Why Niche-oriented Social Networking Sites Are More Effective for Online Business

Where should you focus your social marketing efforts? Unlike most people, I’m not going to head over to the biggest social sites on the Web to do our social marketing.

Here’s why: MySpace, for example, is a massive social network with several hundred million members. It’s one of the most-visited sites on the entire Web. And because of the great membership there, many business owners head straight to MySpace to begin their social marketing efforts. Unfortunately, however, a big social network like MySpace is probably one of the least effective places to do any social marketing. It’s simply too big, too general, and too busy.

In a gathering place like that – with millions of members, millions of different interests, and millions of distractions – you have to work hard to make an impact and connect with your target market. There’s just too remarkable variety, too considerable bustle, and too much noise to manufacture yourself heard.

In disagreement, you’ll usually get much better results for your efforts if you locate some smaller online communities of your most likely customers, where you can easily become well-known and trusted. You’ll make a much bigger impact with far less effort – and you’ll be reaching the exact market you want.

Niche-oriented social networking sites tend to have more deeply- involved members and better content than the giant general-interest networking sites do. Although the membership of a niche social site may be only a fraction of the size of MySpace or FaceBook’s, the niche state is likely to be considerable more valuable to your online business because it’s so targeted.

For example, if your online business focuses on products for babies and toddlers, you’ll get far better results for your efforts by participating in an online community that’s designed specifically for your targeted customers (parents, in this example) – such as MomsCafe or ParentsConnect. In difference, at a larger, more general social site like MySpace, you’ll wind up networking a lot harder to reach past hundreds of millions of people who totally aren’t interested in stuff for babies and toddlers, in the process of trying to connect with the miniature percentage of people there who are.

Not only will you have a harder time gaining the attention of this small percentage of people, you’ll also have to work harder to earn their trust on a large, general-interest networking site.

On the other hand, smaller niche-oriented social sites have a completely different culture. Their focus on shared interests and concerns creates an automatic kinship among the members that tends to lead to deeper friendships, trust, and a desire to help each other. Niche social sites provide the solutions, answers, and a community that are more relevant to their members, and more in tune with their wants and needs.

So although you may be connecting with fewer people on a niche social site, they are much more likely to be keen in you and your business – giving you a far better chance of building strong friendships and permanent customers.