The Power of Niche Social Network Sites

Great post, and a key reason we’re so excited to be part of this space. From the get-go, our goal at KickApps was to make it easy for any site to integrate social media features, and so far we’re powering thousands of niche social networks like the ones you’ve mentioned.

One point worth adding to the discussion: Running a niche social network can also be quite lucrative. Because of their hyper-targeted nature, these communities can command rates from advertisers much higher than those of the large, general purpose social networks. We recently discussed the monetization of niche communities on our blog.

I’ve always had a problem wrapping my head around this exact topic. Having mainly technical friends getting my circle of friends to try out a new website is simple, especially if it’s of a technical nature. However, my next largest circle of friends are from our local community theatre. As a whole we could really use a niche site for communicating with other community theatre groups, however most of our members really aren’t all that interested in social networking or in most cases the web in general. I don’t know if this is localized or just community theatre in general, but I haven’t been able to find anything similar.

It seems like a perfect niche, but where do I find an audience to bootstrap it? A social site is worthless without anyone to use it! Of course if the knitters of the world (a group I would probably unjustly stereotype as non-technical) have a social network site I guess that means somewhere there’s a group of community theatre performers dying to collaborate and share stories.

One more domain to purchase and add to my list of websites to implement if I ever have some free time!

Excellent article, Josh. I signed up for Ravelry some time back as someone interested in other fiber arts (namely braiding), but I am definitely impressed at how well it serves its community. I’m also a fan of video game music, which has its own community sites, some of which are attempting to do exactly what you’re describing, going beyond just a set of forums to offer real features that are useful to the target audience.

One area I think these sites have yet to tap is a problem Sarah Cooper mentioned last year: weighting recommendataions based on shared interests. These niche sites are, by definition, made up of common interests, so many of us are already organizing our friends according to things we have in common.

The only difference in the greater scheme of things is that there’s currently no way to tie these sites together in a way that would form one network of friends. Things like hCard and XFN might help, but only if there’s a definitive way to identify friends that match. Ultimately, though, I don’t know that they need to be tied together. In Sarah’s example, if she needs a recommendation for some new clothes, she could either go to some monster networking site that tries to weight opinions based on common passions, or she could just go to a site built for people who love clothes.

Of course, there’s also something to be said for centralized identity and content management, so perhaps some level of standardization among these niche sites might help. Ultimately, I just feel that what the Web needs now is fewer sites trying to be all things to all people, and plenty more sites doing an incredibly good job at serving smaller communities. It’s good of you to commend those who are well on their way.

@Marty - Unless I misunderstand you, there is a way to tie the sites together and it does use XFN (or FOAF). Google’s Social Graph API crawls site with XFN markup and allows you to query against the result. If all social networks provided the XFN markup on your profile page you’d be able to find your friends from one social network on any other social network.

Thanks for the glowing review. Much appreciated! Hopefully I/we can work with you on organizing a social media & health care meet-up sometime soon. I think it would be a really interesting conversation.

Nice article, Joshua. Thanks for the continued focus on niche social networks. Patients Like Me is a great example of how a focused, niche community can bring power to its users and have real value in a broader context.

Although it’s a much less serious topic (though that depends on who you talk to), we’re aiming for something similar with Greenthumbr, a social network for gardeners. Not only is it a place for experienced and committed gardeners to reflect on their experiences, share images, and keep track of their plants, but the wisdom of that focused group can also be a great resource for those folks who just want to figure out how to not kill the ivy in their office window.

Like you, we feel pretty strongly that the real power of social networks comes from action - empowering the users with tools and information to improve their lives. That, in turn, brings more, better, and quality information to those folks just passing through.

@Eric - You might’ve only slightly misunderstood me. I wasn’t trying to say that such a thing doesn’t exist, only that it would need to exist in order for XFN or FOAF to be of much use in these situations. I hadn’t looked enough at the Social Graph API to know if it would suffice, but if it does, so much the better. Thanks for the heads-up.

Joshua, is there a qualitative difference between “niche” sites and “mainstream” sites? Or is it simply quantity?

The mainstream sites have their niches as well. Livejournal, Friendster, Facebook, and MySpace have different demographics and appeal to different people, like clubs and subcultures. They are huge, and they overlap, but they differ in ways that transcend their design and features. They differ mostly in the types of people they attract.

Ever wonder why two functionally identical bars will attract wildly different crowds, one full of after-work preppies and the other full of hipsters in tight jeans? Or why a niche punk band or a novelty act will suddenly achieve mainstream success?

I think this is what happened to Facebook, and even MySpace, both of which began as niche sites. Their successes had everything to do with their deep understanding of how culture works — how college and high school students relate to each other, or how even up-and-coming bands attract followings.

And a lot of luck — people who are astonished at how smart Zuckerberg is need only look at the name of his site - Facebook - to see that the guy had no business plan beyond connecting college students. Growth out of the niche and into the mainstream was and is entirely haphazard.

On the other hand, social networks that attempt from the outset to appeal to a mainstream audience, to not reach into a niche, haven’t done so well, have they? Without the megaton marketing machinery of, say, a movie studio or a record label, it is nearly impossible to move a niche cultural product into the mainstream directly.

Understanding this purely-cultural phenomenon in social networks, bars, and nightclubs is a purely sociological pursuit. The future of social networking may be largely shaped by marketers, promoters, and cultural influencers (even manipulators) instead of math theorists, technologists, and user experience designers.

Great question, Chris. I think of niche as targeted at a smaller population or specific activity. So, while Bebo and Facebook and MySpace have somewhat different audiences, they are still targeting the general public, and provide general networking features.

This is, admittedly, a grey area. But it’s easier to note when sites are targeted, because they have a very specific focus that cannot appeal to the mass audience.

It’s also telling that on sites like Facebook they provide many features for subgroups and niches, acting as more of a mall than a store.

While Ravelry says “knitters here”, Facebook says “knitters here and everyone else too”.

Thanks in part to the likes of Ning, there are now thousands of social networks that cater to a whole variety of subjects. These smaller, focused sites allow users to connect with like-minded people and give advertisers targeted demographics. Niche social networks are also good for marketers who have a product or service they want to promote that relates to a particular interest. A good place to find such sites is a search engine that caters specifically to social networks such as DigFoot or http://findasocialnetwork.com

The most successful social websites provide a singular service/benefit to the end user. Community features aside, Flickr is a great place for users to upload and publish photos–likewise for YouTube and videos. Similarly, PatientsLikeMe offers tools for patients to track their own symptoms and disease progression. The community features on these websites enhance the original user benefit because they provide a new perspective (value add) to the site’s original functional intent.

Social sites that exist merely for the purpose of providing user profiles and features for them to communicate cannot succeed in the long run.

I am a firm believer in the power of niche social networks. I run two of them, called TuDiabetes.com and EsTuDiabetes.com (in Spanish), on Ning. They cater to people touched by diabetes and I have found them to make a great impact on the lives of people with diabetes worldwide.

BTW, I am reading through a review copy of your book: I will be posting a review on Amazon.com shortly. I LOVE IT!

My long time friend and I were brainstorming for a year about working on what we’re passionate about. We can to the conclusion that we love sports and participating in many athletic events, but didn’t have a niche site to discuss or display our passion.

This is where we came up with http://www.weekendjock.com an online community where the weekend athletes can highligh their athletic efforts and collaborate with others who share the same sporting interest and passion.

I’m glad that niche site are doing so well and all the positive feedback I’m hearing from people like yourselves.