Platform, Partners, and People: How Fans Consume Social Media

In the early days, marketing and advertising was about reach – getting one's message out to as many consumer as possible. Then it evolved into multi-channel marketing, as well as reaching not just the masses, but the right masses (in terms of demographics). Analytics have now allowed, to some degree, and demand marketers seek to reach the right demographics via the right channels and focusing on where the engaged audience is.

Between sports bars, digital viewers, and those watching on TV, there were over 30 million sets of eyes watching the World Cup Final on July 13 on ABC between Germany and Argentina. But the fan sitting with his wife watching the telecast in the family room is different from the Millenial watching on their phone's small screen and different from the group watching at the sports bar who barely notice ads and logos.

This segmentation of actively engaged viewers principle works similarly on other mediums – including social and digital media. Certain demographics of users carefully go through their Facebook News Feed or Twitter timeline while others scroll through rapidly, barely able to catch content they're missing. For TV viewers, are they using a second screen during a live event or are they focused on the primary screen, only? It's important to keep in mind how your intended audience is, and prefers to be, engaged and active, and when.

In the end, the mantra to keep in mind is to respect the platform and respect the partner. Know the primary platform upon which your intended audience is most active and when (i.e. during a live sports event or before/after). Know how users interact with the platform and discover and share content and take action on it. Finally, understand your or your partner's main goals and how that can be accomplished once the aforementioned information is identified.

Audience → Platform → Objective → Content → Execution → Analyze and Evaluate → Learn and Improve