Audiences in the Age of Twitter aren’t like your father’s audiences. They want something more. To be effective in your job, you need to know how to give it to them.
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The device you’re reading this on has changed a lot in your life. You’re hyper connected, at a shallow level, with most news, information, and entertainment you might want. Just the knowledge that it’s all out there is competing with you reading the rest of this blog post to the end.
The Age of Twitter has made redundant many things we used to take for granted, like maps and language instructors – there’s an app for that! At the least, it’s changed who appreciates these things, and what they appreciate them for.
But the challenge I’m most interested in is what it’s done to the way live audiences consume and appreciate information at work. Statistics tell us that there are 100 million hours spent in workplace meetings in the US each week. And chances are that you’re giving some of the presentations in those meetings.
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We watch audiences for a living, and we’re seeing some trends you’re experiencing whether you can name them or not.
We coach executives to create and deliver high stakes business presentations. To do that, we sit through “regular” meetings where people hash out ideas for the Big Deal meetings. So we see how content gets developed and delivered – and how it gets received – in formal and informal business situations.
If you’re in position to deliver meeting content, you need to know what we’re seeing so that you deliver real value in your time in front of your audience.
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Audiences in the Age of Twitter aren’t like your father’s audiences. They want something more. To be effective in your job, you need to know how to give it to them.
Audiences want connection that means something. That means you have to take conscious charge of what you want us to be able to do, when you’re finished speaking, that we couldn’t have done without listening to you.
Audiences remember where the value is. We rate hotels, we bookmark sites, we follow specific people, all based on the value we get out of them. To earn our attention when you speak, you have to value empowering us over making yourself look good.
Audiences are quicker than ever to opt out. We’re less willing to have our time wasted, and quicker to judge when that’s about to happen.
Audiences are quicker than ever to opt IN. When they’re engaged with a speaker who is present, they’re thinking about how to use that content the minute they leave the room.
Audiences are thirsty for novelty. We want the new, the interesting, and we want it fast. That doesn’t mean that we’ll put up with just anything that’s new. We want real content, just not delivered like it’s 1999.
Audiences crave human connection. We want a piece of the speaker to come through. We’re breathing the same air you are, and we want your insights, your perspectives — something only you can give us. Just like we trust the hotel a friend rated on Trip Advisor, we need a personal reason to believe whatever you’re telling us.
Audiences are smarter than ever about when they’re being played. You can’t get away with over-promising, over-hyping, glad-handing and fake camaraderie of years past. We know when someone’s faking it.
Audiences want something, and someone real. “Fake it till you make it” is no longer useful. It’s both simpler, and harder to be authentic than not. It asks of you bravery, more than confidence.
Audiences have an updated view of what “good” looks like. The old stuff – the agenda slide, the bar graphs that zip in from the side, the “didn’t Joe do an awesome job? Let’s give him another hand” delay-of-game openings – that stuff has to go.
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You know this, on some level. You sit in some of those 100 million hours of meetings and wish the people you work with knew it, too. Because we’re all sick of having time wasted, whether you’re in the audience or standing at the front of the room.
So let’s make a bargain. Every few weeks, we’ll tell you what we’re seeing and how to put it to use. Then you take it out for a spin and check it out, whenever you’re speaking to a live audience.
We’ll make it a project for 2014. Together, we can help make endless workplace meetings something that empowers you, your teams and your companies. And maybe get you noticed as a leader, along the way.
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