step is looking for who might be interested in what you're trying to advertise. It's so simple as you're doing in in real life you can do it online 

Sunny Rizvi
by Sunny Rizvi , Director Of Operations , SPAN COMMUNICATIONS INC

Hi Dana. Let me answer this question a little differently. First - you have quite some examples available as case studies to help you with this question. Try and check Pepsico, Nestle, P&G, Unilever using SM to 'sell'. A quick check of most studies will tell you that there's always a common theme running across all such online promotions - and this theme is determined by seeking answers to some basic questions (see Qs below). Second - There's no one magic bullet that can be identified as the single most effective feature of the majority of successful online (SM) campaigns. Technology is changing at the speed of light and what worked yesterday may very well bounce back today. Companies are constantly being expected to break through the noise barrier and do something revolutionary. Example: Amazon Go. But once again, the common theme that runs through most campaigns - Amazon Go as well - is convenience & easy access for/to consumer.  

 

a) What am I trying to sell? 

b) Who is most likely to buy it? Gender, Age, Socio-Eco status, Lang fluency, online tracks & screen habits (behavioral targeting) etc. 

c) Where - geographically- does my buyer live (location/geo-targeting)? If this is not very clear or cannot be answered accurately enough, there's always the more generic #hashtag (wide net) approach to hunt them out but a specific group/location saves both time and money;

d) What must I do to ENGAGE my customer? Answer to this can be very subjective - so be very careful while attempting it. Tip: Look at it from your customer's POV NOT your own...I can keep going but this should be enough to give you a general idea. 

e) And lastly, don't forget that big companies (with big budgets) can always take a shorter route through all this by signing-on your usual influencers who can do the job of targeting the customer much better (they are already sitting on the pile that makes up a company's target demographic).  

Al Husna Parveen
by Al Husna Parveen , Graphics Designer & Social Media Specialist , Maximus

By targeting the right audience with particular interests. Creating short and creative content with fewer words and more visuals describing the whole story behind the scene. People take more interest in your page if you have a promotion or contest going on which delivers your message as well as engages the customer to participate because there will a giveaway at the end. 

anandhan anushanth
by anandhan anushanth , IT Recruiter , Georgia tek systems

*FACE BOOK PAGES

*INSTAGRAM

*G+

*TWITTER

Stanley Mathew Mbiydzenyuy
by Stanley Mathew Mbiydzenyuy , SEO and digital marketing Director , SEO Elites Ltd

The first thing is to know who want to target since you cannot target everyone. You will then to know where they spend most of their time on social. Consider the times of the day they may be active on social. Then you will consider content that will resonate with your segment which includes, video, images, posts, infographics, memes, audio, reviews et al. 

 

Whatever the case, Facebook is at the forefront of social and should be exploited by any business. However, you will need to consider the role played by mobile in all your efforts.

 

You might also want to consider Social ads. This allows you to segment and target only those your business is out to target (Demographic targeting)

 

Joining groups with your target audience also become handy as well as having a business page for that purpose.

Daniil Shilov
by Daniil Shilov , Marketing and Business Development Lead , Henderson International LLC

By usage of keywords and themes of the posts the social media users make alongside the pages they follow/like.

Mary Kop
by Mary Kop , Principal , Playhouse Nursery

By monitoring customer interests, life style, most linked websites etc

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