Niche Social Networks: Post 1: There. I Said It. Small May Be Better.

As in virtually every digital category, bigger is a hard fought over selling point in social media. Who's winning the race? Who has the most monthly uniques. Well, of course that is MySpace.com, and here's the top ten, according to Nielsen, as reported in this post on Social Media Today.



But is this really the big story (arr arr) in social? Lately I've been thinking that it is in the little social sites focused on specific demos and targets.

Part of the reason for my new interest in the small fry i open social and open id, which would appear to hold the promise of making it easier for users to choose to participate in small, niche sites that truly deliver on their passions. If you have to reregister 25 times to participate in a host of social communities, you're not going to do it, at least if you are not monumentally bored or a freak.

But the advent of open id and open social, we'll be able to participate in these communities far more easily. And what I think THAT means is that over time people will be spending more and more time in passion communities. Whether that is at the expense of the biggies is something I cannot predict. But Niche Social, one of the voices of the genre, says in this post that it already is.

I think this because we ALL have those sorts of interests that really tickle us. Each of my business partners have them. John D's is wine, Cory's is music especially Pearl Jam, Chris, Kevin, and Adam are very passionate about pro soccer. Among other things. And for me it's collecting communist party propaganda. Not, I hasten to add, because I AM a communist (Hello! I work in advertising, which must be the antithesis of communism in about 25 ways...) but rather because I just like them.

Who knows why some of us will travel 4000 miles to watch storks nest, or buy hundreds of first editions of books, or spend $20,000 souping up a $13,000 car.

I had a friend in college who collected power line insulators. I pooh poohed his interest until I learned that there are dozens of organizations for this particular passion. And they actually are kinda pretty.

We also all know that it's a big world out there, and there are likely thousands of others who share our passions and are ITCHING -- ITCHING -- to talk about this stuff. So today I am going to be posting snippets about some of the niche social communities online that I think are over the top full of marketing and economic potential. Regrettably, I have not found a social network for communist party propaganda collectors (could we call it Redstr.com?.) But I did find some cool ones, so please read on...