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Spooky Halloween Special: Enjoy 20% OFF Storewide!

mooadmin — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 03:29:09 +0000

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Stay spooky, and happy haunting!

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When It Comes to Social Network Marketing, Niche is the New Black

mooadmin — Fri, 22 May 2015 02:09:31 +0000

If you thought all social networking activity took place on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, think again. There is a preponderance of niche social networks that appeal to nearly every interest and taste.

Niche networks run the gamut from celebrity fan sites to industry-specific business networks to philanthropic groups, and there’s good rationale for their existence. Rather than connecting people with family and friends across their social graph, the nexus of these communities is shared interests and passions, or their “interest graph.”

Another factor contributing to the growth of niche communities is that major networks like Facebook and Twitter have become incredibly noisy and over-crowded, with much of the content lacking any degree of relevance or depth.

Regarding this information overload, Andrew Koller, cofounder of Sharebloc, a social network for sales and marketing professionals, said, “Without good crowd control, you end up with a mob of content and it becomes overwhelming. This is why we are seeing increased engagement in niche social networks that represent different industries and job functions.”

For marketers, having a presence on popular social networks is certainly mandated, but they represent only the tip of the online community iceberg. Even though niche-specific networks contain a smaller subset of customers and prospects, your marketing efforts may prove even more profitable. It’s a matter of going deep, not wide.

To give you a taste of what types of niche social networks exist, here is a list of 10 that cover a range of industries and topics.

1. Sharebloc

Recently launched into public beta, ShareBloc is a network for sales and marketing professionals. Members can post links, ask questions and write reviews. They can also rate content through up or down votes and decide what appears at the top of the news feed.

Sharebloc’s founders intend to grow their platform to fit any industry or job function, or as they put it, “anyone with a LinkedIn account.”

2. Oilpro

Up to now, the oil and gas industry has been reluctant to jump into the social media fray. That may change thanks to the recent launch of Oilpro.com, a network designed to give industry professionals a place to exchange ideas, share knowledge and expertise, and stay on top of the latest news and trends.

The network has been met with open arms, too. Growth is about 10 times as fast as expected, with more than 25,000 members now participating on the site.

3. Active Rain

Active Rain is a social network for real estate agents and brokers. Unlike the previous two, it has been around since 2006. Numbering more than 326,000 participants, it is the largest and most active network in the real estate industry.

4. Social Moms

Formerly known as Twitter Moms, this network for digitally savvy mothers was started in 2008 by Megan Calhoun as a way to virtually connect with other stay at home moms. Though Calhoun never intended for the site to grow into a business, its user base, which now numbers more than 30,000 women, has drawn attention from both the media and advertisers.

5. Dogster and Catster

No greater group of “passionistas” exist than dog and cat lovers, and they are well represented by sister social networks, Dogster and Catster. Pet owners meet to ask questions, share knowledge, post photos of their pets, and build relationships with like-minded people.

6. Kaboodle

Launched in 2007, Kaboodle is the social shopping site that gives users the ability to discover products, share their taste in style, and communicate with other fashion-conscious community members.

7. ThirdAge

ThirdAge is a social network that addresses topics of concern to Baby Boomers and Seniors. It is representative of a class of networks that includes Eons, Gather and TBD.

8. Patients Like Me

Founded in 2004, PatientsLikeMe has been credited with putting a new face on healthcare. It is a place where patients with chronic illnesses and their caregivers learn from each other, provide emotional support and get the latest information on treatment options. More that 220,000 people make it their healthcare resource home.

9. Pintley

Thanks to Pintley, craft beer lovers now have a place to call their own. It’s a peer-to-peer network where members write reviews, share recommendations and get together in real-world settings for beer tastings. Craft brewers can also have a seat at the table to gain intelligence from community members that may influence future product development.

10. Care2

The final site to make the list is Care2, a community of people devoted to healthy living and green lifestyles. Founded in 1998, it is also the oldest network of those listed.

Even though Care2 represents a niche audience, with more than 23 million members, the community is by no means small. The site has but one goal: make it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green lifestyle and impact the causes they care about most.

With the growing prevalence of niche social networks, it’s time for marketers to look beyond sites like Facebook and Twitter and commit a greater portion of their marketing budget toward participation in and sponsorship of these highly targeted, interest-specific online communities. When it comes to social network marketing, niche is the new black.

Source: www.clickz.com

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The Rise Of The Niche Social Network

mooadmin — Thu, 21 May 2015 13:51:51 +0000

Far from being a marketer’s worst nightmare, smaller, more focused networks are becoming places where people actually listen.

