Niche Social Networking
A niche social network is one that concentrates on a specific industry, topic or interest. Beyond the big social sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn there are thousands of small networks dedicated to bringing together people of like mind to share their stories and expertise.
The idea behind a niche network is that users don’t have to search far and wide to find friends to network with.
For instance, if you are an amateur photographer, joining a social network for amateur and professional photographers can give you quick and easy access to advice, resources, job placement, education materials and making friends that love the same things you do.
As far as business is concerned, this is an easy way to find targeted prospects for your products and services, people to joint venture with and even offer coaching and mentor programs.
Let’s say you sell primarily Christian products. Making friends, creating groups and advertising on a Christian social site such as http://www.Faithlight.com will refine your targeted efforts and lead to better conversions.
Facebook may be the most popular networking site in the world, but keeping your marketing efforts from being diluted or becoming lost can be a task.
Niche social networking provides a ready-made audience.
Most of these smaller sites have the sophistication of the larger ones with group creation, image sharing, video uploading and profile creation.
These smaller networks can come and go quickly, so you want to see how long they have been around before investing too much time. Important things to look for include:
• Steady membership growth
• Usability (how easy it is to work with the features)
• Length of time the site has been around
• Search engine friendly (does the site have a good presence in the search engines)
• Automation (connecting the site with your Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
There are hundreds of topics to choose from when considering joining a niche social network. Take a look at your current marketing efforts. Where are you spending your time networking?
The power of a niche social network can grow your speaking business.
