Lost Trying to Find Your Ideal Audience? Here's Where to Find Them When It's Not So Obvious (and Where You Might Be Overlooking)

On this week's Ask The Brand Therapist  Personal Brandin Talk Show:

Question:

Why is it SO hard to find your ideal audience?  Where and how do I find them when it's not so easy to obvious to search for them?

(Especially on LinkedIn when they don't exactly have what they do in their headlines?)

Answer:

Don't worry about labels, use these two strategies and places to find them, know them, and start conversations with them.

FEATURED LISTENER:

This week's audience question is from Mike Fesko, PMP, who’s ready to start building a personal brand around mentoring aspiring and new PMP professionals.

LINKS

VOICE OF CUSTOMER MINING - the process of discovering the wants and needs of customers as described in the customer's own words.

TOOLS/PLACES TO USE:

https://answerthepublic.com/.com
Quora
Reddit
Google News
Google Trends
Amazon Reviews
Podcasts
YouTube
Calls/Zoom Call
Coffee Chat
Client Interviews
Online Reviews
Industry Blogs/Publications/Social Profiles/Associations/Groups/Conferences
LinkedIn
LinkedIn Hashtags
LinkedIn Posts/Article
LinkedIn Ideal Clients Posts
LinkedIn Industry Experts/Thought Leader Posts


GET FEATURED
Ask The Brand Therapist: The Personal Branding Talk Show

Have a personal branding roadblock? Submit your question to be featured on an upcoming episode.

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Michelle B Griffin is a thought leadership-focused personal brand and PR strategist and founder of Standout Women Media who positions established women experts and authors into visible industry authorities.

If you're ready to up-level, a powerful personal & PR brand foundation are key. Become clear, confident, and cohesive in your branding, positioning, messaging, LinkedIn, and PR strategy in 30 days with my Visible Brand Authority Accelerator™.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey there, it's the brand therapist, michelle B Griffin, and welcome to your weekly personal brand therapy session. This is the podcast that helps solo experts like you get unstuck and get on your way with a brand that takes your places. I'm super excited you're here. Now let's get going with today's session. Welcome back to this week's personal brand therapy session. I'm your host, the brand therapist, michelle B Griffin.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Today's topic is one that I know many of us face. Hey, I want to put myself out there, I want to build my brand, I'm here to serve people, but where do I find them? So today is all about answering the question from one of my LinkedIn connections, community members and listeners Mike Vesco. Mike is a project management professional who's interested in mentoring people looking to get into project management. The problem is he doesn't know how to connect with that niche and he's having a hard time finding them where he hangs out on LinkedIn, he's done search terms using aspiring or new and he can't find them. And he doesn't really want to pay for a LinkedIn sales navigator, which is a $100 month program where you can really hone in and get deeper, and he really wants to know how do I find this ideal audience that I want to serve on LinkedIn. So, mike, that is a great question. Thank you so much for submitting it, because we're here as personal brands to put ourselves out there, not for the sake of us being out there, but, as I advocate always, we're here to solve, to show, to share, to give all the support and likely it's people who we're very interested in helping, maybe just a few steps behind us. So, mike, I'm going to break exactly how you can find these people without having to use sales navigator or buying lists back in the day. Do you remember back in the day you could buy email lists which no one really wanted to be on those lists? So that's exactly how we don't do things here. We go and find these people organically and we make sure that we're clear and we are 100% clear on who they are and where they hang out and what are the problems they're facing, so that we can be that go to for them.

