Influencers have become increasingly prominent on social media channels, where they engage with thousands of followers and often receive a salary and other perks from companies that benefit from their popularity. The more followers they have, the more money they make (Nashville Film Institute), which means that many people have turned it into a full-time profession, and many more are trying to generate enough followers to do the same. But have you ever wondered what types of skills a successful influencer must have? Or, similarly, have you ever thought about why businesses of all shapes and sizes spend so much time and money thinking about the different ways they want to communicate with their audiences? A content strategist, responsible for creating an organization’s communication plan, is typically a core member of the leadership team for one simple reason: businesses need customers in order to survive, and the process of engaging and retaining customers requires very intentional, continual messaging across a number of different channels (Cione-Kroeschel).

You’ve probably realized by now that all of these skills relate back to rhetoric. The basic elements of the rhetorical situation—audience, message, speaker, purpose, exigence, and kairos—are foundational in all of our interactions, whether personal or professional, and considering some of the (dis)advantages of digital spaces that we discussed in the previous chapter, rhetorical skills are even more important online, in moments where the speaker and the audience are separated by time and space. As opposed to in-person conversations, where audiences are more likely (hopefully) to actively listen to a message and where the speaker can (sometimes) gauge the audience’s reaction and make appropriate adjustments, digital spaces create unique challenges that make it more difficult to get a message to “land,” especially if the audience is fairly broad and loosely defined. It’s harder to capture people’s attention among the onslaught of ads and spam messaging that people receive each day. It’s more difficult to cultivate trust and make genuine personal connections. And it’s less likely that people will understand your meaning when you’re not right there beside them to guide them in the right direction or answer questions.

These are just a few of the challenges that arise in digital communication, but the good news is that they aren’t insurmountable. However, they do require a much deeper consideration of audience to identify the relevant needs, expectations, and values that would influence their interpretation and that should, therefore, guide the way that you craft a message. This chapter focuses on these key rhetorical considerations and thought processes that will facilitate more effective digital communication. While the chapter takes a more professional slant—considering aspects of branding and audience engagement that might align with a business’s marketing strategy—the concepts presented here are also incredibly relevant to your own personal brand as well as your professional goals. Whether you aspire to be an influencer, a content writer, or something else entirely, the digital writing tools and strategies discussed here will significantly increase your success.

Branding

We’ve discussed the fact that all messages have a purpose—a response that the speaker hopes to elicit from the audience as a result of the message. It might be to get the audience to understand a concept, agree with a particular claim, click on a link to a website, purchase a product or service, reshare a post, subscribe to a channel, and so on. Often, there is more than one purpose behind a message. For instance, a company might send a promotional email to a list of subscribers with the primary purpose of getting the audience to purchase a product. But to do that, the email would also have to inform them about the product, convince them to click the link to visit the website, and maybe persuade them to sign up for a free trial or contact a sales agent for more information.

A much more subtle, yet crucial, purpose behind most messages is to make a positive impression on the audience, and the collective sum of those messages and audience impressions reflects that person’s or organization’s brand. While the word “brand” could be used to refer to a company’s “brand name,” or the company that produces a particular product, it also refers to the way that the public perceives that company. Jerry McLaughlin, a Forbes contributor, explains it like this:

Put simply, your “brand” is what your prospect thinks of when he or she hears your brand name. It’s everything the public thinks it knows about your name brand offering—both factual (e.g. It comes in a robin’s-egg-blue box), and emotional (e.g. It’s romantic). Your brand name exists objectively; people can see it. It’s fixed. But your brand exists only in someone’s mind.

It’s important to note here that brand is not the same as “mission.” An organization’s mission relates to what they are trying to achieve with the work they do—often related to meeting customer’s needs with a particular product or service. It’s the primary reason that the organization exists, and ideally, every task, both big and small across every department, would further its mission. While mission is about what a company hopes to do, brand is about who the company is. It’s the perception that people have about that company’s personality, values, integrity, customer care, expertise, and commitment to excellence. Obviously, a positive public perception in these areas would motivate higher levels of audience engagement, which has a direct effect on profit margins and a company’s ability to achieve its mission.

Let’s look at an example. In the last several Super Bowls, Budweiser has become known for its commercials featuring the friendship between a horse and a dog. A recent Budweiser commercial in the 2022 Super Bowl told the story of an injured horse and the emotional connection it had with a dog, which aided in its recovery. This is one in a long line of commercials since 2014 (with a commercial titled “Puppy Love”) that trace the friendship between these two animals and create a strong emotional reaction in viewers. While the connection to the Budweiser product—beer—is nonexistent in these commercials, the real focus is on telling a story that viewers will associate with the Budweiser organization. The commercials highlight the hardworking, simple American values of farm life, the strength and determination of the Clydesdale (which have been featured in Budweiser commercials since 1996, according to Sloan), and the friendship and intense loyalty between the animals—all qualities that Budweiser hopes that viewers will begin to associate with their company. Over the years, these heartwarming commercials have been immensely successful in not only engaging viewers but creating positive feelings toward the Budweiser name.

Obviously, expensive commercials with a large viewership are one way that a company can work toward developing its brand, but remember that a brand is the sum of all of the messaging and impressions that people have about a company. It relates to the content on its website, its social media posts, and the experience that customers have with a product or when they engage with customer service representatives. It also includes stories that are outside of the company’s control—articles (positive or negative) that are published in the news as well as customer reviews on Yelp or on a company’s Google Business Profile. In other words, everything that a company says and does should align with its intended brand, and companies that aren’t intentional about consistently communicating their brand suffer the consequences (Dontigney).

Individuals also have a personal brand—the way that they want to be perceived by other people. Similar to corporate branding, this relates to your personality, your values, and your loyalty as a friend. It also relates to your professional niche—your work ethic, professionalism, and expertise in a specific field. Although the idea of a personal brand sometimes has a negative connotation, implying the idea that a person is fake and/or self-absorbed, people who have the most success with personal branding are authentic, highlighting the parts of themselves and their experiences that they want to be known for (Chan). They are also consistent, focusing on one key message or niche for which they want to be known, communicating often, and being faithful to that brand in all online and offline interactions.

As organizations and individuals set goals and take steps to cultivate their online presence, branding is central to their ability to reach key stakeholders, make connections, develop trust, and prompt deeper levels of audience engagement. And at the heart of each message that creates positive impressions is a deep understanding of rhetorical concepts and strategies that make those connections possible.

A Closer Look at Audience

Obviously, the audience is important to the success of a message. As we discussed in chapter 7, all rhetorical messages have an exigence—an imperfection or problem that prompts the speaker to communicate. In a rhetorical situation, only the audience can resolve the problem. The audience alone has the power—by adopting a certain perspective or taking a particular action—to fulfill the speaker’s purpose, which is why a focus on audience is so important. A skillful communicator must consider who the audience is, what they already know about a given topic, what questions they will have, and what types of experiences and values they have that will influence the way that they respond to a message. As opposed to messaging that is writer-focused, emphasizing the speaker’s point of view, a reader-centered approach is focused on audience (Long et al.). It forces the writer to step into the reader’s point of view and to write a message in such a way that it anticipates and responds to their questions, interests, objections, and values. It influences big-picture aspects of a message, such as content and organization, as well as smaller, sentence-level strategies, such as word choice and tone (Oaks).

As you might imagine, your conception of audience gets more complicated when you move to the digital realm. For one thing, you’re not likely to be there with the audience as they read or watch a message, which means that you can’t gauge their immediate reactions and follow up with clarifying information or respond to objections. Also, it’s often much more difficult to identify who the audience is. Certainly, something like a text message or email is likely directed toward a person or a group of people that you know well, though you can’t control who else—outside of your intended audience—might see that message. But other things like social media posts or content posted on a website are open to a much broader audience, made up of people with different interests, perspectives, and values. It’s impossible to prioritize the perspective and to engage the attention of everyone who might stumble across the message, which is why digital writers often focus on the target audience—the ideal audience for whom a message is intended. For instance, a store that sells mostly baby clothes and other related merchandise like car seats and strollers would primarily target parents who either have or are soon expecting to have babies. Though other people might buy baby supplies for different reasons, the most likely customers would be young parents, and so the store’s web content, social media posts, email blasts, and so on would be written with that audience in mind. Similarly, though all kinds of people purchase services from a nail salon, by far the most common customers are women, and as a nail salon thinks more about the type of woman that would be most likely to get their nails done—someone with at least some disposable income, perhaps someone who is busy at home and/or at work and is looking for a way to “pamper” herself—it becomes easier to craft persuasive messages that highlight services and experiences that these women would want.

