Welcome to our blog! Here, we explore communication not just as our profession, but as an essential part of daily life. Our posts cover both perspectives, offering insights that resonate with both work and everyday interactions.
When you open Instagram, you see content targeted to you from various brands and companies. The algorithm seems to know who you are and what you need. But what if it’s not about the algorithm understanding you, but about you teaching it what kind of person you want to be?
In traditional marketing, segmentation is widely discussed. This involves defining target groups based on factors such as age, gender, or place of residence.
However, understanding target audiences on social media is more complex.
On social media, people don’t follow accounts because they belong to a certain demographic group. They follow accounts that provide them with meaningful content, such as information, perspectives, and inspiration often as part of who they are or who they would like to be. When you understand your audience’s identities, you can create content that genuinely resonates and engages them. Without this understanding, you easily remain an outsider who doesn’t know how to speak the audience’s language.
In other words: you won’t reach your audience if you don’t understand who they feel they are.
Social media is not just a communication channel but a place where identity is constantly being built. The algorithm makes this process more efficient. When we react to certain types of content, the algorithm shows us more of it. Gradually, the feed begins to resemble the world we identify with.
The algorithm doesn’t exactly decide who we are. But it reinforces the version of ourselves that we show to it.
Last autumn, I wrote my bachelor’s thesis examining how consumer identities are constructed in the Instagram communication of a second-hand company. The study showed that the company’s communication did not only aim to direct audiences to its platform or maximize visibility for its services. It also offered followers ways to build relatable consumer identities connected to the circular economy, financial saving, as well as ethics and climate awareness.
The understanding of the target audience was clearly visible in the company’s visual and linguistic choices. Responsibility and ethics were emphasized in images and texts, but the topic was not presented from a narrow perspective: there was humor, meme-like elements, and everyday relatability. The circular economy was made part of a lifestyle.
When I examined the material from a researcher’s perspective, I eventually noticed something slightly ironic.
I myself was part of this company’s target audience. The communication spoke to me, not because I belonged to a specific age or gender group, but because it resonated with my identity.
At that point, I understood how skillfully the target audience had been defined. It wasn’t women aged 18–30 living in the capital region, but people who want to see themselves as responsible and conscious consumers. At the same time, I realized something else: when a brand communicates values, lifestyle, or ways of consuming, it doesn’t just market a product. It offers people ways to define themselves.
“When a brand communicates values, lifestyle, or ways of consuming, it doesn’t just market a product. It offers people ways to define themselves.”
That’s why social media communicators should ask themselves: are we just creating content, or are we also influencing the kinds of identities people build for themselves? Content aimed at everyone doesn’t automatically fail, but it often remains superficial if it doesn’t give anyone a strong enough reason to stop. Careless use of stereotypes can further intensify this problem: the message becomes oversimplified and loses its meaning. On the other hand, precise targeting alone is not enough if the idea is weak or the execution generic.
In social media, in addition to defining target audiences, you should consider whether your content makes people relate, realize something, or feel.
We are not spreadsheets. People are contradictory and unfinished: the same person can be both a responsible and an impulsive consumer. That’s why demographics alone don’t tell enough about what kind of content resonates.
Data and analytics reveal a lot about what happens, but not everything about why people react to content. On social media, anyone can come across your content—sometimes precisely the kind of audience you didn’t originally consider your target group.
A target audience is not just the object of communication; it is an active participant in creating meaning. People build their identities by sharing certain types of content, using hashtags, and participating in specific conversations. If you want to understand your audience, follow what they do, not just how they react to your content.
Effective communication doesn’t come from visibility alone. It comes from understanding where people want to belong. If you need help with impactful social media communication, get in touch, and let’s brainstorm together.
For your learning.
