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

a. (note this is not the real boundary of South Miami, but I chose one zipcode to

make demographics easier.)

b. Candidate's interest and expertise are education and climate change

c. 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.

a. New company seeking to establish brand awareness

b. Tire repair and replacement at your work

3. Westchester International Bank – local area zipcodes = 33155, 33144,

a. Established community bank that wants to expand portfolio

b. Wealth management and estate planning

4. Little Royals VPK (Voluntary Pre-K) and childcare. Zipcode = 33134 & 33144

a. LRVPK is a well known high end childcare facility

b. 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)

ADV4323 Target audience rubric (2)

Criteria Ratings Pts

This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeResearch 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 OutcomeDescription - demographics Is your demographic description complete? (Age, sex, race, ethnicity, SES, family status, marital status, and other pertinent demographic

50 pts

descriptors. If you don't use a criteria then why?)

This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePyschographics Is your psychographic description complete using either ESRI or VALS or another acknowledged source.

50 pts

This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeHow 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 OutcomeNarrow target Is you target audience sufficiently narrow?

20 pts

This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePersona Do you have a persona

10 pts

Total Points: 150