Brainstorming Web Audience List
See if you know the answers to the following two questions. If you don't, interview someone you work with to get the answers.
The next part of the course, Reaching Your Audience, shows you how to write for your Web audiences. But before you write content, you need to consider who your audience is.
1. Think about all potential visitors to your site: Who are you trying to reach with your Web site?
College Web sites usually have several target audiences. Many people visit a site for many different reasons. As the Web writer, you must anticipate the various types of visitors to your site and try to reach all of the Web site’s constituencies. This course uses a college English department as a fictional example of a sample department. The audiences for the English department Web site might be:
- Prospective undergraduate students wanting to major in English
- Prospective graduate students interested in pursuing a graduate degree in English
- Current undergraduate English majors
- Current graduate students in the English programs
- Current non-English majors taking English classes
- Current NU students planning to take an English class
- Current NU students who would like writing assistance
- Alumni
- NU English faculty
- English faculty and scholars from other universities
- Readers of and potential contributors to Studies in American Fiction, the journal published in the department
Example Web Audience List
2. Now, prioritize your list: Who are your most important site visitors?
Prioritizing whom you believe to be the most important target audience to the least will help you determine what text appears on the homepage. (The sample list above from the English department site is already prioritized.)
Exercise
Your Web Audience List
Download worksheet