In the painfully saturated digital world, the struggle is real when it comes to reaching and engaging social media audiences. In 2024, Instagram reported a reach rate of 4% on average, while Facebook scored even lower at 2.6%.

But did you know that AI has the potential to reverse this trend, helping marketers create more personalized and targeted content that cuts through the noise?

On a recent Marketing Profs webinar, Brooke Sellas (CEO of B Squared Media) shared her take on improving social performance, including a simple but oh-so-under-utilized step for writing prompts: Making sure AI understands your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Putting a face to your customers
Your ICP is your target persona. So when using any large language model to help you reach them, the AI must understand exactly who your content is intended for.

If you have a detailed target persona, upload the info to your ChatGPT or other AI tool of choice. Don’t have a formal persona or if it’s not thorough enough to target the right audience? It’s time to head back to the drawing board. Here are some attributes to include:

• Personal and professional details. What’s the customer’s age, occupation, hobbies, salary and interests? If you’re doing B2B marketing, what’s the type of business you’re targeting, the industry and the annual sales? For example, maybe your ICP is a mid-size retail company selling direct consumer products that employees 120 people and grosses $2 million annually in sales. AI only knows as much as you share.
• Social media preferences. Make sure AI is aware of where the content will be published. Are your customers active on social media? What social platforms do they frequent? What types of content do they engage with most?
• Goals and motivations. What drives your customers to make purchasing decisions? What are they looking for in a brand? Think about what information can impact their decision-making process to ensure it’s included.

By feeding AI systems with information about your ICP, the end result will be messaging that resonates with the right people. But that’s not the only benefit. AI can also analyze this data to identify patterns and predict future behaviors, allowing you to tailor your next campaign for maximum impact.

Giving AI an identity, too
Telling AI who they’re writing for is a huge part of the prompt-writing process. But you also need to tell AI who they are.

 Defining AI’s role is just as important as defining the ICP. Here’s where you tell your AI tool specifically what persona or identity you want it to have.

• Define their expertise. Are they an HR professional sharing their knowledge on corporate policies? Are they a small business owner trying to establish thought leadership in a particular industry? For best results, be as detailed as your customer profile.
• Set the tone and style. How do you want AI to formulate its response? Are they academic, colloquial, humorous or professional? What tone aligns best with your brand and how you want your audience to perceive them?
• Talk to it like a human. When giving AI directions, always use natural, conversational language. For best results, avoid using slang terms and complex jargon that the AI might not understand.

Partnering with AI for best results
The key to standing out and claiming (or reclaiming) your audience’s attention lies in leveraging AI the right way. Follow the tips above to get the most out of your AI collaboration. If the content you’re creating includes webinars, check out this post from our AI blog series.