Emerging niche social networks and the bond of community
Facebook has always been bad at building communities outside of your existing friends and family. It’s an online tool to build and maintain your existing community of relations. In fact, social networks in general have been bad at bringing together people with a shared interest to create new communities. Whereas forums have always been particularly […]
Pinterest: A ‘Niche Social Network’ Success Story
Last June, my fiancé discovered Pinterest: a new social networking site where you pin images of things you like for others to see. It’s a sharing site for clothes, quotes, pictures, cooking, decoration, weddings, etc. By the end of that week, her sister and mom were both on Pinterest. Soon after, my mom followed. Six […]
The Rise of the Vertical Social Network
Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace dominate the social networking landscape but there are many people looking for a more relevant place to digitally network. Facebook, for example, is the “Starbucks” of social networking but there are lots of consumers happily patronizing smaller chains or independents because they meet their needs differently or better. As John Jantsch […]
The Boom In Niche Social Networks
There appears to be a growing trend in the social networking industry. Marketers appear to be targeting site’s with smaller, niche memberships more so now than ever before. According to eMarketer, during 2008 advertisers spent $920M on advertising within social networks. Of that $920M, eMarketer says 8.2 percent went to niche social networks. In 2009, […]
The Future of Niche Social Networking
For years I’ve been singing the praises of niche outreach and waiting to see niche social networking overtake general social networks (like Facebook) with the public. I’m sad to say it hasn’t happened as quickly as I would have liked. Too many people are still wasting too much time trying to be everything to everyone. […]