This article was originally published in Dutch in 2012 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.
When we are working towards our company’s goals, there is one thing we should never forget: who are we doing it for? If you answer that question well by creating one or more social personas, it can increase your business’s revenue. People don’t like being put in boxes, yet it still helps to have a specific person in mind when you develop services or products. That way everyone in your organisation is pulling in the same direction, you can set a clear course and you avoid endless discussions.
The success of a business depends on how well your service or product matches the needs and core values of your target audience. Social media give you the opportunity to get to know your customers better and to involve them in ‘their’ service or product. Pausing every now and then to think about your audience and asking yourself a few questions often leads to illuminating insights. A good way to map and understand your target groups, and to decide on the right customer contact and content strategy, is to translate those groups into one or more social personas. Below you will find the steps involved.
1. Look at your current target audience
We are going to segment the audience: divide it into groups. There are various criteria you can use for this. You can segment according to ‘traditional’ characteristics, such as:
- Demographic: age, income, region, household composition, life stage, etc. (e.g. male/female, young/senior, single/married).
- Socio-economic: education, income, job title (vocational/higher professional/university education, average/above-average income).
- Geographic: country, region, city, neighbourhood, etc. (e.g. the Netherlands/Belgium/Europe, urban/rural).
You can also use other kinds of segmentation criteria and models:
- Psychographic segmentation: segmentation based on behaviour that cannot be predicted from the characteristics above. It is behaviour that surfaces under certain circumstances (e.g. personality traits such as extraversion and honesty, and lifestyle).
- Behavioural segmentation: dividing the market based on people’s relationship with a product, such as loyalty, frequency of use, willingness to buy, purpose of use, intensity of use and moment of use (e.g. light, medium and heavy users).
Segmentation models
Models you can use include:
- The Mosaic model: a system developed by Professor Richard Webber of London University, which divides consumers into types and groups based on shared demographic, psychological and lifestyle characteristics, linked to geographic data (right down to postcode and house number). Mosaic is now run by Experian; the current UK version divides the population into 18 groups and 68 types.
- The Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation model: this model by the agency Young & Rubicam distinguishes seven types of people based on their motivations, rooted in ‘Security, Status, Individuality, Freedom, Survival and Escape’.
- The Mentality model: this model by the Dutch research agency Motivaction groups people according to their outlook on life. It distinguishes eight social milieus. Each social milieu has its own values, lifestyle and consumption pattern, which show up in concrete behaviour.
By gaining insight into the values and behavioural patterns of your audience, you can tailor both your services and your marketing communication more closely to them, so that your message really resonates and prompts them to act (whether that means sharing a message on social media or actually making a purchase).
Segmentation allows us to focus on specific target groups. It is clear that the target groups of your business share certain expectations of your product or service.
Segmentation is an important first step in drawing up and carrying out your customer contact and communication strategy.
2. Discover which target group offers the most potential
Because our product or service cannot be everything to everyone, we choose specific target groups and tailor our strategy to their particular characteristics.
To make that choice, ask yourself which target group adds the most value in reaching your (profit) goals. Besides this group, are there other groups to discover, sometimes called aspirational target groups? Are these existing groups, or do we need to think ‘outside the box’?
Try to focus on ‘growth groups’. By this I mean target groups with enough potential to grow, but which also have sufficient volume. Researching your competitors may give you extra insight into where to focus. It can also be smart to look at what similar companies abroad are doing.
Another interesting question to consider: is there an opportunity to serve the B2B market from the B2C market with an adapted version of your current proposition, or even the same one? Or the other way round?
3. Target group chosen → list the ‘customer insights’
Customer insights tell you more about the motivations and needs of your target group. To arrive at good insights, we need to list the so-called ‘pains’ and ‘pleasures’. These are the explicit needs or problems that have to be met or solved.
You can uncover these insights in various ways, for example:
- interviews with your target group
- customer panels
- surveys
- existing research; quantitative research
- user-generated opinions (testimonials, opinions, online reviews)
- interviews with employees who are in contact with customers
- information from business systems (CRM) and social media
Brainstorm about the target groups with stakeholders inside the company. Draw on the experience and knowledge of the different departments (for example customer service, sales and marketing for customer insights, and product development and IT for innovative and practical possibilities).
Try to discover patterns in the research data. Look as much as possible at what customers do rather than what they say. That way you can adapt your product or service to what they actually use!
During the brainstorm, come up with at least 10 ‘pains’ and ‘pleasures’ per target group in the areas of product development, marketing communication and web presence.
4. Select the most relevant customer insights
The brainstorming session will give you a long list of customer insights. Select the most relevant ones: insights you can really act on in terms of product development, branding, marketing communication and/or web presence. Insights that help you serve your audience even better, and that let you spend your energy and time on the product development and communication activities that contribute most to achieving your goals.
Conclusion
Defining social personas enables you and your team to make fast, sound decisions. The benefits of a social persona:
- One or more social personas give everyone in the organisation a clear focus: everybody shares the same picture of ‘the customer’. This prevents unnecessary discussions.
- Thanks to that focus, time is spent only (or mainly) on the target groups and customer wishes that matter. You can set priorities.
- A shared focus and a shared picture of the customer lead to consistent, effective communication and product development, resulting in better service.
- Personas help you better understand customers and their wishes, needs and complaints.
- If you know the behaviour and patterns of your persona, you develop something they will use, rather than something they ask for!
Because the team is clearly focused on the right things and activities, revenue will rise. And as mentioned earlier: you will find that you and your team can make faster and better decisions, because there is no more discussion about ‘who the customer is’ and ‘what the customer wants’.
Example template for creating a social persona
* This blog appeared earlier on Richard van Hooijdonk’s blog, but we are happy to share it with you here as well.*