You’ve likely been advised over and over again – “your customers are online!”, but that’s not the most helpful statement to say to someone who has no idea where to look. With so many different websites and social media networks to choose from, it’s easy to pick the wrong one. It’s, therefore, important to know where specifically your audience is hanging out online, rather than just ‘on the internet’.

Once you’ve located them on social media, you’ll be able to optimise your social media strategy based on the site itself and who your audience is.

If you’re struggling to work out where to find your customers, our simple guide is for you.

Create a profile of your demographic. Who are they?

Firstly, you should put together a profile (or even just some notes) on who you think your ideal customer really is. Essentially, you’re creating a fictional character based on who you want to be buying your products. You can even actually name them if you want!

You’ll need to determine their location, gender, age and a reason as to why they’d look towards a product or service like yours.

Once you’ve got a good idea of your target customers, you can choose social channels that they’re likely to use.

How big is your intended audience?

If you’re marketing to a larger audience, it’s likely you’ll find them on a widespread, major social network like Facebook or Twitter.

But if you’re promoting to more of a niche consumer, small independent networks – or even forums – could be a better place to start.

Be direct – ask your customers which platforms they prefer.

Try running a survey for your existing customers to complete. This could either be featured on your website, or sent out as an email update to your subscribers. Or both!

Ask questions like:

• Which social media websites do you use the most?
• Which blogs do you enjoy reading?
• What are your favourite websites?

As well as anything else that relates to the ways you could reach your audience online.

Do some technical online research.

Once you have a definite understanding of your demographic, you can do some research into the demographics of social media users.

For example, Pew Internet conducted a survey that states 72% of internet users use Facebook, 77% of women online have Facebook and that the most common age group on Facebook is 18 – 29, where 82% of internet users in this age range have accounts on the website.

There are plenty of statistics like this around, so take a look and put those numbers into action.

While it may take a bit of extra dedication and research to begin with, but finding out where your audience hangs out on social media is a more than worthwhile investment of your time and energy.

Once you’ve established their location, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of marketing directly to your perfect audience.

Have you used these techniques to discover where your demographic hangs out? Let us know in the comments!