Your Audience is… Changing! (Part 1)

The way people engage with information every day is changing. Why is this important? It’s not about what we industry veterans think is the “best way” to find important content – it’s what our end users think that matters.

Many of today’s knowledge and information management systems end users also rely on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This technology is now a critical, daily part of modern culture.

Millennials, who now occupy entry level and midlevel positions at the firms we work in, have a completely different set of expectations when it comes to getting and sharing information. For example, they tweet.

Know your audience

Most tweets are actually “re-tweets” or “shared” content rather than original content … which means that with today’s new media there is a potential magnifying effect for each unique piece of content, caused by a sharing network of interested people.

Those users who are active on social media sharing don’t do Google searches for their daily content…instead, they follow people who post or tweet on topics they are interested in, and in that way information flows to them.

Imagine that this social media user now joins your company. You should find out what their expectations are with regard to communication channels, and the excess of information available to them …

And understand that relevant information isn’t necessarily searched for…instead they expect that relevant information will find them. (And even that information they don’t know they need or want will find them!)

Push the good stuff

Millennials, who have grown up with targeted media that tracks them based on information shared across the Web, have become accustomed to that information delivery approach. Will Millennials resist your efforts to push content to them? No, they won’t. They’re your perfect audience – if the information you deliver is relevant.

With social sharing sites such as Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, interesting content can be instantly communicated, and information can be passed on quickly between interested users.

One key to building awareness of your information center’s content and services is to broadcast good content using social media functionality, and make it easy to share. When you do this, there is no need to build or moderate anything.

Are you using social sharing functionality at your organization? Do you use an Enterprise Social Network such as Yammer? If so, we’d love to hear about your experience.