 Wouldn't the world be a more spectacular place if everyone was just like you? If only we all shared your interest in home brewing Irish folk dance and the hibernation patterns of bears. Sadly, that's not how the world works. As a public speaker, that means you're gonna have to figure out some things about the group of people to which you're speaking. This is called audience analysis and conveniently enough for you is the topic of this very video. We're gonna talk about the importance of audience analysis, the types of audience analysis and how to conduct audience analysis. Let's get started. Audience analysis is important for a variety of reasons. First, who doesn't like to know that someone is thinking of them? Audience analysis shows the audience that you've had them in mind throughout the entire preparation process. Aristotle also talked about the importance of finding common ground with your audience in today's technical speech parlance We call that identification. Audience analysis will also help us know what level and kind of language we should employ, determine the types of presentational aids that will be most effective, and develop strategies for relating the topic to the audience. For these and many other reasons, audience analysis is a crucial part of speech preparation. There are several different types of audience analysis that a speaker can and should conduct. The most basic is demographic analysis. Demographic analysis looks at audience characteristics in broad categorizations. Some common categories of demographic analysis are age, gender, ethnic and cultural background, socioeconomic status, meaning income, occupation and education, religion, political affiliation and group membership. While it's important not to let demographic analysis slip into stereotyping, a basic understanding of the makeup of your audience can be quite helpful. You'll need different strategies if you're going to give a speech on social security to a group of senior citizens, as opposed to a second grade class, or if you're speaking about stricter gun control laws at an NRA meeting. In these cases, a little demographic knowledge can go a long way. Demographic analysis will give you some basic surface information, but you'll also want to conduct an attitudinal analysis of the audience. You need to know as much as possible about the audience's attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings and opinions about your topic, you as a speaker and the occasion for the speech. Do they already have strong opinions about the topic you'll be covering, or will you have to educate them as you go? What does the audience know about you? Will you have to overcome a bad reputation, or do they not know anything about you? In which case, you'll need to work on building credibility. And what are their expectations for things like the length and theme for a speech on this occasion? If they're expecting you to speak for 20 minutes, and you go for an hour and a half, you could be in trouble. Likewise, a speech about diversity on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is likely to be better received than one on fantasy football strategies. One last type of audience analysis that will serve you well as a speaker is situational analysis. In a situational analysis, the speaker carefully considers the setting and context of their speech. This might include things like the size of the audience, the size of the room, the time of day the speech will be delivered, and the technologies that will be available. Knowing these things in advance will help you be better prepared for whether or not you'll be using a microphone, fighting against the audience's pre-lunch cravings or post-lunch drowsiness, and whether or not it's even worth putting a PowerPoint together. You might be saying to yourself, wow, that's really useful information. I definitely want to do an audience analysis before my next speech. But how do I do it? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you about three common methods for gathering information for your audience analysis. Observation, sampling, and general research. Observation is a qualitative method of information gathering. In the simplest terms, it involves getting your own eyeballs on the audience and the environment. Ideally, you'll be able to do this before you actually speak. Take a look at the crowd to get a feel for the mix of ages, races, and genders represented, the size and temperature of the room, and any obvious kinds of interference that you'll have to combat. You can also engage in observation while you're giving your speech, which can be as simple as paying attention to the nonverbal feedback provided by your audience. Another type of information gathering that can be useful in audience analysis is sampling. Sampling involves surveying the audience, either formally or informally. If you have the time and opportunity before delivering your speech, you can ask the audience to answer questions about your topic. These could be closed-ended questions, like attitudinal questions, value-ordered questions, or likert-type questions, or open-ended questions, like, what are your feelings about vaccines for children? You could then tabulate and analyze the responses, making use of the resulting data in your speech. You can also survey the audience less formally during your speech, such as a speaker who asks for a show of hands after asking a question. This can provide quick and visible feedback, but it does involve some risk as you won't know the answer in advance, and therefore can't prepare as thoroughly. Finally, a speaker can conduct a little general research to find out more about their audience and the situation. A quick search of published sources such as websites, newspapers, and other publications may yield some information about a particular group. You can also conduct interviews with people who will be a part of the audience and infer information from their answers. Asking questions of the person who invited you to speak can be fruitful. They should have some idea of the size and makeup of the audience and also be able to provide some information about the environment in which you'll be speaking. Remember, your audience isn't likely to be a room full of mirrors. You'll need to account for the fact that the people making up the audience will have their own interests, habits, and concerns. I may want to spend hours dissecting every glorious hour of Firefly, but most people do not, which is why it was canceled after only 14 episodes and you don't recognize the people in this picture as the cast of the show. Public speaking is not about just you. It's your job as a speaker to figure out how you can best connect the ideas, language, and other aspects of your speech to your audience. And then you should totally watch Firefly.