One thing you cannot fake on social media is authenticity. If you try to put across a fake persona that is not really you, eventually people will find out and your reputation will be ruined. Part of speaking your market’s language is not so that you can trick them into buying into something that doesn’t really help them or makes their lives better, it’s so that you can be more authentic and attractive to your target audience.
To be authentic online:
Be Yourself
No one else can be you. It’s one thing to learn the type of language that your target audience uses to describe their problems and concerns, it’s another to try to be someone you’re not. For example, if your audience wants to be successful bloggers, and you’ve never had a successful blog don’t try to pass yourself off as a millionaire blogger if you’re not. That’s just wrong.
Show Your Personality
Only you can be you. You don’t have to be the same as everyone else even while learning their language. It’s okay to be different even as you’re part of the audience because everyone in the audience isn’t a duplicate copy of the next person.
Don’t Be Too Scripted
You want to come off as a normal person using natural language so avoid being too scripted. Sure, you want to get a particular message across, but you don’t want to sound like everyone else either. Understanding the word usage, terms used, and tone of the audience is fine but put it together in your own way.
Show Empathy
Your audience is going to appreciate you better if you can put yourself in their shoes, without being in them. You don’t have to experience the same exact thing to be empathetic, so you don’t have to lie or even share your situation, you can instead just let people know that you support them and are sorry, or happy for them.
Update Your Profiles
Ensure that your social media profiles match your brand and designate you as a member of the community you’re trying to infiltrate and learn about. That way no one will be untrusting and avoid sharing information with you.
Finally, put all that together and use the right language that your audience most understands and resonates with. If you get it wrong, it could be a disaster. For example, notice some of the brands that are using creative language such as curse words if you want to use curse words that might not go over very well with your audience.
By joining the groups, you can learn what you can get away with and how you should speak to your audience in a way that is both authentic to you and resonates with them.
