Micro Audiences

We are in the era of Micro Markets. As compared to Mass Markets, Micro Markets are a tiny sub-group of an organizations customers, clients or patients. For a clothing store this might be: women between 25 and 30 years old who buy one piece swimsuits over the Internet. For an eye doctor: all patients who are men, nearsighted, wear contact lenses and make appointments in the morning.

It is easy to see, or course, how one might address each group clearly and specifically, much like the coffee guy that remembers how you like your morning cup of java. One begins to think in terms of "what would these people, this person, like best?"

An interesting take on this is a project that has been running at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for the last year called 1stFans. In summary, it is a low cost membership for people who like social networking via the net (twitter, facebook etc.). The Museum posts regular updates on the social networks and members get some perks (behind the scenes visits and so forth).

What caught my eye recently was their recent blog posting describing a survey of members after one year of operation, and the changes they will implement as a result. The survey was answered by just 35 people. That stopped me. Imagine making changes in a program based on the responses of just 35 people. That seemed odd, so I looked at the 1stFans twitter feed to see how many followers they have: 245. In that light 35 is likely a pretty representative sample, I suppose.

But stop and think about that. The 1stFans membership costs $20 per year. If there are 250 members that comes to $5000 per year in museum revenue. What, I wonder, does that cost the museum? Certainly the staff member who prepares the posting and updates can do this as well for 2500 people as for 250. But why after a year are there only 250 followers? What, if any, were the goals or expectations for this project? Granted, it is not a business. Still, the object of a Museum is to provide a setting for people to view objects they would not ordinarily be able to see: if people do not come and engage with the institution it is merely an unused archive.

These 1stFans' shared interest seems primarily in being part of an "inside" group. Would it be interesting for the museum to have several micro-audiences with specific interests that could be addressed directly? Would that create more interest among members and greater attendance and engagement?

If people are now all going to be addressed as members of micro-audiences, based on who they are and their interests, how many "groups" could one staff member be responsible for? Interesting questions.