Today I attended a Media Trust session (delivered by Ed Cox of Reason Digital) on the theme of Developing A Digital Strategy. The seminar was a useful refresher of the key components that form the framework of a digital strategy. What came across to me most during the day was the focus on the audience. Working for an audience development agency it was heartening to hear audiences being put at the core where it comes to digital.

Keeping this in mind here are four questions to ask yourself and your colleagues when looking to develop a digital strategy. In considering these questions it should help ensure you create an online presence for your organisation that meets the needs of your end users – in turn benefiting your company:

• WHO is your audience? – Age, gender, location, engagement level with your organisation, interests etc. etc. And do you have multiple audiences who you need to meet the needs of?

• HOW do your audience(s) engage online? – Are they digitally switched on? Do they participate online in a particular way for example do they only consume content? Or do they share or even produce their own content?*

• WHERE does your audience(s) ‘hangout’ online? – Take a step back and monitor which digital channels your target audience participate in/on. After all why have a presence on Facebook, for example, if the people you want to ‘talk’ to aren’t there in the first place – go to them.

• WHAT do your audience(s) want to achieve online? – Think about what your audience wants to do online, for example if you are a charity and they are on your website to donate make it as easy as possible then both you and they get the desired result.

* For more about how people engage online see Social Technographics and for arts organisations Digital audiences: engagement with arts and culture online.

Image c/o batmoo licensed under Creative Commons.