The option to share Instagram photos on Facebook and Twitter is both a blessing and a curse. When I want to share a photo that’s particularly special with my Facebook friends who aren’t on Instagram (i.e., my grandma), I can do so. When I want to share a photo that’s particularly witty on Twitter, I can do so. But when I see the same linked photos on Facebook and Twitter, and then again on Instagram, it drives me nuts. Especially if said photos are of my friend’s cat… and I like cats. In short: cross-platform integration has gone overboard and it’s led social giants to become one massive lump of blah.

Giant Social Networks: Where Intellect Goes to Die

On the big social sites, a person’s network is often so big that there’s no real sense of community. Chances are, in real life you consider yourself a member of many different communities within society: An animal lover, a UX designer, and a parent, for instance. Your online life should mirror your real life, which is not to say that everything must be kept separate, but you should feel connected to the people you’re surrounded by.

When your feeds are drenched in a constant stream of mixed messages, it’s overwhelming. Because of the sheer number of posts, those that actually have any substance or meaning are lost in the undertow. As a marketer, Facebook and Twitter have become necessary components of my job, and they’re still effective. But as a human, I want something that’s a little more human. I crave the interaction and engagement that the Internet was built to foster. It’s no secret that the web gives us the infinite power to connect, so why are we wasting it updating each other about the minute details of our day?

The most frustrating part of the whole social giant oversaturation thing is that young people are typifying the generalized negative qualities of our generation. It’s said that we share every detail of our lives merely because we have the technology at our fingertips; but much like the boy who cried wolf, any time an action is constantly repeated, it becomes meaningless. Maybe I’m just “friends” with dull people, but reading my feed provides no insight because it’s so routine and predictable. In a social sense, I’m not learning or growing as an online being anymore.

But I think there’s an antidote. Niche social networks, that were built for specific, narrowed-down purposes allow for focus, community, and meaning to be restored to the online world. Sites and apps like Quora, Quibb, Path, Potluck, and even Medium present themselves as forums for like-minded individuals to connect with each other, to form new communities, and to bring meaning and argument (the non-troll kind) back to digital spaces. With a powerful zap of what feels like magic, new niche sites are bringing intelligence back to the social network. They’re a breath of fresh air in an online world that’s cluttered with social smog.

How Niche Networks are Bringing Community (and Meaning and Insight) Back

When Quora went public in 2010, it set the stage for hyper-focused social networking by implementing a single purpose: Q&As. The smart person’s Yahoo Answers, Quora quickly grew to over 500,000 users in its first year. With the site’s extensive division of categories, Quora is an easy place to tap into a specific, but vast community. In my work life, Quora has proven to be an invaluable source of inspiration and discovery. There are countless articles about social media, marketing, best practices, and digital culture. Quora is a magical combination of curiosity, indulgence (you can talk about yourself with a specific purpose), and intelligence. It allows you to add value to a larger conversation with people who are interested in the same topics as you. Win win.

Similarly, Quibb and Potluck offer a sense of community through their simple purposes of link sharing. While Quibb is a selective environment for work-related news and Potluck is more an “everyone’s invited” type platform, both sites are excellent resources for finding content that will be relevant to you, as you choose who to follow and what conversations to join. Not unlike Quora’s capabilities, Quibb and Potluck let you jump into a digital community and draw insights from what others have to say. These sites keep you up on relevant industry and cultural debates and they’ll actually engage you as they do so.

Path is another new social network of note. Despite its initial prompt that asks you integrate your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts (sigh), the difference here, the money-maker if you will, is that Path limits the number of friends you can add. Ultimately, Path creates a space for much more personal connections and interactions. It prompts you to invite your family and close friends, but not that random person you met years ago. Essentially a microcosm of social networks, Path does its job of connecting you (and even lets you overshare), but only a small circle of people you care about will be able to see your updates.

Finally, there’s the Evan Williams-spawned Medium: A beacon of light in the Internet of nothingness. Medium has no “follow” or “friend” functions; as a reader, the only actionable buttons are for commenting on and recommending posts. Though there isn’t too much interaction happening on Medium, the experience of using it takes my mind far past any place it could go by skimming my newsfeed. The site is well-organized and places value on curiosity and discovery. It connects you to a large web of opinionated, thought-provoking writers who you can engage with and whose words may inspire you.

Can Smaller Networks Keep Up?

