EXAM QUESTION: What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximise their online audiences? (30) Refer to both Zoella and Attitude.
Firstly, online audiences have changed over the time, caused by social media making things much easier to do. I am talking about how audiences interact with content creators has changed to audiences becoming a content creator themselves. For example, YouTube, you can watch your favourite youtuber and comment in the comment section to interact with the youtuber and other fans, same applies to other apps and websites like Instagram and Facebook. But now, many of those online audiences have decided to create their own content and become what they were entertained by. This is because YouTube and other media have made it easy to create your own content and people decide to create instead of just watching, supported by Shirky's theory of fans creating their own texts instead of just consuming the texts. Another reason fans are starting to become content creators now is because when YouTube and other medias first came out, no one saw it as a job with good income but now, fans see how much money content creators make from it and want to be as successful as them. For example, Zoella doesn't like to tell her audience her income, you can see in her videos which show what type of house she lives in with what items show how wealthy she is which encourages some viewers to be a youtuber.
One-way Zoella and Attitude effectively target and maximise their online audience is by focusing on the gender they want to target. Zoella focuses on targeting females shown by her content which shows what stereotypical females would like, for example, Zoella mainly focuses on female-based activities like fashion, make-up, pets and relationships which female viewers can relate to more which leads to them liking Zoella more. Also, her content appeals to female audiences through emotional narratives and Zoella continuously tells us how she feels about the problems she faces which allows the viewers to relate even more which maximises Zoella's online audience. However, her content has changed over the time and is more grown out of using bright pink colours to now warmer colours with more activities that target all genders to maximise her target audience even further. On the other hand, while Zoella targets simple stereotypes of females, Attitude targets complex stereotypes of male audiences. This is shown by how they represent their website; the writing style is very factual with using lots of statistics and uses more images than text as there are short paragraphs which is male coded liked things as males generally like visuals and stats. The reason it's a complex stereotype of males as they target gay males, the visuals show men in a very sexual way which goes against the conventions of sexual representations as its usually females who are represented sexually however to appeal to the gay male audience, they need to break this convention. Another convention they break to maximise their audience is by not showing male coded things, if Attitude focused on only male coded things, then it may not effectively target their audience so what they do is show female coded things like fashion as gay males generally like female coded things so it would successfully target and maximise their online audience. Both Zoella and Attitude target their audiences by showing them what that gender generally likes so they can relate to it, this is supported by Hall's theory that media language is used to create stereotypes, Zoella and Attitude show what they think the stereotypical gender that they target should like which refines the stereotypes they focus on.
Another method that Attitude and Zoella use is targeting a specific age range to fully maximise their audience while still focusing on the gender. Attitude not only focuses on gay males but the age between 26 to 55, their website shows many examples, a heavy use of Facebook and Twitter as supporting social media which are the primary sites used by this age group however Attitude has started to use other social media to probably maximise their online audience, most stories on their website features celebrities that the target audience would of grown-up liking in the late 20th century. Another way to make their website suitable for 26-55 is what they don't do, there is no audience feedback on the website anywhere whereas websites and social media for younger audiences uses a lot of audience feedback as younger audience like to talk about the subject whereas older audiences don't as much, another reason for an absence of audience feedback is so there is no discrimination on their website topics like gay and LGBT aren't supported by everyone so Attitude keeps feedback out for now. Zoella's targeted age range has changed over the time, before it was 13-24 females Zoella used Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube which are mostly used by this age group, fans can interact with Zoella and other fans through comments to create connections and fans connections are shown in her videos to make fans feel appreciated, also showing everyday activities create connections with her fans as well. All these are ways Zoella maximise her young online audience, but she had a secondary target audience which were parents and advertisers as they were engaged by content that is safe in terms of sexual content however, Zoella has changed her target audience now as not only as she has grown up but so has her fans, now she focuses on slightly older audiences as her website does have some sexual content which wouldn't be appropriate for her old target audience and secondary target audience. Now her content is more mature while still showing most of the same content but in a separate way and added content which relates to older audiences. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet and other media to help create their own identity links to how Attitude and Zoella makes their content suit their targeted age range like Zoella showing just showing her everyday activities may influence female viewers on how they do their everyday activities which could create or change their identity.
Socio-economic group is another area that Zoella and Attitude target to maximise their online audience successfully. Zoella uses language which is moderately formal with some extended language and Standard English to mirror lower class values and educational backgrounds, Zoella's house is represented as an ideal youthful environment which is a place of fun and socialising. These two points suggests that Zoella focuses on BC1C2 which is middle middle class as Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional to skilled working class as skill manual workers, this is because Zoella uses language used by these classes and items that only these classes would use. More evidence of the socio-economic group being BC1C2 is that Zoella has partnerships who also focus on the same group as companies who represent high street fashion at value prices, as well as Zoella being allowed to upload about lucrative advertising as BC1C2 is most associated with lucrative advertisements and would make sense to target this demographic for maximisation of her online audience. However, Attitude aims higher in class than Zoella by targeting ABC1, this is proved by the language they use which is very formal and complex with extended language but mostly Standard English to mirror middle class values and educational backgrounds, and Attitude includes relatable activities for this demographic in their narratives to create connections with the target audience. ABC1 is from upper middle class as higher managerial, administrative or professional to lower middle class as supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional, this would make sense for Attitude to target this demographic as they partner up with companies who also target ABC1 like companies who advertise premium products, furthermore, stories are aimed at graduate/professional readership through direct reference to ABC1's professions like Managers, Designers and etc.
Lastly, the other area in how Attitude and Zoella target their online audience is through psychographics. Attitude targets both the aspirers and the reformers, the aspirers are people who want status brands that show their place in society, evidence from the Attitude website showing that they target aspirers is in the style section where it is very saturated with premium fashion brands while the travel section highlights expensive travel options, this is perfect for aspirers as they are happy to invest into luxury goods and always wants to be on the trend to seek status. The other psychographic Attitude targets is reformers who are defined by self-esteem and self-improvement, proof from the website is in the narratives that mainly political, commenting on social issues which is mostly about LGBT but also including homelessness, voting rights, etc., all this is for trying to change society which again, is perfect for reformers as they always seek enlightenment and are socially aware. Like Attitude, Zoella also targets the aspirers but on the other hand also targets the mainstreamers. We know that aspirers seek status and like to show it off, the way Zoella targets them is by showing her own aspirational lifestyle by just showing her house, cars and possessions. The other psychographic she targets is mainstreamers who like tried and trusted brands, Zoella sometimes reviews products after testing them out which shows that she is targeting mainstreamers and she is reassuring her online audience about that product unless it's a negative review then she may recommend her audience to avoid this product as mainstreamer like to keep it safe and save money. Another smaller psychographic that Zoella might target is the explorers who are people who like to discover new things, Zoella also likes to try new things out so showing these new products encourages the explorers to try them out.
In general, both Zoella and Attitude target their audiences very specifically by looking at different areas of their target audience and showing them things, they like to effectively target and maximise their online audience.
