target audience

According to Internet World Stats, there are about one billion people currently using the Internet. Of those people, millions are connecting, interacting, and sharing ideas with fellow Internet users around the world with new Web 2.0 technologies.

The term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004 by O'Reilly Media to describe the various Web-based tools that emphasize collaboration among online users. At the center of Web 2.0 technologies are the social media, which encompass any Web-based technologies that allow users to contribute their ideas, opinions, and experiences with other users around the world. These technologies have grown exponentially in the past couple of years, and there's no better time for you to start taking advantage of all the perks of online social communities to bring your book promotion efforts up to speed.

Utilizing social media websites allows you to interact directly with your target audience and lets them play an active role in your media campaign. Through social media initiatives, you have the ability to create brand ambassadors, elicit consumer feedback, and launch a cost-effective campaign that has the potential to reach millions of Internet users worldwide. Major advertisers have even started devoting parts of their traditional media budgets to cover social media marketing. The media environment is constantly in a state of flux, and advertisers have realized they must alter their methods to capture the attention of precious target audiences. With this new venue of user-generated content, you don't need the clout and budget of a traditional agency. All that's necessary is a computer, an Internet connection, and an opinion.

Increasing your visibility in online communities will give you the opportunity to voice that opinion and expose your book to potential readers for the price of developing a screenname and providing an email address. Stay tuned in upcoming weeks as I walk you through seven of the hottest social media tools and show you how to capitalize on the opportunities they provide for you and your book.

In the next social media guide: What has the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards, and Silicon Valley all atwitter? Find out next week as the Big Bad Book Blog joins the Twitterati and we discuss one of the fastest-growing microblogging phenomena to hit the digital world.