When you think of Pinterest users, who immediately comes to mind? Women! While many social sites such as Pinterest appeal to women, it would be a mistake to ignore men on social media. In fact, according to The State of Social Media for Small Business info-graphic, only 36.5 percent of its survey respondents said that most of their clients were women. Both mean and women are using social media, making it important not to make assumptions. With that being quoted – many of you may have stats that are just the opposite. Awesome – you know this!

Who is Your Market?

In many cases, the sexual identity of your market is obvious. For example, if you sell women’s shoes, your market is primarily female. On the other hand, if you sell dog supplies, your market likely consists of both men and women. Depending on your business, you may want to target one gender over the other for any number of reasons despite your products and services’ universal appeal. In any case, you should know who you want to target on social media so that you can attract the right users to your social media sites and then craft campaigns that will resonate with them.

Start by examining the sexual make up of your current customers. Is it an equal mix? Do you have more male or female buyers? Why? Does it surprise you? Is your current marketing affecting this mix? Does it make sense  to replicate this audience on social media?

Attracting Your Target Gender

Once you’ve determined who you want to target, you can then work on attracting them. On option is to use Facebook ads to generate more likes to your business page and show those ads only to users who meet your criteria. Facebook allows you to specify demographic details including gender.

Marketing to Your Target Gender

Building an audience is just the beginning. From there, you’ll need to “speak the same language.” After all, if you’ve built an audience of men but then discuss issues more relevant to women, your message will fall on deaf ears and vice-versa.

What if your audience is mixed? That’s fine, too. While your messages will need to be more inclusive, you can still run the occasional gender-specific campaign.

Whether marketing to men, women, or a mix, getting a clear picture of who you are speaking to will help you to be more clear in your targeting and messaging. If you haven’t yet defined your target audience, start by at least determining whether it’s primarily male, female, or an even mix. You can always build from there.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC