THE AUDIENCE

Now that you have disseminated your message and created a platform, you must identify your target audience. Simply put, your audience is the estimated group of people that you hope to influence through your message. People make decisions every day that either ruin or raise the course of their lives; your task is to influence decision-making through the administration of your message and what it carries. In other words, you have to employ marketing strategies to sell your message to your target audience.

Identifying Your Audience - How do you identify your target audience?

1. Relativity: More often than not, your target audience has a certain relativity to your message. For example, if your message is about self-confidence, what caliber of people are you most likely to influence?

• The depressed
• The Shy
• emotionally unstable
• People with stage fright, etc.
• With the above listed, where can you find people with these challenges?
• The Youths!
• Teenagers

Now, you've been able to identify your target audience. This means your message of self-confidence is generally targeted at influencing the decisions of young people. 

Through your message, many youths who would rather not go up on stage might now find it appealing to speak boldly before a crowd.

The Effect of Your Message

1. You First: Your message must first affect you before it can affect others; the pipe that carries water cannot run out of it. If you have a message of purposeful discovery, you must also be a beneficiary of your message so that others can see it in you and then follow you. 

By projecting your message to the world, you are raising a call to people all around you to be a part of a life-changing cause. 

Whatever your message is, it must first have a positive effect on your decision-making before it can have the same effect on others. 

The effect your message has on you is what forms "Your Story."

2. Your Audience: Not everyone will be able to remember or understand the tenacity of your message; in a crowd of 10, say 3, might be able to flow with you—it's completely natural. 

But it is your responsibility to ensure that you can affect the lives of those who choose to listen to you through your writings. Your work is your voice; your work is your part of a global community, so take it seriously. 

You are a writer, and the reason you are here today is that:

• You want to make a difference in your world.
• It's because you believe you have something to offer.
• You want your voice to be heard.
• You want to help others be heard too.

Every writer must be dedicated to actualizing their message so that it has a positive effect on them and their audience. I believe you have drawn your writing schedule; if you still need to, this post will help you do that and follow the instructions therein.

Growing Your Message

There are certain steps that you must take to grow your message:

1. Read and Study: Reading helps widen your horizons while studying helps broaden your horizons. There's a difference between the two, but they both have the same effect. If your message is "Healthy Relationships," then you must read books that pertain to relationships. The more you read, the better the quality of your writing, because it is from within that we give it out. Look at this scenario to help you understand better:

Activity 1.0 - Please provide answers to these in the comment section below.

• When we inhale, we inhale the air around us. True/False
• And when we exhale, we exhale the air that is inside of us. True/False

In the same way, writing is like exhaling, and reading is like inhaling. So if you take a deep breath while reading, you will release a deep cleansing breath through writing. That's how it works! 

This is one of the secrets that great writers of time past and present are trading: you will never find a growing writer who is not an avid reader.

What Happens When You Read?

• It improves the quality of your message.
• It increases your audience capacity, also called your fan base.
• It improves the quality of your speech pattern.
• It gives you boldness and self-assurance about a particular subject.

So, if you want your message to grow, then ensure you read books and materials that are relevant to that message. In this way, you rub your mind with the minds of others, and it sharpens your intellectual capacity.

Are there writers who are good at writing but hate reading? Yes, there are. Many writers have excellent ratings on the charts, but they are not book fans; they don't read or aren't reading as much as they should. 

These kinds of writers are limited in their experience and knowledge. Times change quickly; writers like these will be unable to keep up with the fast-growing economy, demands, and changes in time and tide, and they will soon become forgotten and outdated. 

The principle of "garbage-in and garbage-out" works in all fields of life, not just writing. This is why some musicians top the charts today, and in the next 10 years, they will be extinct. Learn this basic principle of life.

2. Experience: In this context, experience could be referred to as engagement. 
By talking and writing about your message and embarking on projects that will help make your message grow.

For example, if your message is "Purpose-Discoevery," you could start posting a series on Facebook about "Purpose and You"; you could also start writing fictional stories or poems about understanding your purpose.
On Instagram, you could create memes with short motivational write-ups;
On TikTok, you could create an emotional and captivating short video with words of encouragement; 

All these are projects will deepen your experience and attract more people to your message. 

