Niche Marketing Basics Using Social Networking Sites

As the Internet becomes more interactive, rather than a series of static information pages, successful niche marketing will mean learning to offer visitors ways to become part of the community your site creates. Often being part of that community means coming up with ways for visitors to interact, and social networking sites are the perfect opportunity to match your niche marketing sites with potential readers.

MySpace, Facebook, and Other Profile Sites

Niche marketing using social networking starts with profile sites. Though MySpace was first, Facebook is quickly growing. These sites allow a user to set up a page and use it to talk to others. There are blog posting capabilities, and you can post news, invite others to online events, and collect friends. Niche marketing specialists are able to find friends who will lead to bigger circles of people who are exposed to the site.

Opening a Facebook page with the same name as your site is the first step. Then you will need to find a “skin,” or layout that matches closely the color of your site. Then put up your logo, some profile information, and begin to gather friends. You can use your niche marketing skills to find these friends. They’ll be visitors to your site and to the blogs and forums you frequent. Once you have connected with friends, you can send them broadcast messages about specials at your site.

Twitter

Though Twitter is growing, its popularity seems to be among a fairly small group of people, mostly Internet junkies. Twitter, also called “mini-blogging,” consists of a series of “tweets,” or messages in which you answer the question “what are you doing?” Twitter works well as a social networking tool for niche marketing. Site owners can post tweets about their posts. Something like “just posted on NFL injury report” with a link to the post will encourage some Twitter followers to click on the link and read the article.

Digg, Stumble Upon, and Others

The gist of Digg and Stumble Upon is to have readers post that they like certain articles. If someone “diggs” an article, that person is voting for the article. As articles get more votes, they come up higher on the Digg search results, which means great articles are at the top. In niche marketing, you can use this idea to get attention for your articles. Encourage your regular readers to vote for your articles on these social networking sites, and the effect often snowballs. As readers say they enjoy the articles, others will read it, and you can gain regular readership this way. This type of social networking is still very new, which means it is a ripe place for niche marketing efforts.

These sites are only a few of the social networking options out there. Many exist for only small demographic groups, and finding the right social networking sites for your niche marketing site can mean the difference between having traffic trickle in and having it tumble in on a wave of recommended readings.