Knowing Your Audience

In creating your message, you need to study your audience and how their opinions would weigh. As this will help you in understanding what message you should give them. You need to think carefully about each member of the audience or the ‘stakeholder’ and how they fit into your goal.

To begin with, we need to have a goal-oriented message delivery. Then we should acknowledge upfront the changes that people are going for. Next is to see how these changes are going to affect their positions in their personal and professional life.

Once you are clear on the message you are giving and understand the queries the audience will have of you, think about it from their perspective. That will give you a well-rounded preparation and the correct attitude.

Types of Audience

There are different types of audience members −

• Advocates − They accept your goals and help you in promoting it to others.

• Supporters − They carry your message and help you forward your goals.

• Neutral Listeners − They listen to your message but don’t participate or oppose.

• Critics − They have reservations on the message and suggest changes.

• Blockers − They won’t allow goals to be achieved due to personal benefits.

To get around the different kind of audience members, it is important to run an assessment of what kind of people are in the crowd. This will help you to find out −

• The general mood
• Understanding the interests of the audience
• What all is influencing them
• Their concerns and
• Their personal motives.

While delivering a message, it is important to realize at which stage of the conversation you are at, so that you can pause and recollect important points and regain the attention of the audience. You can also take some time and repeat a point and explain it so that people don’t carry questions with them. Start with a general discussion before going into specifics, but the outcome should be on a broad scale.