Speaker 1: 2:30

So, on LinkedIn specifically, there are so many places that are not obvious, because very, very few people on LinkedIn put aspiring or future this. I've seen a few people maybe in the job search category, but if you have a passion or something, it's not something you likely put on your LinkedIn profile and Mike's question really could be for any industry, right? So you've got to go where they are. They're not coming to you. You got to go find them. Here's how to do it. Linkedin is full of places where you could find them, so let's start on some random places. No particular order.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Linkedin events I've talked about LinkedIn events and specifically on the LinkedIn branding show. I break down a lot of how you can do that, so go check that out. But LinkedIn events could be one of the best places to find ideal audiences, because you are going to a place that is usually a specific title, a specific industry, someone in that thought leader space around. What you're doing is showing up, talking about this topic, this industry that you're aspiring, and your ideal audience members are hanging out. Linkedin live a wonderful way to show up and see who's there. So go do a search on the event tab on LinkedIn search and that'll show you both LinkedIn live events and LinkedIn audio events that you can go and click attend and then you can actually see who's there as well and show up that day. Go and comment. You'll be able to be on their radar and you'll see who else shows up, put in a thoughtful comment that would really appeal and aspire to these soon to be or want to be project management professionals. Linkedin, audio perhaps, are even better places. They're usually a way for you to get up on stage, ask a question, share an insight, so immediately all eyes are in you.

Speaker 1: 4:30

In this certain little bubble of space, let's say in the project management professional space, I would also go and look at other project management professional accounts. Now, keep in mind, mike is really niching down to not just project management professionals he wants to mentor, but aspiring those who want to be. So likely, if you're wanting to be, you're going to look for the people ahead of you. So Mike can go and search and follow some of those accounts and mind the comments and see what's out there. So a lot of it is going to where they are and also being a detective and investigating, let's look for clues. You can usually tell by comments. People are asking questions or it's very obvious. Comments are pretty much the best way to see what's out there. That's living proof, living market research.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Go search LinkedIn newsletters for project management professionals. Go sign on to those, go to the comments on these articles and the newsletters and see who's showing up and start commenting, leaving little clues that Mike Fesco is here as the mentor for aspiring and new project management professionals. So, as I always say, we have to put ourselves out there, because no one knows we exist unless we do so, mike is going to be very proactive in going to all the little fishing holes, so he needs to be there, put some comments and start leaving clues and insights, educating and leaving comments so that these people start taking notice. And Mike for you. So you're going to want to be seen as that one who's really helping and starting conversations with these soon to be and want to be project management professionals. So newsletters are wonderful source, so our groups do a search for groups and there is a group for every industry and every topic on LinkedIn. Now, I know a lot of them are spam fest, but they are very good clues to who is in there. Just go mine. What's in there? Find some good stuff in groups, because groups are a wonderful way where like-minded people obviously gather.

Speaker 1: 6:39

You can also think about starting your own Now that, of course, will be something that has to be in your strategy that works for you and time constraints, but having a super niche group on. So you want to be a project manager, so you want to be a project management professional. You could even start a newsletter, mike, and put that out there. That will be attached to your profile on LinkedIn and people going into your profile will see this newsletter title and the description would be for aspiring and interested, or new, project management professionals. So, essentially, might, you are carving your brand with the clues that you're putting out and then you're going to find clues To find each other you, the mentor, and then the people who need a mentor, the aspiring professionals who need your help.

Speaker 1: 7:30

You're also going to want to do searches by hashtags. Now there's some talk that hashtags. They may be tinkering with them, but look, I'm still seeing as of today's recording. I am still seeing hashtags that I am following up here in my feed. I really hope that they don't give up hashtags, because that is the number one way that I go and search and it's market research for me. If anything, it categorizes our content and that's why I've always used it. I'm not sure if it gives us more reach or not, but it helps us find content. So do some searches on that.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Now you're also going to go want to look for associations that cater to product management professionals. If you're interested in getting in this industry any industry, of course you're going to seek out the industry authorities, and I'm sure your space has quite a few. Another area are LinkedIn company pages that have direct education, periphery support, third party people that support this. These are all the places if you're interested in something, you're going to flock to. So, mike, you get in the idea. You got to put the clues out that you're here for them and then go find them. Now, if LinkedIn isn't your place where you hang out, this definitely applies to Facebook, even Instagram. Facebook is wonderful because there are Facebook groups so you can go search them out there. I know, Mike, you want to stay in LinkedIn, but definitely want to look and see what's out there. We're being detectives here. So, mike, as you get more involved and you realize this isn't too hard, and when you realize they're not going to say aspiring a new, they're just going to be super interested, because I know you want to mentor people who are very interested and very dedicated and if you're really interested in a topic and want to go in a new industry, those people that are taking initiative in action and doing the things that I'm mentioning. Going to these places. They're likely your ideal audience because they're super interested. So you're going to want to leave the clues, put out content as best you can and just start looking for these people.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Now. Number two is now that you are finding them. You've got to identify what are the questions they have. Now, my, you are seasoned project management professional. I know you know yourself. But, like many of us into our careers and professions, we start having what I call the curse of knowledge. What is so easy to us? We forget what it's like for the beginner stage. So I always say it is so smart to go to some market research and see what our ideal audience is thinking, and that's where you're also gonna go. Look in all these places and keep your eyes and ears open and take notes. What is the language where, the questions that they're asking. If you can gather all those questions, that content galore for you, mike.