The question now is whether or not these networks can survive among the giant networks, but still avoid becoming part of the oversaturation themselves. Better yet, do they even want to “keep up” and try to compete with traditional social networks?

Despite the fatigue that’s felt at the hands of social media giants, there are certain elements of the fluid web we can and should use to our advantage. For starters, Medium is linked to Twitter (and Quibb uses a Twitter integration to log in), so when you want to share something, the default prompt is to share on Twitter. Sure, it’s another fleeting tweet, but at least there’s substance to it. I’d much rather be prompted to read an interesting story than see a complaint about the weather. That said, I think the Medium + Twitter relationship may be the one exception to the “keep traditional networks and niche networks separate” rule.

If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur and you’re worried your presence on niche networks won’t reach a large audience: don’t. That’s not what these networks are geared toward. Why share niche-specific information with your entire social following if the grand majority of them won’t care? That defeats the purpose of these networks existing. Directing your audience toward your presence on these sites will get them to see you as a thought leader in your industry. Maybe you’ll inspire the brightest ones to join the conversation.

Source: www.fastcolabs.com

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Niche Social Networks Rise As Alternatives To Mainstream Platforms

mooadmin — Thu, 21 May 2015 05:59:33 +0000

In today’s highly digital world, consumers are craving interconnectivity with their communities more than ever. Through social media, users connect with others having similar interests, hobbies, and tastes. Niche social networking sites are continuing to bloom even as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter hold considerable market share; from examples like VampireFreaks an alternative “goth” social media website, to Ravelry, a social networking site for knitting enthusiasts, the world of niche social media is huge – and getting bigger.

Niche businesses are investing in social media because they experience benefits such as:

Qualified leads. Rather than marketing to a broad audience via traditional social media, niche social sites attract users that are already interested in a specific industry or business. There’s also less competition on niche sites, as users aren’t bombarded with as many advertisements as they would have been on Facebook.
Increased engagement. Since users are inherently interested in niche social sites, they’re more likely to participate in forums and interact with strangers on the web. Enhanced interaction is paramount to establishing a meaningful brand-to-consumer relationship.
Greater marketing ROI. More qualified leads and higher engagement means businesses that invest in niche social marketing will experience greater marketing ROI. Focused content means less truly is more, as relevant content is consistently displayed to members of the site.

When creating a niche social platform, businesses shouldn’t aim to become the “next Facebook.” Instead, their ultimate goal should be to unite people who are interested in their services and industry, which consequently leads to increased sales.

Not to say that niche social media sites are right for every business, but it’s certainly a viable option for niche businesses trying to experience the greatest marketing ROI possible. Starting a new social networking space for your business takes time and effort, but it can pay dividends for years to come, especially as these figures continue to grow:

• 42 percent of online adults have accounts on multiple social platforms. An estimated 73 percent have at least one account.

• 28 percent of smartphone owners use social media on a daily basis. Approximately 40 percent of cell phone owners have a social media app on their phone.

• 56 percent of online adults report participating in forums and creating content of some kind.

Investing in launching a niche social networking space for your business or community is no small task, but if the addressable audience is large and passionate enough about a certain niche, it could also be an incredible opportunity. Embarking on this project would require numerous considerations, including first and foremost, a multifaceted web host that could manage traffic growth, as well as these key elements:

Scalability.The goal of a social networking site is to grow and attract users in your niche. Your social site should not be the same size in a year – it should be bigger. Thus, be sure to partner with a web host provider that offers scalable services to accompany your forecasted growth. Can you easily switch between shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting? How much power do you want and need over your hosting? By considering these questions, you’ll be certain to select the right partner for your needs.
Security.Users must create accounts to become members of social networking sites, so it’s critical to invest in a web host provider that offers the utmost security. Social users often utilize the same email address and passwords across their accounts, so a compromise in one area will cause frustration elsewhere. Plus, digital security shows your clients you truly care about their privacy and well being.
Customer service.Running a social site is a complex task, so you’ll want to talk with your web host provider should any issues arise. Partner with a company that is quick to answer your questions through various methods of communication.

As the world’s online presence grows, we may soon see more businesses setting up ecosystems for their communities to meet, and ultimately convert those connections into sales, as opposed to relying primarily on cutting through the noise on mainstream platforms. Certainly, the NY-based Meetup.org has already done a great job of curating those interactions offline, with over 315,000 meetups happening in 196 countries each month, so why not connect those communities deeper online?

Source: http://socialmediaweek.org/

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