This type of messaging that focuses on specific segment(s) of the broader audience is called target marketing because it focuses on target audiences—those people who are actually interested in the products and services that a business offers. Successful businesses might even segment their target audience in different ways, thereby creating smaller groups of people with specific qualities in common, which makes it possible to create different messages that would appeal to those different audiences (Coursera). For instance, most universities use segmentation in order to appeal to different types of people who might be interested in getting a degree. High school seniors are an obvious target, but increasingly, universities are also targeting high school juniors and sophomores, students from other universities who might want to transfer, and older adults looking to go back to school. They might also pay attention to the type of degree that a student is interested in so that they can communicate more specifically about relevant programs, job placement rates, and so on.

All of these strategies increase the likelihood of engaging individuals in the target audience. Also, because social media and internet browsing platforms use algorithms that gather data about individual browsing histories and online experiences (GCF Global), those people are more likely to encounter messaging that aligns with their interests and preferences, which in turn, makes it more likely that they will take action. For that reason, businesses are moving away from mass marketing strategies that cast a wide net across broad audiences. The more that they are able to clearly define target audiences and craft messages that will appeal to their needs, interests, and expectations, the more likely it is that their messages will reach the right people and have a positive effect. In the remainder of this section, we’ll look at specific strategies that digital writers use to define and engage their target audience(s).

Audience Research

Research is the first, and arguably the most important, step in the process of clearly defining who the audience is and what their needs are. In fact, most businesses conduct market research as part of their business startup plan in order to guide product development and business strategy (Small Business Administration). However, the most successful businesses are the ones that continuously gather information about their key stakeholders in order to stay apprised of important trends, thought patterns, and experiences and then make appropriate adjustments to the product itself, customer service, promotional concepts, and communication strategies. In other words, audience research guides every aspect of an organization’s daily operation. Without it, communication tends to be overly generalized, failing to capture anyone’s attention, including people in the target audience. Another tendency is to assume that the audience is relatively monolithic and that they all share similar qualities and perspectives as we do. This is called the false consensus effect (Choi and Cha), and writers who fall into this trap end up alienating important members of the audience and weakening the brand.

There are two broad categories of audience research—primary and secondary—with several different research methods within each category (USC Annenberg). The best approach depends largely on the type of information an organization is looking for as well as the available resources and potential limitations that either facilitate or discourage particular methods. What’s more, these research strategies aren’t mutually exclusive. Businesses regularly combine multiple research methods in order to deepen their understanding of the audience.

Often a good place to start is secondary research, which builds on the research that other people have done. This might include case studies that other organizations have conducted that provide in-depth information about a particular real-world situation—a specific problem or perhaps a person or a group of people. Though the specific details of a case study can’t be generalized to apply to everyone, they often provide helpful ideas and solutions that can be applied to other situations. Another form of secondary research comes from surveys and studies published by organizations that specialize in market research. For instance, the Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the Pew Research Center, Gallup Poll, and YouGovAmerica are just a few examples of organizations that are constantly conducting research about different groups of people and posting their findings. While this type of information is probably too general for most organizations to apply directly to their target audience, it does identify interesting ideas and trends that might be useful to explore using primary research.

As opposed to secondary research coordinated and published by others, primary research is conducted firsthand by an organization and is specific to its own target audience. As you might imagine, this type of research is the most effective in helping an organization connect with its constituents and understand the needs, desires, and challenges that are most relevant to its business offerings and communication strategies. The most common primary research include

