As people who write, make presentations, sell our services, review employees, and communicate in one way or another every day, we’ve probably been told to “know your audience” more than once. As a lifelong writer, I’ve been given this sage advice more times that I can count. As a writing coach, I repeat it to my clients. Often. Usually with a funny little story about me, my husband, his coworker, and a hot intern. (Email me and I’ll tell you the whole sordid story!)
But, it might just be time to give “know your audience” a rest.
Not because audiences are no longer important. Not at all. They are not just important, they are required. Without them you are just talking to yourself, and people will cross the street avoid contact with you when that happens.
And certainly not because there is nothing to “know.” You cannot safely assume that everyone on the receiving end of your content fits nicely into a single, generic mold. Not even close.
It’s because audiences aren’t really just audiences anymore, not in the passive, we’ll-eat-up-this-content-clap-politely-and-be-on-our-way tradition of audiences. Audiences are really, as Wikinomics coauthor Anthony Williams put it when I heard him speak earlier this year, participants. (You can read John Gerstner’s coverage of the presentation). Or “users” as The New York Times now refers to people formerly known as readers. In some instances we can rightfully call them hecklers. They comment on, tweet about, write argumentative blog posts against and create parody videos on YouTube about your content. They are hardly just sitting by and listening quietly.
Communication has always implied a two-way exchange of information; it’s just that most of our tools used to be skewed to one-way delivery. That hasn’t been true for a while, so if you haven’t yet retired your image of your audience as passive information consumers, now’s the time. What you call them, be it “users” or “participants” or “co-conspirators” or “crazy hecklers,” is not as important as how you treat them – as participants in the flow of the information who can bring their unique perspective to the discussion and make it richer.
That also means you have to make peace with the fact that some people are going to be pleasant, some people are going to be professional and some people are going to be snarky. You can’t take a rant personally, and if you can read through the hyperbole, you might just find an excellent point.
So, my co-conspirators in communication, how are you changing the paradigm from “know your audience” to “know your participant?”
Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.
