Out with the Old, In with the Niche
Social media has become so prevalent in everyone’s day to day life and is simply taking over the world. We all have heard of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, but did you know you could join a social media platform geared towards your specific interests and needs? Individuals tend to surround themselves with like-minded people. Niche platforms do just that. They bring people with shared interests together.
Are you tired of spending your advertising budget on one of these social media giant platforms and completely missing your target audience? If you are looking to better your social strategy, keep reading! There is so much competition on these broad-scale platforms trying to gain each user’s attention. Many people are even getting tired of all of the advertisements and negativity on traditional platforms and are starting to take a break from them. However, they aren’t really taking a break from social media. Instead, they are transitioning to niche platforms where they interact with content that interests them and surround themselves with like-minded individuals.
Switching to a niche platform can be an easy solution to reaching your target audience. However, these users are also more knowledgeable about the area of interest and have likely heard of or researched your product or service before. The same generic, marketing campaign you would use for a traditional social media platform may not cut it. It is important to listen to your audience to learn how they should spin their marketing message. The users on a niche platform will also want more detail on what you are selling. It is not enough just to know what the product is, they need to know what makes it different or better than all of the other similar products out there.
I find myself using Niche platforms for my social media usage more than traditional social media. Goodreads is probably my most used, most recommended social media platform. It has been around for a long time connecting readers across the world. On Goodreads, you can add friends or follow authors/publishers. It allows users to find, share, recommend, and review the books they like. I personally have never read as much as I do now until I started using their reading challenge. Authors and publishers (or any other book related products) should absolutely be on this platform. Reese Witherspoon is one of the top book influencers with Reese’s Book Club. She chooses a book of the month and reads/rates other books throughout each month.
Untappd brings the community of beer lovers together to share what they are drinking and what is on tap at local bars and breweries. This is a great opportunity for bars and microbreweries to get their name out there. Many bars even put their menu exclusively on untappd to invite people to join the app and enter the community. I will go out of my way to try a new beer at a local pub or brewery that my friends have recommended via the app or has high ratings. It makes it fun to try new drinks and share them with the community. Breweries count on these reviews to help drive business.
Another opportunity for fitness brands — Strava. Strava is an app for runners and cyclists to track their times and routes with the goal of building an engaged community of athletes worldwide. They often have challenges that you can compete with everyone in the world to complete and you can also be friends with other like-minded athletes. This app promotes camaraderie and teamwork allowing others to give “kudos” or comment on others activities. Professional athletes are on this app helping inspire others worldwide. Brett Favre and Barry Bonds are two examples of professional athletes who use this app helping to inspire others to get involved in this fitness community,.
Moral of the story: don’t try to reach everyone. Reach your specific audience and find a niche platform where you will excel. It’s out there, you just need to find it!
