An audience is a group of people who are paying attention to someone or something. Experienced bloggers say that you need to focus your content and messages to specific topics, whether it’s politics, making money online, sports, technology, and celebrity gossip. Other experienced bloggers contend that it’s not enough to define your topics, but that it’s more important to define the group of people that you want to talk to.

Although I’d love to have virtually anyone read and contribute to the brainwaves that I present here at Broadcasting Brain, the people that I’m trying to reach will understand the context and relevance of at least a few of the following statements:

• You use Digg, regardless of how you feel about it
• You use other social news, social bookmarking, or social media sites while understanding what Digg is all about
• You look at your Digg stats and you can appreciate why a .300 batting average is respected in baseball
• You’ve seen Ron Paul’s name a lot and you think the Ron Paul phenomenon could have happened to Howard Dean if Digg had been in its current form in 2003-2004.
• You know that much of Digg’s value doesn’t come directly from getting stories to its front page (here’s a hint: it has to do with people)
• You know that Stumbling has nothing to do with tripping and falling
• You know that Mixxing isn’t about cooking or bartending
• You know that the site’s name is really del.icio.us, but sometimes you can’t be bothered to add the two periods

• You know of Darren Rowse by his more familiar blog name
• You know that Skelliewag is really written by a woman in Australia (and that it’s value-packed)
• You know that Dosh Dosh is really written by a man in Canada, or at least that the blog is a font of wisdom
• You understand that John Chow benefits every time someone tries to parody him (which seems to happen a lot)
• You’re followed by Chris Brogan on Twitter and occasionally you’ll send a reply to one of his frequent thought-provoking questions (OK, maybe more than occasionally)
• Twitter’s reliability in early 2008 might just drive you to drink

• You get a lot of your news from the Web and you can’t imagine how you ever got news before
• You read ReadWriteWeb at least once per week
• You think you might like to write an article for ReadWriteWeb
• You’ve got some things to say to a large audience, but you might not be sure how to broadcast your message effectively (or, alternately you might know something about one-to-many communication)
• The recent discussion prompted by the Fast Company article about Duncan Watts caught your attention and you followed the discussions

• You understand the significance of the phrases tipping point, long tail, and the world is flat, regardless of whether you agree with these ideas
• You believe that social media and traditional mass media have evolved into a symbiotic relationship, although one partner might not realize it yet
• You’re extremely aware of the use of media to influence our thoughts and actions
• You’re interested in creating ideaviruses, you know who coined the term, and you know the relevance of the phrase purple cow
• You understand what life cycles are, particularly product life cycles
• You’re interested in DRM (digital rights management) and you’re wondering if there’s a better way out there to meet the needs of the consumer, the producer, the distributor, and the advertiser
• You think that “free” is a powerful way to communicate

• You believe that good ideas can come from anywhere
• You love ideas, but you might not have the same love for ideology
• You believe that pop culture can be used as a reference point to understand reality
• You believe that “location, location, location” doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it did in the 20th century
• You believe in the power of words

You don’t have to agree with or believe in all of these statements, unless you’re me.  

If you can identify with at least a few of these points, then welcome! I’ve been waiting for you. Let’s talk.