Who is your audience? On your business’s Facebook page (and Twitter or any other place you post socially for your business), focus on your audience and speak directly to them. Make your material relevant and of interest to them. Visit with them. Laugh (or at least chuckle) with them. Talk with them.
An RV park, hotel, B&B, or motel likely chooses current and future guests for their social media audience. Quality posts might include pictures and discussions regarding the amenities, perhaps welcoming a group or informing of an upcoming local event, but wouldn’t include posts about what an unruly guest.
A hair salon likely posts about hair styles or special sales, perhaps welcomes a new stylist to the salon, and shares information regarding the care of hair, but wouldn’t likely post about the various techniques used in performing stylist duties.
A restaurant likely posts about the daily specials, their catering and event options, perhaps posts about low-calorie or gluten-free options, but they likely wouldn’t provide the recipe to their prized house specialty. They also likely won’t discuss whether they should replace their oven or buy a new pan.
Associations and organizations typically have multiples choices for an audience. Will you be talking to your membership? Or the general public? Please, don’t try to reach both audiences with one page.
- If it’s the general public, then limit your topics to those which would be enjoyed by the general public. Share posts made by those in your membership, when they also apply to the general public.
- If it’s the membership, consider limiting the audience, and definitely post on topics they’re expecting (announcements of upcoming meetings, minutes from the past meetings, approaching deadlines, new benefit programs, etc.). Share news from other members, and encourage members to chime in.
In addition to content relevant to your audience, writing to one audience doesn’t mean you ignore or exclude the rest. When I was posting for my RV park, I spoke to many while I focused on one:
- Traveling campers (my primary audience).
- Others in the tourism industry who might share my information with their audiences (such as another campground owner).
- News media who might be inspired to include me in an article.
- Associations and other affiliated groups who would maybe share my posts with their audience, or perhaps become aware of something at my business which they hadn’t known before.
A final note: As you read newsletters, blogs, and other professional material from resources which are geared to further educate you in your industry, you may glean an idea for a new topic to discuss. I encourage you to always translate such things into the language of your audience, rather than link your audience to your trade publication. In other words, employee embezzlement to a small business owner shouldn’t be discussed in legalese but, instead, in layman’s terms.
The bottom line: The content you post should be relevant to your primary audience.
My last blog also talks about your social media audience, so I invite you to read it, as well.
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Thank you for sharing your time with me! Please feel free to leave comments, or share or ‘like’ this with your connections.
Mary Arlington / MMCC, Inc.BLOG 