Beyond the Big Three

The Benefits of Branching Out From Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Posted by Adrienne Waldo on 06.25.09 @ 02:24 PM

Adrienne Waldo

Here's what I like about niche communities:

1. Less clutter. There are fewer people and less noise on small networks, making you more likely to be noticed and become an influential member of the community. Rifling through profiles on LinkedIn can be like searching for the proverbial needle in a virtual haystack, but finding like-minded people on a less convoluted network is fairly easy.

2. Better discussion. The conversation tends to be more meaningful. This could be for several reasons, but my theory is that if people have taken the time to seek out a site dedicated to a certain topic, it's because they're passionate about it and really seeking good discussion.

3. Opportunity to learn. You can gain a wealth of knowledge if you pay attention. With Twitter or Facebook, you're constantly battling information overload. Rather than spreading yourself too thin trying to learn a little bit about everything on big generic sites, you can use small networks to focus on immersing yourself in one or two topics and mastering them.

4. Personalization. They're typically more customizable, allowing you to be more uniquely "you." Design your own background, post blogs or music or art, speak more freely, and develop a voice. Don't forget that once you send something out into cyberspace, you can never get it back, but I would suggest using these sites a little more liberally than your professional networks. Be genuine and let your personality shine.

5. Thoughtful feedback. Niche sites are an excellent source of outside feedback. Your friends on Facebook are going to sugarcoat, and you want to be careful about throwing around your raw ideas on LinkedIn. While Twitter can be good for feedback, it's limited to 140 characters. Smaller networks serve as an ideal solution if you're looking for detailed, thoughtful responses.

There are thousands of communities out there for every hobby, career, culture and interest. One of my personal favorites is 20-Something Bloggers, a place for bloggers like myself to meet online and share ideas. I also recommend Snooth for learning about wine, GoodReads for connecting with other bookish types, and Imeem for sharing a love of music.

If, for some reason, you're not able to find the community you're looking for, start your own! Sites like Ning allow you to build your own highly interactive social networks, complete with forums, chat, events, etc. Then, not only will you have an awesome network of people, you'll have become an entrepreneur in the process.

4 Comments

  By chasl | Austin, TX June 25, 2009 03:55:24 pm:

Adrienne- I agree there is a huge advantage to identifying and/or creating niche communities outside the Big 3 to engage in a more meaningful way. The trick is to leverage the quantity of traffic in the former (Big 3)space to create quality communities and conversations in the latter (niche)space(s).

Regards,

@ChasL

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  By kevin.sonoff | PORTLAND, OR June 25, 2009 05:47:57 pm:

Adrienne! Great article. I had never heard of 20 Something Bloggers until now. I really want to echo what you say about social communities providing an enormous opportunity for learning. I couldn't agree more. There have been countless times over the course of career that I have turned to my online community for answers to various questions and advice.

My three most visited non-behemoth blogs/social networking sites: Craigslist.org (behemoth? maybe, but cheap furniture? definitely), Smitten Kitchen (perhaps the best food blog around) and Yelp (reviews for anything you can think of).

Kevin Sonoff
Digital Marketing Buzz
http://www.digitalmarketingbuzz.com

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  By kvander1 | Eugene, OR June 25, 2009 05:56:16 pm:

I agree completely, Adrienne! I also love sites like Etsy where even eBay-style commerce can be a great community and place for conversations to happen.

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  By wecandobiz | London June 26, 2009 12:58:27 pm:

A fascinating article and it's great to see someone waving the flag for niche networks.

I've long been an advocate of niche networks and it is one of my predictions for growth for this year. The biggest obstacle to their success is being found and apathy around registering on them. We've overcome the latter by making it possible to use our sales leads and business referrals network by signing in with an existing social networking identity -- we support Twitter and Facebook, as well as Google, Yahoo and Hotmail/Windows Live IDs. We're finding our registration rate has increased exponentially, with 4 times as many people signing using a third party identity as register for an account on our site.

I'd encourage other niche network owners to investigate doing the same.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

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