Having not written an entry on this site in a while, I learned an important lesson. If you want to be successful in the world of social media, you need to be constantly re-evaluating the ever changing landscape. A quick glance at some of the recent articles on the Lost Jacket can quickly attest to this. While some social media outlets are mentioned time and again, there are a constant stream new companies that demand attention. The importance of this lesson cannot be overlooked: As levels of popularity change, the make up of the users base changes as well.
Recognizing this shift in the demographic should be a priority for those who are targeting these markets for advertising. These social media sites have a fairly predictable pattern that should be recognized. In the beginning of the life cycle, the user base is likely to be more devoted and their interests will be more aligned. As popularity increases and new features are added, the users become more diverse and individual users may spend less time on the site.
Digg provides a good example of this. The earliest adopters were mainly people interesting in technology news and the site grew because the small user base was very engaged in deciding the content of the site. Today, Digg has become so popular that it has a widely diverse user base that follows a variety of content. Many of these users do not Digg articles themselves. Facebook followed a similar cycle. It was initially available only to a specific group (college students) but is not comprised of users from all age and interest groups.
What this means to an advertiser is that they need to re-evaluate whether a rise in the number of page views really means that their message is being seen by more of their target audience. In order to get the most bang for their buck, it may be better to choose a new place to advertise. A good place to start looking is many of the newer social networking sites that still cater to a specific crowd. By finding a specific group of people to target with your advertising, you can eliminate wasting money on people who have no interest in you message or product.
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tagged as Digg, early adopters, facebook, Marketing, page views, relevance, second adopters, target audience
Primedia, and others, built their success on the principles of niche marketing. Each book catered to a specific audience, like Cat Fancy or Auto Trader, and leveraged fan loyalty and engagement with targeted content -- which of course was attractive to audience-specific advertising. The medium may have changed but the idea is the same. And with more messaging being thrown at us all the time it makes sense that people will look to their default interests for entertainment and engagement within niche web properties.
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