How to Develop a Hyperlocal Social Media Marketing Strategy

What is hyperlocal social media marketing? 

Hyperlocal social media marketing is a social media strategy that focuses on engaging with audiences in specific, localized geographic areas such as individual neighborhoods or zip codes. It involves tailoring social media content and social media advertising to meet the interests and needs of a very specific local community. 

Should I be using hyperlocal social media marketing?  

Like any marketing strategy, hyperlocal social media marketing can apply to a variety of businesses and audiences.

A hyperlocal approach delivers location-focused content that your audience can more deeply relate to than they might with more generalized content. For instance, if you own a running retail company that serves a specific area, talking about current weather and how it impacts running options is a great way to show expertise and engage with that hyperlocal group. Rather than trying to reach potential customers who live further away, where the weather may be significantly different, this content will resonate with an audience in a very tight geographical area. 

Reaching the right audience can lead to increased trust, loyalty and engagement, which generally benefits conversion rates. Additionally, increased engagement means your content is more likely to reach new users, improving brand awareness. Your local customer base also has more opportunity to provide feedback, which you can use to improve your offerings and communication strategies. Some things to consider if you’re deciding whether to use a hyperlocal social media marketing strategy are:

1. How big is your business? Your current reach might play a role in determining whether a hyperlocal approach makes sense. If you are just starting out or have a limited reach, targeting a specific hyperlocal geographic audience and creating strong connections through engagement could help you gain momentum and increase brand awareness and share of voice within that localized geographic area.
2. Do you offer services? If you offer location-dependent services, your customers will likely reside in a specific geographic area. For these businesses, a hyperlocal social media marketing strategy would enable you to narrow down who you are actually talking to and allocate any ad budget more efficiently. 
3. Is your business affected by local events or seasonal activities? If yes, it may make sense for you to market your product or service in a hyper specific region. For example, a company that sells gear for snow sports might consider using a hyperlocal social media marketing strategy to target individuals who live in a high-income neighborhood within 5 miles of a ski resort.
4. What is your data telling you? Most social media platforms, such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok and LinkedIn, offer follower analytics. When studying your follower analytics, look at location trends to determine which geographic audiences you may consider targeting through organic and paid social media posts. These specific geographies can offer a great starting point for a hyperlocal social media marketing strategy, and layering on additional demographic targets such as gender, income and age can help you further home in on a specific geographic hotpot. Listening to your data will also help you target different audiences through different platforms. 
5. Could your business benefit from local partnerships? One of the key benefits of hyperlocal social media marketing is engagement, which can lead to a sense of community and connection. This can help you build strong relationships with other local businesses, giving you a competitive advantage through collaboration opportunities, greater understanding of local preferences and needs, and improved local reputation.

What are some effective hyperlocal social media marketing strategies?

Strategy will vary depending on your business and your audience. However, there are some general best practices you can follow to get started.

Determine your social media targeting strategy.

Social media targeting is a crucial first step in any strategy. Without a good understanding of your target audience, you won’t be able to effectively communicate in meaningful ways. Your audiences may vary on different platforms, including their demographics and social media behaviors. For example, you probably wouldn’t see success by re-posting high performing TikTok content on LinkedIn. That same concept applies to hyperlocal target audiences.

Consider which audiences are going to most resonate with your business, and target them through the appropriate social media platforms. 

For example, a health care practice may want to target potential patients, as well as providers seeking employment. While LinkedIn would be a better platform for provider recruitment, a hyperlocal social media marketing strategy through Meta could be a great way to reach potential patients. In this case, the practice could target individuals who reside in the specific neighborhood or zip code surrounding their facility, or who engage with nearby location tags. To optimize reach, identifying a physical boundary should be done in tandem with research on local trends and demographics such as age, income and gender. Another example would be a pediatrician’s office identifying neighborhoods within their zip code in which families tend to reside, while a holistic wellness center may target higher income neighborhoods in the area.

Get to know your target audience. 