• Metrics. One of the quickest ways to gauge audience sentiment is through digital metrics that paint a picture of users and their online experiences and decisions (Indeed Editorial Team). Some of the most common metrics include SEO (to determine the most common search terms and strategies that people use related to a particular concept), web traffic (to measure which pages are the most popular, which links people tend to click, how long people stay on a particular page, how many people “bounce” off a page that isn’t relevant to their needs, etc.), traffic from other channels (to see how many people came to a website from other means, such as social media posts, text messaging, or email messaging), and brand awareness (to see how many people like, follow, share, comment on, or repost an organization’s social media messaging). This is the type of analytics that many businesses conduct on a daily basis to gauge the effectiveness of their messaging and to make appropriate adjustments.
• Surveys. A survey is the most common form of audience research because it is a quick and cost-effective way to gather information directly from the target audience. Surveys also allow organizations to gather information from a larger segment of the target audience, which in turn provides more accurate results. Another advantage is that surveys can be designed with different types of questions—multiple choice, true/false, rating scale, matrix, and open-ended that allow respondents to use their own words to describe their experiences (SurveyMonkey). On the other hand, surveys require careful planning to ensure that they meet ethical standards, are easy to understand, motivate people to respond, and meet core research objectives (Mount Wachusett Community College). Another limitation of surveys is that it’s difficult to gather in-depth information about people’s attitudes and experiences. For instance, a survey response might indicate that more than half of the respondents aren’t interested in a particular product or service, but it doesn’t provide deeper information about why that is or what strategies might be more useful to engage their interest.
• Interviews. As opposed to surveys that allow organizations to collect a little bit of information (mostly quantitative) about a lot of people, interviews provide much more in-depth information about people’s experiences, thought processes, feelings, attitudes, and so on. Of course, it’s important to select people from the target audience and to carefully craft open-ended questions that will lead to deeper insights. Interviews are also more time consuming. This includes not only the interview itself, but the time it takes to identify interview candidates, schedule the interviews, transcribe the interview recordings, and analyze the data. However, interviews are often worth the trouble because they provide so much rich detail about a person and their way of thinking, seeing, and valuing (Virginia Polytechnic Institute University Libraries). Interviews can transform “interview subjects” from the target audience into flesh-and-blood people whom an organization can understand and empathize with.
• Focus groups. Finally, focus groups are a great way to quickly get information from different types of people in the target audience. Like interviews, focus groups are designed around open-ended questions that relate directly to an organization’s research goals, and they provide qualitative information and in-depth responses as well as the ability to follow up with more questions. However, the goal with a focus group is less about gaining rich detail about one person’s experience and more about understanding thought patterns and behavioral trends among a group. It’s therefore helpful to group people together based on traits that they have in common—gender, age, education level, and so on—and to have enough people present so that it’s possible to distinguish group patterns from individual quirks and anomalies.

Audience Personas

In addition to audience research, businesses often create audience personas that “flesh” out the perspectives and experiences of individuals in the target audience (Thorp). While the specific characteristics of a persona are fictionalized—including the person’s name, job title, family circumstances, hobbies, and so on—their core qualities are representative of real people in the target audience: their interests, values, challenges, demographics, and so on, all of which stems directly from the data collected from audience research. As noted above, surveys, interviews, and focus groups are all useful strategies for collecting information about the target audience, including their hobbies, professional goals, personalities, priorities, preferences, daily schedules, and pain points. All of this information is compiled and analyzed to identify audience patterns and insights, which are used to develop specific personas.

The purpose of these personas is to get the writer in touch with the target audience, to humanize their challenges and perspectives, and to craft messages that reach individual people on a deeper level. One of the key benefits of identifying the target audience is that it focuses on solving real problems. The idea isn’t to trick as many people as possible into buying a product or engaging in an activity. The target audience is the segment of the population who, based on their interests and challenges, would actually benefit from a particular product, service, or activity. The personas help businesses and other organizations empathize with the audience and communicate effectively about the solutions they offer so that the people who would benefit most have the opportunity to engage (Worthy).

An effective audience persona answers several questions that help organizations get to know their audience. While there are different ways to craft a persona, Growth Business identifies six categories that can be used to identify relevant information about the target audience:

