How To “Talk Your Target’s Talk” On Facebook: The No BS Guide

Talk your target’s talk, or risk becoming irrelevant.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes I see businesses making on social is talking to their community likes it’s 1999 – AKA – talking to your audience (regardless of the demographic) in an old school, sales orientated, politically correct, almost corporate, tone of voice.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for this genre of tone of voice on social – e.g. you may be a bank (adhering to bureaucratic red tape) or maybe your niche doesn’t identify with the colloquialisms of 2015. This said, I’m sure you know which category your business falls into, so please use your common sense to temper the advice that I provide below (AKA don’t do pull a Woolworth’s before Anzac Day).

Now, if you’re business DOESN’T fall into a category where you have to tread carefully, then please, please, PLEASE, at the very least, consider how the advice shared below may benefit your Page’s engagement level on Facebook (and social in general).

Why You Need A Social Media Persona:

Addressing your community in a voice that doesn’t align to your demographic’s lingo will only serve to alienate and annoy and your potential customers. This ultimately diminishes your ability to create leads and monetise your channel, which is the OPPOSITE of what we are trying to achieve.

If you’ve seen me speak you’ll know that on average, the consumer of 2015 is bombarded with over 5,000 marketing messages every day. With so much marketing competing for our attention, do you think a cookie cutter, professionally intentioned, overly sales driven, all caps –

“CAN’T WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND”“WHAT A GREAT NIGHT”“BOOK NOW SO YOU DON’T MISS OUT”– status update is going to cut through this ubiquitous noise? More importantly, do you think this lacklustre content will command ANY attention from your audience?

You need to remember that we now live in a world where our smart phones are an extension of our forearms and our use of emojis an extension of our psyche. T minus 10 years ago, it may not have been considered overly kosher to deliver your advertising with copy that was stinking of slang and smiling pictures of poo. However in 2015, if don’t talk your target’s talk, smiling emoji of poo and all, then you’re fundamentally dropping the ball.

A note for my contemporaries: The advice i’ve given above is in no way to be considered gospel. Rather, consider it as one of the many reasons why your social media tone and voice should personify your brand. If personified correctly, your brand will increase both the connection and attention your target audience gives you.

Related Free Download: Facebook Post Template

Less Is More:

A lot of the time, using too much copy when captioning an image or video can detract from the value that content is providing your audience.

Let’s assume you operate a beach side hotel, where your hotel rooms provide a surreal front row seat to the sunset over the ocean every evening. Because of the spectacular view your rooms provide, you decide to incorporate these sunsets as one of your main, value providing, content pillars on Facebook. This content pillar gets bonus points for organically soft selling one of the hotel’s unique value propositions, nice.

When you go to promote this content on social, the copy you choose to employ should enhance the value that your content is providing, not distract from it. If I was creating copy to attach to a beautiful sunset that was captured from the hotel, I would focus on just using one or two words to caption the image, such as; “Bliss” or “Seaside serenity.” Alternatively, I would just use an emoji of a love heart or a sunset, or maybe I’d use both (test to see what copy and approach works best with your audience).

Remember, the primary goal of your copy is to enhance the value that your content is providing, not distract from it. Less can be more, and in this instance, less translates to more engagement and more organic reach.

But what if my brand targets multiple demographics?

All of the principles that I have shared above will still apply.

You just need to work a little smarter with the way you target your community.

One way you can do this is by enabling organic targeting on your Facebook page. By using this feature, you can customise your page persona for the demographic you wish to target.

How To Target Your Audience Organically:

1.  Go to your Admin Settings

2.  Go to the General Tab (on the Left)

3.  Click on “Targeting and Privacy for Post”

4.  Tick “Allow targeting and privacy options when i create posts on my Page”

5.  Click Save

6.  When you create your next post, you should see a cross hair logo below your input area

7.  Click the cross hair and voilà, you can now target specific demographics

Please click here to be taken to the final post of this series where you will learn how the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm distributes your content in the News Feed.

Header Image Source: Buzzfeed

Cheers!