What is an Audience?
People who repeatedly choose to pay attention to a body of work, not a number attached to an account.
Attention with context
An audience is a group of people who recognize a continuing body of work and choose to return to it.
Follower counts approximate potential reach. They do not reveal whether people understand the project, experience the problem, read the work, or intend to return.
Audience is not community
An audience can listen without interacting with one another. A community develops relationships, norms, and shared participation between members. A customer base consists of people who exchange value for a product.
The same person can belong to all three groups, but the words should not be treated as synonyms.
Relevance before size
For an early project, ten relevant readers may create more learning than ten thousand unrelated impressions. Ask:
- Do they recognize the problem?
- Do they return for another update?
- Do they try, reply, share, contribute, or purchase?
- Can they explain the project accurately to someone else?
Build trust by making the work consistently understandable. Do not demand loyalty before creating value.