Posted on October 3, 2007
Social Media Niche Focus - Go Small and Go On
BY JAMES CLARK
Social media sites represent an ever expanding communications opportunity for marketers and PR. No longer is it suitable to simply address the offline media, companies must find appropriate online conversations via blogs, podcast and social media sites.
Chris Winfield of Search Engine Land has a great point in his recent post about the value of targeting and identifying niche social media sites. It's not all about the Digg or Reddit. Chris points to post from Andy Hagans on Tropical SEO that provides a breakdown of 29 niche social media sites ranging from a focus on autos, sports, parenting, music, environment, fashion, etc.
By focusing on niche social media sites, companies enter a conversation that is familiar and where its input is welcome.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking it's go big, or go home in social media. Think Go Small and Go On.
Thanks for the mention James - glad you enjoyed the post.
Brett - I am all about the big bang (as anyone who knows me can attest to) and as I said in the article, a niche strategy is a great complement to a bigger campaign (not a substitute for):
"A targeted niche social media strategy can be a great complement to Digg, Reddit, del.ico.us, and larger sites. Just be sure to choose the right sites and measure their effectiveness towards your bottom-line."
Thanks guys!
Not to knock small, but I live for the the big buzz.
Digg and Reddit are still tops for sending high volumes of traffic, and more importantly... they send bloggers and webmasters. Mostly you get low quality link-blog citations, but if your article is visible enough (like Digg Top 10 in All Topics) or is remarkable, it can be incredibly rewarding.
StumbleUpon sends a lot of traffic, but the people often just fly by (like channel surfing) and don't stop to think or link.
Niche sites CAN send better-targeted, quality visitors. But most of smaller sites don't have very active communities where your story can get legitimate traction. Some are overrun with spam. And sometimes the effort it takes to submit to them is scarcely worth it.
As a search marketer, I think Sphinn is pretty darn awesome.