1. Who are they? This might include things like a job title and other responsibilities as parents, homeowners, children of aging parents, and other activities in the community. This category can be used to identify a person’s daily schedule, their primary job responsibilities, and what they prioritize as they manage their time and make decisions throughout the day. Finally, you should use this category to identify demographic information about this person—age, race, socioeconomic status, gender, education level, and so on.
2. Where are they? This question can be taken several different ways. It might include where a person is geographically located. This is especially important for organizations that cater to people in specific locations. Understanding where a person lives and how a particular organization fits into that landscape can be extremely useful. This category could also include the online platforms where this person is most likely to receive information—social media platforms, websites, news sites, and so on. Based on a range of personal characteristics, people have different online habits. Identifying the digital spaces where someone in the target audience is likely to be is crucial to reaching them.
3. What are their goals? What does this person hope to accomplish, both personally and professionally? This might relate to career milestones, promotions, and activities. It might also include goals related to health, travel, relationships, parenting, lifestyle, and so on. Identify the primary things that motivate this person and how those goals propel their daily decisions and activities.
4. Why are they struggling? One key aspect of the target audience that most businesses seek to identify are the pain points that people in their target audience experience. These are the problems, frustrations, and desires that people experience that could be remedied by the product, service, or activity that a company has to offer (Shewan). These pain points are what motivate a person to seek some sort of solution, making it more likely that they will respond positively to a message that aligns with their needs. Specific information in this category might identify problems related to physical pain, financial limitations, inconveniences and time constraints, and emotional frustrations. Pain points might also relate to obstacles that prevent this person from meeting the key personal and professional goals.
5. How can you help? Once you’ve fleshed out a person’s goals and motivations as well as the pain points that they experience, you have the tools you need to catch their attention. The key is to think critically about how a particular product, service, or activity can help this person meet their goals or alleviate their pain points so that you can craft your message with a focus on these benefits.
6. When is the best time to reach this person? Remember the term “kairos” from chapter 7? Kairos is the most opportune time or circumstance for a message to reach a particular audience—when they are more likely to have the time and mental focus to pay attention to your message and respond positively. This category helps you think about when that might be. Based on this person’s daily schedule and priorities, when are the ideal times to communicate your message to this person? What channels might be most appropriate based on their preferences and expectations?

Creating audience personas can certainly be a lot of work. Often, an organization will create multiple personas to represent different types of people in their target audience, which are used to craft different types of messaging. However, given the fact that most people see somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 ads each day (Simpson), the only way to break through the clutter is to understand where and how to craft messages that resonate with your target audience.

Buyer Journey

One final consideration related to the target audience is called the buyer journey, which is the mental process that a person goes through when they decide to engage with an organization and take action in some way—to buy a product or service or to take part in an activity (Sellers). Just because a product or service is available doesn’t mean that people will automatically buy it. Especially in the digital age where people research company websites and customer reviews, people are more discerning than ever about how they spend their time and money. The buyer journey prioritizes the customer’s perspective throughout this decision-making process, strategizing the various touchpoints that will engage their attention and provide the right information at the right time (Fontanella).

There are four stages in the buyer journey:

1. Awareness. In this stage, the buyer becomes aware of a challenge or desire that they want to address. This is the “pain point” that we discussed above, and it’s what prompts an individual to find relevant information that will help them define and solve the problem. This is obviously a crucial moment for an organization to make customers aware of the solutions they have to offer—through advertising, social media posts/shares, clear information on their website, customer reviews, and referrals from family and friends. The goal is for customers to not only know about a product or service but also begin to know and trust the organization, which makes it more likely that they will move to the next stage of the buyer journey.
2. Consideration. In this stage, customers have gathered the information they need to define the problem, they are committed to solving it in some way, and they are weighing the available options. Ideally, an organization’s messaging in this stage helps distinguish it from competitors, helping potential customers understand the benefits of their product, answering any questions, and clarifying the next steps a customer should take. Once again, clear information on the website with prominent CTAs (calls to action) is crucial. Other touchpoints might include email or text messaging, blog articles, promotional ads, live chat, brochures and promotional videos, and so on.
3. Decision. In this stage, a customer has decided on the method that they want to use to solve their problem, and they are evaluating which company they want to engage with. They might be looking for instructional resources, information about return policies, customer reviews, or opportunities to sample the product.
4. Repeat. Ideally, customers are satisfied with the product or service that they receive, and they are motivated to continue to engage with a particular company. They might even tell others about the positive experience they had and recommend the product or service to others. Touchpoints in this stage might include thank you messages, promotional ads and emails, social media posts that people can “like” and reshare, and blog articles that keep people engaged.

Digital Orchestration

Understanding the audience is crucial to effective communication, but it’s really only half of the challenge. Equally important is the message itself, which must not only reach the target audience but also catch their attention and compel them to take action. In fact, a lot of planning goes into an organization’s content strategy to craft messages that strengthen its brand, consistently engage people at different stages of the buyer journey, and work toward larger missional and financial goals. This planning is called digital orchestration, implying that messaging must be coordinated across multiple channels to catch people’s attention and direct their online path to a specific landing page where they are prompted to take action—to make a purchase, to provide contact information, to make a reservation, to give a donation, to create an account, and so on.

