How to: engage your audience.

Posted by Renata Brandão in audience, engage

1 comments

Ready for another journey 21st Century Kid?

I have been fighting with my computer for hours now trying to find a way to start this week’s post. That because I am here to explain how to engage an audience to create deeper relationships, and it is not that I don’t think I am doing a good job, it is that it kind of feels like I am sharing a secret with someone I should not – after all you are my audience.

And just so I don’t feel like I am betraying myself, or something, I am giving Chris Garrett the first words.



Ok, now my fussing apart, my thoughts on the issue is the following. This is how I believe one should engage with their audience, and most importantly how I – as far as I can go – engage with you.

So firstly, and foremost, you must know your audience. “The more you pin them down, the more you get inside their heads, the more you can really write for them, what they really want“.

Secondly, provide a high-quality content. The truth is that if you want to engage any audience, a great starting point is to provide good (regardless if through tweets, blog posts or videos) content – one that grab your audience’s attention through interesting and valuable information. That because in today’s digital world we are overwhelmed with mediocre information, thus presenting useful content will not only attract the audience but also make them come back and, in the process, build deeper relationships.

Thirdly, you must join the conversation! Please have in mind that social media is a platform which is intricately related to what is happening now in the world and thus, in order to engage the audience, one needs to share their thoughts, opinions and – above all things – knowledge on current issues. So join the bandwagon 21st Century Kid, join the conversation, as it is how you make your audience know that you are well informed and thus can provide good content to them.

Fourthly, listen to your audience. It bears repetition that social media is becoming a – if not the most – valuable means of communication. In that sense, use it both in your and your audience’s advantage. Listen to them and learn from them. Meaning that you must keep what is working but also, try to implement the changes they suggest. They are core to any idea and thus you must do anything to meet their desire.

Fifthly, do not forget to give feedback, comment and even some sort of reward to your contributors. As by doing so you will be encouraging participation from others, which will then – most likely – make your audience grow.

And lastly, meet them in person. Wait 21st Century kid, I am not telling you to go randomly meet every single one of your audience, what I mean by that is that despite all the power of social media, there is no better way to truly connect and engage with people than knowing them personally. That is why symposia, conferences, lectures, seminars are still so popular. Thus if you have a chance to meet some of your audience in an event, do it! – as it will most definitely create a stronger bond between you and your audience.

The truth is that:

4x → an engaged consumer will recommend the brand/idea four times more than a “neutral” one.

and

3x → engaged audience will visit the website two times more and buy your products three times more than “neutral” consumers.

There you are my kid, my little secret to you. In the end the Little Prince’s fox is right, "[i]t is the time that you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important" and it is indeed the time that I’ve spend for you that makes you so important to me.

Thank you for another journey and please remember to share your thoughts with me.