Hyperlocal audience engagement

I've been meaning to write something on audience for a while and recent additions to my followers in Twitter have prompted me to write now.

When writing a blog or even just your 140 character blurt on Twitter you need to consider your audience.

You need to consider what your writing, who your targeting when you write and why you're writing it in the first place.

Twitter is an almost unique platform to write for, once you have a large number of followers or are following a large number of people your content stream will pass by in the blink of an eye.

Writing content that is going to appeal to a specific audience becomes more of an art as you try to catch their attention as it fleets by; to do so you need to engage on a level that's appealing.

Inevitably your audience on Twitter should tune into a similar background as your own. I look at mine on Twitter and it's a mixture of digital & social media folk, outdoor and travelling interests, friends and locals to my geographical location or somewhere I've spent some time at.

This geographical element can sometimes throw a spanner in the works, but it shouldn't. Hyperlocal audiences (I'm adopting the term hyperlocal for this post) can actually provide you with a communication channel that can be the easiest to address.

The hole you have to be careful not to fall into is talking about subject matter that turns the rest of your global audience off, with a high content level that no one else can relate to.

But addressing a hyperlocal audience can introduce a personal tone to your Twitter stream or blog that grants others insight into the person or brand you are, rather than just a URL publishing automaton.

Hyperlocal Twitter communities also assist with the collaborative component to social networking that Twitter can be so great at. While not all of us will get the opportunity to meet great social media luminaries such as Chris Brogan or Jason Falls at SWSX or elsewhere, you should all be able to attend more local events such as TweetUps.

Believe it or not meeting people in the flesh should strengthen any relationship that was established on-line and lead to better collaboration in the future.

Hyperlocal tweeting also adds an element of others being able to relate to specific information, cursing the traffic on the A6 will mean everything to those travelling into work from south Manchester, but not much to those travelling in from south L.A..

As with all things, don't over indulge. A sure fire way of putting anyone off listening to you, is ranting on about stuff that means absolutely nothing to them.

I still think the best way to gauge your conversation balance is to click on your own stream at least once a week and see what you've been twittering on about, that's the first thing I do with others when they follow me, so why not apply the same rule to yourself?

It's sometimes shocking looking some peoples streams, do they realise what it might look like to visitor?

At the end of the day, you should try and make your Twitter as natural as possible, with as little forced content in the stream as possible. This will be the easiest account to maintain as it will be an honest representation of you, but it should also ensure that your audience stays with you and stays engaged, because that's why they followed you in the first place.

Hyperlocal audience engagement shouldn't seem limited to individuals either, on the whole as a brand you'll struggle to find people to champion your brand with stronger conviction than those who feel some allegiance to you from a geographical perspective.

Tap into your local community, in fact Twitter is an ideal way for a brand to illustrate any local community work that they may be taking part in in the near future, attracting attention from both your local followers and hopefully approval from your global audience as well.

At the end of the day, it goes back to what I started with, identify your audience, purpose and content. Once you're there try and keep it as natural as possible to illustrate who you really are as a brand or individual.

Oh, and check your stream at the end of each week and see what you've saying, some days it will shock you.


Related reading:

Why bother with social media? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/why-bother-with-social-media.html

Honesty is the best policy - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/honesty-is-best-policy.html

The art of conversation - A brief synopsis - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/03/art-of-conversation-brief-synopsis.html

Quality not quantity - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/02/quality-not-quantity.html

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