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An effective social media strategy depends on finding the right sites to reach your audience. Beyond the major social networks, which attract a large, generalized audience, there are plenty of niche sites which will help you build exposure and website traffic.
Benefits of Niche Sites
- More targeted: Relevance trumps size
- Buyers, not browsers: Leads to more qualified, convertible traffic
- Big fish, smaller pond: Less clutter and noise, more chance to get noticed
- More meaningful sharing and engagement
Be Where They Are
The point of using social media for business is to get in front of potential customers, which means you want to be where they are hanging out. Whether you choose major or niche sites, define your audience using the following and then match it to the sites that meet your criteria:
Geography: Neighborhood, city, regional, national, international.
Interest: Consider the site’s focus: i.e., design, games, business, etc. Drill down as much as possible to match your target audience.
Demographic: Easily identifiable stuff about participants, like age, income, education. For data about social sites, start your research at PEWInternet.org. For small sites, you may have to find out from the site itself. Look for advertising information in the footer (just for info, not to advertise).
Activity: What people do at the site, i.e., simply commenting vs. watching videos. Think about the kind of content that fits with what your business is about, i.e., if you have a visual business, Instagram and Pinterest may be a good fit.
Affinity: What participants have in common, i.e., people planning a wedding or those that like to invent things with Legos. When people have an interest in common, they're more likely to share posts to people who haven't heard of you before. That will help you create awareness for your business with new people.
Many people participate in both major and niche sites, so select a balance of each. If you choose a major, join subgroups that match your audience, ie., a food related business in Seattle could join the Seattle Foodies group on Facebook.
Geography: Neighborhood, city, regional, national, international.
Interest: Consider the site’s focus: i.e., design, games, business, etc. Drill down as much as possible to match your target audience.
Demographic: Easily identifiable stuff about participants, like age, income, education. For data about social sites, start your research at PEWInternet.org. For small sites, you may have to find out from the site itself. Look for advertising information in the footer (just for info, not to advertise).
Activity: What people do at the site, i.e., simply commenting vs. watching videos. Think about the kind of content that fits with what your business is about, i.e., if you have a visual business, Instagram and Pinterest may be a good fit.
Affinity: What participants have in common, i.e., people planning a wedding or those that like to invent things with Legos. When people have an interest in common, they're more likely to share posts to people who haven't heard of you before. That will help you create awareness for your business with new people.
Many people participate in both major and niche sites, so select a balance of each. If you choose a major, join subgroups that match your audience, ie., a food related business in Seattle could join the Seattle Foodies group on Facebook.
Where to Find Niche Sites
The more sites seek to create interactivity and engagement, the more they’re likely to offer social opportunities to participate in. Start with the associations and groups your audience belongs to (ask them), then look for social opportunities in the following places:
- Search Google like a customer looking for a product like yours and see what social sites come up.
- Industry Associations
- Online Publications
- Social site directories
- Check competitors’ sites for their social badges
- Look at your own referral traffic data
- Vendors sometimes have their own social networks too
- Search Google for “niche social sites” + your area of interest
- Go local (websites, blogs, publications, etc. in your geographic area)
Don't Spread Yourself Too Thin
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of niche sites, finding the best match you can, prioritize them by highest amount of traffic. Then, start using them and track the referral traffic to your site, using something like Google Analytics to see if all that effort is paying off.
Learn more about social media marketing
Learn more about social media marketing
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