A virtual community, for our purposes, should be described as a meeting place for consumers. It is a place where consumers go to meet with peers and communicate via text, audio, video, or all of the above. One of the more popular and better known is Google’s Gmail application. Essentially, it is just yet another way for people to communicate and connect, very similar to social networks.

I won’t go into much more detail about what the community is, but more about how one could use it for business. Much like social networking sites, people spend a good amount of time in their virtual communities, making them a common form of communication. This means one very important thing for businesses: because it becomes a primary form of communication, a great deal of information is viewed and passed along.

Some Boston Advertising Agencies are starting understand how important and effective this is, and are beginning to use it to their advantage. Take Gmail for example: have you ever noticed when you are emailing someone about restaurants, for example, ads for restaurants in your area appear on the right hand side of the screen? Google uses geo-targeted ads to reach consumers in an extremely effective manner, and Boston Advertising Agencies who are taking advantage of this are extremely far ahead of the curve.

There are many other popular virtual communities such as YouTube and SecondLife, both of which utilize many of the same tools and technology as Gmail. The opportunity for Boston Advertising Agencies to take advantage of this is huge, and its benefits are only beginning to be discovered and utilized to their fullest capability.