Once you’ve determined your social media target audience, you can get to know them on a deeper level through research and engagement. Experiment with your post frequency and types of content, and use your in-platform analytics to determine what’s working. Do you get more reach/engagement when you post on certain days? Who’s engaging? What are they engaging with, and how? What other content or pages are they engaging with? Who are the creators or experts that make up their sphere of influence? Figure out what’s working and who/what will amplify your message, and do more of that. Accept your data and audience feedback as an opportunity to pivot your strategy to better align with the needs of your various audiences on different platforms.

Get involved. 

Hyperlocal social media marketing is a great way to increase connection and engagement with your audience, but it can be obvious and off-putting when a company attempts to engage with an audience they haven’t taken the time to understand. Therefore, it’s important to be an active member of the community you’re marketing to. Getting involved with your audience’s community can be an effective way to improve your reputation, while connecting with your target audience, authentically. Some ways to get involved are partnering with local businesses or sponsoring or attending local events. 

Post relevant content.

For content to be relevant to your target audience, it has to resonate or be useful in some way. You can indicate relevant content by using hashtags and location tags. This helps your content reach a local audience interested in specific topics and locations. Hashtags categorize content, making it discoverable, while location tags target a local audience, enhancing engagement and relevance for users in that area.

Another important consideration is how you can implement hyperlocal strategies into your organic content. Determining what type of content is relevant to your audience looks different for each business. Let’s take that ski shop example from earlier. The shop may consider posting about a specific product, such as a wax, that improves performance by accommodating current, specific snow conditions at a specific ski resort.

Take your listings seriously

If you’ve read our local SEO blog, you know how essential listings are for being found on search engines. The same is increasingly true for social media. Instagram and TikTok have now surpassed Google as the top local search tools used by 18- to 24-year-olds. And this trend extends across age groups: for those aged 25–54, Facebook is used over 50% of the time to find local businesses. This means your profile needs to be complete and accurate, with your name, address, and phone number matching what’s listed on Google. Use location tags in posts and stories, and provide enough information for algorithms to rank your business high in search results.

Treat social like search

Just like Google and Bing, you can now pay to promote your brand with TikTok search ads. These keyword-based ads boost your brand’s visibility on users’ organic search results pages. With more searches occurring on TikTok daily, it’s worth allocating a bit of your ad budget to test these ads. TikTok isn’t the only platform offering search ads—Meta’s Advantage+ Creative now includes Facebook Search results as a standard ad placement, automatically adding this option to your Meta campaigns.

Ask for help

Reviews are hyperlocal social media marketing gold. They help you outrank competitors in search and boost your brand’s organic visibility in users' feeds. Reviews are also a great way to engage with loyal customers and let them feel invested in your brand. While it can feel awkward asking users to leave a review, like, or share your content, a genuine request goes a long way. And, when you do see users giving you reviews or tagging you in posts, make sure to repost this content so they know you saw it. Follow up by addressing any flagged issues and trust the process—you’ll see higher engagement from your current customers and a growing interest from new users.

Remember, success requires experimentation and digging into the data to figure out what resonates with your audience. Track which types of content you’re posting throughout the week, such as educational, product highlights or user-generated content. Then measure what performs best, as well as whether your content performs better on certain days of the week. This will help you narrow down your content types and post frequency so you can post what’s most relevant, when it’s most relevant, to your audience.

For best results, hire the pros.

There’s a ton that goes into developing an effective marketing strategy, and oftentimes even more that goes into creating content that aligns with that strategy. While these tips are aimed to help you get started, we know it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there is an easier solution. Estipona Group is a social media marketing agency in Reno, NV, with 30 years of experience and a marketing team dedicated to keeping up with the latest trends (and predicting new ones). Passionate about both people and results, our team develops and implements marketing strategies for a range of businesses, with a range of audiences. Our specialties include all things marketing, from data and analytics, to social media targeting, content creation and design. If you’re ready to start seeing results, call us.