Know Your Audience: Building Personas for Social Media
A companion resource for the Get To Know Your Audience training video
The following content was originally developed for the Northwest Air Quality Communicators Group. However, the basic principles apply to most any organization or business.
What is a persona?
A persona is a fictional but realistic profile of someone in your audience. It’s not based on one specific person—it’s a composite built from the patterns you’ve observed: who your followers are, what brings them to your feed, and what question they’re hoping you’ll answer.
Personas help you stop writing for “the public” and start writing to a person. That shift makes your content clearer, warmer, and ultimately more useful.
Tips for building your personas
Start with what you already know. Pull up your platform analytics before you start. Look at age ranges, locations, and top-performing posts. Let the data inform your first draft.
Look for motivation, not just demographics. Age and location are a starting point. What you really want to understand is why someone follows you. What problem are they trying to solve? What question are they hoping you’ll answer?
Read your comments and DMs. The language your followers use is a window into how they think about air quality, and how much they already understand. A question like “Is it safe to go out jogging today?” tells you a lot about that person’s priorities.
Make them feel real. Give each persona a name. It sounds small, but writing for “Maya” feels different than writing for “Persona 3.” The more specific and human your personas feel, the more useful they will be.
Consider who’s missing. In addition to personas based on your current followers, build one or two aspiration personas—people you want to reach. What would it take for your content to speak to them?
Build your five personas
Use the template below for each one. Aim for five personas total—four based on your existing audience, and one or two aspiration personas for community connections you’d like to grow.
Use the arrows left and right of the image to see all 6 of our examples.
Persona Template
Name:
One-line description: (Who are they in a sentence? e.g., “A parent of young children tracking whether it’s safe to play outside.”)
What brings them to your feed:
What they need from you:
What might turn them off:
Aspiration persona? Yes / No