Module 4 Assignment | Defining an Audience for a Social Media Message:
Assignment
Take your business/client/brand (the one from the SMART goals assignment), and
taking into account geographic area, tell me about your target audience. This is the
target audience for your social media message NOT for the entire product. You
will need to define both demographics and psychographics. You can look at your
target area using either the US Census or SimplyAnalytics to see what your potential
targets might be.
This is the target audience for your social media message NOT for the entire
product. To whom are you speaking with your social media. Remember the
narrower your target the more likely your social media campaign is to be successful.
If you speak to everyone; you speak to no one.
This is the target audience for your social media message NOT for the entire
product. (Why do I keep saying this? it’s the number one reason that people do
poorly on the assignment. They give me the entire target for the brand. You may
welcome people of both sexes aged 19-78 in your gym, but a message for a 19 year
old man, will not work for a 59 year old woman.)
Use the same business/brand as you used for your goal assignment. I have provided
four samples below or (even better), you may also use a real local business. By
using the same brand for all your assignments you will find that at the end of the
semester you will have a social media strategy outlined for this business that you
can put in your portfolio.
You will need to use SimplyAnalytics to get “the number” … i.e. the number of people
in the target area that match your demographic description. This is worth 15 points,
so you can certainly pass without it, you just can’t get an A on the assignment. I will
hold office hours this week to help people with SimplyAnalytics. Only about 3 people
at a time can log into SimplyAnalytics through our library. That is why you have two
weeks for the assignment. If you wait until the day before it is due, you will not be
able to log on. Again, that’s only a problem if you want an A on this assignment.
Demographics are:
Age
Sex or gender
Generation
Sexual orientation
Marital status
Number of children
Nationality
Income
Education level
Home ownership
Place of residence
You don’t need all of them, but you need some.
Psychographics are attitudes, interests, and opinions. An easy short cut is to
find a VALs that fits. But you can just describe these attributes of your target. ESRI
has psychographics, but you need to pull out the ones that are appropriate for your
target.
Use the same business/brand as you used for your goal assignment. I have provided
four samples below or (even better), you may also use a real local business. By
using the same brand for all your assignments you will find that at the end of the
semester you will have a social media strategy outlined for this business that you
can put in your portfolio.
Sample Businesses for Social Media and Strategic Branding WITH potential client
areas. (To help you narrow your audience and come up with a real number of
potential targets.)
1. Elizabeth Marsh – Candidate for Mayor of Middle South Miami. District is
composed of zipcode = 33134. Precincts 606 and 623
1. (note this is not the real boundary of South Miami, but I chose
one zipcode to make demographics easier.)
2. Candidate’s interest and expertise are education and climate
change
3. Candidate wants to raise money, so how many people would
you say are interested in education (for their children) and sea
level rise? Be honest with yourself (and me), not everyone
cares about (or believes in) climate change and a smaller target
is better.
2. Mobile Tire Repair and Replacement (you pick a great name) – service
area is zipcodes = 33134, 33126 and 33144.
1. New company seeking to establish brand awareness
2. Tire repair and replacement at your work
3. Westchester International Bank – local area zipcodes = 33155, 33144,
1. Established community bank that wants to expand portfolio
2. Wealth management and estate planning
4. Little Royals VPK (Voluntary Pre-K) and childcare. Zipcode = 33134 &
33144
1. LRVPK is a well known high end childcare facility
2. Rebranding to service more moderate income families through
state sponsored VPK
You should then tell me how many of these people described above are in your
target area. This is where you need to use SimplyAnalytics.
Define this narrow target (for the message) using demographics and
psychographics. Your research should reflect SimplyAnalytics or the US Census, and
ESRI. Your target must be narrow with respect to age, socio-economic bracket, and
sex, also race/ethnicity if it is relevant.
Lastly, create an audience persona (or buyer persona) which is description of a
person with a name, sex, etc who is your typical audience member. This needs to
include a picture. I have included templates for audience personas in the module.
You may follow one of these or you may do some research on your own to find
another style you like better.
Before you start look at the rubric. You can clearly see from the rubric what I am
looking for and how you can lay it out so it is easy to grade.
Demographics
Psychographics
Number
Narrow target
Persona
Your persona must look like one of the templates, or what you would see if you
Googled “Buyer Persona.” But do not copy the templates. I will not except any of
those examples.
Rubric
ADV4323 Target audience rubric (2)
Criteria Rati
ngs
Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Research
What is your research source? Simply Analytics or Census or
another recognized source for demographics? VALS or ESRI or
another recognized source for psychographics?
10
pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Description – demographics
Is your demographic description complete? (Age, sex, race,
ethnicity, SES, family status, marital status, and other pertinent
demographic descriptors. If you don’t use a criteria then why?)
50
pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Pyschographics
Is your psychographic description complete using either ESRI or
VALS or another acknowledged source.
50
pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
How many are there?
I want a number. If you’re using the whole US (i.e. an online
business who targets the whole US) then make sure you
understand percentage of US population that composes your
audience and get a number from there.
10
pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Narrow target
20
pts
Is you target audience sufficiently narrow?
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Persona
Do you have a persona
10
pts
Total Points: 150