Defining your internet presence

Just recently I was marveling at the speed with which the internet has entered our lives. It is a much talked about subject, but we really are at a turning point in behavior models. In fact, we're beyond the turning point. Social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have subtly turned all of us into bloggers. What started out as a fun way to share updates with friends has turned into a means of broadcasting information to the world. I'm not complaining, I think its liberating. The velocity with which ideas and thoughts are being transferred is accelerating. For the individual that wants to contribute to this process, the sky is the limit.

It did occur to me however that many of us may be using all these tools haphazardly. If we stumbled into this activity then we may not be focusing our energy on the correct topics, or the most compatible audience. One can usually sense when this happens – visitors start to decline, links don't get clicked, followers leave, and writing content becomes a chore. This can all be avoided if one focuses correctly. When you create content that both you and your audience enjoy it can be a beautiful thing.

To create this alignment you need to ask yourself some questions. Do this at least once a year, whether you're an experienced blogger or just starting out. You might be surprised by your answers. You might not like them. You may however be energized by a new found clarity of vision. You will most certainly need them though, to plan, research, and create.

Ask yourself the following:

What are your goals?
What do you want to achieve with your internet presence? Do you want to create? Do you want to make money? Are you looking to become self-employed? Are you looking to promote an existing business? Or are you just looking to chat and have a bit of fun? Be clear about what your goals are and that will make the next question a lot easier.

Who is your audience?
Who do you want to be communicating with to achieve these goals? Will they be your existing or future customers? Will they be a like-minded peer group? Will they be a community of people with a problem you'd like to solve? What are the demographics of this audience? How many of them are there? And do they know you already?

What does your audience like?
What kind of content are your followers looking for? Are they looking to be entertained? Or are they looking achieve something specifically? Do they like to read blogs, or do they prefer short messages on a micro-blogging service? This might seem like a tough question to answer, but if your audience has a similar interest to you it may be easier than you think.

What are you going to give them?
Now that you know who they are and what they want, what are you going to give them? Will you write articles solving their problems? Will you blog regularly delivering breaking information about a specific subject? Will you micro-blog short entertaining messages? Will you write lengthy detailed articles or books? What combination of the above will you produce? Make sure this aligns to what they’re looking for.

How often are you going to communicate?
What frequency will you perform the above activities? Will it be daily, hourly, or far less frequent? Does this match what your audience are looking for? Will they be bored or overwhelmed with your contributions?

Which channels will you use?
Will you blog, micro-blog, email newsletters, produce videos, or publish podcasts? What combination of the above will you create? Which social tools will you use? Are these the tools that your audience uses?

It may seem like you're assuming certain things in this process, but what you're actually doing is framing your community and your activities. By answering the above you will be excluding certain groups, that's for sure, but this is a necessary step if you want to create alignment between you and your internet following. You may even have to loop through this process multiple times if you notice conflicts in the answers. Don’t get despondent, just know that a little bit of head-scratching right now will make everything a lot easier down the road.

To give you an example I include my own personal question and answer section below:

What are your goals?
My goal is to build an internet following that are interested in my content.
I want them to have similar interests to myself so that I can produce content I like.
I want to do this so that I can spend my day focusing on stuff I enjoy.

Who is your audience?
My audience are people that want to build an internet presence themselves
They may be interested in building internet businesses, launching new startups, or their own personal website.
They're interested in growing their own audiences too.
They want to use the internet tools available to them in an effective way.
They like tools such as Twitter, Facebook and good blogs.

What does your audience like?
They like to use a combination of tools to get their information.
They'll read short posts and articles in their interest area, and may even buy books on the subject.
My audience is fairly dedicated to their internet activities, and they span technical competency levels from complete beginner to experienced professional.
They want to know how to build their audiences.
They want to know how to link the various tools they use.
They want to stay on top of all the trends in this area.
They want their voices heard and want to stand out from the crowd.

What are you going to give them?
Interesting and informative content that helps them achieve their goals.
High quality content that is easy to digest.
Content that they will readily want to share with others.
Content that can be transferred using today's mainstream internet technologies.
Heads-up on interesting trends and events.

How often are you going to communicate?
I will devote time every day to content creation.
I will devote time to larger pieces of work that are very high quality items, but take longer to produce.

Which channels will you use?
I will use my blog as my main medium of communication.
I will use social tools such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to build relationships, stay top of mind, and increase my reach.
I will publish free eBooks and articles for high value content.