Are you using or planning to use social networking media to market and promote your business? Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin can help you do a customer breakdown. How?  They can assist you in your marketing efforts by providing you public insights on who you can and should target as well as who you may not want to.

Do you know what types of personas will cater to the demographic that matches your target audience? The effectiveness of your online social media marketing or advertising strategy depends on your awareness of the personas of users that are using the social media sites that you’ve selected to invest in. The best way to determine the users is to go into your targeted social media site(s) and study, read, and analyze people’s walls, profiles, and likes.  Facebook is a great site to familiarize yourself with, if you haven’t done so already. It’s a diverse blend of personas. The more aware you are of these diverse demographics, the better position you’re in to create a marketing campaign that will captivate your audience and invite them to take action.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re new to the social media space or an active participant. If you don’t know the different personas of users, you may be putting yourself and your business at a disadvantage. You want your marketing campaign to reach all the users (and ultimately your consumers or customers) that you want to target. This requires carefully and meticulously analyzing all the users and what personas they fall under.  Once you narrow down this list, you can develop a campaign that will sell.

You may ask, “Aren’t all (Facebook) users all the same?” and then continue, “Don’t I want to target all users and why am I limiting my campaign to some?” The answer to this will become clearer as we begin to think of all the possible top users of Facebook and why your product or service may only fit a certain percentage of these users.

Today’s article discusses some of what I think are the top 15 personas that exist in Facebook. If you’re an active Facebook user, you may have noticed or encountered some, if not all, of the below personas of personalities.

1. The Crusader/Activist. These individuals are leading or participating in the effort to recruit others to join their causes. If your company is either sponsoring or participating in a cause, then this is one user persona that you should pay attention to. Your cause will appeal to their sense of advocacy. They will likely like your page and follow your cause.
2. The Socialite. These individuals are constantly updating their status, writing on others’ walls, posting pictures, tagging others in their photos, sharing links, liking other Facebook pages, uploading videos, sharing what they’re listening to, inviting others to participate in activities or events, taking polls and surveys, etc. This is definitely a user persona that is worthy of noting. There’s a goldmine here. This persona provides a wealth of information that can be used to attract them to your products or services.
3. The Philosopher. The philosopher types always post about philosophical concepts and ideas and fill others’ walls for the sole intent of displaying their level of intellect. If you have something of a philosophical nature, then reaching out to these philosophers asking them their opinions and thoughts may be good. You may attract them with your mutual intellect.
4. The Trivial Enthusiast. This individual posts every mundane detail of their daily routine. This user persona might not be worthwhile to study or analyze, unless you want to spend the time and effort to filter out the mundane details and search for the relevancy.
5. The Adventurer.  As an outgoing risk taker, this individual focuses on living a fast-paced lifestyle and wants   immediate results. Adventurers are doers that live in the world of action. They’re fast-moving, fast-talking individuals with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm. Their profile and status updates communicate their sense of adventures with posting of anything adventure-related from sports, to exotic vacation spots, to escapades, etc. Isn’t this a great user persona to target if your business focuses on catering to the adventure personas?
6. The Performer/Entertainer. People-oriented, fun-loving, this spontaneous individual loves to be the center of attention, constantly performing for people. Posting for this user persona includes videos, photos, and invitations that bring others along on their fun rides. If you providing a product or service that will add fun to their interests, then this is one persona that you should target.
7. The Caregiver/Nurturer/Protector/Guardian. These warm-hearted people-person individuals take on the traditional role of the parent and always post parenting tips, experience, or advice.  They’re take-charge model citizen, and the pillar of the community, always interested in serving others. These are the type of individuals that you would want to attract with ads that speak to their caring sense.
8. The Artist. These creative, flexible, and open-minded individuals have an aesthetic appreciation for beauty. They are zealously in tune with the way things look, taste, feel, sound, and smell. They have a strong passion and appreciation for art and are likely artists themselves, creating and composing things that appeal to the five senses. Your advertisement, if done creatively, will most likely appear to these artists. Discover their interests and likes, and you’ll discover a way to win them over with your ads.
9. The Lurker. This individual likes to lurk around Facebook, reading posts and looking at pictures, but rarely contributes to anything. Your target customer should include the lurkers. Just because they don’t contribute anything doesn’t mean that they don’t enjoy looking around. On occasion, they take action as a result of something that caught their eyes. It can be something from a posting, an update, an announcement, an advertisement, etc.  Keep this user persona in mind when marketing your products or services.
10. The Novice. This novice computer user only signs up because either they’re curious at the latest fad or someone signed them up on their behalf. The novice can be someone from an older generation or a social media newbie. In time, with regular use, they’ll become proficient in using Facebook. This means that your ads should be user-friendly and enhance user’s experience.
11. The Gamer. This individual is constantly playing apps and building their Mafia or adding crops to their FarmVille. Create an ad that appeals to this gamer’s sense of game domination. If you’re creating game apps, this is definitely someone you would want to analyze and learn from. See how often they play and the types of games that they play to help you build or enhance your apps. Play the apps yourself to get a sense of their gaming experience as well as the features offered.
12. The Jokester/Comedian. These individuals like to show off mainly to get attentions. Think of them as the class clown. They’re usually looking to get a reaction from their witty updates and posts. Like the Performers, they like to be the center of attention. They use Facebook as a stage, eager to impress others with their jokes and witty comebacks. Appealing to them will require an ad that talks in their language. Everyone likes ads that are funny and make them laugh.
13. The Aficionado. These are enthusiastic individuals are passionate about their interests. They can be frequent travelers, explorers, fashionistas, cooking extraordinaire, collectors, etc. There’s something here for every industry. There are so many enthusiasts that you can choose from. Choose those that you want to target for your marketing campaign. Study and understand activities and events that they participate in.
14. The Expert. Experts are great to study. They’re proficient in their area of expertise. They like to share their wealth of knowledge with the world. They may be educators, mentors, professors, or anyone with a specialized profession. They like to post or share articles, whitepapers, news, events, or anything that’s related to their area for the sole purpose of educating or informing others. Choose the ones that you want to captivate with your ads so that they can share them with their networks.

The virtual world is filled with interesting personas. Which ones of these do you and your friends fit in? Which ones do your customers and followers fall into? Are there any other personas that are worth mentioning here? Have you used or do you plan to use Facebook to discover personas for your marketing plan? I’d like to hear your thoughts.