Target Audience Is Princess And Content Is Prince

Within the context of social media, which is still a relatively new and young medium,  the audience is Princess and Content is Prince.

Gaining a social media following can be achieved through targeted, optimised paid advertising, outbound marketing, such as email, brochures, direct mail, above the line (promoting profiles), promotion on marketing collateral like business cards, pop-up stands at events, websites and email signatures.

New followers can also be gained organically as a result of peers sharing, re-tweeting, commenting or liking content, giving it higher visibility/reach and potentially enticing new followers.

The question is how do marketers create content that results in interaction, resulting in the above referrals through existing followers? The answer lies in having a well thought-out, researched content strategy.

Objectives

Firstly, a content strategy should be planned with business or personal objectives in mind, content or Prince should aim to raise awareness, generate sales, elicit contact data for lead generation purposes, gain market research, or start a dialogue.  Without clear objectives, a company or ‘media owner’ does not benefit.

Listening Skills

Secondly, the target audience, Princess, needs to be understood, this involves considering the type of information Princess likes to consume, when she likes to consume it and the value it provides to her life.

Understanding Princess is no easy task, Princess is inundated with content, but serving her relevant, valuable content, inline with planned objectives, helps to achieve the all-magical and mutually beneficial engaging relationship, this requires listening skills from Prince and continuous dialogue.

Mission and Purpose 

To ensure a sustainable future, Prince must have a strong purpose, a clear mission or story, Princess mustn’t be left confused, and there should certainly be no mixed messages, lack of interaction or inconsistent communication which will only result in poor engagement.

Niche/ Segment

Prince cannot please the whole family, nor should he try, he should focus on understanding Princess (the niche/selected target audience) and provide value in the form of her favourite jewels (relevant creative content, information, images, videos, tips, games) and relevant discussion that they’ll both enjoy, not forgetting to have a good laugh!

Whilst keeping objectives, a clear mission, story and purpose in mind, Prince should offer variety, solve problems and learn from success.

Self Promotion/ Sales 

Prince shouldn’t talk about himself or sell all of the time, having a healthy amount of self-assurance is necessary, but taking it too far may turn Princess off.

Medium is the Message 

The medium is Prince’s message, each social media channel should be recognised and leveraged for its strength in communicating with Princess.

The Long Term

Prince should be less focused on the short-term (metrics) and turn his focus to a long-term mutually beneficial relationship, social media is a long-term commitment, a marathon not a sprint,  as a result Princess should become loyal, sharing, commenting, liking and re-tweeting her experiences, creating a happily ever after viral effect, sales, sign-ups and subscriptions for all, the kingdom is happy, otherwsie Prince should learn from where he is going wrong through a host of analytical/ measurement tools.