Define Your Audience

Define your audience

In any presentation it is important to connect with your audience, but this can be especially important when presenting online when your audience is in a different location. One way to help connect with your audience is by making your content more personalized and relevant to them. Gathering some information about who your audience is can help you decide what may be important to them.

Questions to Help Understand Your Audience

Here are some questions to consider about your audience:

What is your relationship with your audience?

Will you be presenting to your professor? Your classmates? A future employer? A potential customer? Your audience may impact choices in your visuals, examples and your overall tone.

How big is your audience?

Will you be presenting to one person, a small group or a larger group? With a smaller audience you may be able to have a less formal conversation to address questions, with a larger group you may need to better determine how, when, or if you will address questions. You will want to communicate your method of taking questions to your audience. You may also need to allow more time for questions and technical troubleshooting with a larger audience.

What do they already know about your topic?

How much knowledge do your audience members have about your topic? Are there terms you're using that may be unfamiliar to them that you'll need to define? Is there common ground that you can use as a connection point? For example, you may be presenting to your professor and classmates from a course, so you could use a common course topic as a way to connect to your own material.