Reading Chapter 8

For this week’s reading, we dove into the first part of the 8^th chapter of Social Media for Strategic Communication. This chapter was all about audience segmentation and analysis. The chapter starts out by talking about what audience segmentation is, which refers to the process of categorizing people into a certain group based on specific criteria. This is useful when trying to implement content to a targeted market because when people are grouped together you know exactly who you are trying to show content to. The different audience segments relevant to social media campaigns consist of demographics, psychographics, platform specifics, type of social media user, and social metrics. All of these different audience segments contribute to finding your specific audience.

Later the chapter goes into what an influencer is, and influence is defined as the capacity of power of persons or things to be a compelling for on or produce effects on actions, behavior, opinions, etc. of others. This is huge in the social media world because if you can get an effective influencer more people will want to look into or buy whatever you are selling. It is important to remember that brands and influencers have to disclose their relationship or they could be in some serious trouble. When talking about influencers you must know that influencers have built their connections over time, not with endorsements, but rather through constant social connections. This means that influencers really do have a lot of pull in the social media world because they have been working on their connections and building relationships for a very long time, this shows the trust that people have in influencers. As a social media correspondent be sure to cautious when evaluating influencers. Some influencers may not present true information about who they really are. Some people may change who they really are online in order to look better or more influential so it is important to be wary about authenticity in the engagements with audiences.