A common saying in marketing is “Know your audience” which sounds great, but how do you get to know your audience on Twitter?  As one of my favorite cartoons, GI Joe used to say: “Knowing is half the battle.”  Here are 3 simple ways to know your Twitter audience:

1. Use Twitter’s Analytics Page.

Twitter actually provides free analytics to all users, but not everyone takes advantage of it. There are multiple tabs to examine including an overview, demographics, lifestyle, consumer behavior, and mobile footprint.  Within these tabs is actually quite a bit of information.  You can learn about your audience’s occupations, interests, income, gender, political affiliation, buying styles, country and region, etc.  This is the quickest, easiest way to learn information about your audience on Twitter.  I’ve included a couple of images from my own Twitter analytics page below.

     2. Read The Profiles of Your Followers.

When someone follows you take a moment to read their profile.  This may seem obvious, but it’s actually really helpful.  There is a very limited number of characters in the profile space on Twitter, so most people will add their highest interests, at least the ones they want to discuss on Twitter.  You can verify these interests by following the next tip.

     3. Read What Your Followers Tweet.

Again, this sounds obvious, but often we simply glance at a few tweets from our followers and move on.  If you don’t follow them back, you’ll never see their tweets after that initial glance unless they tweet directly at you or you happen to both share the same hashtag now and then.  So take a few moments each day to review what your followers are posting.  You should notice what they are tweeting about and tailor your tweets to those interests when promoting your product or service.

These are three very simple methods to learn more about your audience on Twitter.  If you have questions or want more in-depth answers as to how you can get to know your audience, find me on Twitter at @spencerhudonii.  I’m happy to share what I know.  If you are interested in having a professional marketing agency assist with your social media marketing, check out hfandcompany.com or find us on Twitter (@hfandcompany).