How do you determine your community for your blog?

This is a tuffy for people in our state–Michigan–and others to figure out for their blogs:

• How do you determine who is in your community for your blog?
• How is a community different from an audience?

Don’t expect to wrap your head around this in one visit.  The marketplace has changed fundamentally in the way it communicates.

Think about it:  Businesses, politicians and non-profit organizations have communicated by having a message and by communicating that from the top down to the people or the audience who they wanted to hear it.  These groups would use mainstream media like newspapers, radio, television, magazines and media like that.

No more.  The marketplace has become a series of conversations where the consumer wants a voice with those they are dealing with.  They want to be heard and they expect transparency from those they are dealing with.

Many don’t get this . . .yet.  Look in the left margin of this blog and under Resources, click on the Cluetrain Manifesto and read the first ten of its 95 Theses.

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