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Connecting with Your Audience

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Posted on October 15 2008 in by Mediarights_Admin

Connecting with Your Audience

Published on October 15, 2008

By Kidane John Yohannes

For an artist, dialogue with the audience is a unique resource. Feedback can not only influence future work but also allows for the creator to engage directly with their audience. For many independent filmmakers this immediate and intimate dialogue is empowering, allowing them to easily communicate with those who are impacted by their work. One of the best ways to begin this connection is through a survey.

Unlike a test screening a survey allows the filmmaker to gage their audience before they go into production. Documentary filmmakers and social activist organizations may want to create a survey to test the potential interest in a subject, discover how people find out about screenings or get a better understanding about Independent Film in the US.

Filmmakers for Conservation, for example, are posting a green survey to find out how big our "footprints" actually are. And this organization, Arts Engine, Inc., is currently hosting a reader's survey to help them to create better websites and carry out their mission more effectively.

Smaller organizations and independent mediamakers do not necessarily need to achieve the typical, 1,000 sample size of a Gallop poll to provide an adequate cross-section. Consider the science behind how a survey works. Naturally not every one can be reached to complete a survey thus making sampling the science of choice.

According to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), "sampling is based on probability theory - in its broadest sense, if we can choose respondents randomly and appropriately from the larger population, the results from that random sample will be very close to what we would get by interviewing every member of the population." Filmmakers can still accurately gauge the larger audience's interests and needs even if their response rate is small.

Kenneth Frankes, production editor for Facts and Findings, a quarterly journal for legal assistants published by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) agrees. "We are fortunate to get 50 responses (out of 6,000 subscribers), and yet I consider the small sampling extremely valuable."

The expensive and often time consuming methods of reader survey mailings and on-site focus groups are no longer a hindrance to today's filmmakers who have at their fingertips a plethora of web-based resources at their disposal.

Contacting directly the members of your Facebook group or fan page, or using online tools such as Twiigs , PollDaddy and the popular Surveymonkey can allow you to quickly and easily find out what your audience is thinking.

A survey is the perfect tool to strengthen your relationship with you audience and help you to gather the information needed to make better decisions. Not only is it important to create a survey it is also vital to take them. Participation allows you to think critically about the subject you are engaged in, influence the outcome of future projects and in one particular instance offer you the chance to win an awesome Flip Camera.

Further Resources

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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