Know Your Audience | Thursday Talks

Know your audience has been the key piece of advice I've picked up from the variety of guest speakers that have been into journalist works so far. They haven't all explicitly said 'know your audience' but I've always got the gist of it. Sometimes it's as simple as look at the people in the room and deciding the angle you're going to take with what you're going to say. I.e. in a room that's 90% female don't start throwing around sexist comments - yes I'm still talking about that three weeks later.

However it's been said, or in some cases not said or even considered, I've come to the understanding that knowing your audience is the key to successful journalist. However,  the paper you're working for is very likely to have already figured out who they're audience is and therefore that will limit what you can write to some extent. For example it's highly unlikely that the Daily Mail will let you print an opinion piece of why immigration is so great, for example.

The whole idea of knowing your audience and creating something for that target audience is quite restrictive in journalism, taking my example for example (last time I'll use the word I swear). However, with blogging I don't feel it has to be that way despite what guest speakers, with more experience have said. If you stick to the idea that knowing your audience is key to a successful blog then you're, in the same was as journalism, restricting what you write. If you believe your audience is forty-five year old librarians than it's unlikely, though not impossible, that a blog post about your love for One Direction is going to satisfy why they're reading your blog.

I blog about something different everyday, although everyday has a theme, it allows me to write about whatever I feel best. I don't restrict myself by calling it a lifestyle blog, a book blog or travel blog. To me my blog is all those things because I write about those things and therefore open myself up to more audiences.

The power of a hashtag, or tag, or label, depending on the surface you are using to reach people, vastly increases the audience you might get. Don't be restrictive with the tags. What you've written about is likely to cover a large variety of things so tag all those things and open yourself up to larger reading numbers and don't be scared to tweet or facebook your blog link. Publish your link on as many different platforms as necessary.

Obviously it is important to know your audience to a certain extent. My blogger stats help me find which posts people most enjoy reading, where they come from and what link they're following to get here. Therefore I can, although not limit myself to, but do more posts similar to the ones that are enjoyed the most, I can target them to specific places and I can also know where to focus my promotional efforts.

So although the advice you might here when you start blogging is know your audience, get to know them before you restrict yourself and don't be limited by your audience.