What is audience analysis?
The reality is that if you build a type of social media for everyone, you will attract no one. It is critical that you concentrate on the target audience and create content that will resonate with them.
In order to generate an effective and successful message in the communication world, a clear and concise audience analysis must be done previously to any potential projects. Audience analysis isolates different elements such as region, age, gender, occupation, values, interests, and etc. to develop the distinction between varieties of different groups. The audience analysis will help to construct the best content in social media, which needs to be executed within organizations or corporations.
Bob Savar, the President of World Wide Web Communications (WWWC) writes in the article, Making Your Web Site More Appealing: Start with Audience Analysis, that it’s important to cater to the interests of the target audience. Especially when developing successful web sites, all different factors must be considered to grab the attentions.
It is important to know that different social groups will construct many meanings for the same text. This is why audience analysis is essential in the social media world, to prepare messages according to their own needs. The more people you understand about your audience and their needs, the better you can prepare to assure that you meet their standards and interests.
Hey Ashley. This is a great first post; it introduces your readers to the topic. What do you do you plan on discussing about audience analysis? Maybe you can discuss how top companies handle each audience. Do they handle them separately? Are their stakeholders lumped into one or broken down into smaller groups. I agree on the importance knowing that different social groups react to things different, and I really like the way you worded it. There is no such thing as a “catch-all” approach when it comes to handling publics. Anyone else who comments behind me, do you ever feel like you’ve been lumped into a larger group? And Ashley, does audience analysis play a role in that?
Great start!
Ashley,
I agree that audience analysis is essential to the success or failure of a Web site. As the Internet continues to expand and attract a larger audience, it is increasingly important to find a niche audience. Gender and age should especially be considered as a target audience.
Also, the new use of social media tools allows a company to target a specific audience. For example, companies such as Dell and Apple could create a Facebook account, which specifically addresses the college audience who purchases many of their most innovative products. Also, RSS feeds allow online users to subscribe to specific sites that offer information of interest to them.
Ashley,
I think is a good overall description of audience analysis and its importance, I think it ties into a lot of other issues in corporate communications. For example, if your company was Johnson & Johnson, your main audience might be moms purchasing products for their children. When creating a web site, any sort of advertising, you need to ask: What would the average mom find appealing? How can this reach them?
I am looking forward to learning more from your blog. I hope that you touch on what ways PR Practitioners survey their publics. Good luck with your research!
Agreed! Great post on audience analysis. I think you summed it up pretty well and made sure to emphasize the most important aspects like finding a niche audience. I’m curious to the actual ways in which companies do analyze their audiences and what subgroups are created through that. The tools and computer systems they use to measure that data is very interesting and it’d be great to see if any future posts cover that topic. I’ve taken research classes before and I’m curious what kind of correlations they make to specific products and their demographics. Hope to see something like that soon. Keep up the good work.