Your Assumptions Are Killing Your Blog

This post came from a question that a reader emailed to me.  Unfortunately the email address they supplied doesn’t work, so they haven’t received an answer from me.

Tip: I’m happy to answer questions via email but you should probably make sure I can actually get back to you with the answer.

This was the question:

I want an interactive blog to support future book and build a following both deep and wide.  Older men and grandads need this simple and not too SM-ish.  What apps for WP do you consider essential, not diversionary, and not requiring social media addition?

There are two assumptions that I noticed immediately:

• The audience is older men and grandfathers
• The audience doesn’t use social media

Understanding your target audience is important, but you should avoid the mindset that they are your only audience.  There is a lot to be gained from looking outside of your target audience.

Here are two suggestions:

• Use a brainstorming exercise to consider who your primary and secondary audiences are
• Use your web and email analytics (if you have them) to tell you who your audience is

You might be surprised what you discover, and it can open up a lot of extra promotional channels for you.

The second assumption was about social media.  This is an easy place to make mistaken assumptions – Twitter is pointless, Facebook is for teenagers, Digg traffic is worthless, and so on.  But if you take the time to look into it you often find those assumptions to be incorrect.

For example, in December last year nearly 20% of US Facebook users were aged 45-65, and males aged 55-65 were one of the fastest growing demographics, according to the website Inside Facebook.  And it doesn’t take a big percentage of 500 million active users to add up to a big potential audience in real numbers.

Also consider that social media lets you market to people who may not be the intended customer of the book or product, but might still buy it for someone in the target audience.

The wrong assumptions can kill a blog.  Assumptions need research and testing before they can be relied upon.

So how many of your assumptions might be holding you back right now?

Image Credit: Flickr