Websites

Typically, the foundation of an organization’s digital orchestration is its website. Most communication efforts across other channels, such as social media, email marketing, text messaging, and even print materials, are focused on driving traffic to the website, where people can get to know more about the organization and what it has to offer. This is where people will go first—before they make a purchase, visit a store, or engage with the sales team in some way. They want to know what the costs are, how a program or service works, and what the benefits might be. Most likely they have specific questions that they expect to be answered, and if they can’t quickly and easily find the information they are looking for, most people will bounce away from a website—usually within less than 30 seconds (Sims). However, if they do find what they are looking for and if they like what they see, they are more likely to stay and browse around, visiting different pages to see more about the background of a company, its mission, its community connections, and other types of products and services it offers—all things that help them move through the buyer journey as they get to know and trust the organization and take a step closer toward making a purchase. In other words, the goals of a website are multifaceted but also interconnected:

1. To attract visitors in the target audience. We’ll talk more about SEO in the next section of the textbook, but for now, suffice it to say that the type of content that a website has plays a key role in helping that website rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP)—the list of websites that appear when you search for something in Google. Web developers and content writers are very intentional about the language that they use, the information that they provide, and the way they label key elements of a web page, all of which make it more likely that people who are interested in their products and services will be able to find their website.
2. Give relevant information. Once an interested person finds the website, they should be able to quickly and easily find the information that they are looking for. Most of the strategies that go into creating an effective website focus on just this—a navigation map that makes sense, clear titles and headings, short blocks of text and bullet points that are easy to read, footers with contact information and social media links, hyperlinks that direct visitors to subpages with additional information. It’s all about providing a positive user experience that helps people find the information they need and that makes it easy for them to take the next step—to get a quote, volunteer for an activity, make a purchase, visit the store in person, and so on.
3. Develop the brand. Of course, the website is also key in helping an organization develop its brand—to help people know more about its personality and missional goals and to help distinguish it from competitors. That’s why websites aren’t just text with chunks of information. They prominently feature the organization’s logo and tagline; its mission statement; photos of the store, the friendly staff, and other customers enjoying their experience; any relevant certifications or credentials that demonstrate expertise; community partnerships and activities that might build emotional connections with the audience; an “About Us” page that focuses on personal stories; and so on. Even things that might seem more minor—the tone of the written content, color scheme, layout, and other design features of each page—are opportunities to make a positive impression on visitors and strengthen the brand.
4. Prompt action. The purpose of a website goes beyond giving information. The ultimate goal is to get people to respond in some way. While the ultimate goal might be to get potential customers to buy a product or service (or perhaps to participate in an activity or donate to a cause), often a website will build toward that goal with smaller calls to action (CTAs)—to request more information, to follow the organization on social media, to sign up for a newsletter, to sign up for an account or a free trial. Even blog articles on a web page that give focused information related to an organization’s niche will end with a call to action, prompting users to read other related articles or to contact a service representative for more information about a particular topic. These CTAs are always displayed prominently near the bottom of a web page, and they are a helpful way to guide people through the customer journey.
5. Collect information. An effective website also collects information about visitors and their online experiences, providing aggregate data about which links are the most popular, how long people stay on specific pages, how many new people visited the site in a given period of time, and so on. These metrics help marketing teams understand what type of information is effective in increasing traffic to the website and what types of adjustments need to be made. Many websites also collect information about individual users. Often they will prompt visitors to provide their contact information—maybe to receive the organization’s weekly newsletter or to be entered into a drawing. Other times, websites use cookies, which are “small text files” that are stored on a user’s computer so that they can be identified the next time they visit the site (Nguyen and McNally). These individual data are used to provide more targeted information to specific users and to make it possible for organizations to reach out to people—through text messages or email campaigns—to update them about the latest blog post or promotional opportunity.

Blogs

The goal of most organizations’ content strategy is to stay “top of mind” for people in their target audience. Of course, they want to reach potential customers who haven’t yet heard of or engaged with their organization, but they also want to maintain connections with existing customers. That’s what digital orchestration does. It continually develops messaging on a number of different platforms to drive people to the website again and again. Blogs (as well as other content like white papers and case studies) are a way of keeping information on a website “fresh” so an organization can advertise new content and increase traffic. While content on a website’s landing pages might not change very often, posting a new blog article every week or two with interesting and useful information will give people a reason to come back to the site. Ideally, these articles help the audience in some way, guiding decisions and processes, but they also help an organization develop credibility, strengthen customer relationships, and drive traffic to other parts of the website.

