Audience involvement: The role of social media in web usability

This paper shares preliminary findings from a case study involving the intersection of social media, web usability, and the rhetorical concept of audience. Specifically, this case study examines social media responses to a high-stakes public library website launch to gain insights about audience user characteristics. The case demonstrated ways that social media can serve as another feedback channel to inform usability evaluations of websites. In addition, social media responses demonstrated audience in an active, participatory fashion, signaling a shift in how audience has been traditionally depicted in rhetorical scholarship.