Fishtank ‘News/Blog’ site visitors will have noticed our SmartInsights RSS feed. We think these guys do a great job of producing interesting and timely digital marketing and social media content.
A article that caught our eye from the feed this week involved ‘Segmentation techniques for social media marketing’ – its a topic that has become more common among UK retail funds managers crafting digital marketing strategies in response to RDR.
Below are some of the more interesting elements of the article, but we would encourage anyone interested in the topic to read the full article which is referenced below.
“Towards ‘socialgraphics’
Consumers are considerably more socially mobile and transient than when demographic segmentation was first adopted by marketers. Also, as a result of the web and social media, consumers are much more informed and influenced, think ‘Tripadvisor’. They have access to greater choice and their smartphones are doing all of this for them, wherever they are.
Therefore, consumer categorisation emphasis is moving towards the previously less popular technique of psychographic segmentation. Put simply, psychographics is about classifying people by their attitude and behaviour.
Using monitoring tools it’s possible to gain deep insight into users’ sentiments about a product or service, whether positive, negative or neutral. You can also track consumers’ interests, opinions and interests.
This form of social network psychographic segmentation is becoming known as socialgraphics.
Go where your segments meet
Using social networks, brands are able to locate their traditional market segments ‘hanging out’ online and engage with them. Self-segmenting groups form around areas of common interest, such as hobbies, sport, health, jobs etc. These are very fertile forums for brands to promote themselves to their exact target segments, conveniently congregating in one place.
‘Pull in’ your target market segments
Some socially savvy organisations are using a strategy I have termed segmentation pull. This approach involves setting up your own hosted online community and ‘pulling’ in your market segments.
For example;
- American Express – One of Viapoint’s team master-minded Open Forum, an online community for SME’s hosted by American Express. The community serves itself, as well as Amex offering support and guidance on every aspect of running a small business. Rather than advertising to the SME segment, Amex has ‘pulled’ or drawn this segment in.”
