As the social space matures and companies recognize that they can no longer afford to ignore the “fad” that is social media.
A common theme we keep hearing is: who and where are people who want to communicate with us, and whom we should be listening to and focusing our content development on?
As part of the process we’ve developed for formulating a solid and sustainable social strategy for brands, we typically start with developing a Digital/Social Persona to help guide the engagement and communications strategy. While Personas are common in advertising and UX circles, they are relatively unique within social media as most practitioners will just tell you to “start listening”. While this is absolutely key to understanding and getting involved, it doesn’t provide a roadmap for long-term planning and engagement.
A persona doesn’t replace interacting directly with your customers, however it does give brands an understanding of how their customers are using digital media in all its forms, how they are interacting and engaging with complementary brands, the types of content that resonate with them, and a sense of where the brand “fits” (or could fit) within their online life. It also clearly demonstrates where it falls down, or neglects an important aspect.
In our experience, having this information, backed by thorough data and research, immediately illustrates where traditional communications fall short and why they should invest in 1-to-1 interaction and content development to remain relevant. It also begins to start the process of thinking about what true integration and touchpoints mean on a larger level.
We have a system we use to develop these personas with both qualitative and quantitative research, and with each iteration or new project find new ways to get to know the “persona” of the composite individual we’re modeling. I have a firm belief that with the amount of data we are collectively collecting in the digital realm helping companies make sense of it all and truly understand who their customers and prospects are will become both easier and more difficult. :)
For my social media friends out there – what types of practices do you use to help your clients get to know their customer?
photo credit: Cesar R. via Flickr
written by Tamera Kremer
In considering the formulation of Digital/ Social Persona’s, MIT’s Media Lab recently developed a fascinating tool called (wait for it) ‘Personas’. http://personas.media.mit.edu/ which essentially compiles a infographic based upon online activities and available data on any given search criteria.
Curious to know how the Internet sees you? -type in your name.
This is a very interesting article. So the digital persona is a model of members in the target audience?
Hey @Darryl – saw the MIT “persona” tool… really not useful in any shape or form. My “persona” a couple of months ago was way off. Not to mention I don’t post under my full name anywhere but here so it kept getting me confused with Tamera Mowry… You can only automate so much ;)
@Anthony it is indeed, but what it also does is find out if what you thought of as your “target demo” is way off and you need to shift your strategy. Because we use various forms of research and tools to monitor and distill active conversations and such a brand gets a real view of who it is who is actually engaging with them vs. the top-down, “this is who we want our brand to appeal to” approach. It also distills what the “target demo” actually cares about using hard data vs. more “gut feel” approaches.
I was wondering if you could expand on why you would develop a digital/social persona vs. just “a persona”, which incorporates all facets of a person’s attitudes, motivations, influences, behaviours, decision making processes, etc…
Thanks!
Hey Amrita,
We focus on the digital & social aspects so we can dive deeper & broader in that area specifically, vs. going too broad, although it really does encompass a large area of life, and as you mention, motivations, behaviours etc. because the lines have blurred between what you do online and “in real life”.