Nov 5, 2017
The Importance Of The Audience
Doing what’s best for you is great, but always consider your audience
The lights are on, the attention is on you, and now is your opportunity to perform.
Needless to say the show is all about you. Whether it’s written work or it’s a product or service, you are the provider.
You write what you feel like writing. You create what you want to create.
This is the way of thinking I’ve been dwelling on time and time again.
Though there is a nugget of truth behind it, that belief has been challenged a few times.
Enough for me to realize one thing.
What Does Your Audience Think?
Indeed this may be your performance, and your stage. But you aren’t performing for yourself.
I’m writing for myself, but I’m also not writing for solely myself.
A performer performs for an audience, just as I write for other people.
I wouldn’t go as far as obeying every word your audience tells you — you do want to enjoy yourself.
However when you get into business, when you want to grow more, you’re doing it for both fun and for recognition.
Or in other words the approval of others.
In order to grow it’s vital to have some level of content that is provided to the audience. Give them what they want.
What that means for me is actually focusing once more on less work, but building on the quality.
From writing seven posts per week on my personal blog to solely two per week: one incredibly long one (at least 2,000 words) and one shorter one (roughly 1,000 words).
A Big Change
This is a big change for myself, especially since I am accustomed to publishing literally every piece of content I have ever put together as a writer.
For two years that has been my norm.
I’ve been writing when I feel like it.
I publish it regardless.
I write for myself.
However, as I’ve grown more and more as a writer and a businessman, the more I’m realizing now that it’s less and less about me.
That shift has moved away from me and more on the collective whole, myself included.
As people have gathered to some capacity to listen to what I’m saying, it’s evolving into something bigger.
I believe the best way to grow this message is to once more focus on the words that I’m saying.
This is the power of an audience at work.
Less On Me, More On Them
Whether you write, perform, create a product or service, I believe it’s important to eventually realize the bigger picture.
It doesn’t have to be immediately, after all, I only now realized this.
I’ve been writing for at least two years.
But what’s important is you do make that shift. Moving away more and more from solely yourself to making an impact through a collective group of people.
Having your content written for the people, your audience.
It’s Not Weak
Don’t mistake this for complacency, I still believe it’s important to write for yourself.
The same applies for publishing your work. Publish for yourself, but publish for others.
Make it useful, something people can grow with.
Don’t listen to people on what you need to write, but listen to people for what you could write.
There isn’t true happiness when you are forced to do something, even if it’s something you are passionate about.
I believe there is a difference between creating for the sake of being useful and creating to serve others.
So even though the audience wants you to be useful, you can find being useful through serving others.
You can serve others by creating what you want on your own terms through others input and feedback.
Now It’s Your Turn
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
Even if you don’t get comments regularly you still have analytics to look at.
Pay attention to their behaviour.
For myself, the decision was simple when I noticed my views on my blog, where I post daily, were declining.
Where as my audience on Medium, where I post 3 times a week, has been consistent and growing.
The thing with business is that it’s always an experiment to see what happens when you make a change.
From my experiences, doing less isn’t a sign of weakness or laziness. I’m seeing for myself that actually working harder and hustling more is actually not getting me as far as doubling down on the work that does come out.
It’s not a matter of how hard you work any longer, it’s on how smart you work as well.
Your Audience Matters
Every time you take an action, think about your audience.
Ask how would they react to this.
When it comes to content, consistency is key, however each audience reacts differently.
Some can digest bite sized content on a regular basis and some prefer a substantial chunk.
It’s finding that balance through experimenting, marketing, and hustling on what does actually work.
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