I don’t agree with the absoluteness of “can’t” but I agree with the essence of what Erika says. And this is why it’s so darned important to properly understand the folks you’re engaging with. And in my content strategy work I see the difference play out a few ways... [thread] https://twitter.com/mulegirl/status/1298792155905814530

It’s one of the places I looked when I developed my content strategy maturity study.

In operating models with “lower” maturity and effectiveness the focus is on “hey, what can we tell them about us” (in other words it plays in the “fact” space)...

In operating models with “mid” maturity and effectiveness the focus is on understanding what folks want but still often stays in fact or feature space i.e understanding top tasks...

In operating models with “high” maturity and effectiveness in their approach to content and engagement, they truly seek to understand emotions, values, beliefs at play. Content and experience is then crafted and empathetic to those things.

It makes one helluva difference.

That’s why at @picklejar we have a four-tiered model of understanding the humans that we may be creating content strategies or content for. It’s the piece that all our research work, and subsequent strategies hinge on...

Level 1: channel and platform (where they are)

Level 2: information needs (in relation to you, i.e top tasks)

Level 3: values, beliefs and emotions (what they really care about and therefore choose from)

Level 4: influence and distraction (what attracts or distracts)

Sometimes we’ll see that facts matter i.e students might genuinely care about rankings... but ultimate decisions often are made from the heart - so level 3 (emotions, beliefs, values) is the thing that makes the real difference in how it goes and what they choose.

But so few organisations actually bother to try to understand level 3 because it feels vague and like it can’t be quantified. In other words, because they can’t turn feelings into facts!

But that’s just not true. That’s just a sign that their experience of research to understand audiences previously has perhaps been limited or hasn’t had the creativity and commitment to research design and presentation that really shines a light on the emotional aspect.

Just because something feels like the shape can move and change and morph into something different, or not be deduced into facts isn’t a reason not to research and understand it. It’s even more of a reason to do so!

TL;DR version: stop just putting out audience “research” surveys that just ask what channels and platforms they use and what info they want. Do the research properly. Do it well. Look at the difficult stuff (or have us @picklejar do it for you)