What size audience do you need to stick with a new idea, a new tool, or a new hobby?

An audience of zero. There are things that I do for an audience of zero. I do them for myself, and I do them no matter what. I enjoy doing them so much or find them so valuable that they don't require any audience. If everything around me fell apart, I would still do them. For example, my research falls into this camp. If the world came tumbling down around me, I could happily keep myself occupied with a few programmable mobile devices that I could develop into a little video streaming system.

An audience of one. There are things that I do for an audience of one. Social networking tools like Facebook are an example. I started using Facebook as "research" to see what it was all about. But, I kept using it because I had an audience of one, my sister, who cared about seeing what I was experiencing when I was away on trips. Now I have a small community of friends on Facebook who update their status as they travel and post pictures now and then. I'd say we're casual users. But it's interesting that it took an audience of one to make me stick with it long enough to build up my little community.

An audience of few. There are things that I do for an audience of n, where n is somewhere between 1 and 100. Blogging falls into this camp. I am very pleasantly surprised when I find out that someone reads my blog and finds it valuable. I don't need a huge audience, as it is more important to me that it touches a few people more deeply. (A big thanks to those of you who have read this far!)

An audience of many. Then, there are things that someone might do for an audience of N, where N is very very large. Personally, I can only think of a couple things I do that fall in this camp. For me, I do my research for myself, but I would love to get some of my and my lab's technologies into the hands of the world! But some people may have many things in this list. For example, Guy Kawasaki is not shy about saying that he's trying to climb the ranks on Technorati, which requires a large audience and lots of links. (Guy- Here's your link!)

People are different, and the audience you want or need for the things you do is a very personal thing. Some people need an audience, others don't. This is not good or bad or better or worse... just different. Also, your desired audience size may change over time as you gain more confidence in what you can do and how many people you can impact. For example, Guy knows he can change the world so he probably lives in the domain of N!

What size audience do you want or need for the different things you do?
What things do you do for an audience of zero?
What things do you do for an audience of 1, few (n), or many (N)?
Do you have examples where your desired audience size has changed over time?

Tags: audience size, feedback, stickiness, blogging, HP

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