Blogging: Know your Audience

People blog for various reasons: some to provide information, other to report on various events, others to entertain and others to expose certain truths. In fact there are many more reasons people blog, but the one area most bloggers struggle with in the beginning is figuring out exactly who their target audience is.

By being aware of your target market, you will be able to focus on their needs and the topics that interest them. Will you be able to hit the nail on the head all of the time? Unlikely, but at least you’ll be aiming in the right direction.

So let’s take a step backwards and ask yourself exactly who are you writing to? A common mistake is to assume that you already know your target audience and that they are the same as you, and think and behave in the same manner that you do.

It is thus a valuable exercise to research who you believe your target audience to be and if their behaviour ties in with your preconceptions. This is not to say that you should confine yourself to this specific audience and feel trapped by this demographic – by all means, one should have the foresight to reach beyond, but as a starting point a clear idea of who you are wanting to reach or attract is a solid foundation to have.

Once you have a clear idea of who your target audience is you need to go out and make yourself known to your potential subscribers. An excellent way of doing this is to increase your presence on social media. Set up a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter and Linkedin account and make sure that you update them regularly.

Beyond those, search for online groups of people who have similar interests in the topics you will be blogging about. This is a great way to gain perspective, ideas for blog posts and attract readers to your site.

If you don’t promote your site, no matter how good your content is, no one is going to know about it, so get out there and tell the world. Having said that, make sure you have at least 10 good quality posts on your blog before promoting it far and wide.

Once you have established a blog fan base, be sure to read the blogs of those who most frequently comment on your posts and also spend time investigating which other blogs they frequent.

One can also have a look at their Gravatar accounts to see where their interests lie. By taking a keen interest in your followers and keeping up to date with their patterns and behaviors, you are not only arming yourself with valuable information but you are increasing the chances of them not losing interest in you.