Feeling Out Your Audience

9 Aug

As a social media marketer, your job is to get your audience’s attention and keep it. Whether you are doing it through Facebook or other platforms, the goals remain the same. Always keep that in mind. However, while the fundamental goal is clear, getting it consistently is always a challenge. One important factor is getting your audience emotionally invested. If you can engage your audience on the emotional level, the world is your oyster!

But how do you keep your audiences emotionally connected? What can you do to keep things both personal and professional? Are there constants that you can always rely on to achieve this? Let us take a look!

Why is Emotional Content an Important Social Media Marketing Factor?

Have you ever read a book or perhaps watched a movie and then find yourself wanting more? Even after you have finished reading or watching, you feel it was not enough. Perhaps it was the interesting characters? Maybe it was the plotline that drew you in? Or could it be the immersive world and vivid settings that kept you glued?

Regardless of which part of the content it was, the key takeaway is that you were not just entertained. You were emotionally transfixed with what you read or watched. The basic principle of the goals with social media marketing works the same way.

Even the most intellectual person in the world is affected by their emotional stimuli. Emotions are what drives humans to do things more than reason.  Remember, emotions run the gamut from happiness and love, to hunger and desire, to anger and curiosity.

Now, the trick is capitalizing on your audience’s emotion in order to promote your client’s or your own business’s brand.

What Emotional Content Can You Work With?

The simple answer is ANY EMOTION can be turned to your advantage in drawing and keeping your audience’s attention. Note that while any emotional content can be used in marketing, you have to be careful with how you do so. It is a double-edged sword that can easily turn sideways if you do not execute it fairly well.

With that said, here are the broad emotions that you should consider when developing content for marketing your brand on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and other popular Social Media Platforms today:

  • Amusement –

    This is pretty self-explanatory. The entire “meme” subculture on the internet is based on this emotion. Think about it: why do most memes get a person’s attention at the basic level? It is because the person who sees and reads the meme finds it amusing to some degree. If touches the so-called “funny bone” of your audience, you have a winner!

 

The thing with amusement is, you have to keep it in-line with your brand, product, or service. Just because a cat picture is always attention grabbing does not guarantee your audience will get emotionally connected with your marketing efforts.

 

  • Empathy –

    This is a little tricky. Empathy is the emotion that people associate with compassion and relating situations to themselves. But it has to be done with sufficient awareness of your audience’s point of view.

 

For example, if you are marketing for a jewelry brand, it can be challenging to design your marketing campaign associating empathy with a luxury. Consider the age and disposable income of your target group meticulously.

On the other hand, if you can connect with your target audience through empathy, it has a long-lasting impression. When people feel that the business understands them, that is, as they say, is worth its weight in gold.

  • Anger – Anger

    is a negative emotion, but a smart marketing specialist knows how to leverage it to attract audience’s attention. An example of this is if you are in a very competitive line of business like banking. But if you can build your campaign in making it appear the competition is offering less than your own, that can turn potential customer’s anger in your favor.

 

But be very careful with using anger as the emotion for your marketing campaign. After all, it can just as easily backfire!

Research and Revise

The best way to feel out your audience’s emotional investment is through research. Information is your most powerful tool. However, you must also be prepared with a back-up and end a campaign that does the opposite of the intention. Louis Pasteur stated “chance favors the prepared mind”.

This is why I subscribe to Rachel Miller’s “Moolah Marketing” course and support group. Aside from the useful insight and initial information, the system is constantly updated by Rachel herself. New trends and techniques are added regularly, so you know what works and what doesn’t. Check the full review here!

And come back to Kobrasocial for regular news, information, and tips for your social media marketing needs!

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