Com 285 - Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis

Allen Mukamusoni

COM/285

September 18, 2010

Randall Sheets

Audience Analysis

Audience analysis is crucial in effective communication. The main important key is to know the audience first, study their characteristics, choosing communication channel, which is appropriate to a specific audience especially if presenting to a diversity of audience. The speaker should engage the viewers with the materials before the presentation like handing out the materials, making jokes and if the crowd is small it is important to have a brief introduction to break the ice.

Audience analysis is important to identify different channels to transit to, to classify the characteristics of an audience and to identify if the content will appeal to different types of diversity in the audience. Effective communication is essential while presenting a quarterly meeting to a diverse group of stakeholders, directors, employees and clients. The speaker should always differentiate divisions pertaining to the viewers. The speaker should present information pertaining to the topics that the audience is aware of through PowerPoint, spreadsheets, graphs or bullet notes to help the audience understand the information. The face-to-face channel of communication permits the speaker to conduct the meeting according to the viewers' desires and the stakeholders' presentation is always different from the managers.' The stakeholders are a better target with information on how the quarterly sales charts will help manufacturers in the organization, particularly in terms of economic analysis, profits and gains. However, managers are a better target for what needs to be done to meet the company's quarterly sales. The presenter should always put in mind that the message conveyed to stakeholders should not be the same message for employees but similar points worded different because it is a different audience. If the stakeholders, consumers, directors and employees are in the same audience the speaker should always have a balance on how to convey the same message to appeal to a diverse group of audience. Studying the audience before the presentation is very crucial to the speaker because it helps the speaker to know what to say and not to say. For example if the audience are mostly special people with special needs like wheelchair patients, it is important not to say certain statements like, give a round of pause, or stand up as a sign of respect to welcome either the director or the vise president of the company. The speaker should consider building a rapport by open to questions and flexible to feed backs, which helps the speaker to communicate effectively. The speaker is responsible to collect data, research, have valid statistics, obtain the knowledge and then present valid information based on the data collected to make sure the intent of the message is to convey effective valid message.

The speaker should consider the audience's characteristics like education background, sex orientation, gender, age, culture and the level of experience. Characteristics play an important role when presenting to an audience with different background. Psychological profiles of the audience may be a significant factor that