One factor that truly helps drive business forward is the concept of staying relevant with your audience. People tend to stay interested in others which express themselves in a way that is related to others. This is not just for learning more about your target market from the very beginning but continuously staying on top of what peaks their interest. The down side to relevancy, is if someone would happen to become irrelevant their status or positioning may become hurt or start to crumble. Relevancy in the simple sense is the quality or state of being closely connected or appropriate.
(In the marketing world we go by the phrase, “Know, like and trust”, and relevance is part of that sequence.)
This can be calculable within many different spectrums.
-Speech: Not just who in your target marketing is talking but what are they saying and how are they saying it?
-Attire: How are the the people dressing? Do they wear certain clothing for certain events? What’s the fashion like, and how is it changing?
-Social situations: What kind of social events are they attending? How are these events affecting that said niche?
-Beliefs: What are your markets beliefs, ideologies and interests? Is that changing over time or staying the same?
-Other material goods: Do they obtain specific material objects? What’s trending in the that market for you?
Relevancy is the backbone for keeping an audience member interested in what you are proposing.
So how would someone go about learning their audience?
The main way this can be obtained is by collecting data based around the sole field of study you are in and other related topics. This can be done very easily online if you know where to look.
This process is called social listening.
Some examples on the “how” of social listening:
-Hopping on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc., and see what people are saying.
-Going on online chatrooms and talking with others first hand
-Reading books on related topics
-Going to conventions on said topic and listening to speakers talk on the subject
-You could even compose your own study to figure out more
… the list goes on.
In the short end of it, social listening is the idea of collecting data to use, to help stay relevant to your audience. If you can incorporate this perfectly in your marketing you will grab the attention of your audience and slowly real them into what you have to say, offer, etc.
If this is something that you would like another opinion on, our professionals at Real Guy Marketing would love to help out. Contact us today at (717)746-8320 to get started!