As you probably already know, not all blogs are created equal. The blogs that are most successful in engaging people’s interest and building a loyal audience have several key things in common:

• They relate to the person’s or organization’s niche. To really build credibility in a specific area, blogs should all relate to that area—demonstrating expert knowledge and providing unique information that adds value for readers. For instance, a plumber would focus their blog on plumbing-related topics—the best strategies to unclog a sink, affordable pipes that won’t erode, building codes and best practices to install plumbing, new product reviews, water heater maintenance. The list goes on, and as this person continually adds more blog articles and gains readers, the more likely those people are to hire or recommend this person for plumbing jobs. The key is to focus on useful content, not on self-promotion, which will quickly turn people away.
• They utilize keywords. Blogs are also optimized with meta descriptions and keywords so that they will rank higher when people search for that topic.
• They include relevant pictures, which make the article more visually appealing and can also aid in the reader’s understanding of the content.
• They have clear and engaging titles. The point of a blog title is to pique readers’ interest and let them know what they will learn from the article.
• They make content manageable. Subheadings, bullets, and short paragraphs all go a long way to making the content of a blog article manageable. If a reader sees a wall of text, they aren’t very likely to read or follow along with the article. “Chunking” the content into smaller pieces makes it easier to process (University of Edinburgh). You can also make content manageable with simpler sentence structure and clear language that avoids jargon.
• They provide hyperlinks. Linking to other credible sources that support your article content builds your own credibility. Be sure it’s a reputable news source or organization. Or it might be a study written by experts in a relevant field. Providing hyperlinks to supporting information shows that you’ve done your research, and it allows readers a path to get more information. Blogs might also have internal links that lead readers to other articles or landing pages on the same website.
• They have clear calls to action. Because blogs are largely marketing tools, they typically direct readers to take some sort of action at the very end of the article—to read more related articles, to contact a sales representative with questions about a specific product or service, or to visit the website’s home page for more information.

Social Media

Social media is a critical part of an organization’s digital orchestration. Like Mark Smith mentions in this Forbes article, establishing a social media presence helps organizations connect with people where they already are, allowing them to reach more people while also strengthening their brand. Smith also mentions the ways that organizations increasingly use social media for customer service and as a direct path for users to buy products and services. Monitoring the various social media channels while creating new and meaningful content can be incredibly time consuming, which is why many companies hire a social media coordinator.

Ideally, an organization’s social media content is planned out ahead of time. While they might post last-minute pictures of an event or responses to breaking news stories, most of the social media content is planned out on a social media calendar, usually put together a month in advance so that posts are consistent, engaging, and aligned with other communication efforts related to promotions events, or blog posts. To keep content fresh and interesting, a content writer might organize the calendar into different content buckets or categories, which helps to diversify content and build a company’s brand (Huie). These buckets might include information about upcoming events and promotions, educational posts about a topic that is relevant to an organization’s expertise (perhaps providing a teaser for the most recent blog post), human interest posts that help readers get to know the organization’s staff as well as the activities that relate directly to the organization’s mission, information about specific products and services, success stories, or customer testimonials and reviews. This type of content helps readers get to know and trust an organization in different ways. Also, since most social media posts will link back to the organization’s website, it’s a key strategy to increase audience engagement and ultimately increase sales.

A few strategies for successful social media posts include

• Posting to social media platforms where your audience is likely to be. It doesn’t make sense to post to every social media channel. There are way too many, and you’d risk posting to channels that won’t reach your target audience. For instance, some social media platforms are more popular than others (Dean). Similarly, people in different demographic populations use different platforms (Barnhart). For instance, female users are more likely to use Pinterest. Younger users are more likely to use Snapchat and TikTok.
• Post information that is appropriate to the platform. For instance, LinkedIn is focused on professional networking, so posts that are more personal or casual would seem out of place. Similarly, Instagram is typically used for high-resolution photos, while Pinterest is more about processes and how-to guides. Posting the right type of content on the right platform will help increase engagement (Accion Opportunity Fund).
• Keep it short. People won’t read long posts. Be concise and get to the point quickly while also using language that is friendly and engaging.
• Use hashtags to extend your reach. Hashtags allow your post to show up in related groups and discussions so that people outside of your established followers can see and engage with your content (O’Brien).
• Post engaging photos and videos that align with the text. This will help your post stand out and increase audience engagement.

