Why Niche Social Platforms Are Essential for Brands
When developing a social strategy, it’s natural to consider a popular social platform like Facebook to market a brand. Being a platform that is constantly growing and adapting, Facebook’s features can provide brands with a multitude of tools to connect and engage with their customers. But since building a community is vital to the success of a brand, learning to utilize niche social platforms can be a game-changer.
People use niche social platforms for many reasons. As larger platforms grow, they can become complicated, taking the fun out of using them. Others have become tired of scrolling through irrelevant content on their timelines every day. Brands have now found the need to connect with specific, highly targeted communities through niche platforms. Instead of trying to be everything for everyone, niche social communities remain small to serve only the people who want to be there (Garcia, 2019). Niche platforms are important when developing a social strategy because they allow brands to share relevant information and engage with an audience, which builds trust. In order to properly engage with an audience, brands must capture their attention and find ways to appeal to the target market. Brands should learn the interests of the target market, which reveals opportunities to position services into their lives.
Twitch considers itself the world’s leading social video service and community for gamers (Lai, 2019). After the gaming industry made $152 billion in revenue in 2019, Twitch is no longer considered a niche platform. Tyler Blevins (better known as “Ninja”) is a professional gamer who is famously known for his popular Fortnite streams on Twitch. Blevins holds the record for the largest audience on a Twitch stream with 667,000 live viewers and has streamed with celebrities like Drake and Travis Scott. His influence has also earned him numerous endorsements with companies such as Red Bull and Adidas. However, despite establishing fame on Twitch, Blevins left the platform to stream exclusively on Microsoft’s Mixer platform in 2019.
Mixer is a video game streaming platform that was founded in January 2016 and acquired by Microsoft seven months later. Mixer offers the fastest streaming speed of all live platforms and unlike Twitch, they emphasize co-streaming. Mixer is considerably smaller than Twitch and has remained a niche platform, even after being purchased by Microsoft. However, after the acquisition of Blevins, Mixer has seen a significant boost in popularity. Through his high-energy gaming streams, Blevins continues to prove that he is true to his fan base and also true to his niche.
Sources:
Fogel, S. (2018, August 3). Ninja Is The First Twitch Streamer To Reach 10 Million Followers. Variety. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/ninja-twitch-10-million-1202894566/
Garcia, A. (2019, September 23). 3 Reasons to Pay Attention to Niche Social Networks. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/339532
Kumar, V. (2020, May 21). 7 Social Media Trends that Help Your Brands in Covid 19 Time. My Story. Retrieved from https://yourstory.com/mystory/seven-social-media-trends-brands-covid-19-time
Lai, S. (2019, October 28). Why Twitch Is No Longer A Niche Platform. Influencer Orchestration Network. Retrieved from https://www.ion.co/why-twitch-is-no-longer-a-niche-platform
McHugh, M. (2018, July 16). Will Niche Social Networks Save Us From All-Encompassing Online Networks, or Just Replace Them? The Ringer. Retrieved from https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/7/16/17576802/niche-social-networks-alltrails-untappd-runkeeper
What is Mixer and Why do People Live-Stream There? (2019, September 24). Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved May 28, 2020, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-mixer/
