Content Marketing - Finding the Right Audience

People today use social media like mad. And that's a perfect opportunity to engage the right people with your content marketing program. So let's examine what some of the big social networks use.

We'll start with Facebook, even owning Instagram. These two networks' big advantages are size and mobile. Every month, a billion people use Instagram. Most of them are outside the US and under 35. And several follow at least one profile. Meanwhile, Facebook has over 2 billion active monthly users, and over half are smartphone users. If you're looking to reach people while searching for leisure and entertainment, these are the two platforms to start. Starbucks, Samsung, Disney, Dictionary.com. Market products see tremendous success in these channels.

Go to the youtube video hosting platform. YouTube owns Google. It's an in-house powerhouse search engine. YouTube has a worldwide audience. More than 80% of YouTube visitors live outside the U.S. That said many Americans are using YouTube. In fact, 96% of Americans aged 18 to 24 years. Another noteworthy aspect of YouTube is viewer skews that 62% of YouTube visitors are men. YouTube offers a wide range of videos. From websites, videos, product reviews, comedy sketches.

Switch to a social network that serves YouTube-like search feature, but has almost the opposite audience. It's Pinterest. Pinterest is a visual search engine. Members also use the platform to find product ideas and inspiration. And on Pinterest, the audience is 80% female content about travel fashion, home decor, and recipes.

Now let's switch to two B2B marketing social networks, LinkedIn and Twitter. Over 500 million professionals use LinkedIn and almost half are in upper management. That's why you'll find companies like Adobe and Marketo on LinkedIn. Twitter's microblogging network is not exclusive to business contexts but has strong adoption in areas like tech, media, sports, and politics. CNN National Geographic, and even the NFL, are some of Twitter's most famous accounts. Over 80% of Twitter users live outside the United States, and 69% are male.

It's not hard to see different social networks attracting and engaging different people. I'm just scratching data on people using social networks. The trick is to check that your content marketing social networks have the people you want to meet. Test the social networks themselves and Hootsuite's handy study. Before you invest in using your content marketing social networks, study social networks have the right people. Your effort will reward a dedicated audience, ready to accept your content.