Find Your Niche: Why Niche Platforms Make A Difference!

Over the last few decades, social media has proven itself to be a useful form of spreading information, promoting businesses, garnering audiences, and everything in between. While the more popular platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can be great social strategy tools, more niche platforms can transform a brand or influencer for the better.

But lets back up a bit. What exactly is a “niche platform”? First off, a niche is defined as a a specialized market (Merriam-Webster). We see niche’s everywhere, from fashion and beauty to sports to traveling — these are all niches popular on social media. According to Phillipa Dods, niche platforms are social media platforms that “provide a space for an online community to engage with like-minded users about a specific topic or industry”.

And why exactly are these niche platforms such game changers for brands or influencers? Well, nearly every brand, organization, influencer, etc. that we come across as consumers fall into some kind of niche. And as social media grows, the niches become more specific. From true crime podcasts to midisize fashion influencers, tons of niches are cropping up all over the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

But the downfall of so many niches being presented in just one place means so much content gets drowned out and overlooked. This is where the niche social media platforms come in. The most attractive feature of these niche platforms is a userbase that is both smaller and more engaged (Dods, 2022) that makes them such a great marketing technique for building a strong and passionate audience.

And what do these smaller niche platforms that hold promises of dedicated and passionate audiences look like? Lets take a look at a few!

Arguably the most well known niche social media platform, Reddit is a discussion-based platform (Reddit). The platform is seperated into what is known as “subreddits”, a forum or community dedicated to a certain topic (Urban Dictionary). These subreddits can prove useful for promoting topic specific brands, products, entertainment, etc. Got a horror based clothing brand you want to promote? There’s probably a subreddit for that!

Next up, my person favorite of the niche social media platforms, is GoodReads. As you can probably guess from the name, GoodReads focuses on the niche of books and reading. This niche platform is a product of marketing giant Amazon and has been providing a space for book lovers and authors to come together since 2006 (Goodreads). From my observations, and a GoodReads memeber and a silent member of BookTok, GoodReads has become a place for book based influencers to flurish and connect with their audience.

Because these social media platforms are, well, niches they are all inherently different and tuned for specific purposes. But what they all do have in common is that foster passionate communities that help brands and influencers thrive in way that they would not in the trenches of Instagram feeds and TikTok FYP’s.

References

Dods, P. (2022, June 30). What the rise of niche social media platforms means for marketers. Meltwater. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/rise-niche-social-media-platforms-means-marketers

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Niche definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niche

Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Subreddit. Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Subreddit

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, August 12). Goodreads. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodreads

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, September 15). Reddit. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit