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Update: Ford announced profits of nearly $1 billion between July and September. This is attributed to increased market share and a successful cost-cutting program. I wonder if the company’s social media strategy played a significant role.
Original Article: When you think about social media marketing or building your social media presence, you probably think about Facebook or Twitter, or perhaps YouTube or MySpace. That’s good. These are some of the top places on the Internet where people are spending their time online.
What online communities do you focus on? Comment here.
That said, there are probably plenty of places that you are either overlooking or just plain ignoring. They might not have the broad user-bases of the aforementioned services, but there are people there, and the more people you can reach and engage with, the better off you may be in some cases (depending on your goals for social network use).
According to Hitwise data, the top ten social networking websites and forums by US market share of visits looked like this:
To be clear, the Hitwise data from which MarketingCharts compiled the above graph is based on US market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from Hitwise’s sample of 10 million US internet users. It’s unclear exactly what all kinds of sites fall into the social networks category.
But the point is that there are a lot of places out there where people are forming communities that you may not be thinking of, but may provide plenty of opportunities for driving more engagement, brand awareness, and/or even traffic.
Are you considering things like Tagged or Yahoo Profiles/Groups? Are you considering the forums out there that pertain to your niche? Forums are relevant in social media marketing. I’ve discussed this in the past. Forums are basically social networks. They’re communities too. You have to think about where the people are, and not just where they are, but where they are talking. Where they’re communicating with others.
Forums or other more narrow communities may even prove to be more valuable tools than Facebook or Twitter in some cases. They are more likely to be focused on specific niches, than on the general public. There are certainly plenty of times where the general public – the Facebook/Twitter crowds are who you are trying to reach, but there will be other times when you may want to reach a specific group of people, which may or may not be a part of Facebook or Twitter.
Look at Ford for example. Scott Monty, who runs the social media efforts for the Ford Motor Company recently told WebProNews that they use all sorts of forms of social media, because "Let’s face it, people are using all sorts of forms."
"We try to be where the mainstream are and we do it in a way that humanizes the company at every turn, so we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Scribd, Delicious, and upcoming as our major platforms," he said. "And we’re constantly monitoring to see what the trends are and where people are going, so that we’re relevant."
The key word there is relevant. Go where you’re relevant.
What are some less thought about communities that you use to engage with people? Discuss here.
Related Articles:
> Forums Are Relevant in Social Media Marketing
> How Big Brands Use Social Media
“Forums are relevant in social media marketing”… not just relevant but in my opinion they were the first signs online that social media was coming and inevitable.
Forums in many ways are still the most powerful social proof media online; especially because forums are often so niche focused!
Thanks for a sharing. This info is going to help my research and growing business.
Patrick
Sometimes a company or organization can leverage the conversations of the broader communities to direct traffic to relevant private networks. It is in these private networks that participation and influence are both more concentrated around specific interests or passions, allowing the organization to participate in the discussions at a more personal level.
Can’t believe Tagged is Bigger Than Twitter?
the top 3 ones i focus on are
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
followed by relevant forums
also find social networks in your niche (or even creat one) at places like ning.com. Linkedin has a certain credibilty. Niche Forums still work too.
I haven’t met anyone who has mentioned Tagged.com, and it’s a surprise to me that its home page is just an application form claiming that 80M people use it. Many of the 98,800 pages seen by Google seem to belong to international users.
OTOH, Google sees 340,000,000 Twitter pages. OK, so Tagged.com is hard to crawl but I am yet to meet someone who hasn’t heard of Twitter.
Anyway, a very thought-provoking article – fully agree about forums being the under-publicised side of SM. Thanks.
Linked In, My Space, Active Rain (Real Estate Community), Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp….just to name a few
I would be interested in the demographics from the HITWISE date of Social Network visitors. Which Social Networks attrack the 25 – 45 year olds with disposable income? 45 – 60?
http://csbj.com/2009/10/14/facebook-or-linkedin-it-depens-on-how-much-you-make/
Article titled “Does your social class determine your online social network?”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/social.networking.class/index.html
Thanks for this article. It just reminded me to no just jump on the bandwagon. There are other social areas as well, even if they are smaller they may be a lot more focused….with more than enough people to make many wealthy
No Social networking site has what SingSnap has…Its unique…Its Free…and it has the very best community interaction you will find on the net.
I use Merchant Circle as one of my social networking sites. It sets you up in the town that you are in and you focus on that area with other businesses. I have made some big business connections along with driving traffic from locals and non locals in my area. It is a great place to put your business on the map. They also have different programs to help you advertise in different ways if that is what you are looking for. Best of all it is free to get on there, display your business and start making connections.
This is a good topic to talk about. I think people forget sometimes that there is a bigger world out there besides Facebook, Myspace, You Tube, Twitter, and Tagged. I am suprised that Twitter wasn’t higher than Tagged though.
Forums are a great way to engage your customers if you can get them to speak out. I have had a forum on my safety and security web site for some time but most people don’t like to share. I still post lots of great safety and security information for anyone who wants to sign in. Thanks, Chris.
I like to be active in forums which relate to my particular industry rather than going for the big sites which everyone contributes too. I vote for “relevancy.” Surely being active in a forum, no matter how small, which directly relates to your industry is better than putting posts on Facebook?… As an alternative to Facebook and the likes of Twitter I like to use Mixx.com and the communities they have on there.
Just because a site is visited more often than another doesn’t make it more relevant.
Thanks
Gary
When I take a hard look at which I focus on, it comes down to relevance. In other words, if it’s contacts w/family and close friends, it might be the most popular but with restrictive settings. If it’s to garner prospects for our entrepreneurial purposes, some other site where it’s productivity has most potential.
I suppose that LinkedIn is excluded as a niche social Networking site as the are just for business. Can you think of any other reason they’d be excluded?
It was my understanding that the FB, LI, and Twitter were the big 3. Myspace is for kids and YouTube isn’t networking at all it is just a place to stick and watch videos. Those hits on YouTube are artificially high as people host videos there that when clicked never take you to their site. MySpace and YouTube do not belong on this list if LinkedIn isn’t on it!
I get more traffic from YouTube than from Facebook, Twitter, & MySpace combined. It’s all in the presentation..
The best suitable social networking site for your web site is not mostly depend on the nature of your web site. I am trying out all the options for my blog. But getting more benefit from Stumble.
Trig, Virb and Purevolume, while being mainly music and art oriented, are great social nwtworking sites that don’t get you bogged down in useless, time-wasting games and nonsense! Of the three I mentioned, Trig is my favorite. I use it to publish updates to my main music blog.
We have had enormous success for our Clients posting on Bookmark Sharing Services , News Aggregators and Blogging sites (ie., increasing site traffic from 2,000 to 33,000 in 3 weeks for one of our clients).
You need to be diversified. We service the above types of sites as well as TARGETED forums for our clients who sell all types of products and services.
NOW, ADD UP THE NUMBERS BELOW! Spreading your word across multiple platforms is a MUST (as well as a permanent online search engine record).
We post on BOOKMARK SHARING sites like:
- KABOODLE.COM
A Top 20 Social Bookmarking/Shopping Website. (Alexa.com) Kaboodle.com has a traffic rank of 1,127. 10,833 Sites Linking In. (Quantcast.net) Kaboodle has an estimated 2.9M
Est. Monthly US People
- GOOGLE BOOKMARKS
(Alexa.com) Google.com has a traffic rank of: 2. Other sites that link to this site: 310,314. (Quantcast.net) Estimated 8.5K monthly traffic.
- YAHOO BOOKMARKS
Yahoo.com has a traffic rank of: 1. Other sites that link to this site: 62,651. (Quantcast.com) Estimated 125 million monthly traffic.
And up to 300 other Bookmark Sharing Sites like:
LINKAGOGO, LISTERLISTER, JEQQ, CONNECTADY, etc.
We also have great success posting on NEWS AGGREGATOR sites. These sites have multi-tiered audiences. For example:
- DIGG.COM:
Wine reviews, Another Social networking site…..but this one focuses on Wine, Food, Pictures, Travel, Recipes and forums…Come check us out!
This is a good topic to talk about. However there are many other great websites that one can use alongside those top ten.
Stumpedia.com
Blogs is my most successful way of getting new guests at our resort. we have been blogging for over 3 years.
Yahoo groups is the best way to get people to fill rooms on weekends for last minute cancellations.
We own a clothing optional resort, so we also post in nudist forums.
We also use facebook and twitter and youtube.
Tom
I think this list gives a good idea of the traffic those sites get, but as for my experience, it happens to be totally upside down.
Furthermore, sites like Tagged and Myyearbook are full of eastern ladies searching for a husband. I get three or more messages a day and they’re all the same. I cannot find a way to get something good from these sites. Well, if was looking for a nice looking young lady maybe…
I find there’s beauty in having multiple accounts on each
social network, this seems to work for me with cross
marketing in a way that one account on each social
network was not as effective. For example when I have
reached my limit to follow on one of my Twitter accounts
& a new person follows me on that account, I simply add
them on one of my two other Twitter accounts.
I agree with Michael Morgan (WPN reader) – Fri, 10/30/2009 – 14:58
Use broader communities to create your own relevance too
Sometimes a company or organization can leverage the conversations of the broader communities to direct traffic to relevant private networks. It is in these private networks that participation and influence are both more concentrated around specific interests or passions, allowing the organization to participate in the discussions at a more personal level.
We are a website devoted to Collectors of Swarovski Crystal, with a worldwide membership & we’ve been on the net for more than 10 years.
Pat
Your point is solid and I definitely spend my time almost exclusively with the sites getting the most media coverage. I’ve not even bothered to join fb or myspce… My future plans depend on expansion so there’s no downside to testing these additional options. Thanks for the informative tips. Very well done…
Everyone should be using the big two of facebook and twitter as they are easy and don’t take too much of your time. Forums are good too if they relate to your industry. I never heard of tagged so i will have to check it out.
About 5 months ago I signed-up for Tag due to its significant size and wanted to see how it fits into business applications. It doesn’t. Its one of the most aggressive social networks online with the core of activity revolving around dating. Every week I receive over 20 emails “12 people I should get to know” which consists of only women who have had hundreds to tens of thousands of men visit their profile and comment on their appearances.
At a stretch I could see how this would be appealing for some businesses but one of the key rules of social media is “adapt and work within the culture”.
According to site ranker and analyzer Quantcast, 84% of Tagged’s users are between 18-49, less affluent with 74% earning under $60,000/yr and 60% with no college degree.
I understand why its a valuable social network and has huge appeal but its one that’s furthest from practical business use.
I like to keep my work day to under 17 hours a day so that I have a little time to do things like eat and sleep. I spend hours on this and I just don’t see where the traffic justifies the effort. How much is my time worth vrs how much benefit will I get from the effort?
Good article and even better comments!
I noticed a new website http://www.bargainmasterng.com that is a local site focused on a country for the businesses in that country and I think using websites like this will really help those businesses that most be relevant in the country and region they serve.
Over the past year I’ve tested out the principle of breadth and micro-targeting versus mainstream and mass market with social networks. One rule has consistently applied regardless of the network’s size, what you put into it you get out of it. It may seem deceptively simple but the reality is unless you apply the principles to making a social network a success it matters less about the size (to some degree) and more about how well you learned its culture and made genuine contacts and human relationships.
Conversely, if you seek traffic and the broadest exposure, size does matter. Smaller players (tens of millions of members versus hundreds of millions) will mean less mass exposure. Why? If you take the time to analyze how many participants fit your target customer profile across multiple countries, time zones and cultures the percent of potential traffic participants begins to significantly drop. Plus, if your business has a target geographic catchment area, you will find the percent of online members to be even smaller on smaller networks and therefore less viable for ROI based on time invested and payback on results. But… there’s exceptions to every scenario. Best of luck with your efforts.
Twitter is better than Facebook. I love Twitter!