Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

What's In It For The Users

NICHES IN BIG SOCIAL
The experience of participating in social network sites like Facebook and MySpace promises users several things above a niche social network. Ultimately it is largeness and "mass appeal" versus a custom-tailored approach.

Pros
- Connect with existing friends
- Platform for self-expression to large audience
- Large variety of groups, content, and applications

Cons
- Interface not tailored for everybody, not "me"
- Valuable apps and groups lost under clutter
- Hard to find relevant content

Another thing that gets lost in the noise is history. I'm not getting an idea of what my friends have been up to in the past week, but what people are up to at this moment in time. The lack of easily accessed historical information makes it hard to build a sense of "culture" around Facebook. It's easy to see why for communities with a purpose, such as the Obama campaign, Facebook might be the way to attract new people, but ultimately the niche social network is where the bulk of event-planning and community-building takes place.

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKS
By centering the underlying community strategy around a specific "social object" (Jeep, Nike, camping, food) or a target audience (55+, moms), design and functionality can become more customized and more in-tune with the ideal user.

Pros
- The easier a tool is, the more likely I'll use it
- Design tailored for specific age, taste, or culture
- Information architecture based on niche content

On a music community, my actions will likely be focused on browsing and matching up with people with similar tastes in order to discover new music. On a political or a career community, my connections to people become far more important than any other activity in the system.

The major downside of niche social networks is a smaller user base and smaller development funds
.
Cons
- 3rd party developers less likely to join
- Can't find those long-forgotten school buddies
- Without critical mass, interaction just isn't as exciting

Ultimately, it depends on the purpose of my interaction. But even then the picture can sometimes be fuzzy... Would I be more successful organizing an online Rock Band meet-up on my Facebook channel with more access to friends or on a Rock Band social network where we all share the same interest?

What's In It For The Marketers

NICHES IN BIG SOCIAL
The obvious advantage of big social networks for marketers is that there are lots of active, engaged users. The community is alive and healthy, and so there is no fear of investing a huge amount in creating something new only to have people not join.

Pros
- Fish where the fish are
- More options for marketers
- More robust analytics packages

Cons
- Your competitors are also there
- Hard to break through the clutter
- Mixed in with unofficial brand pages
- Analytics not custom-tailored to your needs

There isn't going to be an easy way to extract product-specific information like: What cars do my users drive? What footwear do they prefer? Ultimately big social networks prove more useful in creating awareness than collecting customer insight or inspiring action.

But, is the audience really brand-receptive? A participant in a product-focused community might come in with an understanding that they are going to see some marketing. Whereas the Facebook community has expressed annoyance to ads and outright distrust over the Beacon project.

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKS
The numbers might be fewer in niche social networks, but the messages and activities can become more targeted. The data collected in profiles can become more aligned with the user information the brand is trying to collect. Something can even be said about the need to develop your own analytics package giving brands the opportunity to really evaluate how to measure community success, rather than banking on what data Facebook or MySpace have decided as relevant.

A smaller amount of qualified leads is far better than a large amount of useless ones. But the big dilemma is whether or not the niche community, whether built or joined, will reach a large enough user base to justify that statement?

THE FUTURE: What's In Store
There has been much news over the past few months about the promise of data portability. In one corner we have MySpace embracing OpenID, in the other corner we have Facebook opening up their social graph with Facebook Connect, and in yet another corner we have Google with Friend Connect and OpenSocial. The wheels are in motion for many exciting things including:

1. Allowing users to log into third party sites with their social network ID and access friend information
2. Allowing activity from third party sites to publish back to a user's social network feed
3. Enabling social network applications to be distributed across a series of different platforms, including niche and big social sites
4. Creating a centralized user profile that can be used across social network sites

In the future, whether to join or market on niche social networks or big social networks will no longer be a question. People will be able to bring their friends from one to the other, and applications will be implemented across networks. But at the moment, the effort to make data portability a household name is piecemeal. It is an evolution that is just beginning, and the fact is that marketer's need to make these sorts of decisions now.

So for now, I argue that mass dialogue is not working in the social sector. Marketing efforts must go niche and focus on nurturing brand communities. Whether that community exists in a niche on a big social network like Facebook or as a niche social network like Ning will depend on the brand. Whether it makes sense to join the conversation or build a new community will depend on the loyalty and engagement of the consumers.

The disadvantages of banner ads and traditional marketing campaigns in social media are growing. Finding and enabling and growing that brand community, wherever it may be, is the key to success. The future is niche.