The key to actuarialization is consistency. Another key is understanding how social media works

 

That's why we did the weekend special last weekend. If you couldn't participate in it but are still willing, please send a message to tpmicartic@gmail.com with the words "I wish to participate in the Social Media Weekend Special.".

Experience could also include joining groups, attending seminars, or being part of movements where your target audience is most likely to be found. The message of "Purpose Discovery" is for young people; this set of people can be found in institutions of learning, so take steps to reach them where they are and not just them coming to you.

If you've followed this lesson extensively, you'll see that we have gone beyond just writing to making an impact through writing.

3. Consistency: Many of us now have blogs, social media pages, and profiles. You must be consistent in posting on these channels. Follow the schedule you drafted in our last lesson and be consistent with it. 

If your message is on "purpose," then write about it so much that you will be identified with it. Open your heart and mind to the creativity all around you; you will never run out of inspiration if your heart and mind are open and work as one. 

Clear your mind of distracting thoughts and doubts and affirm to yourself, "I can do this," "I can make a difference," and "I am the change my world is waiting for." Positive affirmations will boost your confidence and help you "launch into the deep."

So, follow your schedule. 

Don't wait until we give an assignment to the crew before you post. From this instant, your assignment is to post according to the schedule you drew and post consistently.

Special Tips:

Always have writing materials on you. As a writer, inspiration can pop into your mind at unexpected times, and you might not be on your phone. So ensure you have a pen and pocket jotter on you at all times. Why? As inspiration comes, you write them down so as not to lose them. Later, you ponder the things you wrote down and gain a better understanding of them.

Think outside the box—this is one of the things reading will help you do. By rubbing minds with other authors, you begin to think outside of a certain pattern and invent new ways to carry out projects.

Have a quiet mind. Your mind needs to be still so you can hear the whisper of the wind. Everything around you carries inspiration, irrespective of your message. If your mind is rowdy, you might not be able to grasp the moment when inspiration comes. 

And you know what? When you miss your moment of inspiration, you will most likely encounter writer's block when you want to write. This is a fact.

YOUR AUDIENCE: Whether you are writing for fun or professional reasons, you must ensure you have a growing audience.

So, first, you must ask yourself where you would typically find them and how they tend to communicate with each other to ensure that the tone of communication and the way you talk to them is appropriate. 

In what types of communication channels will you find them? Social media? Traditional media? Email?

Once all these questions have been answered, you should put together a media and communication plan (which we will go into in more detail later on in the course) to impact them in the best way possible.

Activity 1.1: SELLING YOUR MESSAGE - Please provide answers to these in the comment section below.

Once you've identified your message and your target audience, ask yourself these questions:

What problems do my audience have that I want to solve?

What unmet need is there in their category?

How will my message fix this problem?

What value do I bring to my audience?

Sample Answer to Activity 1.1

1. The problem of living life without meaning

2. The need to find their God-given assignment

3. My message of purpose will bring to light the importance of purpose discovery and how it not only affects the life of an individual but also affects his world.

4. I bring value to daily goal-setting and actualization.

ASSIGNMENT

1. Please provide answers to Activities 1.0 and 1.1 in the comment section.

Activity 1.3 
Answer these questions as a post in the Facebook group. Please ensure you attach an image to your Facebook post. This is a sample.

1. In plain words, who is your audience?

2. About your message, how can you identify your audience?

3. Will your message have a positive or negative effect on your audience?

4. How has your message been beneficial to you recently?

5. List two topics that are related to your message.

6. Aside from writing, what other ways could you convey your message? Example, Art, Memes, Poems, Podcasts etc

Activity 1.4 - Action Plan

1. Of the 2 topics you listed, use one of them today to create an article, poem or story (not less than 50 words) and post it on your Facebook page and Instagram handle. 

Please note that if you have yet to create a page for your writing, please do so as soon as possible.

Mode of Submission:

Share the post with our Facebook group.

Copy the link and drop it on WhatsApp.

So in summary - Activity 1.0 and 1.1 are to be answered in the comment section of this post. 

Activity 1.3 is to be answered as a post with an image on our Facebook group - and then the link sent to the Whatsapp group.

Activity 1.4 is an article, poem or story to be made on your Facebook Page and Instagram handle