In last week's first of my series of follow-up posts to our Web Executive Seminar "Six Steps to a Successful Online Strategy," I talked about correctly identifying core goals in line with your mission. With that key foundation in place, you are now ready to turn to audiences, specifically those target audiences on which is is most critical to focus online. Most groups have an intuitive sense of who they should be reaching - this is often defined in program design documents - but priorities can get skewed and opportunities missed if one doesn't take the time to identify the most important audiences for this medium and also understand what those key audiences want and need. This is a juicy topic; so let me dive in...

Think about last week's goals discussion - the statements that end up being true goals describe ways in which you want the world to be different (less hunger, more peace, enhanced opportunities, etc.). Simply put, mission-focused organizations are all, fundamentally, in the behavior change business. In all cases, for the world to be different, some group of people needs to do behave differently than they now do - they need to make different policies, learn more about a subject, use their influence in certain ways, and so on. From this truth flows your audience analysis.

Given the foundation above, here are the major steps in knowing your audiences:

1. Turn goals into actions - Following on the point above, first determine the major actions that need to be taken in order for each of your goals to be achieved. I deliberately used passive voice there - don't think about what your organization needs to do, but instead focus on what actions need to occur, somehow. For example, if a core goal is "raise levels of childhood literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa," then some goal-attaining actions might be: "more schools get built in outlying regions," "road infrastructure to existing schools improves," and "local universities turn out more and better teachers." Make a list of all the major actions that need to occur in order for your goals to come about.
   
2. Derive actors from actions - With a list of actions defined, look at each one and figure out what actors could bring it about. It is critical not to think too narrowly. Remember that actors can bring about the actions in three ways: directly, by making decisions that bring about the action; directly, by directly implementing others' decisions in a way that brings about the action; and indirectly, by influencing decision-makers and implementers. For each action, then, make a list of all the actors that could effect it, remembering to consider decision-makers, implementers, and influencers. For example, start with the action "more schools get built in outlying regions." Actors might be: Minister of Education (decision-maker), ministry staff (implementers), head of provincial education dept. (decision-maker and implementer), village leaders (implementers and influencers), local journalists (influencers), NGOs (implementers and influencers) and so on.
   
3. Determine power of each type of actor in each context - Look at each actors you have listed and determine their relative power to effect the desired change. In the example above, for instance, the Minister of Education has a high level of power to make key decisions; local journalists probably have only a medium level of ability to influence those decisions. With this step taken, you should have a clear idea of which types of people matter most to you and why they matter.
   
4. Define which actors are target online audiences - You have effectively just ranked actors in terms of their importance to you. Some actors, however, will be important to reach, but will not be very reachable online (or at least not optimally reached in this way). The Minister of Education, for example, is valuable to reach, but probably isn't a good online target - limit consideration of this actor online (but make sure to think about reaching these individuals through other means and think about ways to reach them indirectly). The ministry staff, for example, may be better targets and may act as influencers on the Minister. Consider them more seriously for the online channel. Rank all actors for your ability to reach them online. Punchline: those actors that have both a high level of power to bring about desired actions and are highly reachable online are your target online audiences. Focus your online resources here.
   
5. Learn audience wants and needs - As I indicated above, knowing who your target audiences are is only part of the puzzle. You also need to know about them. This generally means doing significant research - surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups. Tying the research together with a persona for each target audience helps crystallize findings. Pay particular attention to what the target audiences need in order for them to be successful at what they do (i.e., getting elected, doing a good job, living comfortably, etc.). Your offering to each audience will need to be a blend of things they want form you and things you want to provide them. In the best cases - and the ones you want to leverage most - these objectives are not in conflict. By all means, of course, don't just focus on wants and needs you now can meet! List them all - you may identify opportunities to serve these audiences online in ways you never have before.
   
6. Define online services implications - As a final step, review your lists for each audience of what you want from them and what they (could) want from you. Brainstorm a set of implications for online services - not necessarily actual functions / features, but more general implications with some possible tools. You will use this list later to derive possible online services for prioritization.
   

One question that might emerge right away is "I know all the types of people I need to reach - why can't I just focus on them all?" As I said in the last post, the overriding principle must be "mission-focused, audience-centric." Online initiatives will be successful only if they have a tight tie to an organizational mission and focus on key audiences. The reason you need focus is that you can only do so much; if you try to reach many different groups with many different services you risk diluting the entire set. As we suggest above, some audiences are more valuable - focus energies and services on them to maximize your efficiency.

Up next, your organizational dynamics...