Repeat after me: “I am not my audience”
I recently heard a story of a fundraiser at an event who started his presentation by asking everyone to stand up, put their hand on their heart and repeat “I am not my audience”. It’s an important reminder because it’s a trap we all fall into.
Us and our audience: the big drift
Remembering that we are not our audience has been a long-time challenge for non-profits. But getting to grips with the idea has never been more important than it is right now. There are three major shifts converging to make the gap between us and our audiences wider, and it’s changing more quickly by the day.
Meta has flipped the model
You already know about the Copernican shift in brand-consumer relations. Brands used to be at the centre of the universe, with audiences revolving around them. But the two-way nature of social media created a seismic reversal where audiences are now the centre, with brands revolving around them. Just like how Copernicus realised the universe revolves around the sun not around the Earth.
A few weeks back, the Meta algorithm became the technical embodiment of this Copernican shift. We used to tell Meta who to show our ads to, now it does the work itself using AI. It no longer asks, “Who should see this ad?” Instead, the question is, “Which ads should this person see?” The decisions Meta makes are based on deep audience understanding at a highly personalised level, the detail of which we can’t see (for now).
Gen Z preferences are now mainstream
Gen Z’s online behaviour is shaping how brands build digital experiences, no matter who they’re for. Gen Z’s preferences are becoming everyone's preferences.
Those who still aren’t taking Gen Z seriously, do so at your peril. The older end of the demographic is turning 30 next year. They’re exactly who we need to be looking at to learn how to build the new generation of relationships and secure our future supporters.
What successful content looks like
Now that Meta has the reins on who sees our ads, the only influence we have is with the content we produce. In other words, how we talk to audiences about our cause. And whatever we think about the social media algorithms, they’ve redesigned the content development rulebook and given our audience new expectations.
The most successful content right now has a bit of healthy conflict, a sense of humour and is reactive to events, trending topics and memes as they unfold. Getting this right requires volume: “Meta’s learning and delivery cycles appear to have sped up. So advertisers have to be iterating and refreshing creative much more frequently than they were before.” says Krislyn Tan in this post for charities about Meta’s latest update.
Are you ready? The audit
So, are you ready for the big shift? Are your organisation’s people, processes and tech prepared to work across the gap between your organisation and your audience? Here are the three things to check:
The stories we tell
Using testing and data to uncover the most engaging stories will help us meet our audiences where they are.
It’s too common to sit in a meeting and rely on internal ‘expertise’ or the experiences of one person in the room rather than looking at what the audience data or message test results show.
For some non-profits, messaging is guided by the need to manage risk rather than the need to engage an audience. This isn’t unreasonable: the risks are real. But most of the time, listening to what our audience wants guides us to relatable, understandable stories we’re safe to tell.
The way we work
The way non-profits are often structured can be a huge barrier to progress. Siloed working and layers of sign-off slow down change and decision-making.
Years ago, a client said to me: "We're very good at coordinating but not collaborating." There is a significant difference between the two. Coordinating is keeping each other informed. One team makes a plan, then hands it over to another. Collaborating means working together to deliver the best journey possible. Co-designing audience journeys. Making joint decisions on what and how to optimise. Relying on the data available and the knowledge in the room. Negotiating. Holding each other accountable.
Navigating the gap between what we think our audiences want and what they actually want is made so much easier when we collaborate.
The language we use
Recently, I’ve had a few interesting conversations with people who are working in campaign communications. The common thought I had afterwards is that the language we’re using does not chime with audiences.
We either police the language to a level where people are worried they’ll say something wrong and be labelled. Or we use the language of policy makers which is dense and hard for our audiences to understand. “We need an equitable deal in Copenhagen” is my favourite example of this.
The idea that we are not our audience isn’t new. What is new are the conditions we’re working in and the goalposts we’re shooting for. And the stakes for forgetting are higher than ever. We’re running out of road: the audiences of 10 years ago are getting smaller, and the new generation are becoming the majority.
The good news is that we’ve learnt so much over the years. We have a wealth of data available to us which was never there before. Testing has given us new approaches to build our knowledge and skills. Now we just need to create the conditions to put it all into practice.
