A persona is a detailed description of someone who represents a demographic or audience. Personas are fictional characters or representations of intended audiences based on deep research and insights from real people. Personas include information on demographics, personal, professional and behavioral attributes, as well as information processing. Personas are used as a form of audience analysis impacting content strategies. With a clear understanding of an audience, people can effectively:
- Identify appropriate channels and platforms for better reach.
- Create custom messaging and content to maximize engagement.
- Track metrics and performances to analyze content impact and reach.
- Prioritize time and effort during content creation.
Informing Your Content Strategy
Personas are beneficial tools for performing an audience analysis during communication research and planning phases. The insights gained from identifying audience preferences, needs, frustrations and goals can shape content strategy for voice and communication channels.
Voice is a persona's personality, tone and style that build audience connections and resonance. Units and businesses have a voice, as they must create a public image persona to interact with their digital audiences. It’s important to note that the unit's identity should live on even if there is a command or personnel change. When developing a voice for a persona, the traits and attributes assigned to a persona, such as age, profession and interest, will suggest an appropriate voice. Similarly, the unit's goals, motivations and needs determine its voice.
Communication channels are the medium through which information is shared with an intended audience. Reviewing social media analytics during evaluation phases can help better inform personas. LinkedIn analytics, for example, offer insights into the channels users engage with. These particular insights help public affairs and communication strategy professionals refine and tweak personas as necessary and identify the best channels to reach audiences.
Creating a Persona
There is no right or wrong way to depict a persona. You can use either highly visual layouts or plain text as long as the persona effectively conveys the identity and story. The identity tells who the persona is and includes the following information:
- Demographics.
- Personal and professional details.
- Information processing.
The story depicts the persona's journey and includes the following information:
- Needs.
- Goals.
- Motivations.
- Challenges.
Factors will vary among audiences, requiring several different personas to represent differences among audience or audience segments properly.
Review the following sample personas to gain insight into different approaches and unique characteristics of audience groups.
Example 1: Modest Text & Illustrative Layout
The following persona uses a highly visual layout that focuses on the needs, behaviors and motivations but doesn't delve into personal background details, such as biographical information.
This fictional persona represents a younger audience group, such as Generation Z, that is not affiliated with the U.S. military and is still undecided about their professional goals. They are highly active on social media, using platforms such as Instagram and X. While this persona may not be aware of military benefits, they may be interested in reaching out for recruitment campaigns to consider career options. Ideally, this audience group is eager to begin a career that provides a steady income stream and has opportunities for a large impact.
This persona represents an audience for a potential recruitment campaign. Understanding the needs, motivations and communication preferences of this particular audience segment promotes strategies for content and delivery methods. For example, a recruiter may highlight the financial benefits of joining the military. In addition, social media channels and email campaigns may be ideal methods of communication for this particular group, given their preferences.
Example 2: Rich Text & Simple Layout
Although this persona uses a less visual layout, it incorporates more detailed text to depict enlisted ranks motivated by vehicular safety.
Portrayed is Sgt. Sam Safety, a transportation sergeant stationed in Maryland, who is passionate about promoting vehicular safety on base. With a background in logistics, coupled with an analytic mindset and problem-solving skills, he strives to reduce vehicular accidents and foster a safe environment. Motivated by recognition and financial freedoms, he navigates the challenges of balancing personal and professional responsibilities while demonstrating determination and commitment to the military. He is challenged with resource constraints and push-back from subordinates covering new safety protocols. To combat these challenges, Sgt. Safety utilizes social media, face-to-face conversations and email, where communication is rich, for advice and professional development.
Leveraging this persona, public affairs professionals could reach out to enlisted transportation personnel with campaigns. These campaigns could emphasize strategies designed to foster user engagement and buy-in during training exercises. This campaign would benefit this audience segment because it would meet the professional challenge of facing push-back from subordinates. Given the communication preferences, ideal communication methods for this audience group include social media channels, emails and face-to-face conversations.
Take a moment to read through this highly textual persona to learn more attributes about Sgt. Sam Safety.
Use this persona framework during your next audience analysis. Remember, personas serve as a tool to help you understand an audience on a deeper level and position content to communicate more effectively.