Do You Really Need to be on Snapchat?

Social media marketers have a tendency to keep an ear on the ground. As experts in the industry, there is obviously some pressure to be among the first to know about each new tool, every Facebook tweak (another new timeline this week? Great), and every single SEO shift the Google Gurus can pump out. The latest source of our obsession is niche social networks, and boy, are there a lot of them.

There are niche networks out there for every industry, interest, religion, and music genre. There are networks for singles, for couples, for families, for teens, for seniors… And for each new niche network there is a blog about The 60 New Niche Networks Marketers NEED to Know!

But do you really need to know about them? All of them? Aren’t you better off just pushing ads into a LinkedIn group, or setting up a catchy YouTube playlist and calling it a day? Today, we’re going to find out. We’ll take a look at some of the niche networks you’re most likely to hear about, and find out if they’re really worth the effort.

Network: Care2

What’s the niche? Healthy living and environmentalism

What’s it like? HuffingtonPost for the eco-friendly.

Is it worth your time?

Organic is big business these days, and Care2 is the perfect place for promoting organic products directly to your target consumers. Whether you’re selling all-natural granola, or trying to drum up support for your local nonprofit, this network has something to offer. If you want the attention of people that care about Earth, this is the place to go.

What’s the strategy?

Keep it real. Be open, be honest, and don’t be afraid to pat yourself on the back a bit. Sign a few petitions your brand would support, and comment in groups explaining how your brand (or cause) is helping to save the planet. Fair warning: transparency is important here. Planting a few trees outside of your chemical waste facility isn’t going to win you any accolades. Only the truly Green need apply.

Network: CafeMom

What’s the niche? Mommy-bloggers, new parents, and baby boomers

What’s it like? LinkedIn, but every group and career has the word ‘mom’ in it.

Is it worth your time?

Everyone wants to capture mommy-bloggers. However, there are probably better ways to do it. Any blogger with real influence is already active on Twitter and Facebook, so you’ll have faster results talking to them on those platforms. Consider CafeMom only if you want direct-to-consumer communication, and you’re prepared to be your own brand advocate.

What’s the strategy?

Market research. To date, CafeMom is a personal platform only – brands have no place here. Make an account, and watch the conversation groups. Find out what your customers are concerned about (hint: they’re worried about their kids) and use that data to inform your ads and brand messaging on other channels.

Network: FohBoh

What’s the niche? Restaurateurs

What’s it like? Take the quietest food industry tradeshow in the world, and put it online.

Is it worth your time?

Nearly every list of the “Most Important Niche Social Networks” includes FohBoh, and I have no idea why. The network’s rules prohibit “marketing or promotions” of any kind (though that hasn’t stopped several brands from trying), and more importantly: no one on the network is talking. It’s like the early days of LinkedIn, when everyone you knew had a profile, but no one could tell you the last time they logged into it. Unless restaurants are your sole audience, give this one a pass.

What’s the strategy?

Despite FohBoh’s supposedly strict “no promotions” policy, several brands maintain very active blogs on the network. I think a better strategy would be making the attempt to jump-start communication in one of the existing groups on the channel. Open up your blog archive (you do have a blog, don’t you?) and start sharing links into relevant groups. Restaurant Marketing would be a great place to show off your reputation management tool, and Ask the Experts would love to hear how your menu design can help them move more high-margin dishes. Your account might get shut down, eventually, but there’s no reason not to experiment while you can.

Network: WAYN (Where Are You Now?)

What’s the niche? Globetrotters, hikers, and people that live in pretty places

What’s it like? Pinterest with landscapes instead of recipes

Is it worth your time?

In the right hands, WAYN could be a branding gold mine. The network would allow you to present a global approach, or help you highlight the uniqueness of your one local office. It wouldn’t be hard to build up a following, so long as you have something unique to share. Small businesses looking at capturing a fervent local following should definitely take up residence here. At the same time, global brands can really make a solid impression by showcasing the diversity of their world-wide fanbase.

What’s the strategy?

Post photos of your company’s research team as they traverse foothills searching for the right aquifer for your bottled water. Recruit by showing off that office you had built overlooking a beautiful village south of Paris. Share the global impact of your brand with candid shots of your product in homes across the globe, or in the hands of children playing in New York, Moscow, and Rio. WAYN is all about photos, and those photos need to be simultaneously breath-taking and amateurish in order to succeed. Leave the thousand-dollar an hour photographer and their model at home; this is a job for the real people that make up your company.

So there you have it. The next time a colleague brags about how successful they’ve been on this “new Facebook for questions thing,” you can tell them to come back when they hit 10,000 followers on VampireFreaks. Oh, and SnapChat? You can probably forget about SnapChat. After all, I’ve never been wrong before.

Read more, at Make Me Social.