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Why You Need an Audience on Social Media
Updated: Feb 7
A Weixin Case Study Analysis
Photographer: Ivan Abreu/Bloomberg
What a more wonderful way to be able to access all of your needs from social, financial, shopping, and much more in one app! Often time we rely on fast and reliable speeds for technology and will take any shortcuts necessary – I know I do!
A Chinese-developed app called Weixin (pronounced way-shin) makes all of this possible. The app offers just about everything in one, including taxi services! A comparable US social media platform is Facebook, however, in the grand scheme of things Weixin offers far more than Facebook does.
Weixin application in-app capabilities – Chozan
Developing the Right Audience for Social Media
One of the greatest attributes of the platform for marketers is the possibility of learning, tracking, and understanding your consumer’s behaviors. With the ever-changing perspectives of the world between trends and fads, including your consumer’s needs and wants, marketers would be able to see how these changes affect shopping, social, and even the decision-making process.
When creating a social media campaign, aligning your campaign with the right audience is crucial for success. Weixin took the societal need to have fast technology and fit it all into one place. They knew that in that region consumers likely did not want to switch apps constantly, or at least wanted to save time. A benefit to this is that marketers and businesses have the ability to learn a deep dive into who, what, where, and why their audience is the way they are. Businesses that interact within the Weixin app will have the tools necessary to reach the right audience.
Image by AW Digital Marketing
As digital marketers, we must look to creating an audience on social media as a foundational step before launching a campaign. Determining the audience can start in many different ways. One of the first ways to do this is by creating a buyer persona. A buyer persona is similar to creating an individual who would likely buy your product or service. Other easy and free evaluations can be found by reviewing your competitor’s audience, surveying your current audience (if possible), and even looking into social communities for trends and similarities in the ideal audience. However, if a business has the financial means to invest in research, a business may be able to purchase researched data based on the audience in their industry for a precise audience guide.
Another tip is to document this information! Whether on a timeline, a spreadsheet, or reporting tool it is crucial to document the stages of your audience and who they are. This will help later for the segmentation of the audience and create more capabilities for marketing campaigns. In many instances, an audience is not the same forever. There are behavioral influences that can impact the consumer’s buyer persona. A great example is the Coronavirus pandemic that left many consumers relying on e-commerce businesses to cater to their needs.
Audience Differences and Individualizations
No audience will ever be 100% synonymous. It’s important to remember while we may be similar to a group of individuals we all may differ in small and big ways. Individualization can be seen as a freedom of expression from the consumer. With this information, we should remember to highlight and understand the similarities but understand there are differences among the similarities.
How Does Weixin Change the Scope?
When we take a look at the impact Weixin has on the Chinese population we can begin to see the ease and trust of having all of the technological needs in one place. Think of Christmas shopping and having to constantly switch between Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Khol’s app to find one product and the best price. Or simply switching between apps to do all of your Christmas shopping with five separate purchases. How much time could be saved if it was all in one place? More than just shopping, the app provides a way of transportation, communication, and even bill pay. Why wait for different apps to load up when they’re all in one.
One of the major benefits that have not yet been mentioned is the lack (or increase) of distraction that can occur. A customer who is almost ready to purchase a product and returns to their social media feed may get a reminder within the same application to make a purchase or see an ad with their purchase for an easy buying process.
Weixin has made it possible to integrate the decision-making process, social media behaviors, and everyday life tasks by accounting for the audience differences while focusing on the similarities they hold together. With this type of technology, Weixin could be very successful in many countries. As technology expands and the demand for faster technological speed grows the combination of platforms may become more universal;. Facebook is close in terms of platform capabilities but does not yet (or anymore) offer some of the options available in Weixin.