@KateGardinerpartner, cofounder, AVG

kate@weareavg.comNew York, NY

Montreal #StartupFest 2016

WHAT IS AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT? WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Hi.I’m @KateGardiner.

I'm a founder of AVG, the audience engagement consultancy.

We’re based in New York.

I’ve worked with about 80 companies over the past ten years to redefine the way they work with, think about and listen to their consumers, mostly in the media

business.

I'm here to talk about one thing -- audience engagement.

What is Audience Engagement?

Audience engagement is the new, more correct phrase for the way you engage with your consumers.

Audience engagement affects every organization, big or small, startup or legacy.

And audience engagement defines your company’s brand — its value — in the public sphere.

Why ‘audience’?

When you’re talking about ‘social media’ you’re talking about technology. You’re talking about the tools.

Tools are used by people.

And they change, constantly.

Why ‘audience’?

When you’re talking about ‘social media’ you’re talking about technology. You’re talking about the tools.

Tools are used by people.

And they change, constantly.

Why not social media?

But the exact nature of your communications technology shouldn’t matter.

What should matter is the people using the technology.

They buy things. They talk to one another. They build movements.

Their interactions define your business.

Why engagement?

Many of you are here today building new platforms.

On those platforms, consumers engage (there’s that word again)

around something: an interest, a product, a service.

What about engagement?

Think about it.

You can talk to a consumer on hundreds of platforms - from Facebook and Twitter to Zendesk and Salesforce.

Every time you do, you’re engaging with them. Your audience.

It’s an essential business interaction.

Why audience engagement?

If you’re a client services business — like we are — a primary tool for engagement is email. Another is the conference line.

But a third option is the sexiest by far:

Social Media.

That’s where you engage with your consumers in a public, searchable, measurable and never-ending torrent of relationships.

Okay, so?

Why does it matter if you redefine the term?

You already 'do' social media, at least somewhat, somewhere even if it's just responding to error reports on

your Github account.

And you're 'good' at it, you think. You've got it handled.

Okay, so?

But what if you think of audience engagement as the core of your business - integral to both customer service and your organizations' infrastructure - no matter what

you're doing for revenue?

Okay, so?

That changes the conversation, big time.

Because audience engagement is an endless conversation.

And 'social media' isn't just a line item in the marketing budget, or an afterthought haphazardly managed by a

put-upon cofounder.

Audience engagement is…

It's a conversation emphasizing the strengths of your organization and becomes an asset to sales and

fundraising, whatever you're doing.

It's the added value that makes your business worth something in the eyes of the public.

It’s the intimate relationship you have with your audience entices your customers to be loyal to you over all others.

Okay, so?

That communication shouldn’t be focused on the platform itself because the the presentation of the message, the way we are communicating with individuals who want, need, or have our

services, isn’t the most important part.

The messaging itself, across those platforms, is. It’s crucial.

For young companies that messaging makes or breaks your core business.

Okay, so?

So, how do you go about doing this in a way that's meaningful?

What does engagement actually mean to a small startup, or a niche startup?

Audience Engagement

It means direct, immediate responses to clients and consumers.

It means inside jokes, memes, and repartee.

It means customization, curation and honesty.

And it means a ton of work.

Because, intimacy requires work.

(Just ask your partner. Or your parents.)

What’s the first step?

We tell a typical company - regardless of industry - that they should follow the traditional marketing best practices of 'going

where the audience is’.

And they should spend 30 percent of the investment they've made in their product on their distribution strategy. This might

seem huge to a company that's on a shoestring budget to start.

OMG, we can’t afford that…

Spending a third of the money you budgeted for the project to acknowledge the work you've done for the past months or years

should make more sense than it does to most people.

Sometimes it helps to think of that third as an investment in delegating the responsibility to someone else -- a staffer, a team,

a consultancy.

Other times, you have to take it on faith. And put your money where your mouth is.

Literally: what do I do?

I could tell you in detail, company by company, how to do it. I could say you should do X tweets per day.

We could come up with a clever Instagram or Facebook strategy.

We could hire influencers to play with you on Snapchat.

We could craft a calendar of marketing stunts.

We could commission pretty photos featuring beautiful women using your product or service.

Literally: what do I do?

All these things might make sense.

If you've done your homework. And you make a commitment, with your team.

Your Audience’s Core Identity

But first, homework.

Ten Arbitrary Questions

Who are you talking to? Why are you talking to them?

What's the goal of the engagement strategy you'd like to build out? Where do you need to be online? Offline?

On mobile? In the real world? What’s the market size? What’s the variability?

Who do you want to reach most?

Ten Arbitrary Questions

Ideally, as you've fundraised or bootstrapped or consulted or ... burned your trust fund's interest income...

you've profiled the audience that you're trying to serve.

Things to consider: Age, gender, income, ethnicity or ethnic history, housing, political and religious

perspective, digital consumption preferences.

Evaluate

Then we ask the crucial questions: what makes them listen? What makes them buy?

How do they prefer to pay? And how do they like to ask questions?

Whatever platform makes the most sense to them - and solves your problem at the scale most likely to be successful in the near

term is the platform you need to master.

More often than not, it won't just be the social media platform of your choice.

And then…

When you know the answers to these questions, you're ready to think about audience engagement, the core of

your business.

Because you'll know who you're addressing.

And why you're talking to them.

The avatar in your head

Picture that customer avatar in your head.

He or she is ever changing, reacting to the data coming in from every sale.

The individual

And that comprehensive personality is the one you're talking to across platforms -- likely on her phone.

Sometimes in the middle of the night.

Always in ways that are useful, clever and most importantly, engaging.

And then…

On a daily basis, this person is being considered as they exist on a platform.

You're talking to her about things she's interested in -- using news events to shape conversations if you have a

gap in content or limited changes in your world view.

Audience engagement

You're reacting to special requests individuals might have given their geographic considerations.

You never forget that the customer is actually a human being.

She’s not just a data point.

And then…

Because audience engagement is, once again, at the core of your business.

The thousand loyal fans you want to have buy your album or download each and every version of your game should

feel catered to, built for.

Engaged. Valued.

A new beginning.

And that's where audience engagement starts. It’s not just social media.

It’s comprehensive.

And where you take it is up to you.

Contact Me

@KateGardinerkate@weareavg.com

http://kategardiner.com(312) 725-0146

Audience Engagement