Digital world – Know your audience

Last week I spoke at a Social Media conference in New Zealand where business owners came from as far away as South America and Australia to learn about Social Media. Technology has made it easier to use live streaming for these sorts of events so smaller audiences can get information from leading experts from across the globe. Getting first hand information without having to fly speakers down to New Zealand is an attractive option.

I got the opportunity to interview Chocolate Johnny by live stream, a chocolatier from Sydney, who has grown his business using platforms like Periscope and Snapchat. He shared his journey on how he has built his brand using real time video from his brick and mortar store, and told us how customers from all over the world are now ordering his chocolate.

“Social Media can open up your business to the world,” he said. “It has made my little chocolate shop a destination and we have visitors from around the world detouring to the store just to visit and try out our Perfection Chocolates.”

Simon Young, from Syengage enthralled us with his take on WeChat. Simon has been an early adopter of WeChat which is one of the primary social media channels in China, where there is no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. If your target market includes customers from China then using WeChat should be on your list.

“It’s a different kind of marketing, but as with all social media, it boils down to knowing your customer, what problems they are trying to solve and the journey they are taking. You should try to meet them at every stage of that journey,” Simon said. “Even though the WeChat app is different you are essentially doing the same across all social networks.” WeChat has a life of its own and is like no other platform. The app provides the ability for one-on-one messaging, groupchats and the exchange of money. Auckland is an international city and we have a large Asian population so it is not a platform to ignore if you have international customers.

All speakers talked about having a plan/strategy in place and also being consistent. Social media needs consistency to reach your goal. Wanita Flourie, from The Online Academy, shared how people consume information. Some people respond to audio over visual, and she stressed the importance of thinking about your audience and how they consume or like to receive information. Video is becoming the preferred medium to use and using captions in your video helps get a wider reach.

One thing that came out of the conference was that technology is moving incredibly fast and what worked last year isn’t necessarily going to work for you in 2017. Paying close attention to your social media analytics and understanding your website analytics will help you navigate in the next 12 months.