A Project of |
Guidelines | Rants | Patterns | Poems | Services | Classes | Press | Blog | Resources | About Us | Site Map |
Home > Rants > Talk like a human being. > Probe your audiences--gently.> Lump people together into small groups. |
How to sort people out: Avoid the muddy mingling of a traditional approach. Sort out the information on the Web. Figure out your niche audiences. Don't rely on old demographics. The smaller niche you define, the better. Prove that you should be considered a member of the community. |
Lump people together into small groups
Niches are a compromise.
Identifying a particular segment of the audience can help you figure out
particular topics that will interest that group, develop a tone that
establishes your attitude toward them, and signal the relationship that
you hope to have with those people.
But grouping people into a niche like this may overlook the unique
character of individuals, the very specific facts you learn when you talk
to people directly
Avoid the muddy
mingling of a traditional approach
Traditionally, when creating a large document like a manual, book, or CD,
we throw together topics that appeal to many different subgroups in the
audience:
All of those sections go into a single paper document, on the theory that
different groups can find what they want in different places. |
Resource Who am I writing for, and, incidentally, who am I? (Full chapter from Hot Text, in PDF, 566K, or about 10 minutes at 56k)
|
Sort out the information on the Web On the Web, we have the opportunity to create separate paths for each group, displaying only the content appropriate for that group. Each group can find the other material; but if we customize content by niche, we show each group what interests them, first. Figure out your niche audiences Based on your research and talks with actual consumers, you can probably figure out a half dozen niche audiences. Niches form around
Don't rely on old demographics Generally, people behave on the Web as they do in the rest of their life, favoring certain brands, attitudes, ideas, and activities. So demographic information developed over the years may help you flesh out what a particular niche wants from your text. But the Web also allows upper-income folks to visit stores they wouldn't go into at the mall. And the Web shifts shopping times into the evening, and dampens seasonal variations in purchasing. So you need to define your own niches, based on your own research, supplementing it with the generic stuff. Nowadays, the customer relationship management folks think this way, developing clusters of people around their shopping habits, interests, and industries. But so far most of this data is being used to determine which ads to display to which visitors. Only the most advanced sites, today, customize content for more than three or four niche audiences. The smaller the niche you define, the better The focus helps you figure out stuff like:
Imagine writing in five different voices, for five distinct groups. As you become more attuned to the little groups within your audience, you become a ventriloquist, or a character actor playing a series of roles. This chameleon-like ability to take on the tone and attitude of a niche audience is not as insincere as it sounds. People do this all the time, to earn their way into a particular community, adopting that group's way of talking. Prove that you should be considered a member of the community. Here's how:
In writing for niche audiences, you may feel like a method actor pulling out personal memories to build a new character. To help clarify what you need to do to appeal to the niche audience, you'll probably want to draw up some guidelines on what you feel comfortable mentioning--lists of likely topics, positions, arguments. And like an actor, you may also want to think of personal experiences that resemble the activities, evoke the values, and support the ideas of the group. To succeed in writing for a niche, then, you must really join the niche, wading right into the conversation. For writers, of course, a community has more to do with their discourse than their purchasing habits. Despite working for a particular site, and taking its direction, you are adopting the group's style, adding to its stock of ideas-and becoming a member. Next: Create personas! |
Who is this person? What small group goes around wearing a Lego truck on their hats?
|
Home |
Guidelines |
Rants |
Patterns |
Poems |
Services |
Classes |
Press |
Blog |
Web
Writing that Works!
The Communication Circle
Discuss at HotText@yahoogroups.com
|