Speaker 1: 10:25

So go do that voice of customer research on linkedin, facebook, I'm sure, tick, tock social media. You're gonna find so much. There are so many places and I'll add a link in the show notes some of the places that I recommend when I work with my clients to go mine. What's out there? You're going to be proactive and then you're gonna get the real clues because, bingo, they found you and now you know exactly what their stages and what their questions are. And so there you go, you can just start the process of getting out there, position yourself as a mentor for these people and, of course, sharing your insight, sharing your story, sharing what you know, so that you could help them father along, and that's why we get out there. We're here to help that person and we're here to help them get the transformation they're seeking right with our service or product, whatever. So you're gonna be out there, educated, inspiring, teaching them. Sharing your lessons, especially, is so important now, how I do this, why I do this versus how to. So that's definitely something you want to concentrate on now.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Of course, you could go offline to network events, conferences, all the places that you know In real life your people hang out. You want to really hone in on that and to start conversations, because that is how we get to the next stage. Just have a conversation. So, like, I really want to thank you and shout you out for submitting this thoughtful. Here's what I suggest for today's session lesson. So, like Mike, he's really knowing who he wants to serve. So write down who are you here to serve.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Now the number one problem I see people not getting traction because they're way too broad. Now you can go back a few episodes when I introduce my narrow lane concept. Mike is really niche down because he's helping beginner or aspiring project management professionals. He's not trying to help those already there, he's trying to help those wanting to be the whole different Way to position yourself, position your content. All the things you're gonna do is gonna be completely different for the beginner stage. So write down who you're here and how narrow can you get. What is the angle you're gonna take if it's a broad topic? So, mike, you've done that really well.

Speaker 1: 12:46

And the number two, the action item, is go write down and know exactly the things they want to know they're having questions about and also how they talk about it. Many of us, as we get into our professions and we start talking in jargon and our language at the advanced stage is sometimes different than the beginner stage. So when you're doing that research I just mentioned, you're gonna get a lot of clues. So you're gonna arm yourself and exactly your narrow lane, who you're here for and now you know where to find them and exactly to look for the clues when you do so. Again, mike, thank you so much for this insightful question and hey, I have a question for you. Listening here, I know many of you probably have a similar question and that's what asks the brand therapist, the personal branding talk show, is all about.

Speaker 1: 13:37

If you have a question and you would like me to answer it on air and shout you out, or you can be anonymous, there's a link in the show notes submit your question and I will answer it on air in a future episode. So please send those in. I am looking forward to helping you get unstuck. Another thing I've added to the Ask the Brand Therapist is I am looking forward to interviewing expert guests. So if you are an expert guest in a field, that can answer a personal branding question head on to the show notes, because I've got a link for you there too. I'm actually now, for the most part, recording my expert guest sessions on LinkedIn lives on Wednesday, so please join us there, and then, of course, you'll find it here on the replay. So that has been tremendous in retooling this to Ask the Brand Therapist as a personal branding talk show, using your questions and interviewing expert guests. I would be so honored if you could go to Apple Podcasts and give this a rating and a review so I can get it out to even more people.

Speaker 1: 14:39

All right, everyone. That's it for today's personal branding therapy session and, as always, keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share and people to impact. I'll catch you next week. Take care. That's a wrap for today's brand therapy session. Need help with your personal branding journey? Then head on over to the brandtherapistio and grab my free resources to get going today with your brand. And until next time, keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share and people to impact. Take care, everyone. I'll talk to you soon.