Email Campaigns and Text Messaging

Like social media posts, email campaigns and targeted text messages are used to advertise promotionals and updated website content in hopes of increasing web traffic and sales. However, unlike social media posts, these messages are restricted to people who have opted in—often by checking a box (or failing to uncheck a box) during checkout that requests news and product updates or by filling out some sort of intake form with your name and contact information. You might recall that one of the secondary purposes of a website is to collect information about visitors. That information is used specifically to build mailing lists, often in a content management system, so that an organization can easily distribute updates such as newsletters, announcements, sales campaigns, or teasers about a new blog article (Kinsta). Once again, the primary goal of these messages is to engage people who have expressed an interest in this type of information and to compel them to visit the website for more information. Unfortunately, many companies use deceptive tactics to build their mailing lists—enrolling people who don’t wish to receive updates and filling their inboxes with spam. While this might grab some people’s attention, it’s more likely to get sent to a junk folder and to create a negative impression with people who end up getting annoyed by unwanted emails and texts.

Just like other forms of digital communication that work together to meet specific goals, there are some basic rules for text and email messages. We’ll look at more specific genre conventions for different types of messages in a later chapter, but for now, the main guidelines include the following:

• Keep it short and to the point.
• Use language that is friendly and engaging.
• Use pictures and other graphics to grab people’s attention.
• Use clear titles.
• Provide clear CTAs and relevant hyperlinks to guide the action that you want readers to take.

Digital orchestration is key to helping an organization create effective messages that strengthen its brand and that meet specific goals. While the specific content strategy is dependent on the mission of an organization and the brand they want to create, one thing that remains constant across all digital media communication is a focus on audience and the rhetorical strategies that will foster connections and compel action. While effective digital writers must pay attention to specific marketing trends and learn to use a variety of digital tools, these strategies build from a fundamental understanding of rhetoric—reaching the right audience at the right time with a message that compels action.

Below is an example of digital orchestration by the Department of Homeland Security. You’ll see a screenshot of the organization’s website home page along with screenshots from Facebook and Instagram, each with posts that provide links back to the website. Also included is a screenshot of the website’s footer, with icons that connect to all of the organization’s various social media accounts. Users also have the option there at the bottom to subscribe to the email list, in which they would receive emails about the latest updates. The emails would also link back to the relevant pages on the website.

Going Viral

Many people aspire to have their digital content go viral—to reach a large audience and gain notoriety from content that attracts more and more followers. But let’s consider the downside for a moment. Setting out with the ultimate purpose of going viral can actually weaken your brand because the focus is on popularity and views instead of things that are more important—authenticity, core mission, and deeper connections with the target audience. Lydia Sweatt for VidIQ says it like this:

It’s hard to satisfy your audience and create viral videos simultaneously. One requires you to understand a specific group of people’s likes, goals, and motivations. The other forces you to cast your net wider, so millions pay attention to your content.

But if you cater to millions, you cater to no one. You don’t get to connect with a real community, so there’s no shared interest to build off of. Plus, people can usually tell when you’re in it for the views. You won’t come across as genuine, inspiring, or relatable—qualities that put the “social” in social media.

In other words, it’s better to focus on your main objectives and high-quality messaging that will engage people in the target audience, and then if a social media post does go viral, it will be for the right reasons, and it will be more likely to further your brand in a positive way.

Many organizations (and individuals) are increasingly using social media instead of traditional marketing and advertising, so finding strategies to reach a large audience is important. According to Steve Olenski writing for Forbes, going viral to “boost your brand presence and attract new customers quickly” isn’t effortless, there are strategies that can increase your chances of success. Not surprisingly, the strategies listed in his article relate directly to rhetoric:

• Create quality content that the audience will find engaging and meaningful.
• Know your audience, which should inform your content strategy and increase your chances of them liking and sharing your posts.
• Leverage the existing popularity of influencers and popular social media accounts. Because they’ve already developed a following, people are more likely to view content that they share or repost.
• Make personal connections with audiences through the stories you share. They should be “relatable” and authentic.
• Be concise.
• Engage users with interactive content that allows them to participate.

While going viral might in some ways be happenstance—snapping the right video or getting the right person to repost your content—effective messaging still boils down to an understanding of audience and the types of content that will capture their attention. The next chapter on multimodality provides more ideas on how to integrate design elements into a message to enhance meaning and audience engagement.