Question

Following evaluation of one’s audience, an effective communication strategy requires cultural consideration of both the audience and the predominant perceptions held by it.

• How is an audience best evaluated? What steps should one take to communicate most effectively based on an audience evaluation? Give examples. What is the best way for audience differences to be reflected in approaching communication channels?

Answer 1

We can evaluate audience related to the following criteria -

• By understanding audience background, attitude, and beliefs. For example speaker can Access the demographics of her audience which is related to the human population characteristics and usually rendered as statistical population segment.
• For analysing demographics of audience for a speech, focus on the same characteristics studied in sociology. Audience and population comprise group of peoples with different age groups.

1. They may be of same or mixed gender
2. Have experienced the same events.
3. Have same or different sexual orientation.
4. Have different educational attainment
5. Participate in different religions.
6. Represent different cultures, ethinicity, or races.

• Speaker should access audience attitude positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, or ideas towards a specific topic or purpose. All these things also helps to prepare speech.

Tips for speaker to speck or communicate most effectively after evaluating audience -

Depth of audience analysis depends on the size of the intended audience and method of delivery by speaker. Different methods can be used by speaker to make himself familiar with the background, attitude, and belief of audience in different environment and mediums. For small audience speaker can speak with them in a physical environment. However if the audience is large enough or speaker speaking via teleconferencing or webcasting tools, it may be useful to collect data via survey or questionairs.

Best way for audience difference to be reflected in approaching communication channels -

So many new communication channels introduced nowdays some of them have been long lived, like Facebook and some will hit wonders only like Vine. It is inevitable that someone will complain about not knowing about an event or activity or will desire another platform. But we should remember our framework and channel with in that framework which makes communication to your target audience effective.

Reaching majority with consistent and compelling content should be priority. Establishing a platform that is manageable ensure that what we are communicating to our audience is effective and that we are working in an efficient way.

What is our communication framework? Are there channels we could take out or channels we should add? Either way, it can be hard to make changes. Leveraging channels that effectively reach the majority of our audience will help cut through the chaos and allow for meaningful communication.