Audience Analysis Overview – How to Make It?
What is an audience?
The audience is the group of listeners who have assembled at a public event, meeting or concert to follow up what’s going on be it a speech or a performance. In any performance, there has to be an audience that is being performed to and the speaker or presenter. The most important group in any presentation is your audience.
It is the audience that will determine the success of your presentation. When your audience is happy with you then you are likely to achieve your goals in the presentation. You should be able to analyze your audience and know what they like and what does not impress them so that you may not end up messing with their comfort. Once you are able to engage your audience and keep them active then you will have automatically achieved your goal. For you to turn out successful, then you need to know how to analyze your audience.
Audience analysis overview – understanding it
It is good to understand your audience before you start your speech. When you are addressing a particular group of people you need to understand them so that you can persuade them accordantly. In conducting an audience analysis, you need to collect as much information as you can about them before you select the best way to address them. Below are some of the things that you need to understand about your audience assessment:
- Their belief- the beliefs of people is very critical because some people may react badly when you go against what they believe in. you need to understand the beliefs of the people so that you can be able to form your speech respecting their needs.
- The level of your audience- there are different types of audience and each has its own needs. You need to determine the category that your audience falls in. when for examples you are addressing students they would want more stories about current issues, unlike old men who would be interested in sayings and quotes.
- Their expectations- it is also good to focus on what you have been called to address. The moment you start giving stories without relating to the topic then you are likely to lose the concentration of your audience on the topic.
- Gender- gender is also important because the way you will address women is different from men and is also different when they are both combined. If you are addressing women you should relate to examples that pertain their lives same way to men.
- Geographic factors should also be considered- in analyzing your audience you need to know their immediate surrounding and the characteristics of the place so that you can give them examples that they understand as it is found in their environment.
- Barriers and facilitators should also be considered- you need to understand what is their main challenge or what motivates them most in their day to day lives.
Types of audience
It is also good to understand the types of audience available so that you can easily deal with the one that yours fall in.
- Primary audience- this is the directaudience that you can interact with them one on one. The audience consists of people that should get the message, they are your objective. The primary audience is divided into sub-categories:
- The spectators- these are the people that listen to your speech but are dormant in that they do not contribute anything.
- The participant- these are the category of your audience that actively contribute to your speech.
- The spy- these are the group that will attend your presentation only for them to go and give feedback to their friends on the experience.
- The VIP- this is the group that is interested more than just experience, they would want to analyze every aspect of your conversation and they will always be interested to follow up even future notices.
- Secondary audience- this is an audience that has representatives of the people wo you should convey the message to. For examples you may be in a meeting, then the manager fails to attend but send the secretary to attend in his place, this is now what we call the secondary audience
- Shadow audience- this particular group consists of individuals who will read your conversation. You may publish your speech and some other interested parties may go through your work just to find out what you were presenting, this group is the shadow audience.
Importance of audience analysis
Audience analysis is very important because it facilitates the success of the message being conveyed by the speaker. Below are some of the importance of conducting an audience analysis:
- Provides a conducive environment during the speech- once you have analyzed your audience you are likely to have an easy time during your presentation.
- Getting an active audience- once you meet the needs of your audience automatically they will be active in your speech and you can easily involve them in your speech and they will be willing to contribute.
- Attaining the objectives of your speech- once you have analyzed your audience and met all their needs you will be able to pass your message without destructions hence your objectives will be met.
How to make your audience active
The main objective of conducting an audience analysis is to ensure that you can control and engage your audience effectively and at the same time achieve your target. There are different ways of attracting your audience:
- Considering time factor- most people would not like to sit down for long because they automatically become tired and tiredness would prevent them from being attentive. Before preparing for a speech it is good to summarize your points to take as much limited time as you can.
- Telling stories in the midst of your speech- you should not just focus on the topic but at some point, tell your audience stories relating to what you are addressing. This will help them to take a break then get back to your topic. A story also helps when it comes to the understanding of what you are addressing, the audience will be able to remember your speech through the stories that you were narrating to them. You should ensure you show the relationship of the story with the topic to avoid misunderstanding.
- Asking questions – it is good to involve your audience by asking them question just to keep them attentive and confirm if they are following up. If you realize that they are not following up your speech then it will be an indication that you should change your approach. A question will also help them to keep attentive because once they fail to answer your question they have to be attentive to be able to answer the next one. Your questions should also be framed in a way that the audience can easily answer, do not ask a difficult question because you are likely to be disappointed when no one answers. For instance, you can give a question that either needs a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
- Using intonations- you should use the right tone depending on what you are addressing. Tone variations are important because it helps the audience take whatever you are saying. When for examples you are giving a warning, you need to use a serious voice so that it really serves it purpose same way to motivations.
- Using suspense- it is good to apply suspense in your conversation. The suspense will help to attract the audience deeper into your speech. You should not reveal everything in the introduction, make your audience curious and anticipate for more.
- You can introduce group exercises just to keep everyone on toes. The exercise should be a simple analysis that would make everyone enjoy. You can even bring it in form of games.
- Role-playing- you can allocate roles to different members in the audience just to ensure that they participate.
- Rewarding of participants- you can introduce small tokens for those who answer your questions so as to motivate everyone to participate.
- Appreciate the participation of the audience- once the audience responds to your questions wrongly you should encourage them despite their response so as to encourage others who are fearful.
- Give time for the audience to respond- you are not supposed to limit the audience from participating, allow them to give their response so that they can feel part of your speech and that motivates them also to be active.
It is now clear that you need to analyze your audience for you to be successful in your speech. Some of the main things that you need to consider for your audience include the beliefs, the demography and their expectations.
Once you analyze your audience and meet their needs then you are likely to get good feedback when it comes to participation. With all these tips on analysis of an audience, you are now certain to achieve your objectives while presenting your speech.
