Social targeting is quickly becoming a benchmark with advertisers and publishers… not because it is a key to the golden gates of marketing 101, but because online consumers are adopting search behaviors to understand where they will find like-minded people. This adoption curve is creating thriving and multiplying social circles that are interconnected on the basis of common interest, says Barry Hurd, a social media evangelist of emerging social media technology.

Hurd and James Sun of Zoodango have been talking about how social networks are becoming a common tool that enables networking to occur across generational gaps — between X and Y, from Baby Boomer to Digital Generation. The effect of online social networking is very clear they say:  it enables people to find commonalities between each other.

For industries that do not currently have social communities online, larger more general communities are spinning off into smaller more focused clusters.

This phenomenon (which sometimes defies logical thought) is radically transforming for individuals. Properly established networks allow for intellectual property and social information to be exchanged at amazing speeds, creating an environment where the creative power of a whole community can accomplish feats that are far beyond any of it’s individual members capacities, says Hurd

There will be much discussion about crowd sourcing, social media and new ways to interact with your audiences at the Media Relations Summit 2007, June 10 – 12 in Washington DC. I am hosting a breakfast roundtable on June 12^th.  If you are at the summit, join me for a discussion on social media in PR.