Types of Audiences

When working with social media, you encounter many different types of audiences. In chapter eight of our class textbook, Social Media for Strategic Communication, it explains the seven types of audience. There are emerging audiences, opponents, ambassadors, communities, influencers, trolls, and creators. I will break them down by each category and explain the importance and role that they take. 

• Emerging Audiences- This type of audience member, you want to note as individuals, based on the monitoring and listening they do on social media because they could transform into a key primary audience. With new audience members, you will have more opportunity to have them share your posts/account which could continue to gain a greater audience. 
• Opponents- These audience members are also known as critics. These audiences are not going to be the biggest fans of the brand/company you represent. They constantly look and wish for downfalls on your brand. They are typically very active in sharing their views and how they feel about you. Some of these negative opinions could be based on previous experiences, or they could be unprovoked. In all, this is not the audience member you want, but it's still important to know that they exist.
• Ambassadors- A type of audience to consider for social media because they advocate for and promote your work based on their own interests and investment with your brand. These individuals could be loyal customers, proud alumni and students, engaged fans, etc. These relationships are important for your brand, but can also take time. 
• Communities- Communities can be hosted by individuals, groups, or brands. Online communities encompass a group of people who are invested and interested in a similar issue, brand, or area of expertise. Brands can build communities to meet several goals and are designated for loyal customers and fans who may want to become ambassadors for the brand. Twitter is a large community platform as there are many opportunities for people to connect about topics through hashtags, retweeting, replies, etc.
• Influencers/Creators- An influencer is someone who has built an audience, naturally and over time, and is viewed as an authority figure on a certain subject, area, or perspective in the online space. An influencer has trust of a community, which makes the influencer able to persuade audiences. The types of influencers vary, there can come from blogs, social media, or can be celebrities of any kind. There are different tools you can use to track the success rates of influencers including Followerwonk, Traackr, and Zoomph.
• Trolls- They are usually the accounts that comment, tag, and share your work and do not have the most positive things to say about you. Some are just negative, but others are abusive. This is super common unfortunately and it is important to watch for these and monitor your platforms from this audience type.

Now you are more informed on the different types of audiences you will come across you will be able to analyze your statistics a lot more accurately.