EXAM QUESTION: What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximise their online audiences? (30) Refer to both Zoella and Attitude.


social media has made it easier to change online audiences over time. one way that it  has change is by the way the audience interacts with the online audience, over time the audiences have became content creators themselves. YouTube allows audiences to interact with online creators, YouTube does this by allowing comments, you can say whatever you like to content creators, it also allows you to interact with the creator and other fans, other apps that do this is Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  audiences have started to create content like their favourite youtubers, this is because YouTube allows anyone to post whatever they like as long as it is within the guide lines. Shirky's theory supports this as fans are creating their own texts instead of just consuming the texts. another reason that online audiences are creating content is because  as YouTube became more popular overtime it could become a job as you would receive money from ad revenue, and becoming successful can lead to having a lot of money and fame. an example of this is when we see Zoella's house, she has a lot of expensive valuables Zoella never tells her audience how much she make but it is implied by her valuables, this encourages viewers to become youtubers.

both Zoella and Attitude use gender to target their audiences. Zoella use stereotypical girl stuff, so this shows that her target audience is females, for example Zoella does videos on topics that females viewers can relate too like fashion, make-up, pets and relationships, this leads to the female audience liking Zoella more as they can relate to her. another way that Zoella targets female audiences is by using emotional narrative, she also tells the audience how she feels about her problems, this allows the audience to relate more and get emotionally attached to her, this allowed her to maximize female audience. Zoella overtime changed from her bright pink colours to more warm colours as she wanted to allow all genders to watch her channel, this maximized online audiences and allowed Zoella to become more popular, she would also do actives for all genders, she didn't just focus on females. while Zoella focuses on female audience, Attitude only focus on gay males. this is shown through the website, the text is very factual and uses a lot of statistic and images there are also short paragraphs, this is male coded as males tend to like images and statistics. Attitude targets gay males this means is a complex stereotype of males. the images show men in sexual way this is different as it is usually a female who is shown in a  sexual way to please men but as they are gay audience it has a man in a sexual way this means Attitude breaks that convention. Attuite again breaks convention as it does not use male coded things, if Attitude decided to focus on male coded stuff it would not maximise its audience as the gay community tend to like female coded stuff such as fashion. Attitude and Zoella audiences both relate to them, they do this by showing what gender is stereotypically like. Halls theory supports this as media languages are used to make stereotypes, both Zoella and Attitude  target what they think is the stereotypical genders they create. 

Zoella and Attitude both target a specific age range this is so that they can maximize their audience and at the same time focus on gender. Attitude focus on the gay audience and it also targets the ages of 26 to 55 this is shown through their website, they also sue Facebook and twitter to support them as this is the primary age group of people who use them apps, but Attitude has also decide to use more apps as they want to maximize their audience. their articles are about celebrities who are born in the late 20th century as this targets the audience of Attitude. Another way that Attitude targets 26-55, it doesn't do stereotypical website things such as having no audience feedback on their website, unlike social media for younger audiences where you can have audience feedback, this is because younger audience like to talk about the subject whilst older audiences don't tend to do so. Attitude also does this so that it does not receive negative feedback as the LGBT community is not support by all.  Over the years Zoella's target audience has changed, at first she was targeting 13-24 females, fans were allowed to comment and connections with the fans the the create, Zoella shows fans in the videos this makes them feel happy and acknowledged, Zoella also showing every day actives allows the audience to relate to her and create more connections. those are some ways that Zoella targets her younger audience, however she has a secondary target audience her secondary target audience was adults and advertisers as as they were involved by content that is safe in terms of sexual content however, Zoella has decide to change her target audience as she grew up and so did her fans, now she focus on her secondary target audience as her new content is not satiable for her old target audience. Zoella's new content is more mature while she is showing most of the same content but is shown in a separate way and adds content which relates to her new audience. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet and other media to help create their own identity this links to how Zoella and Attitude create their content that suits the target audience  range, for example Zoella showing her every day activities this may inference her female audience to do this which could create or change their identity  

Socio-economic group is another feature that Zoella and Attitude use to target and maximise their online audience well. Zoella speaks in a formal tone she uses extended language and modern English as well she does this to mirror lower class people and educational background. Zoella's house is shown as a place of fun and socialising These points show that Zoella focuses on the BC1C2 which is a middle class as Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional to skilled working class as skill manual workers. Zoella does this as this is the language that is communally used by these classes. more proof of the socio-economic group being BC1C2 is that Zoella has partnerships who focus on the same group as companies who represent high street fashion at valuable 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 to maximise her online audience. on the other hand Attitude targets higher class audiences which are ABC1, this is shown through the formal language that is used in the articles they also use extended language, they tend to focus on the middle class to so they use common langue of the middle class which is standard English. their narrative creates connections with their target audiences as they have relatable actives  ABC1 is a group that ranges from upper middle class as higher managerial, administrative, or professional to lower middle class as supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative, or professional. It makes sense for Attitude to target this demographic since they work with companies that do as well, such as companies that advertise luxury goods, furthermore, by making clear references to ABC1's careers such as Managers, Designers, and others, stories are targeted at graduate/professional readers.

finally, psychographics is another way that Attitude and Zoella target their online audience. The aspirers and the reformers are also targeted by Attitude. The aspirers are people who want status symbols that reflect their position in society, The style section of the Attitude website shows that they are targeting aspirers because it is very saturated with premium fashion brands, while the travel section highlights lavish travel choices. this is great for aspirers because they are willing to invest in luxury products and still want to be on the trend to seek status. Other psychographic data Attitude goals are self-esteem and self-improvement reformers, as shown by the website's narratives, which are mostly political in nature, commenting on social issues such as LGBT rights, homelessness, voting rights, and so on , Zoella, like Attitude, caters to the aspirers, but she also caters to the mainstreamers. Aspirers crave status and enjoy flaunting it, so Zoella targets them by displaying her own aspirational lifestyle by simply displaying her home, vehicles, and belongings. The other psychographic she targets is mainstreamers, who prefer tried and trusted brands. Zoella occasionally reviews products after trying them out, indicating that she is targeting mainstreamers and reassuring her online audience about that product, unless it is a bad review in which case she can advise her audience to avoid it, as mainstreamers prefer to be healthy and save money. Another smaller psychographic that Zoella may target is the explorers, who are people who enjoy discovering new things. Because Zoella enjoys trying new things out herself, introducing these new items to the explorers enables them to do so as well.

in conclusion, both Zoella and Attitude like to efficiently target and maximize their online audience by looking at various parts of their target audience and showing them stuff.

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