According to The Sprout Social Index, consumers across age groups agree that the most impactful action a brand can take on social media is engaging with customers on a personal level. Not merely responding to comments, but creating personalized interactions that resonate with specific preferences and requirements. This personalized engagement holds even greater significance for younger demographics, who prioritize meaningful connections over sheer volume of content or trendy posts.

A social strategy that authentically engages with its audience necessitates listening closely to customer feedback and analyzing behavioral data. Audiences expect more authentic engagement from their favorite brands, rather than canned responses. 

What is social media personalization and why are marketers prioritizing it?

Personalizing social media involves brands examining customer interactions across various channels to deliver tailored social content that suits each buyer's journey stage. This personalized approach fosters a sense of care and connection with customers which results in enhanced brand loyalty and conversions.

According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer report, 73% of consumers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Another 56% expect all offers to be personalized. To meet these expectations and make social media personalization a reality, brands need to look at their customer data closely. Implementing a more customized approach, social media personalization becomes a means to drive customer trust, brand affinity, and revenue. 

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What you need to build and execute a social media personalization strategy

To effectively personalize your social media you need to look at customer insights, extensive data, and automated workflows,  Allocate time for audience research, and ensure resources and infrastructure fit your budget.

1. Audience Research

Each audience is unique. Research how your customers prefer to engage and which personalization efforts would resonate best. Consult trusted publications' data reports, survey your customers, gather competitor intel, and analyze past social data.

You can use the following questions to begin with: 

• What friction points do your customers currently experience?
• What are your customer satisfaction ratings? How do customers evaluate your service?
• What successful strategies can you learn from your competitors and other brands?
• Which tactics yield the highest performance in retargeting existing customers?
• What type of content resonates most with your audience? Which posts generate the highest engagement?
• To what extent is your target audience receptive to personalization?
• Which tactics might be perceived as overly intrusive?

Once you know your audience well, set business goals that match social personalization efforts. Let your customer guide your personalization strategy's purpose and direction, then find common ground between customer and business needs.

2. Collect Data

Utilize a combination of strategies and tools to gather data from social media platforms, websites, and customer relationship management systems for personalized social media content. This will help you understand audience demographics, engagement metrics, and customer preferences. Conduct surveys, employ social listening tools, and analyze user-generated content to gain insights into customer interests and perceptions. Experiment with A/B testing and monitor social media channels for real-time feedback. Track key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. These methods enable you to collect valuable data to inform and enhance your social media personalization strategies.

3. Leverage AI for Personalization

Handling hundreds (or thousands) of incoming messages and sorting through millions of customer data points often hinder social media personalization efforts. Marketing teams instead want to focus on meaningful work that needs human attention. AI solutions can streamline data analysis and provide insights swiftly, enabling teams to personalize content efficiently at scale.

For example, AI tools for sentiment analysis can examine incoming messages and categorize customer sentiment regarding your brand keywords as positive, negative, or neutral. This information can uncover areas where customers require tailored support or feel overwhelmed by irrelevant messaging.

4. Automate

Streamline the processes to deliver tailored content to your audience. Start by collecting and analyzing data on audience demographics, behavior, and preferences. Use automation tools to segment your audience and personalize content accordingly. Automate scheduling and publishing across social media channels for optimal timing. Implement automated systems for responding to customer inquiries and comments. Continuously test, optimize, and integrate with CRM systems for seamless data flow. Set up automated monitoring and reporting to track effectiveness. By automating these steps, you can save time and deliver more relevant experiences to your audience.

5. Test and iterate

Setting clear KPIs is crucial for testing and iterating your efforts. Start by defining clear objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Then, experiment with different personalized content, messaging strategies, and targeting criteria to identify what resonates best with your audience. Use A/B testing and multivariate testing to compare variations of your content and messaging and determine which performs better. Analyze the results of your tests, paying attention to metrics such as engagement rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and customer satisfaction score. Based on these insights, make data-driven decisions to refine your social media personalization strategies and continuously improve their effectiveness over time.

Pave the way for social media personalization

In 2024, it won’t be enough for your brand to respond to customers. They want to feel like your first priority. To make that a reality, you need to truly understand your audience, and examine how you can evolve your tech stack to meet rising expectations. As you build your strategy, make room for experimentation and use audience intel to shape everything from social customer care to platform-specific content.